Purchased Sammy Satomi Miracle Arrange Ball

[sparky kilowatt]

Got lucky, was able to pick up a Sammy Satomi Miracle arrange ball for only $80. Unfortunately we were unable to test it, the seller really didn't know anything about it and neither of us had any coins / tokens, but his pictures showed that it had some of the lights lit up & the electronics inside appear to be intact, but not sure about their working condition yet. I've got a thousand and one questions, but I'll start with the ones below first.

1). I think I need to source some coins / tokens (don't know how many yet), can someone direct me to a seller please? I haven't really examined it closely, so what Wayne-Ooo mentioned about it having an adjustable coin mechanism remains to be seen.

2). Do I need to purchase 120v to 100v step down transformer? Can someone recommend a decent, reasonably priced make / model? I'm also hesitant to plug it in, the seller wasn't aware it needed a 100v A/C source, he has a cord attached to to what looked to me like a doorbell transformer (assuming this is the 12v stepdown, haven't removed it to examine it yet).

I'm probably not going to be working on it for a bit, I just started disassembling / cleaning a vintage model B for a playfield replacement, I'd like to complete that before I tackle this one.

[lotsoballs]

Congrats! That’s a big score!

I got lucky and bought one with over 100 real arrange ball tokens! But the Presidential series $1 coins are the same size; and probably work. Some machines you can adjust the token size acceptor?

Here’s a thread with some issues I encountered with a similar condition machine.

https://www.pachitalk.com/forums/sho...t=Presidential

[Wayne-Ooo]

Congratulations!

The coin mechanism is just like mine, so you can adjust it to accept different size tokens or coins.
You can test your machine without tokens. The switch on the coin mech., that has a thin wire running through the coin mech., push down on the thin wire and the machine thinks a coin just passed through and will release the 16 balls.

I don't know what that transformer is sitting in the bottom of the cabinet. But, that is where your 100V connects. I have been using a 100V step down transformer on mine and got it through Amazon for $20. Here is the link to the one I am using. https://www.amazon.com/PowerBright-V...95&sr=8-3&th=1


Sammy Satomi Miracle Arrange Ball (4).jpg Sammy Satomi Miracle Arrange Ball (4) (1)AB.png

[Wayne-Ooo]

Sammy Satomi Miracle Arrange Ball (4) (1)Aa.png

[MrGneiss]

Nice pachi (arrangeball) rescue!!

[hanabi]

Wonderful find!

Here’s a link to my Arrangeball, just in case there’s anything in there that can help (it’s been a while since I got the pachis out to play, they are mostly in storage for now)

https://www.pachitalk.com/forums/sho...highlight=Gemu

[sparky kilowatt]

Thanks to everybody, lots to learn, I really appreciate your help. Few more observations and questions, thanks for bearing with me.

The output on the transformer that I posted above is 94v, so I've ordered the one from Amazon Wayne-Ooo recommended. I figured under-volting beats over-volting so I put the wires back on it, plugged it in and to may amazement the machine works! I can't tell if it's paying out correctly yet, I need to play with it a bit more to tell. I dropped balls in the pattern shown on the front tag, then hit the red button, payed out some spare change I had put in the hopper just to test it. All the center number lights work, but not all are lit, so it seems a few leaf switches are in need of some fine tuning.

1st question: Can anybody shed some light on how these leaf switches are set up to work? A couple of them have had the little black tabs replaced with white plastic ones, probably glued to the leaf switch (see picture). I assume the ball landing in the slot must move the little paperclip looking rod & activate the leaf spring, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

2nd question: I need to purchase some tokens, do the pachislo tokens work?

3rd question: Wayne-Ooo, I used your input to push the lever to the microswitch on the token feed, exactly how to I adjust it for different sized tokens?

4th and final question for tonight: I noticed something that kind of looks like foam or sponge between the leaf springs, but a couple of them didn't have anything (see picture below). I assume it's to ensure they're making unintentional contact, please school me.

[emmadog]

-the switch is just two slightly apart metal leaves that when closed, complete the circuit and tell the computer there's a ball in that pocket. the black rubber tabs electrically insulate the wire/"paperclip". without those, electricity would flow thru the paperclip and into the surrounding structure when a ball is in that pocket which among other things, would prolly cause other pockets to incorrectly score a hit.
-you're correct on the function of the foam blocks.

[emmadog]

forgot to mention congrats and that's great that it's working. you'll be on the lookout for more of these machines-the really fun ones have a few diff types of bonuses that allow for some strategy to be implemented.

[lotsoballs]

Thanks to everybody, lots to learn, I really appreciate your help. Few more observations and questions, thanks for bearing with me.

The output on the transformer that I posted above is 94v, so I've ordered the one from Amazon Wayne-Ooo recommended. I figured under-volting beats over-volting so I put the wires back on it, plugged it in and to may amazement the machine works! I can't tell if it's paying out correctly yet, I need to play with it a bit more to tell. I dropped balls in the pattern shown on the front tag, then hit the red button, payed out some spare change I had put in the hopper just to test it. All the center number lights work, but not all are lit, so it seems a few leaf switches are in need of some fine tuning.

1st question: Can anybody shed some light on how these leaf switches are set up to work? A couple of them have had the little black tabs replaced with white plastic ones, probably glued to the leaf switch (see picture). I assume the ball landing in the slot must move the little paperclip looking rod & activate the leaf spring, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

2nd question: I need to purchase some tokens, do the pachislo tokens work?

3rd question: Wayne-Ooo, I used your input to push the lever to the microswitch on the token feed, exactly how to I adjust it for different sized tokens?

4th and final question for tonight: I noticed something that kind of looks like foam or sponge between the leaf springs, but a couple of them didn't have anything (see picture below). I assume it's to ensure they're making unintentional contact, please school me.

Pachislo tokens do not work unless you can adjust the size of the token acceptor on this machine.

US Dollar coins (the Pesidential coin series) work on my machines (as do the real arrange ball tokens of course) The Sacagawea dollar coins cause jams on mine.

[sparky kilowatt]

Thanks both to emadog & lotsoballs, I'm going to have to experiment a bit on the leaf switches, I actually broke one earlier today trying to adjust it. It was one of the ones that someone had already tried to fix with a small, white piece of plastic glued to the tip, I'm trying to glue it back now.

I'm feeling extremely fortunate to have stumbled upon this machine for such a low price, I've seen them before, but didn't do much research on them because I just figured I'd never see one in my lifetime, for once I'm glad I was wrong.

If anyone knows where to purchase arrange ball tokens, please let me know, my internet searches haven't turned up anything yet, hence the suggestions to try other "things" (won't mention coins, I'm aware & respect the rules here). I did try to get some unmentionables today but wasn't successful, need to try another financial institution.

[Wayne-Ooo]

The manufacturer designed the coin mechanism to be adjustable and is simple to adjust.

There are 4 screws in elongated holes that allow for the metal bars, that the token glides along, to be moved.

Just loosen the screws and move the bar to the position you need. For the metal bar where the token enters the mechanism, I have it set with the bar all the way down.
The bar where the token exits the mechanism, it is set to about the middle of the elongated hole.

If you want to use Pachislo tokens, I have about 10,000 of them, from machines I used to own. I'd be glad to give you some.

(On a side note: The seller contacted me today, letting me know he had sold the machine. He said they lived 2 hours away, but made the trip to pick it up anyway.)



arrangeball coin mechanism.png

[sparky kilowatt]

Thank you for the tutorial on adjusting the coin mechanism Wayne-Ooo, I'll take a look at it later today when I test my repair job on the leaf switch that I broke yesterday.

Regarding the tokens, very generous of you, sent you a PM, thanks!

[sparky kilowatt]

A special shout out of thanks to Wayne-Ooo for his generous share of tokens with me, they arrived today, fantastic!

[sparky kilowatt]

Today I changed the step down transformer out, now I'm getting a good 100v output. I've been working on adjusting / repairing the leaf switches for a few days, I don't want to jinx anything, but I'd say they're working 90% of the time, but I'm not giving up just yet. I also used the pictures Wayne-Ooo posted above to adjust the coin mechanism to work with the tokens he shared with me, took a couple of tries, so much more fun to play when everything is working right. Lastly I used some Totally Awesome to clean some of the grim off of the machine, polished a couple of parts in the shooter mechanism with Novus to make it feed balls to the shooter more smoothly plus used some 4/0 still wool on the chrome, already looks better IMO. So much fun to play with!

[sparky kilowatt]

I decided to the accumulated grime off of the light bulbs today, a bit brighter now. I have one bulb that's burned out, so I grabbed a #44 miniature bayonet base from my pinball machine, fits fine but is probably the wrong voltage, the #44 is rated at 6.3v, my voltmeter is telling me the other Arrangeball lamps are 11v. Put one in just to check it out, much brighter, but it's probably because it's operating at almost double the intended voltage, so that's not good, don't want to melt the plastic display.

I've been Googling but can't figure out what lamp I need to order, anybody know the correct number? Might be a miniature base bayonet T3 12v but I'm not positive. There are no markings anywhere on the old bulb or base.

Pictures below are old, original bulb next to new #44 from my pinball and the other picture is with this #44 bulb in the #3 on my Arrangeball (pretty bright).

[Tink]

I'd try a 288

[sparky kilowatt]

I'd try a 288

Thanks Tink, after more research last night I believe it's a BA9S bulb, 288 is the lowest wattage one I've seen thus far, so that may be a good fit.

[sparky kilowatt]

Time for a few updates...been busy.

Replaced the lamps with some LED's, incandescent looked dim to me, much better now. Removed the parts from the rear of the case, sanded the case, sealed the inside with polyurethane, painted the outside to try to match the green plastics on the front, little bit darker, but it's close enough for me. Cleaned, polished and painted the parts, very happy with the results, thanks to Wayne-Ooo for the tips and tricks on cleaning up the circuit board.

Started stripping down the front and rear in order to clean everything up and replace the playfield, haven't found a playfield I like yet, still looking. Tomorrow I'm going to separate the playfield from the cabinet, then pull the brass nails and start tumbling them to polish them up.

More pictures as I progress.

[takethecastle57]

Very nice work ! Bravo Brava