Taiyo Electron Has Arrived

[Eddie]

This is a rare Taiyo Electron Pachinko machine and what appears to be an enigma amongst the membership as it was to me before the work I have done with it. It had no manuals, Instructions, Schematics, Blueprints etc
All that I have learned about it was by just working on it. I still have yet to figure out the exact gameplay but if anyone knows about it please step up.
About the machine
This machine uses tokens for operation. It has 15 balls within that are used for play and never need to be touched. After inserting 1 token into the slot the 15 balls roll into the shooter area as can be seen in the photo and the machine resets itself.
In the center of the machine cell is a Window with 4 rows of 5 numbers At the begining or each row are arrow shaped boxes containing Japanese Characters and math formulas pointing to its row of numbers. Behind the boxes and numbers are lights.
On the bottom of the cell is a long row of continuous pockets 16 in all and numbered as such. A ball landing in one of the pockets lights the corrisponding number in the aforementioned window.
There are 4 Tulips and a ball entering a Tulip simply returns to the shooter area. Should it do more?
Above the Numbered window are 3 pockets each with a colored verticle arrow pointing down White, Red and Blue again with Japanese writting.
A ball entering one of these pockets illuminates the corrisponding colored arrow on the numbered center window, not the ROW.
A ball in the bonus illuminates the upper left Round light. The upper right being the low hopper light. It is what now I believe to be the Jackpot mode!
There is a button on the left front side of the machine labled Bonus. Depressing that causes the light to go off???????
There is a play key on the lower laft face of the machine but it is In Japanese getting this translated will be a huge step in solving the functions of the machine.
After the 15 balls have been shot and the correct sequence hasnt been reached the game play is over.

Now on to the fun stuff....
I just bought it and received it about a day after Super Flash arrived.
I will try to go into detail about the machine and the process I am undertaking to repair and restore it so that members will have some idea of what they may encounter if they see one up for auction and might be interested in obtaining one for themselves.
I was led to the machine from a post of one of our members (RDKMR1) that had seen it on Craigslist.
It was a private sale and I was told that the machine functioned perfectly with the only damage being that the coin tray was broken off and missing.
I could live with that as I know I can make if not find in the future a suitable replacement.
The machine arrived destroyed!!!!!!!! it was packed in a box the size of the machine with a piece of card board in front of the cell.
the damage list as follows.....
Broken cell glass
Broken frame,Wood cracked and hinges broken off.
Dissloged Main Board ,Secondary Board and relays from same boards.
Disloged hopper and broken hopper assembly
Broken Case back
Dislogged shooter parts
Disloged Transformer and torn wires
Minor scratching of row of sequenced pockets at numbers 8 and 9 from glass.
Cell Numbered window lights broken

First thing that had to be done was to remove the glass and the minute fragments from every part of the machine. This step alone took around 8 hours as it found its way into every thing. It even caused the Door to not open as glass locked the mechanisim so the rear of the case had to be removed for access. The Tulip assemblys to the micro switches, the shooter, The Pockets and ballways etc. All locked or clogged with glass fragments.
Literally every component had to be taken apart to be cleaned.
What to do? Simple the wood frame was history so I made an all new one and back. With everything off of the machine I could really clean out the smoke tar, crud and finally remove all of the glass.
Once that was finally done it was time to put it together, about 2 days alone in cutting wood with a hand saw and figuring out what went where and how each component worked cleaning strenghtining and fabricating (Mostly the metal hopper assembly) painting,Rewireing and glass replacing I have Taiyo Electron almost.
I say almost as I have the lights functioning and the coin in and machine reset and start up working! I have the Hopper solenoid working and it pays out when triggered from the appropriate micro switch.
Now here is the problem. On the main board is a motor which I have discovered is what causes the hopper to payout the correct amount of coins according to whatever sequence is hit for a payout. It can be started by hand to rotate and it begins to move and rotates 180 degrees all the while causing the hopper to shoot out coins untill it reaches its 1/2 revolution. The motor has yet to move on its own by hitting any bonus pocket and or combination of lights.
The Relay triggerd by getting a ball in the Bonus pocket, which intern, should start the motor rotation gets extremely hot!! Short? too much Voltage?
I have played a sequence that when after the 15 balls have been played and I insert another coin, the machine resets, starts and pays out one coin.
This seems to be a proper function.
I will find out why the relay is over heating but without knowing how to play the game and what sequence needs to be hit to get a payout it is very hard to determine what could be wrong if anything with the electrics.
Its very near completion and soon will be. (SOONER if anyone has info on it to share).
Its a very different thing to play sort of like a Palot in reverse. Its nice not having to rig something for the balls such as trays or lifters etc.
Its very compact and very, very light weight.
It holds only about 50 tokens any more than that and the tokens slide over the hopper (TUBE) and drop into the machine case or out to a large collector in a Parlor. If the machine payed out up to 3/4 of its total every coin inserted for play, up to the max of 50, refills it. Pretty clever. Otherwise the low hopper light illuminates for the attendant to fill it back up.
How did the parlor operators cope if it did payout past 3/4 often?
As you can see from the photos its an ingeniously simple machine but figuring it all out without ever having seen one was time consuming.

If anyone has info on the board or anything on gameplay or even parts Like a tray that might fit. Please post it here for myself and the members.

I went into this detail only because not much seems to be known about this machine. I will post all pics on more than this thread as there are a few.

Hope I didnt take advantage of post sapce please let me know if I did Tulsa

Hope you guys like this type of machine feel free to ask any questions and I will answer as best as I have the ability.

[Eddie]

More pics of the Taiyo Electron

[Eddie]

More pics

[compirate]

That has to be the coolest machine I've seen!

If you look at that video of the old parlor, there are attendants in the aisle behind the machines. I'm sure as soon as a light comes on they were on it!

[slotter]

Great job, Eddie. Again! This one tops the list so far.

[Eddie]

I forgot this ball in shooter lane pic !

[dishpan]

Great work Eddie! You've made this machine look fresh and saved it from the trash heap.

It is a very interesting game that will provide many hours of entertainment while you figure it's ins and outs. I'm very jealous.

In one of your pictures there is a disconnected wire harness and near the edge connector some of the solder joints appear to be ready for re-heating.

Once again, amazing work!

[Eddie]

Great work Eddie! You've made this machine look fresh and saved it from the trash heap.

It is a very interesting game that will provide many hours of entertainment while you figure it's ins and outs. I'm very jealous.

In one of your pictures there is a disconnected wire harness and near the edge connector some of the solder joints appear to be ready for re-heating.

Once again, amazing work!

thx! Could you be more specific as to which pic shows a disconnected wire harness? and which joints need re-heating? I need to know if I missed something that should be addressed. Thx again

[dishpan]

I had looked too quickly at "TE Hopper.jpg" but the connector is OK. My bad.

I'd reheat the solder joints on "TE Smaller PC Board.jpg". They may still be OK, but that's just me. I've fixed many problems in the past by "reflowing" old joints.

I assume that you cleaned any corrosion under the green edge connectors?

[Eddie]

I had looked too quickly at "TE Hopper.jpg" but the connector is OK. My bad.

I'd reheat the solder joints on "TE Smaller PC Board.jpg". They may still be OK, but that's just me. I've fixed many problems in the past by "reflowing" old joints.

I assume that you cleaned any corrosion under the green edge connectors?

I will take your advice and reheat those joints. Every connector has been throughly cleaned with contact cleaner and erasers and Qtips and compressed air and paint brushes! Glass particles were in some of them as well as the usual dirt and tar.
The relays on that and the main board I will replace with new ones.
Thx for the look out I was hoping that I did miss a harness connection but that would have been to easy a fix LOL.
To be honest it would be difficult to miss something like that as there really isint anything to the electrics on this machine just 2 boards and 20 micro switches.
Either the motor or a resistor or capacitator is bad or is shorting or a board tracing had been cut due to the glass or battering that they all took.

[Chris]

Wow Eddie - what great work you have done on that machine. I am very jealous, as was mentioned above in another post I think that one has to be your best one yet.

[arbycoffee]

N I C E Job Eddie

[johntofva]

You do amazing work Eddie. You should be proud. It is a beautiful machine.

[dattia]

Yes Eddie, you are really doing a lot to further the hobby. Thank you.

[hanabi]

That is absolutely stunning!!

You've obviously done a very thorough job on the restoration, even more impressive, after reading the list of damage it had suffered......

and your write-up's just get better and better......

I'm so jealous too!!

[Sid]

Amazing work Eddie!!



you deserve a big Bravo!!!

[Eddie]

Now if only Dahlia saw it the way you guys do!
She is sick of me working on machines LOL
I hope to be finished soon as she has been patient with all of my, must get it done, OCD. When the three are done I will make a vid of them together.
I still have many video clips of other machines that I havent had the time to edit and post but all in good time.

[slothappy144]

Good work saving a poor beaten pachi. she looks beautyful.

[Eddie]

The work continues!.... Coins kept getting jammed in the hopper which intern froze the coin dispenser solenoid causing it to get extremely hot. Upon closer examination it turned out that the coin shoot (nylon track) below the clear coin tube (Hopper) is composed of 2 pieces and the lower piece was glued in to form the coin slide track. The glue had failed over the years causing the lower piece to shift just slightly enough to cause a coin jam. Also where the entire solenoid assembly is mounted to the same large nylon piece there was a huge crack that must have been there that I had missed before causing the entire assembly to shift with each engagement of the solenoid!
I reglued the lower half and reinforced the other part of the assembly with a piece of metal and 2 screws. The hopper now works perfectly. I removed the Upper main board again and gave it an exhaustive exam and cleaning, including removal of the motor and opening it up and cleaning it out!
The Contacts that were rotated by the motor on the front of the board were found to be out of alingment.
With the motor cleaned the contacts realinged and the mainboard cleaned again,This time with removal of the plugin relays and cleaning them as well. I have the motor working! (at least for normal payouts not sure about the Bonus yet) Now I am facing a new problem! After every play the machine pays out 3 tokens! It does not matter what combination is hit if any at all.
I have also discoverd, now that some more things are operating, that the 2 top Tulips pay out one token for opening and one token for closing.
The bottom 2 Tulips are just replay and send a ball back to the shooter area.
The Red button on the left of the machine pays out what you have won during the play after the last ball has been shot.
IF you dont hit the button then the payout will be given upon the insertion of the next coin and then the machine will reset itself and reload the balls for play.
Believe it or not I am still comming across small glass fragments! When will it end??
Im getting closer to a fully functioning machine I just have to solve the problem of the 3 coins dispensed after every play and determine how the Bonus works if it indeed is.
When the Bonus Pocket is hit the Bonus light comes on, If you depress the Bonus button on the left of the machine the Bounus light goes out and a relay on the small board is energized. Then all of the numbers that had been lit on the Number board go out and the Numbers 3,10 and 14 light!
These are the same numbers that are written down under the Bonus button and can be seen in the photo.
I have reached this point a few times and have had balls reach those pockets yet nothing has happend.
Im not sure if its a mainboard problem, small board problem or just that a certain combo needs to be reached along with the 3 numbers.
Its a slow process when your in the Dark LOL I hope to get it together.
I will take vids of what I have very soon so that you members can at least have an idea of the machine in action.
I will also mod it a bit.
I want to add a jackpot bell and some always on lights.
IF you can see in the pics there are 6 colored lenses between the low hopper light and the Jackpot light! There is room to put very small bulbs behind these lenses and it will look really nice with them lit up.
Once again if anyone knows anything about the game play HELP!!!! Thx
I forgot to mention that I Used 2 pieces of Glass in the door and added one more piece to each of my other 2 vintage machines so now they all have 2 panes of glass. I think its the way to go makes the machines a little more quieter and helps keep the cell that much cleaner from dust.

[Trey314159]

Somehow I missed this the first time it came up. Glad it got bumped up again. Very cool and unusual machine, Eddie. Thanks for sharing the pics! Can't wait to see any videos!