Nickel thief IGT RW&B

[erbarr1]

Hello all and this seems like a great site.  I got my first slot machine, a 94 Red White and Blue nickel the other day.  Everything work pretty good, bill validator kinda picky with old $1 bills but beside that..its ok.  The crazy problem I have which I have not seen in this forum makes me wonder if I'm the only one with the problem.  I have a coin thief!!, out of 20 nickels I put in it will take 4-6 coins but not give me the credit.  The gentleman I purchased it from said it needed a new Coin Compatitor, because the light would not turn on and the coins would go straight into the coin tray.  I bought three used ones from Craigslist and two would accept the coins to the coin hopper but would steal every now and then.  I adjusted and cleaned the compatitor as well as I could but I'm still getting robbed.  After a few beers I figured the compatitor is doing its job getting the coins into the hopper it's just not registering that a coin had gone through.  So I figure maybe the 'optics' under the compartitor are dirty so I cleaned it but its the same.  The Craigslist guy also gave me the optics along with the compartitors I bought....thinking about swapping out the optics but before I tear into it I would like some advise from the experts here.  Any advise will be greatly welcomed.....thx!!!

[jay]

The light on a comparator doesn't come on with the door open. So you were fed some mis information.
There was/is likely nothing wrong with any of the comparators

First off I would suggest that the diverter is not working properly. A rejected coin should go to the coin tray and not into the hopper.
Only when the coin is accepted does the diverter solenoid kick in and allow the coin to go to the hopper.
So if the coin is not registering a credit - it should be rejected.
Theoretically you could still have flakey ABC optics or a bad comparator that doesn't register the coin - but if that is the case then it still gets rejected.

Try dropping a dime into the machine. If it lands in the hopper - the diverter solenoid is likely dead and possibly the previous owner wire tied the spring loaded diverter out of the way.

Since you have gone through 3 coin comparators - I agree with your doubt that the problem lies with the comparator.
The first thing I would do would be to change the sample coin to a different nickel. Over time sample coins can become slightly magnetized and they don't behave properly.

After the Comparator your coin falls through ABC optics. They are named as such because there are 3 optics on a tiny board and they need to be triggered in order and at a consistent speed for a coin to register. In the early days there was just a single optic but one of the cheats was to blind the optic with a bright light down the coin chute or other tricks like tying a string to the coin so it could be pulled back and replayed over and over again.

It is possible that over the service life of the slot that one of the optics is grungy due to dirty coins. Casinos used to give out free wet naps to slot players as the coins left black marks on players hands. You can take the optics apart and clean with a damp qtip. I would use water and not alcohol, windex or other chemicals.

Secondly nickles are a pain because they are thicker than other coins. The optics have had spacers added to them to allow the coin to pass through. It is possible that they used something other than the official spacer. It is also possible that they did not change the coin entry from quarter to nickel so the nickel doesn't fall straight down the chute. The minor rattling around may change the speed of the coin and subsequently be mis-read. Once again the coin should be rejected if this is happening.




 

[knagl]

I'm guessing that there's a $0.25 encoder inside the optics, which is the plastic spacer that Jay was talking about.  If you have a $0.25 encoder in place but you're using nickels, some of the accepted coins will not pass through the coin-in optics properly, resulting in accepted coins that don't give you credit.

See the "Coin In optics spacers" on this page:

http://www.spininc.com/s-plus-upright?pagenumber=2

It's a plastic insert that goes inside the optics assembly, which is located directly below the coin comparator.  If you have too large of an encoder in there (like a $0.25 one), the coins aren't getting aligned properly as they fall through and may not trip all three optics to give credit.

I'd start by removing the optics assembly in your machine and inspecting the encoder (spacer) you have in there now.  If a quarter can pass through it, you have the wrong one for your $0.05 machine.

[jay]

Kevin,

If it doesn't give credit should the coin not be rejected ?

[Ken]

The comparitor accepted the coin. The coin just isn't being seen by all three optics.

[erbarr1]

You guys are awesome, good info!!  All of it makes sense, the coin entry is larger and I seem to get better results when I drop the nickel from the center of the hole.  The spacer I had in it was for a larger coin, I did switch it to another one before asking this forum, I need to make sure its the right one.  One of the optic bulbs seemed dull compared the other two, even after cleaning it.  Well I got some trouble shooting to do, many,many thx for the info!!!!

[erbarr1]

I fixed it!!!  The spacer was for 5cent so I went ahead and swapped out the optics.  Working like a champ now.  Thank you guys so much...I was just about at the end of the rope and figured I might as well take it to a shop.
THANKS!!

Eddie

[knagl]

Kevin,

If it doesn't give credit should the coin not be rejected ?

Not necessarily. The coin-in optics which tell the machine to give credit are below the coin comparator.  The comparator is what makes the accept/reject decision. If the comparator accepts the coin, it's going to the hopper (or the base if the hopper is full) no matter what, even if the optics don't register it for whatever reason.

[rokgpsman]

Kevin,

If it doesn't give credit should the coin not be rejected ?

Not necessarily. The coin-in optics which tell the machine to give credit are below the coin comparator.  The comparator is what makes the accept/reject decision. If the comparator accepts the coin, it's going to the hopper (or the base if the hopper is full) no matter what, even if the optics don't register it for whatever reason.

That makes me wonder why they even designed the machines to have the optics boards. The coin comparitor could have been made so it would send an "coin accepted" signal to the mpu so the credit would get added for play. It already generates that signal when it decides to move the coin reject rake or not. Maybe the optic boards are just another security measure to ensure a coin actually made it to the hopper?

[knagl]

The optics can also detect stringing/reverse coins (attaching a thread to the coin to insert it and pull it back out repeatedly to get credit).  Not sure if the comparator can do that or not.