Newbie with questions about unusual machine.

[gordhead]

My daughter dropped off her newly acquired vintage pachinko machine at my house last week and said, Dad make this work. She saw it at a consignment store and had to have it. She had remembered a pachinko machine we had when she was little girl (1970’s). It is a Nishijin with Kan-Less (I think it says), on the right and Super D on the left, date code 52. I guess that would be 1976.

Here’s my problem. It requires electricity to pay out jackpots and it doesn’t work. I’m told all vintage machines are strictly mechanical and only use electricity for the lights. However this machine definitely needs electricity for jackpot pay out. Pictures will show this more clearly if I can figure out how to include them in this post.

I would appreciate any help with circuit diagrams and suggestions on how this machine works. I can trace the circuits and draw a diagram but this will necessitate quite a bit of disassembly and time and would rather not take apart my daughter’s machine. I emailed pachinkoman (Bill Connolly) with pictures. He says this is a rare machine. He has one but no circuit diagrams.

The machine has three solenoids, one to reset the winning ball sequencer, another to drop the chute the payout balls are in (14 balls) and the third is a mystery - it’s behind the plastic and difficult to see clearly. It has two relays mounted on a circuit board with what appears to be a DC power supply. There are numerous micro switches, electric bell and also a motor. The motor turns a spoked wheel that elevates the losing balls back up and dumps them into and intermediate hopper. This hopper feeds balls to the payout mechanism. None of the solenoids operate nor does the bell ring when a winning ball exits the sequencer. The motor runs all the time when plugged in to 120 AC to the input of a 25V transformer.


Gordy

[MrGneiss]

Wow, cool machine..I'm sure there are a few people here that would like to have one like it!!

Sorry I can't help...but...WELCOME!!

[hanabi]

Welcome to PachiTalk Gordy!!

and thank you for a superb first post, that is indeed a very interesting Vintage

I'm sure a lot of our Vintage enthusiasts would love to have that one in their collection, hopefully they can offer some helpful advice on how to get it working again

I will certainly be following this thread with interest and look forward to learning more about it

[JACKSJE4]

Welcome to PachiTalk!

I agree that the machine in your photos is unique and something I would like to have for my collection. From the back it looks like it has the ball path and mechanics of model 'A' machine, but also has many elements of a newer machine.

While I have repaired and restored many vintage machines, I have never worked on one like yours. When it comes to relays and solenoids, I am a fish out of water. Sorry.

I'm sure there are others on this site that can provide you with the assistance you need.

Jeff

[compirate]

A classic - No More War machine

[Moparformances]

that's a nice looking machine.. where are u located? i think it would be one of thouse machines that i would wana see in person before i tryed to help..

mabey there someone close that can help?? if your close by i would love to help..

if not i can give it a try over the net

[shaybay1980]

Oh wow! Very cool pachi! Welcome to Pachitalk! Sorry I can not help, but I will have my husband who is a genious take a look at the pics. He may be able to help.

[Moparformances]

PM sent...

[pinball wizard]

that is one cool machine !

[MrGneiss]

There is one like that one on ebay right now...I posted the link here...

Some Nice Vintage Pachinkos!!

[shaybay1980]

My husband took a look at the pics but I am afraid that he too would need to see them before he can help out. hopefully you can find someone close to you that can help.

[chmer01]

Nice looking vintage. I know Nishijin type B machines inside and out so I can't really be of any help. I thought that only the type C machines had electric motors on them. The only other time I've seen electronics on a vintage Nishijin is on the Power Flash. Guess that's my learned something new for today.

PS Welcome to PachiTalk.

[SphereJunkie]

Great lookin machine!!

[gordhead]

Well I finally got back to my daughter’s pachinko and I did get it working! After watching a couple of DVD’s from Pachinkoman I decided to disassemble it so I could better trace the wiring and circuit boards. It was actually a lot of fun to see how it was made and how it works. While apart I completely cleaned everything. It turns out it needed it bad. (See picture.) After drawing a circuit diagram, I could easily find the electrical problem. There are a half dozen plugs and two of those were interchanged, a solenoid and a microswitch. And I did determine the purpose of the third solenoid. I see what it does but do not understand why you would want to do it.

The third picture shows the back side of the main plastic structure. Remember this is up against the wood panel so all the ball passages are closed on this side. This model recycles the lost balls back to the intermediate hopper that feeds the jackpot seesaw. As JACKSJE4 mentioned this machine looks very much like a Nishijin Model A mechanically. PachinkoMan calls the Model A a recycler since it recycles the lost balls back to the payoff hopper. This machine however, uses a motor driven wheel to elevate the lost balls back up to the recycle hopper. If the lost balls come to fast they will pile up in front of the wheel and cause a ball jam. If this happens the excess balls fall over the side into the passage below and wind up in the area against the white lever connected to solenoid #3. They pile up in this area until the white paddle on the right operates a microswitch and pulls in the solenoid lifting the white lever and allowing the balls to pass over another white paddle which operates another microswitch and continues to hold the solenoid in until all the balls have dropped down below. So why bother to hold a number of lost balls before releasing them out the bottom of the machine?

The main circuit board does have a DC power supply consisting of the 25AC input voltage from the transformer and a full wave bridge rectifier and filter capacitor. It also has a relay on it that holds in the winning ball seesaw reset solenoid for about 2 seconds to properly sequence the winning balls and prevent a ball jam. There’s a 2 second timer on the circuit board consisting of 2 transistors, 2 zener diodes, some resistors, and a capacitor.

I hope I haven’t bored you all with all this detail but I find the Pachinko machine fascinating. Rube Goldberg must have had something to do with the design.

Gordy

[JACKSJE4]

I hope I haven’t bored you all with all this detail but I find the Pachinko machine fascinating. Rube Goldberg must have had something to do with the design.

Gordy

Thank you for taking the time to let us know how this unusual machine works! Very well done!!

Like you, the "fascination" factor is what draws each and every one of us to this unusual hobby. You are among friends here.

Jeff

[hanabi]

Sharing the knowledge of how these pachinkos work is a valuable asset to these Forums

[Moparformances]

most excelant post

[Microbus99]

Hi Gordy,

This is Gordon. I'm picking up a KanLess today and have no idea of the condition of the electronics. I may have to consult you on the operation. Although I'm fairly good with electronics it sounds like you have a better understanding.

Thanks for a great post. Gordon

[gordhead]

Hi Gordy,

This is Gordon. I'm picking up a KanLess today and have no idea of the condition of the electronics. I may have to consult you on the operation. Although I'm fairly good with electronics it sounds like you have a better understanding.

Thanks for a great post. Gordon

Thanks for the reply. I would be glad to help any way I can. I need to formalize the circuit drawing and find a way to put in machine readable form.
I think you will be pleased with the operation of the machine. My daughter's works very well and the electric bell gives it a different sound. I will look forward to seeing some pictures of your KanLess and see what the theme is.

Gordy

[Microbus99]

Hi,

This is a photo of the playfield sent to me. Hope to see it this afternoon.