Making a One Arm Bandit

[viggie]

Hello...I'm new to the group. so If this thread has already been covered please forgive me. I did a search but nothing jumped up. I have a Tagasago Triple 7 slot. It works great and looks like a gambling machine. No cartoon characters. But hey it's what ever you like. My wife likes the Betty Boop machine. Now if there's a Superman machine I'd interested. Anyway a few years ago I bought a Pull Arm from a guy in Canada. Very well made and works good mechanically. Electronically it uses a cherry switch to activate the reels start. The Tagasago machine uses an LED emitter/receiver(photo transistor probably) with a flag the blocks the light. Pressing down on the start knob lifts the flag and the transistor signals the board to start the reels. By tapping into the transistor half of the sensor, the Pull Arm will trigger the reels only about 50% of the time. Short of relocating the sensor or adding another (God knows what the specs are) are there any ideas to make the Arm 100% functional ? viggie

[luckydog]

a few members here have added slot arms to their pachislos

[luckydog]

lots of info on this thread

real slot handles

[viggie]

I'm sure some people have. I did however make a mistake in the model. It is a Tagasago but it's the "All 7" machine. viggie

[autoslot]

The bandit arm wires in parallel to your existing spin knob. See Bandit-Arm Wiring
I have 2 used IGT bandit arms available if you are interested.

Vince

[viggie]

Hi Vince...I have seen the chart. Already installed an arm years ago. But "All 7" machine uses a optical sensor not a switch to start. I think shorting the sensor output with a switch to give the board a"low" may be no good. I might need to rewire the LED part of the sensor to the pull arm switch.

[alstonj1]

havent seen one yet that didnt work . put a meter across your wiring and find the pair that changes when you activate the knob . it'll either be pulling it low or pulling it high can be either . shorting low to low wont do any thing .and high to high wont do anything either .as long as you dont short the +and - supply wiring your good . most have 3 wires a + and a - and a switch leg all you need to do is find the leg and which direction it needs to go and your home free.

[viggie]

Hi Jeff...I had already done just that a while ago. But I rechecked today. Yes 3 wires as you said. Brown, Red and Black. The sensor has 2 markings. One half has the symbol of a diode, so I assume that is the IR LED transmitter. The other half has 05, which probably is the working voltage. I put the meter on the brown wire (+) and (-) to black. It read 5 volts. When the sensor flag is lifted the voltage drops to .015 volts. And the reels spin. The pull arm uses a micro switch to which I added a 200 ohm resistor, so I don't dead short the signal line. When the arm is pulled the voltage drops to .025 volts. But the reels do not spin. If the switch is tapped very quickly the reels do spin some times but not 100%. Could that small difference in voltage between using the sensor or the switch make a difference ? I thought about changing the resistor to match the .015 volts of the sensor. Or is it actually looking at resistance not voltage as is quite common in alarm systems ? Usually these sensors are a diode on one side and a transistor on the other. I assume a photo transistor. Sucks when you don't have a schematic.

[autoslot]

I would try connecting brown to black quickly without the resistor. If that doesn't work, try connecting red to brown. If neither of these work, you may have to actually break one of the wires (brown?) to get it to spin. If so, you would use the normally closed switch on the bandit arm in series with the broken wire.

[alstonj1]

i would do it with out the resistor dont do it real fast as it may not drop sufficiently for it to activate . if you were able to make it spin occasionally you have the combination correct . just clip two wires on to those two wires (black and brown) and connect to the normally open contact of your switch and the common of your switch then pull the lever .it should work with no problem .If its correct the length of time its activated will not matter as you can hold your knob down indefinitely .but to fast and it might not detect it .in this case the unit is set up to provide voltage to the i.r. to light all the time then it has a receptor which functions as a transistor or switch but that switch could be normally closed providing voltage all the time (+5 or on ) then it has to be broken (0.0 or off) or its the opposite showing (0.0 or off) then applying (5.0 or on) eiter way it functions the same as your micro switch does minus the i.r.
by using the current components it decreases cost of having to replace micro switches in theory of course ...

[viggie]

Hi Jeff...Considering the fact that the flag for the start knob in the normal position is blocking the receptor, I would assume the LED is always on. The pushing down of the knob lifts the flag and the voltage goes low. Theoretically a micro switch in parallel with the receptor should work. But it does not. I monitored the voltage, hit the switch, watched the voltage go low but the reels would not spin. Push the start knob the voltage goes low and the reels do spin ??? This is the same with or without the resistor. Just plan weird. viggie

[dattia]

Jeff installed an IGT arm on one of my machines... it worked great!

[alstonj1]

then your missing something put your meter between the red and the brown and see if it changes . jump it out once and see if it spins its got to be one or the other.

[robr81]

Hi Jeff...Considering the fact that the flag for the start knob in the normal position is blocking the receptor, I would assume the LED is always on. The pushing down of the knob lifts the flag and the voltage goes low. Theoretically a micro switch in parallel with the receptor should work. But it does not. I monitored the voltage, hit the switch, watched the voltage go low but the reels would not spin. Push the start knob the voltage goes low and the reels do spin ??? This is the same with or without the resistor. Just plan weird. viggie

just seeing what your out come is??? my one machine is a tagasago viking 7 and i havnt gotten the arm yet to tinker with it. if not ill be working with you on this problem in a few days

[kitaker]

Hi Guys,

Is anyone aware of a current supplier for the IGT arm? Been searching for some time with no luck.

[alstonj1]

let me dig around i might be able to find one for ya

[robr81]

this is where i got them...if u want more then he has listed just ask, i bough 3 from him 2 weeks ago.

eBay Seller: slots4home: Collectibles items on eBay.com

[kitaker]

Looks like I just missed one, more to come I'm sure. The only worry I really have is I don't see the wire configuration for my machine Kitac.

[alstonj1]

do you know how to use a volt meter ? If so take a few pics of your spin knob wiring and post them here and i'll try to walk you through it.

[kitaker]

Thanks, I have a voltmeter somewhere among the stuff I never use I'm sure. Once I get my arm I'll do the before after pic thing and include a shot of the wires. There are only 3... black, white, and red... So I'm not too worried.