Leaderboard

A independent operator conversion on Bell Fruits Nudge Gambler, No game difference apart from the changed main reel glass and reel bands to match but notice as a cost save they have left the top plaque from the original NG game.

yes you can run the machine with out the battery on it you will get a error 53 then it will boot up

Its a E101 its a strim error code

(I've only done one scorpion 1... so far 🙂) The big heat sync- it's not a transistor screwed to it, it's the 5v regulator. The box Capacitors seem ok to, me I took them off and tested them to be sure in the battery area. The small dielectric caps in the audio area were not good on my board. I'm finding the wiring loom contacts the most time consuming to sort out... it's best to clean up every pin on the mpu while you have the board out... and read Bobs thread it's invaluable 😎

Couldn't resist mentioning a couple of faults that might save anyone a fair amount of time and head scratching. It's well known how bad these boards can get with the green plague but here's one which shows you don't even need anything metallic for it to travel. This had got in to all the buffer chips too which is very common. A couple more boards later and I had the usual non booter but this one was a bit odd. The sound would come and go at random and this was due to the voltages on the sound o/p chip (pin 8 ) going up and down. Eventually it booted too which was good so I knew the basic system was OK. Anyway back at the ranch I looked deeper into the audio side. Being as I've seen similar faults like this with Scorp1 my first port of call is to use my straw!! As daft as it seems using a straw is a good way of directing moist air to a specific part of the circuit board or component. These faults are most often caused by board contamination even though they look clean. The slightest hint of mositure and stray voltages start appearing all over the shop. Using the slightest hint of breath through the straw around the three yellow caps (C13,14,15) or the three resistors (R28,29,30) caused the output voltage to go one way but the same method directed at IC6 caused it to go the other way. In both cases the audio would start to distort then disappear completely. The only cure I've found for this is too remove all 4 yellow caps, the 3 resistors the tant cap, C26/27, HD3 and IC3/ IC6. Then give the board a good clean with a cotton bud. I've found IPA doesn't shift it and you need proper PCB cleaner. The components also need cleaning or replacing. Once done I could huff and I could puff with no loss of audio. I also confirmed it with the meter whereas before just touching the bare board around that area was showing varying stray voltages and now nothing. Flushed with success I moved on to the boot issue, as I said it had started to boot but using the straw technique again any directed at the battery area or around IC35 would cause it to alarm and stop booting. Cleaning again as before and also removing IC35 prooved to be a cure. There has been some discussion on the removal of this chip but I have found that it suffers badly from contamination and you can sometimes measure voltages on it's case!! Removal is the only option and as these are obsolete there's no chance of a replacement. The technical merits of this have been discussed previously but for home users it's no big deal. Finally this isn't the board below, it's just to show the components involved. Having said that this one does suffer slightly to applied moisture so it will need a good rub down with the cleaner.

The Epoch main board is the heart of that machine and will be a ballache to replace so here's a few more tips- Keep it in an antistatic bag if your transporting it. Keep it dark- the game data on the Eproms is erasable by UV light so keep it out of sunlight The alkaline battery leakage needs neutralizing or it will keep eating away for years. An epoch board can fit in a small container flat and you can tip some IP-alchol on it and leave it partially submerged for 10-15 mins. That will get under everything and kill off most of the rot on contact. Leave it for a good 12hours to dry somewhere safe. Check it now and again in the future. You can do this as many times as you like. If you do all that with minimal tampering afterwards it should run for years 😎 People tend to neglect them and get highly frustrated when they stop working so look after it.

Thanks for the update Clo and to Popeye rom provider. Much better with sound.

Sound Rom added, thanks to @Popeye

Nice one Popeye, thanks heaps bud😊

Sound roms in the downloads section and sent to the layout creator 😀