Seven Leagues Slot Machine stop button issues

[x_orange90_x]

I don't know if anyone here has experience with Japanese slot (pachislo) machines, but I sure hope so. I bought this machine last week in semi-working order. It would play and the reels would spin, but the stop buttons would not stop them at all. I found that the high-frequency filtering tantalum capacitor was bad on the reel stop board, along with the fuse being blown. I replaced the fuse and removed the capacitor. I haven't replaced the cap yet because I didn't have one on hand, but it's not necessary for the operation of the machine.

The issue now is the Stop buttons are intermittently working. So far button 1 (left) has not worked at all to stop the first reel. Button 2 appears to work consistently every time. Button 3 sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. When I watch the diagnostic lights I can see that when pressing 1 it's not registering, and when 3 DOES work it DOES register on the diagnostic board, but when it doesn't work it doesn't register. Button 2 appears registers when pressed.

I swapped the wires between them to see if it was the buttons themselves. 1 and 3 will both work perfectly fine if they are plugged into the 2nd plug. This rules out the buttons as the issue.

My buttons do not have optical sensors like some other machines, but rather they are just push buttons with two wires rubbing straight to the board. I don't know if it's an issue with the C10 capacitor not being there, but I highly doubt it because a broken connection would always be broken, not intermittent. It seems like a logic issue of some sort.

I will post more pictures later to help show the setup.

[stj]

get the plastic cover off the main board so we can see if it has any kind of battery on it for backing up the book-keeping

[x_orange90_x]

get the plastic cover off the main board so we can see if it has any kind of battery on it for backing up the book-keeping

The large board at the top on the inside?

[stj]

yes

[redwire]

OMG massive nails hammered through the wood, look for anything near nail holes that hit the board and damaged them, or wires/cables etc.
The top wood panel had one nail left in place. OUCH.

Also a big rust puddle under the power transformer on the bottom right? not sure what liquid got in there.

The switch inputs look like they go to the LED indicators on the board, and then the opto-isolators. I would take voltage readings on the switches, see if they look weak or OK.

[x_orange90_x]

OMG massive nails hammered through the wood, look for anything near nail holes that hit the board and damaged them, or wires/cables etc.
The top wood panel had one nail left in place. OUCH.

Also a big rust puddle under the power transformer on the bottom right? not sure what liquid got in there.

The switch inputs look like they go to the LED indicators on the board, and then the opto-isolators. I would take voltage readings on the switches, see if they look weak or OK.

I didn't even notice the nail situation 😳 I will investigate that matters later today.

I noticed last night that with the door open button 3 does not work/register on the diagnostic board. If I close the door it then works. Odd. There is an optical sensor mounted on the door, but I tried making it see a qtip and subsequently pressing button 3 and with door open and the button did not work, so I don't think that has anything to do with it.

Attached are photos of how the buttons are hooked up. Also there is a photo of the optical sensor on the door.

[redwire]

The difference between door open and closed is a bit weird.
It might be a damaged/pinched ribbon cable in the hinge, poor connection in the IDC connector. Take a look if it's mangled anywhere and gently reseat the connectors.
Or it's cross-talk of some kind between two switch lines. That sorta implies an IC is pooched. Some switches get zapped hard with static electricity and damage the IC. Voltage readings at the switches would help.

I'd gamble... power off and try an ohmmeter reading from the pushbutton and all the way to the LED "switch indicator", maybe they connect and you can find a place with continuity, to check the ribbon cables etc. See if you can beep out some path from the door CN4,5,6 up to the main board.
The slotted-optical switches, I can see two. Ambient light, dirt dust, or age if the LED fades can affect them- but it doesn't sound like you have a false door-open signal. IR goes through electrician's black tape, not sure how good a q-tip is lol.

[stj]

ignore the door for now,
get to the main logic board and see if it has corrosion from a leaked backup battery!

all gambling machines have battery-backed book-keeping memory for legal reasons.
the batteries leak.

as for the door switch - that puts the machine in service mode when you open the door,
some machines it gives you credits and lets you step the reels & stuff.

[x_orange90_x]

ignore the door for now,
get to the main logic board and see if it has corrosion from a leaked backup battery!

all gambling machines have battery-backed book-keeping memory for legal reasons.
the batteries leak.

as for the door switch - that puts the machine in service mode when you open the door,
some machines it gives you credits and lets you step the reels & stuff.

I'm not sure how to remove the board.. but from the front side I don't see any battery not any signs of corrosion. Attached are a few pictures of the board

[x_orange90_x]

ignore the door for now,
get to the main logic board and see if it has corrosion from a leaked backup battery!

all gambling machines have battery-backed book-keeping memory for legal reasons.
the batteries leak.

as for the door switch - that puts the machine in service mode when you open the door,
some machines it gives you credits and lets you step the reels & stuff.

I'm not sure how to remove the board.. but from the front side I don't see any battery not any signs of corrosion. Attached are a few pictures of the board

[x_orange90_x]

Update! FIXED!

I decided to remove the button board to check the backside of the connector. The trace was completely broken! I soldered a piece of wire in place of it and it's working perfectly now!

Thank you guys for your help 😁

Now I need to figure out why the belly light flicker on and off repeatedly.

[stj]

looks like it doesnt use a battery,
there is a mystery chip on it called 85c64-20 that sounds like a ram but i cant find a datasheet.
maybe it's non-volatile
there is also a27128 rom chip above it you may want to backup if you have a programmer.
thats only 16k so there is probably more boards hidden away.

[x_orange90_x]

looks like it doesnt use a battery,
there is a mystery chip on it called 85c64-20 that sounds like a ram but i cant find a datasheet.
maybe it's non-volatile
there is also a27128 rom chip above it you may want to backup if you have a programmer.
thats only 16k so there is probably more boards hidden away.

I'm not too concerned about backing anything up on it. I only paid $40 bucks for it with lots of tokens included. I'm just happy it's working now!