This Taiyo Electron - junk or not?

[marietta_ken]

Thanks AC. Your tip to bypass the payout wheel was huge. Doing that I could see that forcing the payout as you suggested indeed tripped the relay and got the 12 VAC down to the solenoid. No action from the solenoid, though. Took it apart (it was stuck), cleaned the shaft, re-assembled and BAM -- works like champ. Acutates properly with forced payout trip.

However, I put balls in across the board to create a max payout but got no payout action when the wheel spun to check. I thought I found the issue when I saw there is a sensor switch on the coin tower, but setting that didn't resolve. I'm pretty sure all the ball pocket signals are reaching the top board and the associated contact pads for the spinner, so the issue appears to be between the four spinner output signals and the relay. That's where I'll be spending my time next. If someone already knows the likely issue, I'd really appreciate your sharing it with me!

I think that once I get that payout issue resolved I'll pretty much have the elex in good enough shape to begin the tear down and cleaning phase. I already have bulbs and spacers on the way. Also have been researching ways of coloring plastic so that I can re-create the two multi-colored lenses in the upper corners. I bought a light panel for a dropped ceiling light fixture that has a decent lense-like look. I've learned a technique for dying it one color, but gotta figure out how to get the three as original.

[ACMech]

Just a thought, look at this particular circuit board. Note some of the jumpers on mine had corroded through. This appeared to fix a payout issue where prior to them being fixed, it limited payouts to 5, now it's at max (I forget what that is right now, as I never seem to get that many ). Not sure how or why it worked that way. ..

[marietta_ken]

My machine has this small PCB with two large relays right near the ball release solenoid. They don't acuate the solenoid -- that is handled by a relay on the upper board.

I don't see it in the other, similar elex machines. Anybody have any ideas what these might do?

[marietta_ken]

This switch is down in the lower left corner on the back of my machine. As I received it, it was jammed up under the bumper as shown, forcing it to stay tripped/contacted.

I unstuck it to see if that might be the source of the payout issue, but it actually made payouts stop with the manual trigger I had been using.

Any idea what purpose this switch serves??

[emmadog]

Yep, it is there so that a new player can press down on the shooter (before starting a new game) and see what previous pockets were hit. I don't know why that would be of use but that's what it does. My Taiyo "Owl" had that feature as well.

[Moparformances]

Yep, it is there so that a new player can press down on the shooter (before starting a new game) and see what previous pockets were hit. I don't know why that would be of use but that's what it does. .

[marietta_ken]

Thanks. Wonder why mine had been forced up under the bumper? Also, although I only tested this once, it seemed that when I pulled it out from behind the bumper and released the contact that suddenly my attempts to force a payout were not being acknowledged and activating the solenoid. Hmmmm.

[Lt Teddy]

After reading the above I think you have the same problem as two of my machines. The game is not resetting and therefore the lights will light but their is no payout at the end. My Jan balls have a light which when you push the payout button it pays and the light comes on. that is the one that works The other one the payout light stays on and it never pays out.

[marietta_ken]

Sounds like I need to get on over to Radio Shack tomorrow and pickup some bulbs for the payout light and whatever the other one is. That should help provide some clues on the resetting or not and whether the machine thinks it's paying out.

I may just need to re-align the brushes on my spinner. Dunno. I need to trace the paths from spinner output to relay actuation. My fear is that it will pass through the IC on the PCB and I won't be able to identify what the IC is supposed to be doing b/c it's not marked. Shouldn't be rocket science, but will take some time and head scratching.

[Lt Teddy]

Well I know I am not much help but will be taking mine to a shop in March and maybe will know more when they are fixed. At least this gentleman does not charge if he does not fix it. Will post the results of my fixes. I have three that need work and one that starts with a free game. That I could live with but as I am taking the others over to be worked on I would like it to work right.

[marietta_ken]

Tonight I took all the circuit boards out of their connectors so that I could buzz out the entire set of wiring harnesses. Got that done, and a really messy looking wiring diagram to try to eval tomorrow. Should be really helpful.