Leaderboard

I had a go at making some replacement backlit bands for Tensation a couple of years ago. They came out pretty good, but it was a lot of time and effort. Sadly, I no longer have access to the printer.

Yesterday I took the Win stepper apart to soak it in vinegar overnight, and today I cleaned it – it was just like slime that came off. I lubricated it where necessary and put it back together. It took a bit of fiddling about and fine-tuning.

So, I’ve made a bit more progress; I didn't have time for the project for a few days. The parts that had been sandblasted have now been painted. In the meantime, I started working on the mechanical score counter; I completely disassembled and rebuilt it. That was certainly necessary, as some parts were already wearing against each other due to stiff movement and a lack of grease. I also installed the coin tubes.

This one had be going for a while. Fault was no sound although on the bench there was sometimes and it was very dependant on humidity and temperature. What normally happens is the battery vapours contaminate the board surface and it becomes conductive. Any trace voltage around pin 2 of the audio output chip will cause the chip to effectively switch off and there will be almost full supply voltage on pin 8 which is the speaker output. It should sit at half voltage (6V ish) but this was more like 11v! After deep cleaning the tracks and components that connect to pin 2 it started behaving but still not quite down to 6v. I then left it for a while to work on something else and when I returned and powered on there was no sound again! The voltage measured on pin 2 was about 0.6v whereas it should be approx 0.02v. So it was leaking again somewhere? Next thing was to remove the sound output chip and the two little yellow caps that are connected to pin 2 and see where the voltage was coming from. Well lo and behold it was still there. There was nothing else connected to pin 2 so a lot of head scratching started. The next thing I noticed was that the track ran underneath the sound synth chip so this had to come out and look what I found underneath!!! The track runs through where it says R28-30 and this stuff was sticky and conductive, could be tobacco film who knows. Anyway a good clean on the board and the chip and no more stray voltage.

Started removing rust from various parts of the Reel today; disassembled the motor... but immediately spotted a problem. It clearly hasn't been looked after; there was hardly any grease inside. There is a worn bronze bearing, and there is significant play in the output shaft (can this be ordered? Otherwise, I'll have one machined). I'm not sure if the output shaft is supposed to be like that, though. Fortunately, the gears are still in good condition.

MDM 1981

Hi everyone, it’s been a while. Time for a new project, tipped off by a neighbor. It was listed on Facebook Marketplace (Netherlands). A Bellfruit Full House; there was only a photo of the front, but you could see the damage to the artwork. Asking price: €20. Naturally, I couldn't pass it up. This machine needs a lot of love to get it looking good and playable again. Fortunately, the machine is complete; the instruction sheet is inside, as are the build year and serial number.

Pinball Heaven stock them on eBay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371532527747

I’ve had a bit of time again, this time to work on the mechanism control sequence timer. This one was also covered in rust and grime. The gearbox was almost seized up; I could barely turn it by hand, but luckily a bit of penetrating oil did the trick. That could easily have cost me the motor. I’ve also started dismantling the door; I’d already taken it off. So that various parts can be soaked in cleaning vinegar.

It was time to clean the credit count sequence timer; it was dirty and covered in rust. It was quite a job to get it apart. Fortunately, I’d already replaced the AMP plugs on the switches. After a thorough clean, something wasn’t quite right when I was putting it back together – I kept losing the screws from the switch terminals. It turned out I’d turned the 4-sided rod the wrong way round, which meant the screws didn’t fit. So I took it apart again and paid close attention this time. Some new bulbs (6V 2W) had also arrived, so I replaced them straight away. I also fitted new film capacitors for the RC snubbers. The old ones were already starting to crack and their capacitance was barely there.

So, for the past 2 days, I’ve been busy further derusting the transformer. This was so much work that I decided to take various parts to a good friend who has a sandblasting cabinet. In the meantime, I had also contacted (pb) BF74 (Ron) for a piece of schematic for a Dutch cabinet, if he had one. I received a complete schematic of the Full House; I couldn't be happier. I also ran a test, most problems were some residual oxidation on the relays and some AMP connectors that have not yet been replaced.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371532527747

Sorted thankyou both of you

Thanks, Sulzerned. Luckily, I was able to buy them from an online pinball shop.

Still very usable Mike. If you can get some decent hi res pics of a bottom glass for sag you could go down the perspex route which would be cheaper than glass printing.

Good afternoon friends, Does anyone know how to perform a RAM CLEAR RESET on a Maygay Triple M system? I have a Dutch Goldfinger Kassa without a manual, and the Triple M manual doesn't mention anything about it.

Thanks Dave 138, that puts my mind at ease. I assembled the reels today; they were finally clean enough. I went ahead and replaced the AMP connectors while I was at it. I also received replacement bulb holders today; the old ones were too rusty, so I replaced those right away. Does anyone know what the switches on the side of the reels are for?

When I worked for Bell Fruit, we never did any maintenance on the reel motor. I don’t know if Ron can confirm that. It was rare to have a motor problem and, if we did, we just fitted a new one. There again, the machines were not very old.

Thanks, Dave 0138 and Zulzerned. It’s a lot of work, and progress is slow. Started on the reels today. Found black, oxidized contacts, seized bushings, and rust. Needed a lot of contact cleaner to scrub everything clean again. Tomorrow I’ll take the motor apart (but first, I’ll read through Ron’s thread one more time). I’ve taken reels apart before, but this is much more complex, and I don’t want to make any mistakes. Here are some photos of the process.

Hello, my name is Victor French Collector, and my passion for collecting slot machines, jukeboxes, and arcade games started with an old ATARI jukebox. I’m also passionate about vintage chip technology, like the TMS or the 4004. As I explored these worlds, I discovered the Ace Coin Equipment machines from the Series 100, and I fell completely in love with these models. i love making Dump of ICs and Manuals/ Schematics Redraw. i m also a good member of MO5 Assaciation of old french Machines preservation.

Lovely looking machine Marco! Can you take a picture of the MPU, is there a battery on the board?

If you operate the microswitch manually does it always give a credit? Let me know if you're struggling mate and I'll chuck a 20p mech in the post. 👍

Hello, Sorry I can't help regarding parts but, I can show you the origin and date of your machine. This article is from 1979.

Can't say I have. This was a time where everybody and their dog was making rebuilds. Some like this are quite tasteful. Some...not so much Nice to see it emulated maybe in the future. It probably runs the same tech Good find! Oldskooler

Thanks now with a happy new owner, razzle dazzle is next

Well done, it looks good, nicely repaired

Yes, of course, Daveo138 and Sulzerned, it is in the Netherlands. link : GE44 6volt 2watt 10mm bajonetlamp

Great work.again . Glad you managed to get hold of the 6v bulbs too.

I’ve just tested it, and it works; I’m using MFME V20. You’ll need a newer version.

I actually forgot that I have the top glass 😂 it's a bit ropey but okay

Hi just got my first barcrest horizon machine (RAINBOW RICHES) and I have joined the site to gain experience in maintaining my new interest

Newbie ... looking to delve into emulators, all fun (and games). Hello from North Yorkshire ...

i Can't believe this thread is over 16 years old and sort of still going 😁 Anyway as for the project. When i started this in 2010 i was always hoping that others would take part and improve on what i did back then(which they have).Materials depend on backlit and none backlit. The best way is probably to look through the thread and see what different members have had success and failures with.

Nice find. It should keep you busy for a while.

Coin_Controls_S10_Acceptor_Instruction_Manual.pdf

the sequence is, coin inserted, the weight and tip checks coin diameter, thickness and slows the coin down to then 'bounce' on a dividing plate to bounce towards the credit slot, or the reject slot if the coin is to light in weight. careful adjustment is all that is needed, unless the mech has been butchered to just let the coin drop straight through! then your need to source a new s10 mech

Hi fellas. Has anyone ever stripped an Eprom? I sware I've heard a rumours someone did it once on here? Ive picked up a machine and the sound eprom is fried. M27c801 (epoch) global Operation Club. The Rom file has never been uploaded as far as I can tell. The programmer just errors with a +vcc pin error... I guess its probably be fitted backwards at some point. I can see the internal +vcc bonding wire is broken through the quartz window- My question has anyone got a nice technique for getting the quartz out!?!?

the usual is someone previously has mangled to remove the weight on the tipping cradle, this is what slows the coin down on s10. I did guide somewhere on hear on how to adjust the mecs, but it might not be around now. but all the adjustments are in the s10 manual

Hi all, I think I mentioned these devices a few weeks back so I thought I'd purchase a few and have a play. If you're not aware these devices can emulate ROMs and come in all the sizes and will do masked ROMs too although I haven't got there yet. Amazing so far and so many things I haven't tried yet. They are about a tenner each but the time and effort they save it's a no brainer. The devices can be flash programmed in seconds so no waiting 20-30 mins to erase ROMs and re-burning when you're testing patches to code. Then plugging them in to test and finding they don't work! (yep we've all been there) Once installed in the ROM socket they can be re-programmed in situ via USB. Here's a pic using an MPU3 card... Also big and smaller brothers. They do devices for larger chips but I don't need them as yet. Another advantage of these is you can save multiple images which can be selected by the jumpers so changing code can be done in seconds. Of course in the case of MPU3 & 4 you can't put them in the case as it's not deep enough but that's fine just for testing purposes. Another advantage is you can put the whole image on one device and patch the CS lines to the empty sockets (not tried this as yet) but it's all explained in the blurb. I needed to use these due to trying to defeat the CHR and CRC check as burning traditional ROMs was taking all day. It can now be done in seconds. I'd like to thank John Parker for his assistance with this and taking the time to explain it. Cheers John you are a squire and a gentleman sir. For the guys out there that like hacking ROMs for changing the gameplay, I think these devices will be a godsend. It does also mention in the blurb you can change bytes on a running system, not tried that either but it's all terrific stuff.

The newly made small glass was fitted along with the missing button decals

It could be the motor on the main control timer is sticking, With machine switched on your can turn the end of the main control timer shaft by hand which might free it off OR, It could be the variator timer, specifically the variator's cam switch. First, when machine is in credit, two timer's should start clicking away on the main panel. One is the rotary hold/nudge selector with wires around it's board, the other is the variator timer with a red cam which operates a cam switch as it turns.. When you press the start button, the main control timer starts, the reel motor starts and the reel solenoids lift to allow the reels to spin, normally the main control timer would complete a full revolution without stopping but this would allow the reels to run in a sequence. To stop this happening the cam switch on the variator takes over the power to the main control timer motor and makes it stop and start as the cam on the variator turns. As this action also starts and stops the main control timer motor This 'Varies' the stopping time of the reels to prevent sequencing. Once the reels have all stopped in their 1,2,3 sequence, the control timer takes over from the variator and restores the circuit to it's own motor to finish the timers full revolution. Now if the cam on the variator fails either the switch collapses, any of the wires have become loose or disconnected even if the variator motor fails then there will be no circuit to the main control timer motor and as soon as it starts it freezes in the same position with the result your machine just sits with the reels spinning and won't do anything else. if you get stuck post pictures or better still a video of your machine.

Yep I have a few sets ,, I had a them printed last week

Bingo Bell, I have the original version. 5p play with a dual 10p/5p coin mech and single 5p token mech. all payouts made in 5p tokens. 10p in gives one play and one token change. auto start spins reels three times and any numbers that fall on win line will light up the corresponding number on the top bingo card. after three spins the player has the option of two nudges which can be used on any reel to gain more win lines. Number 46 in the centre line is always lit as a free number. An experimental machine from BF running electro tech 50v with operating boards running on a 24v supply. Edit.. Missed the main feature out where a possible random bonus can occur during any game. As the reels spin, The machine will light the full bingo card and can repeat.

Okay hello again. Getting near the end now.. Hope you enjoy these last few posts. SWP (eventually) but for now Criss Cross 1984 -5 As a response to a projected squeezing of the Gaming Market Place a survey was conducted by Whitbread and was made privy to the Marketing Team at JPM of which I was a member. This survey predicted that due to the recognised change in the appeal of ‘the pub’ and the drive towards FEC’ (Family entertainment centres) with their concentration on food as a more profitable product, the smoky, flat cap Pub was going to change massively over the oncoming 20 years. With hindsight, looking back today, how right they were, but I think even they would have been surprised at the scale of the change and the wholesale closing down of pubs across the country and of course the impact that on-line gambling and the lottery have had. The survey showed that the demographic of the pub was changing and the average Socio Economic Group frequenting FEC’s was actually going up market. Alongside those results a survey that we had conducted independently of “the player”, had tried to uncover what created the appeal of a particular machine or game play and what it was that players got out of playing machines in general. Although obfuscated in the language of Market research, a commonality of attitude in the responses came over loud and clear with phrases like “get to know it,” “find the winning streak” and “beat it” used by the typical player. Again thanks to the findings of the research this player was (typically) 18-30, working class, more likely to be a smoker, often a loner and a heavy drinker. Now don’t shoot me (if I’m still here) if you like playing machines, I did say typical and there were certainly those that were also 80 years old and never smoked but you get the picture! The Survey didn’t end there as I remember. I found out most of this first hand as I was one of those tasked with asking people in pubs and arcades but we specifically targeted as well, those that vowed they would never ever play a machine and quizzed them (sic), why they had made that particular decision. A few of the reasons given, amongst many others, were that playing a machine was boring, was not a challenge and was seen as antisocial. So the mold was set and we had to come up with a product that addressed those criteria. The SWP or skill with prizes machine eventually emerged from the joint efforts of several team brainstorming events and on one particular coincidence. At one of many lunch time meetings, all we were talking about was how to put intellectual competition into a machine, while we were playing Trivial Pursuit (DOH) how obvious it seems now. We seriously sat back, stopped playing and sat there discussing how it could be done and with the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end ran to get the Software department manager to come and join Alan and Ron and myself to discuss whether and how it could be done! Days later I was asked to become Product manager and Project leader for the new venture which I jumped at with my usual blissful ignorance and willing attitude. Suddenly I was subjected to GANNT charts, CPA and other Project management tools, this was certainly an eye opener and another career path which has stood me in good stead even until today. (2022) The new product obviously had no spinning reels, instead it sported a video screen which displayed a game that allowed players to answer, hopefully correctly, questions that were displayed with a suitable GUI. The product demanded a particular or peculiar consumable and that was questions, and lots of them, but more of that later. Of course we also needed the physical media to store them on and very early on someone had ventured the idea of a floppy disk as being ideal but the 1.4meg floppy was still in its relative infancy and getting a disk drive into a gaming machine for the first time was seen as fraught with danger. I fiercely defended the idea that the storage aspect of the product was developed in a two pronged attack, one utilising EPROM which was a mature, well known and easy path. The second was to be a floppy disk which meant writing a secure and unique Disk Operating System in order that the question sets could not just get ripped off by other manufacturers or canny punters. I recall we called it Wingcode as the creator was Ian Wingfield! So determined was I to make sure that we implemented this storage medium that I managed to get in touch with one of the buyers at a well known computer manufacturers and obtained both a sample, and the supplier of, the suspension mounts that Compaq had fitted in their Luggable PC’s at that time. We fitted them to a floppy drive and started bashing a machine around while the drive was spinning. We were astounded to find that it would really take quite an extreme amount of punishment without exhibiting any problems at all. We decided to go along with the overhead of duplicated effort and continue with the development of both branches of the project just in case a gremlin jumped out of the box. Coincidentally during the ongoing supplier acquisition stages we learnt that a competitor that you must have heard of, was quite near to us and was having difficulty obtaining an ‘unusual amount’ of Eprom for his production. JPM concluded several things, 1) that he had got wind of our development. (remember the new locks on the doors that I spoke of earlier?) More of that later. 2) that he was embarking on a product like ours. 3) that we would suffer even worse supply problems if we continued with the Eprom route. 4) that we should immediately put an order in for thousands of Eproms just to make the supply even worse for the competition, after all they could always be used in gaming machines. So JPM took the, what was momentous decision to dump the Eprom development and re allocate resource to the disk. We happily prepared for the launch in London at the London Hippodrome. For the moment I need to go back to answer the question of questions. For the production of every machine we figured that we would need 6,000 questions, each with 1 correct and 3 perhaps plausible but incorrect answers. We played around with selecting answers at random but too often we came across totally stupid answers that denied plausibility, or equally as unnerving and totally by chance, alternative but correct answers. We toyed around for a while with several ideas and we developed the final specification for questions and answers and where else would we go for help but to the accepted seat of intelligence MENSA. With the question ‘recipe’ in hand and a description and demonstration of the product, we anticipated that our prayers would be answered, but how wrong would that prove to be. After our meeting with them, and after a very thorough and complete presentation of the product and the philosophy behind it we felt confident that having accepted the brief they understood exactly our requirements. We received the first few thousand questions on disk in sets of 100 questions within a week and I was given the task of assessing them before they were passed on for compression and encryption. These had obviously been developed by a computer programme. It was immediately obvious that answer lines were being used as responses in far too many questions as they were the same and on further analysis I found that the 3 incorrect answers in questions 1, 10, 20, 30, 40 for example were the same but just presented in a different order. "Furthermore this grammar on many cases were wrong, indicating again a computerised production." Do you see what I mean? We also found that answers used in this haphazard way presented by coincidence, more than one answer which just could have been construed as correct! So we decided to set u our own Q+A department which I staffed and by purchasing the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was the font of knowledge in those days (no Google, no Internet), we were able to verify and prepare suitable alternative answers to some of those questions. It wasn’t long before a member of our team and my father in law at that time, Ken Friis, pointed out that with a little help he was sure they could we could prepare many of the factual questions for ourselves and add value to our department so this we started doing. To inject a mix of the more down to earth questions on Pop music, TV and Sport I enlisted teams of students from Cardiff University using one Tutor as a question ‘gleaner’. He would collect and send us the questions in groups of 100 for which we would pay £50 or 50p per question. So lucrative was this that he subsequently left university and set up a company, using me to get another copy of Encyclopedia Britannica which I managed to get at a reduced price. A fact is that after buying several sets for other people I was presented with a copy of the ‘First edition’ by the publishers which is leather bound and presented in a glass fronted, teak cabinet with my name initials engraved in a brass plaque on the lid. The system we employed with the universities worked so well that I extended it to other Countries when we eventually realised the product’s international appeal. We soon became aware of exactly how correct the choice of the floppy disk was when it became clear to the site owners and machine operators that certain individuals were playing the machine constantly and getting to know a lot of the answers, so much so that the machine was no longer making as much as it should. This was not simply because the overall payout percentage had rocketed but also due to a lack of overall plays which confirmed that the appeal of the machine was as a challenge. To combat this effectively we set up a 6 weekly, direct debit linked supply of a new disk with 6,000 fresh questions which proved to increase the revenue of the machine due to the incentive to those players who really wanted to be challenged. A news set of questions was accompanied by a new ZCA flash screen indicating, the revision number of questions, a recent event such as a football match or news headline, and the date of compilation( I think) We released the initial product in the London Hippodrome at a huge and well advertised event that most of the industry were invited to. The product was to be an answer to the demise of the industry and it was creating massive amounts of attention. The machine was centre stage with all the pazzaz reserved for a new car launch. Music was blasting from the PA system. Laser lights were dancing. Hundreds of people listened to the presenter from TV’s “Tomorrow’s World” introduce the product with an explanation of the need for the change and a huge screen displaying graphs of machine ‘take’ and the concept of the question replacement service which I was about to launch. With a final flourish timed to perfection … The house lights went out and, Unseen. A centre stage trapdoor descended. Sprach Zarathustra began to play, extremely loudly. A machine was pushed on to the lowered trapdoor by a colleague. A lead was plugged in to the socket actually on the trap door. The machine was switched on. The trapdoor ascended as the machine booted up. A single spotlight picked out the machine as it rose through a trap door in the floor playing it’s initial boot up melody exactly 1 minute and 40 (?) seconds after the lights went out. I think that was the longest 1 minute and 40 seconds of my life, we couldn’t plug the machine in before we moved it as the connection was sunk into the face of the trap door, so we had to suffer the possibility of a non start. The “Next Generation” product literally rose from the ground. JPM literally lived on the product and its successors for the next year! As addendum #1 to this tale. Many years later when I joined that very competitor that I spoke of earlier that got their product out before ours. I met the people in their R+D and it became obvious that the biggest problem they faced at that time was not only the purchasing of, but also the cleaning, erasing, programming and relabeling Eproms. These devices returned from the customer had been so badly damaged in many cases by ham fisted operators that they could not be used again and a charge for the damaged chips had to be made and of course they had to be replaced. They were losing money on their updates and so had to extend the frequency, whereas our update service was straight forward and with the 8 gang disk copying facilities we made we could copy 4 batches of 8 disks in 10 minutes and of course the old returned disks went straight in the bin. Addendum #2 and further to the new locks on the doors Jack Jones, now armed with the fact that apparently our security had been compromised, guessed that it was either someone inside selling ideas or an outsider getting info from us. He paid a discrete security agency to infiltrate us and obtain whatever information they could. No one questioned the window cleaner that came around with a bucket and cloth to clean the office dividers, or the rodent inspector with new traps in the factory or even the the new guy collecting waste bins from development! We should have, they were all from the same company and when we were all called to a meeting, there on Jack’s desk were old revision specification sheets, programme printouts, out of date Bills of materials the whole dam thing! Days later there were security locks everywhere and no paper ever went out without being shredded!

Exhibitions, and one in particular! The first exhibition I ever attended was in Alexander Palace and it was an eye opener for me to be there and to be put up in a swank hotel in London alongside the directors! After Alexandra Palace the exhibition or the Amusement Trades Exhibition went to Earls Court and to Olympia and has since developed to be ICE or the International Casino Exhibition now that the Amusement Machine industry in the UK is a dim shadow of its former self. However around 1982 I believe, the organisers decided it would be a good idea to move the venue to the centre of the country and away from the admittedly archaic building which I guess looking back was not suitable at all because of the fire, and so it moved to the NEC in Birmingham. Unfortunately the organisers overlooked one of the main reasons why so many overseas visitors came to the exhibition and that was simply because it was in London. Fuelled with expenses, they could get from the exhibition hall in minutes, back to their hotel rooms and on the piss within the hour, if indeed they had not cleared out the mini bar before hand. The one thing about the exhibition and the trip from Wales was that we were all housed in the same hotel. Nothing had changed in the basic philosophy of the company and there was still very little us and them, that was to come but not from the original directors. I have to explain. Despite using one of the nicest hotel in London at that time, we were all housed there, the directors the managers the lorry drivers and the production workers that came up to assist with the moving of machine etc, everyone! The NEC was another thing altogether and Birmingham in those days was not the International Metropolis that it is (?) these days and it didn’t fit the industry and so it was that the exhibition was held there just the once. Again we were all in the one hotel, the whole team! Unfortunately and just some time before this historic move to the Midlands and this stage of the companies history, the original directors were trying to put “Names” in managerial positions. I believe this was to ensure that managers in top positions were seen to have pedigree and to prepare for the impending sell off which eventually happened although many years later and to Whitbread. And so along came four guys that we were introduced to over a short period, and who were taking or creating positions that had not really been recognised before and in some cases over individuals that had been with us a long while and that should have had the job. I will not name them here although their names still make me think of bull shit! The guys were all without question, from different ‘Blue chip’ companies and were all time wasting, egotistical toss pots. They were professional, disciplined, experienced ass licker's dropped into a highly flexible yet hugely successful company and they were actually like fish out of water, and their response was? Try and drown everyone else with their ill fitting methodology. I won’t go into the arguments, the show downs and the crap we had to go through or the number of stupid Memos that we started to sink under (no emails yet). I remember getting one that was on pretty, pre printed, letter headed paper and came from “The Desk of Toss Pot #1” (That’s my substitution to maintain anonymity by the way!) Suffice to say that on the morning of this particular exhibition, thanks to their cumulative cock ups and as the ‘Stand Manager’ of the exhibition set up I faced the following scenario. The first lorry arrived and having prepared our stand and that of our distributors I had all my guys bright eyed and bushy tailed ready and waiting as they started trucking in the machines on a procession of sack trucks. A long faced member of the production staff trucked in the first one and I glared at the sheet of A4 paper stuck to the front which went something like:- “The Print supplier had a problem - no reel bands - to follow” “Oh well put it in place we can deal with that later” or words to that affect I guess I must have said as the second machine came towards me again bearing another A4 sheet of bad news. “No Eproms - Programme to follow” Um…. Third one came in “No power supply - to follow” And so it went on. By the time we had unloaded the lorries and taken the machines and furniture etc to our own and the various distributors stands we had 46 machines that had parts missing from the 95 machines we were exhibiting. Just under 50% and the worst of it was that we couldn’t even begin to test some of them. I made it to a phone (no mobiles) and of course being Saturday it was difficult to raise anyone, however I did manage to get hold of Toss Pot#2 and gave him a discrete but fair assessment of the situation and politely requested, with due reverence that he please put every effort into assisting me! Did I buggery; I called him all the snivelling little s**t bags under the sun and told him to get his sorry arse on a train and get up to Birmingham with the missing bits for the poxy machines and as fast as his fat f*c**in legs would carry him. But of course, there was no way he could. The parts that had been delivered, in some cases incorrectly designed, had to be re-made which meant that suppliers would be working the weekend and the parts would be up Monday morning, just before the start of the exhibition and, this was a big AND, hopefully functional. There was nothing for it but to try and swap parts around from machine to machine and by mixing and matching, robbing our own machines for parts and making sure that all the distributors stands were as complete as they could be, we stabilised the situation by isolating and concentrating the problems as far as was possible, rightly or wrongly, to our own stand. Finishing at around 10:00 pm on Sunday night we tried to get a beer but there was not a lot around so we got back to the hotel all ordered room service and robbed the room bars We had already arranged to get back on the stand by 08:00 the next morning as we still had a of of work to do and just over 3 hours before the exhibition started. To say I was stressed is a slight understatement. When Toss Pots numbers #1 #2 #3 turned up they walked in and were all smiles as they felt their job was done. They were obviously happy in the knowledge that they had the answers to the current problems, accompanied as they were with all the parts necessary. They further made their accomplishments known, with knowing smiles and winks to the directors who had also turned up early having gained wind of the problems, from me. Eventually after brown nosing everyone of importance they came over to me and in suitably loud and condescending voices, and looking to the directors, said! “Right Frank, now what can we do to help you and your team put YOUR problems right” like it was my teams fault! MY PROBLEMS! WTF! Without a moments hesitation and I suppose quite improperly in front of all my staff, my colleagues, the directors, staff on other stands and whoever was passing, I practically touched noses with Toss Pot #1, lets not forget, ex of a large Blue Chip Company and shouted in to his ugly podgy face. “F**K OFF - Get off my stand and leave me the f**k alone” Numbers #2 and #3 turned to Ernie Beaver, Sales Director, who simply said… “I really think you should do what he says.” With that I emptied the boxes of parts on to the carpet tiles and issued instructions quickly to my team who took those new parts and fitted and fully tested each machine before moving on to another one. With only a few minutes to spare Adrian and I pushed the one machine that we just could not persuade to work into the back room. As we shut the door the speakers announced ‘the show is open’ and crowds started to pour in. I left for the Cafe after quite loudly giving my notice to Ernie and Jack and, I am ashamed to admit, broke down in tears. Sitting, shaking and weeping over a Coffee is not a good place to be at the start of an exhibition but I had honestly reached the end of my tether. I couldn't continue to fight against these odds, don’t forget this wasn’t the first altercation where they just would not listen to common sense. Whatever happened I could not work under that sort of pressure especially as it was brought about by such a bunch of w**k*rs and that is exactly how I put it to Jack, Alan and Ernie when they eventually came to find me. They pleaded with me to forget what I had just said as they had apparently already done so. They suggested that I should go back to my hotel room and chill reassuring me that things would change and soon. I finished my coffee, went for a walk, had a Marlboro or two and then went back to do my job, running the stand, meeting customers, answering their questions and leading my team. A week or maybe two later, many people went including Toss pots #1, 2#,#3, and #4. As an addendum to this tail. Toss pot#1 had once taken me aside after I had confronted him in an emergency meeting called as it was about product safety which needed immediate answers. I had both questioned, and then proved his judgement to be wrong, in this meeting that was with many of the senior managers and directors. He had said to me, while looking over his shoulder to make sure he was not overheard, that I was a nothing. The words he used were ‘nothing but a jumped up untrained nobody who was actually very clever at twisting the truth’. He told me over his pointed podgy finger and in no uncertain terms that he would see me out of the company if it was the last thing he did. Most mornings thereafter, as I lowered my arse into his comfortable leather and teak chair, possibly the most expensive chair in the building, I couldn't help feeling just a little sorry for him. No honestly. No seriously! 😉

More..... As an aside to the product per se we had couple of issues to deal with that were not down to the design of the products themselves but were down to the industry we were in and products appeal to those less scrupulous characters One such issue that JPM experienced was the new products susceptibility to Static electricity and the result of that ‘attack’. We found quite early that the machine could give unexpected results to static but this was not just the gas lighter piezo cell that was being used by the public to upset the controller. Even walking across a carpet could cause an issue and this was being exacerbated by two fairly new concepts that just happened to occur at more or less the same time. With the advent of ‘banked wins’, punters ( I always hated that term) were allowed or encouraged to bank their wins. As a manufacturer JPM realised that this was a good thing as the resulting payout always seemed significant rather than the staccato clank of smaller wins, believe me a lot of people were persuaded to play when they heard that advert! Anyway, JPM had a major issue with static and it got to a head and was proving to be so troublesome that I was bundled off to an establishment called ERA Technology where we subjected the machine to a series of tests in an anechoic chamber. I don’t think the sound quality or lack of it in the room was anything to do with the tests it’s just that was the only room available at the time. It was a very strange environment in which to hear a machine payout! So we sat there for hours hitting the machine with static but nothing seemed to be getting past the earth bonds and when they did the level 3 interrupt(?) circuit performed as it was supposed to. Then suddenly the machine went haywire, pulsed out a coin and the test equipment registered a huge spike - from out of the blue. Scratching our heads we continued to play and then it happened again, but this time just as the machine was paying out, one clunk and reset and the test equipment showed a spike. As we discussed the subject of static over a coffee, as you do, the engineer from the establishment explained a little about static and how simply raising a coin from your pocket to the machine could induce static but not enough to cause any issues and in any case the new Mars mech was plastic and so it could not dissipate the charge. The answer struck me like a streak of ………. The coins were entering the coin guides and coin tube, unearthed, and then standing there like a great big capacitor ready to jump that gap between the payout slide and the casting of the payout mech when the charge was sufficient and believe me it was huge!. We tried earthing the tube with an insert and overcame the problem but then any of you that have had site experience will know that anything in the path of a coin WILL cause a coin jam, no matter how careful you are. So I took out the payout slide, inserted a rivet through the slide and filed it down, again after refitting and testing it sorted the issue, however this was not an answer. I contacted Coin Controls in Oldham and persuaded them to add a measure of graphite ( I think it was graphite ) to the plastic material before injection moulding, this gave it the conductivity of a peace of wood. After explaining what the problem was and negotiating for JPM to take the first consignment, we agreed to uniquely test it for three months before releasing it to the industry. That’s how we overcame that particular static problem first.

Once everything is apart you should have the unit looking like this in small and lager version shown. NOTE.... An important point to remember is the main timer control cam shaft with it's red and grey cams are all set in degrees of operation which is crucial to the running of the machine. you must ensure that none of them are altered or moved in any direction or the result will be cam switches being operated in the wrong order or not at all. normally these cams are tight fitted and do need some force to move them but still treat with caution. The red and grey cams are set together in degrees around the shaft to make dwells in the cam of which the roller of the cam switch will run in and back out only one time, in turn this will activate the cam switch. A single red cam does exactly the same but usually to operate a switch more than once during the game cycle.

Disconnect the motor from the gearbox by removing the spring clip across the back of the motor. the gearbox is held to the timer side plate by two small screws either side of gearbox but leave for now as it's still connected to the main timer cam shaft. Remove the far end plate away from motor by the three securing nuts on the rod clamps.pic 2 You can now remove the main cam shaft by releasing the hex nut securing it to the gearbox shaft.pic 3 disconnect the motor end plate via three locking nuts and disconnect the gearbox from the side plate by removing the two small screws. the grey cam switch holders can now be slid along and off the three securing rods.

Next, look at the underside of the timer and you will see the clamps that hold the cam switches in position. held by a screw, when the clamp is released the cam switch still wired can be removed from the holder. pic 1. Once all switches are removed there will only be the motor wiring holding the unit to the main loom. As it only has two wires and connectors abut 4 inches along it too can be disconnected from the loom but check wiring match and should look similar to pic 2. As all the switch wiring is in order in the loom it will also keep the switches in order so they can't get mixed up.