Help with new pachinko?

[noobie]

I received my new Sakura pachinko from Stealth and it looks absolutely beautiful. Well packed, no problems... but it won't work. The ball launcher is plugged in properly, it has balls in the reward hopper and front tray, I'm touching the metal ring, but it won't launch any balls. I'm getting what appears to be an error of type 7 as indicated on the back of the machine (Hopper Empty?). I tried resetting the machine twice, but it didn't appear to make any difference.

The only thing I've noticed is that there is no indication of a dongle anywhere. I see what looks like an RS-232 port near the power switch, but there's nothing plugged into it. Is this where it should be?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[Tulsa]

You may or may not need a dongle but let me ask you this... When you filled the top payout hopper, how far did the balls travel before stopping? There is a catch along the chute for balls that will block the balls from going farther and if the payout module does not have balls in it, it will give you a hopper error.

[noobie]

The balls travelled all the way down to the little wiggly area (which has been marked on my machine as PAY OUT). It's where the motor is.

[noobie]

A bit more info:
* If I empty the hopper, the error code goes to 1.

* Apparently my machine doesn't need a dongle because a short has been made to an IC on the board (I get this from reading the forums).

* If I reset the machine, it gives me a two-tone alarm and moves an item on the playboard up and down for a while. No idea what this signifies.

I'm hoping I'll get a chance to play with my first pachinko tomorrow.

[noobie]

Well, I've spent an hour or so with it, and no luck. Everything appears to be fine except the motor for launching the balls itself doesn't seem to be working. If I manually place a ball in the pocket it feeds balls out and everything else works fine.

I checked all the connections I could find and everything looks OK. I also checked for jams and can't find anything in there.

[Bilko44]

Does the ball launcher make any noise at all, such as a thunking sound?

Or is it like there's no contact at all in the power circuit to the launcher? If it is this way, then follow the wires and reseat connectors and look for damaged wires.

Open the front of the unit and the lower door where the ball launcher lives and look for obstructions.

Make sure the doors close properly or you will get error messages.

Make sure the hooper is completely filled as the hopper switch needs at least a half full hopper to go off.

[noobie]

I've tried all of the things you mentioned. The motor makes no noise at all. I've quadruple checked all the connections, and I've opened the door (and the rear) to check for obstructions of any type.

[dalto]

Does the ball launcher have a metal ring around it? If so, make sure your skin is in contact with the ring while you turn the knob.

[noobie]

Yep, already tried that.

[luckydog]

Have you checked the box, packing and all around the machine to make sure that it does not have a dongle stuck somewhere. it may still need a dongle

[noobie]

I checked thoroughly. It MAY need a dongle, but I don't know for sure. We'll see what Milt says.

[dalto]

Have you found the spot where the dongle would normally go?

[Tulsa]

Yes, he's aware of the dongle location but no dongle was sent. At this point with all he's checked, I'd have to say it needs one. Certainly acting like it needs one.

[noobie]

I wonder if Radio Shack carries the necessary parts to make one?

[noobie]

It looks like Rado Shack has the necessary parts... however they only have a 35V capacitor with the proper microfarrad rating, not a 50V. Would this be OK?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

[noobie]

Yay! You guys rule. Sure enough, it was the dongle. I built it using the Radio Shack parts, and all now works!

Now if I can just figure out this volume knob...

BTW - It might be helpful to list those Radio Shack part numbers on the Dongle link for others.

[slotter]

Here are a couple dongle links if you should ever need to make your own:

http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/show...ghlight=dongle

http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/show...ghlight=dongle

[Tulsa]

Another happy PachiTalk member! Good idea about those links.

Mod? Where's the pachinko moderator, clean up on isle 4!

[noobie]

I feel like an idiot. I had done all of the reading on here beforehand and knew that the dongle was the most common cause of problems. But I assumed since my board had that blob of solder on it that it was dongle free. Ah well, live and learn.

[arbycoffee]

A dongle a day keeps problems away