DRM - The Battle Counter Killer!

[MrGoodBurn]

Well, I killed it!

A cheap $5.00 multimeter cost me my cool new toy!

I was trying to get my battle counter working with my DRM machine, so I checked every wire for power both AC and DC, and nothing... I was able to get continuity using the same meter, when I drop a ball in the center pocket, so I figured it was safe. Wrong! I connected the start lead to the start connector, and ZAP! Now the only thing the battle counter does when you plug it in is light up all of the LEDs on top. They just stay on solid all of the time.

I found another multimeter and went back over the connectors on DRM, and it's putting out about 12v on the Start connector, and 30v on the OOATARI and KAKUHEN. The only thing that made the situation better is that I finally got DRM to go into a fever round!

Has anyone had this problem? Is there a fix?

Also, I opened the battle counter to see if anything was burnt or visibly damaged, but could not find anything. I do see 2 other connectors in there that the harness would fit on. These connectors have the same symbols as the one the harness is connected to now. They have additional symbols on the top of the connectors. Is this for different machine types (Current vs. contact)?

[daverob]

Ouch!

It probably doesn't help, but I looked at the photos you uploaded before of the DRM battle counter outputs, and there's no obvious indication (that I can see) that these are voltage outputs. So you did exactly what I would have advised by checking first with a multimeter, it's just unfortunate that the mutimeter didn't seem to pick up the short voltage pulses that are output from the machine.

In fact I suspect that the 'good' multimeter is also registering a low reading due to the short pulse on the start pocket, as normally the machine would have the same 30v output specifications as the other ones.

Has anyone had this problem? Is there a fix?

I expect that something in the 'contact' input circuitry has been damaged and the battle counter is lighting up because it's detecting that the start pocket input is stuck.

It might be possible to isolate this damaged component (ie just cut it off the circuit board) and still use the battle counter with the 'voltage' inputs. But it's a risky operation, and will probably take quite a bit of effort with a multimeter to track down the correct part to isolate. Hopefully the other two inputs have not been damaged, and it might be possible to compare voltage readings between the three circuits to try to trace the problem.

Stick some photos up of the internal circuit boards around the input connectors, and I'll see if it looks like there's some logical fault finding steps that can be tried.

I do see 2 other connectors in there that the harness would fit on. These connectors have the same symbols as the one the harness is connected to now. They have additional symbols on the top of the connectors. Is this for different machine types (Current vs. contact)?

Quite possibly. Check the symbols against these ones to see if your assumption is correct. (or post a photo, and I'll read them).

スタート - Start
大当り - Ooatari (Big Bonus)
確率変動 - Kakuhen (might only be marked 確変).

接点 - Contact
電圧 - Voltage

入力 - Input
出力 - Output

According to the connection diagram the Miina should have three sets of three connectors marked with these symbols. There should be three contact inputs (start, ooatari and kakuhen), three voltage inputs, and three contact outputs (so the signals can be daisy chained back to the parlour computer for monitoring). Though some of these might be options that were not fitted on your counter.

I don't think that simply swapping connectors is going to help without first fixing (or isolating) the damaged input, as the battle counter is still likely to detect the stuck contact input and lock up.

[MrGoodBurn]

Thanks daverob!

I do see some of those symboles on the connectors inside of the battle counter. I will upload some pics shortly.

I have determined the outputs for the battle counter on DRM with a good multimeter (I think). I will double check...

I wish I was an EE right about now! I know some, but only enough to get me into trouble I think. I did find a rectifier that was passing current so I removed it from the circuit, but there was no change.

I will upload the pics of the board and printing in a few minutes.

[MrGoodBurn]

Daverob,

Here is a link to the images of the battle counter. There are pictures of the PCB, and what it's doing. Notice the top LEDs are all lit but the display is dead.

I always do a good job; even when it comes to breaking things.

http://www.madnessinside.com/pachita...BattleCounter/

Thank you for your help!

MGB

[daverob]

The Japanese writing on the PCB indicates that the input connector harness (green-black-red-black-yellow-black wires) should be moved to the adjacent connector J2 for machines that have voltage outputs (as it's labeled 電圧入力 - voltage input).

I assume that the unit only came with the connector harnesses for the three input connections and the power connection. Usually they have many more wires than this for both types of input, and for linking together so that the lighting effects can be synchronised along a row of battle counters.

It's difficult to say where to check to see if there is a faulty component on the contact inputs. The photos don't show where the circuit traces go from either connector, so I'm guessing that the input circuitry must be on the other side of the circuit board. There also doesn't appear to be any isolation circuits for the voltage inputs on the board, so I'd expect to find them on the other side of the circuit board (if they are present at all).


Maybe I need to get hold of one of these to try out, and see exactly what's what...

[MrGoodBurn]

I can take pictures of the rear of the board if that will help. Also, if you would like to look at it I can send it to you.

Let me know if you would like me to send it to you.

Thanks again for all of your help!

[garfield]

The battle counter looks cool ... Can someone please tell me what it exactly does, or show me a thread where it is explained

[drcrippen324]

the battle counter counts the number of times the reels have been started the number of reaches and teh number of feevers that day and for the past 3 days heres a vid of one being pulsed by hand to show the way it counts and teh short flashing of lights is teh reach teh long flashing of lights yo usee is the feever

YouTube - Battle Counters

[daverob]

I can take pictures of the rear of the board if that will help. Also, if you would like to look at it I can send it to you.

If there's components on the rear side of the board, it may help to see what's on there.

There's probably not much point sending it to me, as by the time it's made another couple of trips across the ocean, it's likely to be a more economical proposition to simply buy a replacement.

The battle counter looks cool ... Can someone please tell me what it exactly does, or show me a thread where it is explained

To save typing it all in again, have a read of this post for a description of the display and the statistics it shows.

The main reason for the battle counter is to show the recent payout performance of a machine. This is so the customers in a parlour can decide whether to play the machine or not. They might read the display and decide that the machine has not had a big payout recently, so might be due for a long streak of wins. Alternatively they might prefer to play a machine that has been proven to be paying out in the recent past.

the battle counter counts the number of times the reels have been started the number of reaches and teh number of feevers that day

Not quite (unless it's been connected to the wrong terminals!), it counts starts, fevers and consecutive fevers (kakuhen). There's no point in counting reaches, as they are just teases for the player. Seeing as they don't have any effect on the odds or outcome of the next spin they wouldn't be a useful statistic to help a player in a parlour decide which of the machines available for play is more likely to be due a winning streak.

To be honest though, neither do any of the other statistics shown by the battle counters. The chances of hitting a fever are actually determined by a hardware random number generator. Each and every spin is completely unrelated to any previous ones, so past performance is no indication of how things might play out in the future.

[luckydog]

here's mine from Arby on my Galaxy Train


the girl is saying "empty the bottom tray dummy"



YouTube - Battle Counter on Galaxy Train

[MrGoodBurn]

Daverob,

I forgot it at work, but will upload some pictures of the back side of the board tomorrow. I did two things with it today. I ohm'd out the connection, and followed the traces to several components. There are what look like 2 buffer ICs on the back, and then it went all the way over to the processor. I talked to one of the EE's at work, who thinks I most likely fried the processor. I found the processor on one of the electronics store websites for $8.00, but it wouldn't do me any good to change it without the code to load on it.

I will be ordering another one from Arby maybe this weekend if he still has them.