Sankyo Fever Queen 1993 - Stuck with alarm sounding

[InsaneDavid]

Amending my previous post - the little hairpin doesn't have anything to do with locking the payout chambers, it's simply to hold the pivot pin in place for the rollover rockers that are just below the latches you can pull up to trigger a manual payout / mechanism clear. The pivot pin is probably captured on the other side so there's no need to worry about it falling out during normal play. My machine has been sitting wrapped in storage since being imported 25 years ago, so everything is really stiff and has to be freed off, which is why I thought it had something to do with locking the mechanism.

[InsaneDavid]

One more thing you may want to try - because who knows.

On the back of the machine, look down at the very bottom near the center. Over where the shooter motor is on the left you should see a bent rod that comes out of the middle of the machine to the left but isn't connected to anything. This actually connects to a microswitch. It looks like it's on the line that connects between the payout motor and the 24V connection at the top of the machine. No idea what it does, it may be some kind of reset, it may be an interrupt to the payout system. (can't check myself as I'm in the process of a full rebuild / restoration)

You may want to give it a pull or a few cycles while the machine is on to see what happens. Possible that linkage could be gummed up as well.

[InsaneDavid]

Okay - I've got some real answers for you!

I finally got my machine back together enough to play it (still need to pull, clean, and refurbish the cell) and I hit a fever and actually encountered the same error as you!!

First off - the rod at the bottom that is connected to a microswitch is an interrupt for the payout motor. Holding the switch stops the cam from turning, possibly used to manually clear a backup by allowing one ball to go through at a time until the backup is cleared / paid. That motor is connected to a pair of three-finger cams that are staggered to alternate. They push off of a pair of rocker arms that have metal rollers that roll against the cam fingers. The rocker arms act as hammers that push win balls to pull on the linkage that releases either the 7 or 15 ball load from up top in the jackpot mech. I believe the alternate so it doesn't try to pay out both loads at the same time and cause a jam.

As for the error, I did about four fever rounds and then decided to just let the machine end it there as I'm not done with the restoration. Sure enough, an alarm of such sounded with all the lights going off and the attacker door closed. Inside the attacker door was the "E" message on the LED display, just as with your machine. The machine would still play / payout (because that's all mechanical), but would not bank spins, spin the reels, or do anything else.

What I did was open the attacker door, drop a ball in the CENTER (where the little hole is that holds a ball in the door), then close the door. The ball went down the center attacker hole (the one that starts the next round at the end of a round), which then played the end of fever music and ended the fever, bringing the machine back to a normal state. So it seems there's nothing wrong with the machine, it appears this is SUPPOSED to trigger an error and require attendant attention under this circumstance.

Perhaps this machine is supposed to go into an error state if a fever round is missed before the set of fevers is complete? These are from a transitional era of modern pachinko, who knows. Either way, give that a try and see if it returns your machine to normal play state.

Glad I hit a fever either way because it showed me I have a few out segments in my LED counter inside the attacker - but that'll have to wait until I have time to fully tear the cell down. Probably just a bad or pinched connection somewhere.

[Drunkenclam]

That is a common feature of games of this era. Especially hanemono ones. If it goes a round without a ball entering the V pocket or in this case the jackpot door. The machine assumes that there is a fault with the mechanics, as in a parlour the whole point is to win balls. So if it doesn’t get a response, it thinks its faulty.

[InsaneDavid]

That is a common feature of games of this era. Especially hanemono ones. If it goes a round without a ball entering the V pocket or in this case the jackpot door. The machine assumes that there is a fault with the mechanics, as in a parlour the whole point is to win balls. So if it doesn’t get a response, it thinks its faulty.

Ah, that all makes sense - thanks!

So there you go OP, your machine is working as it should if you can get it to clear after dropping a ball into the center pocket inside the door.

[Random1111]

Today I realized there is a 2nd page to this thread. Only a few days late.

Amazing thank you. I'm going to have to start my reassembly on the machine as I tore this whole thing down to see if I could find anything off. I'll post back after I have it back together.

[Random1111]

I reassembled the machine, plugged it back in and tried dropping some balls down the jackpot door. I put them in left, right and center. It still didn't clear. This leads me back to the sensors in the jackpot door. I have a multimeter but I'm not sure how to use it to test the sensor. Not sure if someone can walk me through that? or if there is a better way to tell for sure.

[Random1111]

I was at the give up and punt stage on this when I checked out InsaneDavid's restore on his Fever Queen. I spotted 1 difference in the board connections. I had a connection that was jumpering the DC12V plug. After pulling the jumper off and plugging it back in, I seem to be in business. I still don't know if it will fail again after I get the jackpot window open but I'm hoping. PachinkoFix.jpg

[Random1111]

Okay this appears to do nothing. Took a long time to get the jackpot window to open up and I'm back into error more. I wish I knew what I did to clear it.

[Drunkenclam]

I would look at testing the jackpot ball sensor. Depending if its a 2 wire or 3 wire sensor. You should be able to test it when not in jackpot mode.

[Random1111]

I would look at testing the jackpot ball sensor. Depending if its a 2 wire or 3 wire sensor. You should be able to test it when not in jackpot mode.

There are 3 sensors that are 2 wire in the jackpot window. Any tips on how to test it? I have a multimeter but really don't know how to use it to test this.

[InsaneDavid]

The connection you reference above looks like they're just the statistical connections for a battle counter. Guessing on your machine that just runs up to the top somewhere for eventual connection further along at the parlor but it's unnecessary for operation.

It sounds like you've disconnected / reconnected everything multiple times but a bit of plastic-safe contact cleaner couldn't hurt - although at this point a poor socketed connection probably isn't the issue.

From everything you've said, it seems your machine is having problems when it comes down to the electronic sensors reading ball passes in the attacker. Payouts will work regardless, as that's all mechanical. As I'm sure you've seen - there are only four sensors in the machine: one to activate reel spin and then the three in the attacker, and they are all the same part.

Having rebuilt my machine, I can say that the wires that connect the attacker sensors to the lower connection board are very stiff compared to everything else, and they are very tightly pressed in between the rest of the lower wiring loom and the back of the frame. It's possible the sensors aren't at fault but the harness has a bad or pinched connection or the headers (pins) they plug into on the board have damaged solder connections.

First thing I would do would be to check continuity for every wire of the sensor harness, between where they are soldered to the sensors and where they terminate in the plug. Then do the same with every header pin on the board, between the tip of each pin and its solder connection on the back. Then plug the harness into the board and test between where the wire is soldered to the sensor, and then the respective solder connection on the back of the board. It sounds like a lot of work but it'll go pretty quick.

Check this for all six wires: between sensor connection and connector, between header pin and underside of PCB, plug in and then between sensor connection and underside of PCB. Don't have the machine on, don't have anything back together, you're just trying to rule out a bad connection between the sensors and the PCB. If that all checks out, then I would check continuity between every connected point on that little lower board. Not wire to wire, just header to header on the board, checking if there's a bad trace or poor connection there since it gets crammed pretty hard by the back frame door.

Do all this while the machine is off and the board is out to ensure you're systematically checking all the pathways. Don't know why, but I just feel a bad or intermittent connection there may be the problem. I've seen it a lot with arcade game PCBs.

Also if you're really having problems getting continuity reads with the sensors themselves and are desperate, you could always take out the slot reel activation sensor and swap it with the center attacker sensor (you'd have to break out your soldering iron / station). Then if the reels spin the sensor is fine, if they don't, then it was bad. That's the long extra work way to test it though.

[Random1111]

Much appreciated. I will start my testing and report back.

[InsaneDavid]

Good luck! I'm far from an expert or anything but that's where I would start, looking for an open connection somewhere like that.

[Drunkenclam]

I doubt that there are 3 sensors in the jackpot ball path. They are normally engineered in such a way to only have one its normally right below the jackpot trap door. Sometimes you can see it through the flap.

Assuming these are omron through sensors and not a psychical switch The 2 wire sensors work on resistance rather than switching a circuit. You would need an ohm meter to measure the difference when the sensor is empty and when something is present. You could
try a ball on a stick. Or test with a sensor from somewhere else on the machine. But preferably not the start pocket sensor.

[InsaneDavid]

I doubt that there are 3 sensors in the jackpot ball path. They are normally engineered in such a way to only have one its normally right below the jackpot trap door. Sometimes you can see it through the flap.

Assuming these are omron through sensors and not a psychical switch The 2 wire sensors work on resistance rather than switching a circuit. You would need an ohm meter to measure the difference when the sensor is empty and when something is present. You could
try a ball on a stick. Or test with a sensor from somewhere else on the machine. But preferably not the start pocket sensor.

There are three down in there - left, center, and right - all evenly positioned. The plastic assembly inside the attacker door has three even splits that go to the three sensors, no solenoid or diverter.





You are correct, they're the standard Omron through sensors. The center one is what starts the next fever round and what will trip the error state if a ball doesn't pass through it sometime during a round. The capture hole in the door will drop a ball in there when it closes if one didn't go in naturally, making it pretty much a sure thing. Just from what I've observed playing the machine, the left and right sensors seem to queue up the next round as ONLY dropping a ball down the center ended the entire run at the end of the round. No error state though, just drops the game back out into normal play.



Start pocket sensor is the same Omron sensor, except it's clipped into the lower ball pathway assembly just above the attacker assembly. And all the wires for all of it are smashed into a little area where they go up, curve down around over themselves, then back up, smash between the cell ball pathways and the back of the frame, and then connect to a little interface PCB. The clearances there are crazy tight, even for something like this.

[InsaneDavid]

Alright, more information about how the three sensors in the attacker door work.

I don't think ANY of your attacker sensors are registering!

By dropping balls in the start pocket until I hit fevers and then experimenting I think I've figured it out.

The CENTER sensor (the V pocket) is what starts the next round.

The LEFT and RIGHT sensors simply register that a ball went through the attacker.


So it works like this:

If a fever round completes with no balls going through ANY of the three sensors, then it trips the error state, which is cleared by dropping a ball through one of them.

If a fever round completes and a ball has dropped through the center sensor, then another fever round begins, up to 16 rounds.

If a fever round completes and a ball has dropped through either the left or right sensors but NOT the center sensor, then the fever mode ends and the game goes back to normal.

I've repeated the above a few times, that's how it works. I'd guess your sensors are fine and the problem is in the wiring harness or the interconnect board. If all your continuity checks out through there then it has to be something further up the chain at the main PCB - no way all three sensors are bad.

[Drunkenclam]

This must be a feature of machines around this era.

[InsaneDavid]

This must be a feature of machines around this era.

Also explains why I thought the different reel combinations were "paying" different numbers of fever rounds - I just had really bad luck and had nothing go down the center a couple times.

[Random1111]

Thanks for the updated info. That should help me track it down better.