Leaderboard

I have been a long time lurker over many years, spent a long time fixing personal home machines. I have been working with a guy to bring reproduction boards to revive damaged (usually battery corroded) back to life. So basically, two guys creating reproduction fruit machine mainboards and game cards. Now obviously, these are blank boards and require a donor board, time and effort to build. Most of these boards have easy to solder through hole components which minimal skill level is required. Obviously some have SMD parts such as EPOCH, Astra IO3 CPU Card where more skill will be required. ------------------ Most boards range from £15 to £25, and some discounts can be made for larger amounts. I'm based in the UK but can pretty much ship anywhere but at buyers cost. Feel Free to drop a Comment or DM for any questions ------------------ When a new board is released for sale, BOM documents and Notes will be uploaded here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zteijgZ6kcggR_ZUyvWFackC2KUOpF-0 I do have a Facebook group (same as this thread title) where you can reach out to me to purchase. Tested & Verified Designs: Maygay - EPOCH Maygay - M1B Bell-Fruit - Scorpion 2 Barcrest - MPU4 Ace Coin - SP.ACE In Progress Testing: Bell-Fruit - Scorpion 1 JPM - System 80 CPU (2708 Version) Coming Soonish: Maygay - M2 CPU Card Bell-Fruit - System 85 Maygay - MMM Electrocoin - Universal 8205 Astra - I/O CPU Card Planned: Project Coin - PC92 Project Coin - Procon JPM - System 5 Global - Stealth In other news, we are now able to offer "REEL MCU" IC replacements for ACE Coin - SP.ACE Boards.

Here's the first one up and running for a few days. Ive still got to test it with the extra 2 Eproms and driving an LCD meter. Im sure my routing is all perfect though. As soon as the reels first twitched I was like thats all the processing and serial link sorted... then the memory alarm went off which validated all the audio (which theres alot of!). I was like wahoo! Nailed this one first time also. R.e.l.i.e.f 20260718_162233.mp4

I selected all new components and prototyped them all running on original Card. Zn404 is engineered out in 3 components. All the replacement transistors selections are modern. There...is...alot of planning and datasheet work not shown in this picture!

these have the same motors and are cheaper https://www.corgi-direct.com/corgi-synchron-motor-new-metal-18027-3422985?utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=GB&utm_campaign=GoogleBase

Unlike most electro mechanical machines that run on 50volts ac, The machine I have here operates all it's hardware on 240v mains and has 9 timers with the same motor. Most of them are showing corrosion with a couple in bad condition with at least one sticking or jamming completely refusing to run free. Thank you for the replies, I have found what could be the correct replacement on the RS site.

I hope you enjoy the machine Chris :))) you twisted my hand not to covert it back into exchanges

Hi Brian, The first job is to cut that battery off, then I would take the card out and check the pins for any green acid, also the chip on the game card remove it carefully and check the socket and pins, If you have IPA clean any green stuff with IPA and a toothbrush, others will do it differently and use diluted vinegar but then you need to wash the vinegar off Cheers Ronnie

I have to say Matty, this is all very impressive 👌

The first test board is built and up and running- im testing it out with existing pre-tested IC's. I'm Pleased to report im 24hrs in and its running sweet... nailed it first time... 20260709_213132.mp4

I built a schematic for the board first then laid it all out (more on this on the following board). With a 4 layer board i could have made it very compact or laid it out orientated totally differently but didnt think it would 'look' right. I decided on keeping it looking roughly the same with the same dimensions. I also wanted it to look as cool as possible. Here's a 3d render of the finished design-note the JPM rosette in place of the Varta mofo battery!

In the words of Gordon Brittas, "Excellent " 👍

the absolute BEST leaded solder is to J-STD-006A standard. difficult to buy at consumer level, and it is expensive stuff!! but I can tell you it is really good solder and is what is used to repair boeing and airbus electronics so has to be good!

Hi All Just realised how late i am in getting back into the fruit machines of my youth........... Basically born and raised by the seaside. By the time i was 15 (1992) i was hanging out in mablethorpe arcades (Bingoland, funland, spot, fancy that and of course Jacksons) and played all the 90s classics (While scouting for female holidaymakers lol). I stopped hanging in the acrcades around 1999 and didnt really play fruit machines again (Apart from the odd pub machine) until i started online in 2011. Fast forward to a few months ago, and as the last vestige of my youth that i havent collected/talked about/researched etc (Skateboarding, and hip hop/punk vinyl, mostly. I am a record dealer now, have been for 23 years) I decided to look around to see if any of the old machines are in any of the arcades on our stretch of the east coast. I was a bit dissapointed.... There is 1 arcade between mablethorpe and skegness that has any old machines in and that is Smiths in Winthorpe, just after Butlins and before Skeg. A LOT of bulbs out in that place and the maintenance is a bit sub par. HOWEVER They do have an Andy Capp, Viva Las Vegas 6 and a Hyper Viper. ALL Of which were on my favourites list back in the day. They also have an original 1994 simpsons (That has never once been on in the last 2 months i have been going) An Andy Capp great escape which likewise hasnt been on. And an Eastenders Queen Vic which was just at the end of my days but think i just remember it...........has been on once and the speaker sound like ****. BUT i do get to play some of my old favs. I have also bought a modern (Well 2017 Reflex £100 jackpot) machine for home so i can learn a little bit more about how they work and just be able to learn some general maintenance. With the hope of getting an old favourite one of these days and rebuild it to get it immaculate and 100% working. I think my top machines i would like to have a go at getting are Super hyper viper, Classic adders and ladders, andy capp, viva las vegas 6, grand national or labyrinth. I have a list of about 35 i remember playing, in reality any one would do, depends what i can get my hands on, what state of repair its in and how much its gonna cost me. Again i am SO LATE to the pass on this, i had no idea there was such a community around vintage slots and there were actual retro arcades specialising in 80s/90s machines .I wish i would of got into this years ago. I feel i have missed the boat a bit and finding machines now will be a lot harder to do. There are also 2 machines which i can't find any pictures or mention of and would LOVE to just see a picture if anyone has them (I doubt i would be able to find one to buy but if there is and you have it, message me!). One is called 'High Spirits' and no, NOT the one based around drinking. This was ghouls and ghosts based, was 2p a play and i am pretty sure jackpot was £2.40. Was playing this in Jacksons in 1993 i am pretty sure, could even be a late 80s machine. Cant remember if it had a board or not but there was a pick feature from what was on the visible reels, and you could slow it down with cancel, pick the red 7 and then maybe had to line up the other reels again with a cancel to slow it down. Cant 100% remember.... The other was called 'Sure thing' this was more of a cloud 9, 777 heaven type machine probably 5p a play at the time maybe £4.80 jackpot but you could get extremely good routes on it and it would just give win spin after win spin. If i saw that getting hit hard by holiday makers i would always have a punt afterwards to see if it would route, and a lot of the time it would! lol! Last thing i wanna share (If you havent see it already) Is a vid on youtube someone took of Jacksons arcade in 1994............. If only we could go back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvkpFJ3_D7k It isn't my video but i was probably in bingoland at the exact time it was being filmed. Hope to get to know some of you over the coming months. If you have any memories of arcading in 1990s mablethorpe, (Or know of those 2 machines i mentioned) leave a reply. Would love to hear from you. Cheers

Hi Patrick. Yes I invested all my time on building the schematics. I understand schematics but its painful to start off learning to use the software and drafting it out- I worked from a stripped down board and the datasheets for all the pin information. Cross checking it as I went... thats why there wasn't any mistakes on them. The impact board layout is totally redesigned. I dont trust AI for design as it gets the pinouts wrong all the time. You can ask it pinouts for eg a 6809 and it will get it wrong everytime. I also tried to use AI it to create a pcb footprint for the obsolete audio processor package on the Epoch aswell but that was no good aswell so I created my own for that. Its not quite there for stuff like that yet unfortunately. I did use an AI image program to rework an image several times to get the silkscreen cabinet picture... it took ages but that worked in the end. Funnily enough the original image I used was from was a JPM Maverick machine but it kept changing it to 'adders and ladders' so i had to manually get rid of that myself.

amazing work Matty. so you did start creatign the schematics and then redesign the board? where you able to use AI in the proces??

Hey. Q1 BC846B Q3 BC846B DP1 BAV70

Hi everyone, I’ve always had an interest in classic fruit machines and many years ago I owned a Barcrest Old Timer. While sorting through some old electronics recently, I found two original service EPROMs that I received directly from an authorised Norwegian service company when my Old Timer was stuck in an error state. They were labelled “CLEAR PROM 1” and “CLEAR PROM 2”, and they brought the machine back to life after temporarily installing them. I’m currently preserving the contents by reading the EPROMs, and I’m looking forward to learning more about them and contributing anything that might be useful to the community. Looking forward to being part of the forum!

Brian the fact you have lit led's on the board would indicate you have 5 volts, you could check with your meter on volts a 74 series chip for 5 volts on ground pin and vcc, the notch on the chip at the top

Yep it supplies the 14v (ish) to the reg. So if there's only 1.2v getting to the reg the resistor would be dissipating a lot of power and very hot if not burnt out! It should be 2.7 Ohms 3 watt I think?

Cheers Ronnie funnily enough I just watched that vid when I was searching what to do 😂

Amazing work Matty!

Brian watch this or you could put probes on pins 2 and 3 should read 5 volts when powered up

Don’t think they would stop the board doing something , how was the game card pins and the Rom chip and socket? The game card looks a bit crusty!

Occasionally when I can be arsed I might sell the odd board left over but sometimes I have to do alot of aftercare help people for a few weeks to diagnose existing problems in their machines... what id sort out in no time at all is very difficult to get people to check and fix in proxy. Even simple meter checks are to much. To help with this ive built and additional fault detect circuit into these boards which drives some indicator LEDs where the old RJ11 programming connector used to be, basically to help me pin down a fault which helps me to narrow down whats wrong in their machine.

Also if you have a test meter to read voltages worth checking you have 5 volts at that regulator on the heatsink beside the battery but I guess you might be ok as the led's are lit

Hi all stay in Scotland been into classic fruit machines for years and anything arcade,was a bit of an addict bitd but wouldn't change it for the world, I've owned a few machines through the years but space is always the issue can't keep them all. Got a non working machine at the moment so hopefully I get some help here in getting it back up and running. Cheers Brian

I don't think we have any rom variants, as i could only find v2.0 and v2.1 the rom can be altered to make it £3 jackpot, but sadly i can't get the jackpot tune to work after i have altered it. don't know if this is of any use? if so i will alter it later when i get home tonight . cheers

i have v2.0 and 2.1 versions of NIFTY FIFTY. does anyone have the dx so i can run it in the emulator please? also does anyone have any other rom variants. this machine was originally a 3 pound jp called SUPER SILVER but at the last minute they changed oit to 4 pound nifty fifty 1: the dx layout 2: any other versions or SUPER SILVER BARCREST 1986 would be great thanks james

Is this worth a punt? Unusual colour? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/206391030578?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=hcrexci8tek&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=5IhBUTCuTOG&stype=1&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=MORE

WOW! Topped out at £655 SNG is on my hotlist, but not at that price!

+1 yes, impressive. well done

Thanks fellas. Fingers crossed on getting something better soon. Ha a clever one i am not Bob, your fault finding and scope work are miles better than what I can do. I think anyone who understands schematics can easily build boards with no worries. Its just going through the pain barrier of learning how to build a schematic and learning to use the all the design software. Once you do that it all transfers over to the board layout-so you cant connect anything up incorrectly theres error check tools to stop you missing anything too. Im more of a moth hitting a light bulb until I crack it 😆

Lovely work matt, and I wont pretend to understand it all but I know how much work goes into these projects .👏

Hats off to you Matty, I've never sent a gerber to a PCB house as I'm always worried I've missed something so I leave it to the cleverer guys. To nail that one first time is a real achievement, well done.

Here here, very impressive. Being able to showcase your considerable skills in this way Matty should indeed help your CV and help at interviews. You can't keep a good man down, so you're bound to find a good position.

I got 5 manufactured in China... the manufacturing tabs down the sides of the board are for the component placing machine and snap off. Rather than ground traces ive made large ground planes to help reduce noise and reduced the length og power traces and kept them isolated on the back of the board. The Decoupling caps are now pretty much right on the +vcc pins. I will be keeping one unpopulated like this to show in interviews...

i have the emulator just found it so the various rom sets if any would be great

You can tap out the inside of the psu case with a hammer slightly, if thats to much work you can knock in a wooden wedge prop between the psu and cabinet-work above to take away the vibration. Or failing that just a heavy but small weight like a piece of mild steel on top (not covering the the thermal exhaust slots on the case).

BFM - Shogun Tech - Scorpion 1 Here we have a fantastic Japanese themed layout in form of Shogun, complete with Bell Fruit's BARCODE features. Get the bars in the correct sequence (3,2,1 BFM bars) and use the hold buttons to choose a feature game, or try the 1,2,3 holds and STOP button to try you skill at the centre feature STOP A WIN. Enjoy the fantastic game sounds with the original Shogun sound rom (Thanks to Amot for dumping the roms.) Keyboard shortcuts within the notes. With thanks to: Wizard (RIP) for MFME Amot for dumping the roms. Shogun.zip Shanghai Font.zip

Nice Layout, but the Shanghai font is not included. Can you please add it ? regards, Reggert48

They love to vibrate for fun, just like epoch ones. you’ll likely find holding it or pressing it a certain way will dull the vibrating (if it’s a vibrating noise you’re hearing)

you could check all screws nuts bolts etc on the psu are tight and it is fixed to the cabinet well. The harmonics / 50hz hum can cause them to vibrate etc, could be in need of a capacitor change also.

I'd spotted that. I can't remember what colour glass we used to fit when converting them to £2 jackpot in 1980/81. It was about the same time we were scrapping a lot of electros, so probably not too many got converted. The seller recently sold a Fruit Drop, also. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/206234881347

Right a little update i have moved the wire as you all said and now in test mode the payouts work like you said they should , just waiting for my coin mech to come back now in a few days and i will try in out so looks like it will work , thank you for helping me !

i assume Yellow is the common as it appears on both solenoids (linked from one to the other). So you want the other ones, Brown and Grey, so as above but if the brown wire reaches take it off the token and stick it with the grey on the 20p else both solenoids will fire. While you are there wedge the token tube level sensors so it thinks the tube is full.

You can just run a single wire from the token + and join it into the 20p + if you swap them round like you suggested any 20p wins would fire token tube

Some pictures of the machine completed

Then the frames were painted in a matched ral colour