Hopper Problem

[darinh]

History:
I've spent about an hour and a half, or two hours or so searching the forums here and googling without much luck. So, I thought I'd post a thread asking for help.

I own a Jurassic Park pachinko machine. I'm more of a casual enthusiast, I only own this machine, but am interested in purchasing more. However, before I buy another pachinko machine, I want to make sure I have a fair understanding of this one.

Having read through a few posts here, I've determined that my box is NOT cyclic. All of the balls that are shot into the play area end up behind the pachinko machine. I've attached a bit of tubing to guide them back out to the front, but I think that identifying cyclic vs. non-cyclic will be pertinent to describing my problem.

Problem Description:
When I load balls into the "reward hopper" at the top of the box, they naturally flow down until they reach what I call, for lack of a better term, the reward dispenser. It's the part that I believe should be holding the balls until a reward is in order, and then it dispenses the balls to the front tray (top tray). As the balls roll down the hopper arm, they will be fed into the reward dispenser, which accepts about twenty or so, and then if I add anymore, it will wait a few seconds, and then start spitting them out in the front tray (top tray).

I've spent a little time taking it apart, seeing how it works, etc and it seems fairly simple. I've hand-fed the balls into the reward dispenser (the part that attaches to the bottom of the hopper's arm) and sometimes it flushes out 15 or so balls (doesn't seem to be a set amount) and other times, it spits out a single ball at a time until it seems satisfied.

Is there a switch I need to flip, or a button i need to push or something? Has anyone else experienced this before? I'm open to accepting that I have a lemon, and my pachinko machine is very unique... but I can't load more than 20 balls in the hopper, without it just spitting them out in the front tray (and holding on to the last 20 or so).

It took me a while to figure out that I had to flip a little switch on the reward dispenser thing so that when i put balls in the hopper, then wouldn't just automagically feed all the way down and out the back of the machine.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm going to continue to look around, and if I find a solution, I'll post my findings here.

[MrGneiss]

If I'm reading this right, It just sounds like your machine is caching up on payouts.

When the top hopper runs out of balls and you keep playing, the machine will remember balls won in its memory, and when you fill it back up it, has to catch up on payouts...

There a 2 ways to fix this....

1. Keep loading balls (maybe several 1000s) until its done.

or 2. the easy way, a reset.... turn off the machine, hold down the reset button, while holding it down turn the machine back on, keep holding the button for several seconds (some machines will beep once its reset) and that should do it!

[Lddrizzt]

First I am assuming that you have enough balls to fill that hopper to the brim.
This is something that you must do. It is designed to hold alot and will pay out from this reserve.
Second it sounds like it is catching up on payouts when you are adding balls a few at a time.
All the pockets on the front (except 2) will give you a payout, it can be 4,10,or 15 depending on the pocket that the ball went through. The game will most likely continue to play with an empty hopper (most of them do). So when it stacks up these payouts it will try and catch up as you add balls to the hopper.

You should be able to reset this machine. Look on the back for an on/off switch, somewhere nearby there should be a button. Turn off the machine, hold in the button while turning it on, hold it for about 15 sec or so and it should be reset. Now fill the hopper and it shouldn't spit out balls until you get one through a payout pocket.
The advantage of cyclic is that you don't worry about payouts or the hopper and your balls come back to the shooter's tray.
Semi Cyclic routes the balls back to the front and you still have to keep the hopper full, but don't have to reach around back for the spent balls.

*edit* Dang it Stuey! we posted at the same time!

[darinh]

Thank you for your prompt response!

Here's a summary of my findings:

Symptoms:
I put several hundred balls into the hopper, and they call came pouring out to the front tray. I added several hundred more, they all came pouring out. It appeared as though the hopper wasn't holding onto the redemption balls.

Actual Problem:
My hopper had been empty for so long, and I had been playing so much, that the pachinko machine kept track of the balls it owed me. Once balls were restored to the hopper, they were dispensed back to me as a reward. I misread that as a faulty product, but it was actually working as it should have.

Solution:
Thanks to the helpful comments I received, I was able to reset my pachinko machine, and fill the hopper up completely. Once I reset, a few balls were dispensed unexpectedly, so it's possible that I still haven't located my reset button. Once I powered it back on, the pachinko machine dispensed a few more balls and after that, it was back to status quo. My hopper is now full.

Thanks for the help (=. I appreciate your patience.