Author Topic: New BB project owner seeking info and assistance (Read 4955 times)

Paladin · « **on:** November 08, 2018, 04:30:43 pm »

Just picked up a Crystal Forest project but 99% of my slot repair experience is with IGT S-Plus games. Ive been reading this forum today for tips but haven't seen a general BB faq.
Symptoms are no video, no video when an external LCD is connected, PC connected to game LCD does not get recognized by PC. Game LCD fuse tests good. The monitor adjustment board has an LED on it that flashes green, then red, repeatedly.

All voltage lights are green on the upper and lower game boards (CPU and ?MPU?). OS and game flash cards are fully seated.
After validator cycles, I get what could be described as a continual 'ticking' from the speakers. The validator seems to go through its cycle every minute or so, all 3 lights on it are on - red, yellow and green.

The florescent bulb was out, so I put a new one in and it blinks rapidly. I'd think that would be the electronic ballast but I guess it could also be a power issue as I'm not familiar with electronic ballasts.
I included a picture of the bottom of the game, showing a parallel cable that I'm guessing was for connecting to casino hardware. There is also a small metal box with a toggle switch that is zip tied in one position. A molex connector is on the left side that doesn't connect to anything. There are two wire hrnesses that have quick connectors shorted together, I'm guessing interlock bypasses.
Any help identifying what I should check for problems, or identification of the mystery items would be greatly appreciated!

Paladin · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2018, 05:21:16 pm »

Found a manual, good stuff in there although I'm still not sure what to check next.
Looks like the switch that has a zip tie on it is the CPU door switch. I don't have a CPU door, so I guess that explains that piece. The parallel connector looks like it isn't needed, as it connects to one of the com ports. I like to remove unnecessary wiring if I can, just to clean things up and lessen the mess of wires.

rickhunter · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2018, 09:22:21 pm »

Well for one thing you need to see if your mpu even works. Plug a vga monitor to the vga port on the mpu box and see if you get any sort of an image on your monitor when powered up. If nothing shows up and you all all green lights on the backplane and inside the mpu, then you probably have a bad mpu.

Paladin · « **Reply #3 on:** November 09, 2018, 12:00:24 am »

I didn't get any video when I hooked up an external LCD, so I think you might be right. Tomorrow I'll remove the MPU, reseat the CPU with new thermal compound and put it back together with fingers crossed.

Paladin · « **Reply #4 on:** November 09, 2018, 12:33:13 pm »

I removed the MPU box, removed and reinserted the RAM and removed, cleaned and added new thermal paste to the CPU cooler. Placed the MPU box back, making sure it seated well and had no change.
Still not sure about the monitor. It's labeled as Smart Modular Technologies model SV3190WG. I haven't seen mention of that model in the forum. i couldnt find a manual for it either. It has a Williams tag on it, for what it's worth.

The adjustment board has an LED on it that flashes from green to red and back. I'm wondering if green means it's got power but the red means no signal. My laptop results were inconclusive in that the display menu seemed to see another monitor but wouldn't let me select it. I'll try again with another older laptop to see if I can get it to work.
Hopefully it doesn't need a replacement monitor and MPU.

Paladin · « **Reply #5 on:** November 09, 2018, 01:23:34 pm »

Possible progress on the monitor. I noticed the LED seemed to turn red when the game activates the validator every few seconds when the game is powered on in the non booting state. I unplugged the validator (mei cashflow) and then plugged the monitor into my older laptop. The LED continues to flash green/red, however.

The good news is that the PC did find the monitor, although still no picture on it. I then held onto the power/touchscreen harness connector and wiggled it. As I did, I saw brief flashes of video! My current guess is that the connection between the monitor and wire harness is intermittent.

I don't have any deoxit on hand but I do have some contact cleaner. I've removed the small metal box from the monitor that contains the harness connector and sprayed it with the contact cleaner. I also sprayed some into the game wiring harness connector, and used the brush on the contact cleaner to try and clean the pins as best I could.

Normally I'd repin the connector if this were to happen on an arcade game but I don't have any of the pins of the type used in this game. The pins didn't look like they were dirty enough or stretched enough to cause such a bad connection, so I'm still a little unsure it's the cause. Wiggling that connector could also have wiggled the small board that the wires terminate at. It has one of those thin plastic type ribbon cables coming out of it. Hopefully that's not damaged.

I'm letting the cleaner evaporate before trying again.

Update: cleaning the pins didn't seem to make a difference. Next up I watched the screen and without touching anything, the monitor would flash a picture from the laptop every few seconds. I pulled the power/touchscreen connector and put a meter on the 12v and ground pins. I saw the voltage is not steady, it's rising and dropping from around 10.7 to 11. It's a 12v monitor, hmm.

I couldn't position everything to see if the brief flashes of video would correspond to the brief appearances of 11v. I think I'll try unplugging the game harness and apply 12v from a separate power supply I have. It may be that the power supply to the monitor is just a bit too low to get it to fire up except for the brief spike up to 11v.

rickhunter · « **Reply #6 on:** November 09, 2018, 03:26:45 pm »

Uusally if you have all green leds the power is typically good, but stranger things have happened. BB1 power supplies are cheap enough to try a swap. If you have a power issue it would explain the mpu not coming up as well.

Paladin · « **Reply #7 on:** November 09, 2018, 04:05:30 pm »

Hooked up an arcade power supply (PC type with 5v adjustment pot but no 12v adjustment) to the monitor with the laptop video. It was working but cut out after a minute or so and would come back if I power cycled the power supply. I was still messing with getting the laptop to display properly on two screens, and when I finally got it so the PC was primary and the touchscreen was secondary and the correct resolutions, it appeared stable for the few minutes I left it on.

I noticed the power supply I was using was putting out a stable 11.56v with no load other than my meter, and it was around 10.5v when the monitor was plugged in.

Seems like the games power supply might be failing in a way that's making the voltage bounce around enough to make the game think it's OK when it's really not. I think the 12v comes from the PC style power supply in the lower right. I need to look into whether I can simply modify a standard PC supply to replace it with.
Update: The BB1 power supply uses +15v for the audio amp and has a different pinout from ATX. I probably could adapt one but I just ordered one instead. My fingers are crossed that it will fix the monitor and MPU as it means I'm now going down the road of buying parts.

Whoops, sorry Rick, didn't see you sneak that post in before I posted!

Paladin · « **Reply #8 on:** November 10, 2018, 10:17:46 pm »

While waiting for the new power supply to arrive, I took a look at the top florescent ballast. I got the game with a dead bulb and the replacement I installed just flickered like crazy. When I ordered the replacement power supply I also added a ballast.

Being impatient, I took apart the ballast that was in the game to see how it was constructed and if anything looked out of place. Sure enough, there was a capacitor that had a bulging top. There are two 22uf 200v caps right next to each other, one was bulging and the other looked OK.

I decided to drive down to Fry's and get a couple 22uf 250v caps. To my delight, after replacing both caps the top light no longer flickers.

I also took the deck off and took all the buttons apart to clean them in soapy water. I used a little Novus plastic polish on the clear buton tops. I cleaned up all the gunk on the deck metal with some chrome polish. I removed the upper right cabinet fan and cleaned it, along with the vent area. I then noticed a ton of dust in the lower left vent which I vacuumed out.

There's not much more I can do until the power supply arrives. I've been cleaning the rest of the cabinet as I troubleshoot. There's some nicotine discoloration on the screen but I'm not going to mess with that until I've installed the power supply to see where I am at that point. The few posts about separating the touchscreen from the LCD have me a little nervous.

Paladin · « **Reply #9 on:** November 17, 2018, 06:09:01 pm »

The replacement used power supply arrived today. After installing it I was happy to see the monitor displaying the 'No Signal' screen. This verifies that the other power supply was bad, as I couldnt get even that much. The validator cycled once then stopped, the old power supply had it cycling over and over as long as I had the power switch turned on.

Unfortunately, I don't get anything else on the screen. It appears as though the MPU is not booting or not outputting video.

When turned on, the printer and validator cycle, with the Mei validator ending up with the yellow led lit. I get the no signal graphic on the monitor, then nothing happens. I let it sit for about 5 minutes but nothing ever showed up on the monitor, and I never heard anything from the speakers.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. At this point, I'm assuming the MPU is bad. I'm not familiar with the boot sequence, so I don't know if I should hear any audio if I were to let it continue to sit powered on if the MPU is actually running but not outputting video.

I'm not sure what to try next, aside from buying a replacement MPU. I did reseat the MPU with no change. The cheap project game is becoming not so cheap as I had hoped for.

UPDATE: I attached a different monitor to the game and still no signal. I removed the MPU and took off the small board that houses the CPU and Video. I didn't see anything visually out of place so I put the board back on, making sure it was firmly attached to the MPU. I once again cleaned the old thermal paste off and placed on new. No change.

iramack · « **Reply #10 on:** November 17, 2018, 08:42:59 pm »

What did the person you got this "project" from say about the "work-ability" of the machine....??

Have you contacted them at all??

SM

Paladin · « **Reply #11 on:** November 17, 2018, 09:23:16 pm »

I bought it knowing that it didn't work. I checked it out before buying it and decided to take a chance. I like projects and the price was low enough that I was willing to risk it. Once I was able to get the monitor to power up with an external power supply, I decided to keep working at it.

I'd just like to know if there's anything else I could test before buying a replacement mpu. The fact that I don't get any kind of post display at all seems to indicate the MPU but I'm hesitant to just assume that's the only thing that could cause the issue.

rickhunter · « **Reply #12 on:** November 17, 2018, 10:20:57 pm »

Since it is a BB1, there's no discrete video board, so at this point there's not much else you can do. I would just source a good known working mpu, or have yours tested by someone to make sure that is indeed the issue.

iramack · « **Reply #13 on:** November 18, 2018, 07:49:11 am »

Also,
Spin Inc. repairs ANY board for 95 dollars flat fee..................

If yours is too bad they may just swap it for you.....??

Steve

Paladin · « **Reply #14 on:** November 20, 2018, 10:31:51 am »

Thanks for the tip Steve, I was unaware of that repair option!Thanks Rick, for the confirmation that I'm pretty much stuck!
I now have a replacement MPU on the way, as well as a clear card.
I downloaded the manual for the 950 ticket printer and was able to successfully print a test ticket.

I downloaded a manual for the cash flow validator and was able to turn the solid yellow LED to a flashing green by reseating the cashbox. I was worried when I read some posts mentioning the flashing green LED being a symptom of the easytrax system and requiring reprogramming of the head. I checked the circuit board on the back of the unit and don't see an add on daughter board, neither do I see an RFD tag in the cashbox. My fingers are crossed that the blinking is being caused by the non functional MPU board not communicating with the validator.

Can anyone think of anything else I can test while waiting for the MPU to arrive?

At this point I know the monitor display works but don't know if there's a way to test the touchscreen part. I've seen the pinout, has anyone wired one up to a PC to test? I'd assume it would need an adapter harness from game to a serial port for the PC, then figuring out the PC drivers needed.
The validator appears to be good but the manual didn't mention if I could test it stand alone.

None of the buttons on the deck light up, they all have LED's. I forgot to check them when I had the buttons apart for cleaning. I'm not too impressed with how the buttons are made compared to how easy it is to take apart and clean the larger IGT S-Plus type butons that I'm more familiar with. I should be able to test them by unplugging the harness to access the leads or popping the clear tops off to get to the LED's. Come to think of it, both those options are a pain so I'll leave that bit until after I replace the MPU.

rickhunter · « **Reply #15 on:** November 20, 2018, 10:44:45 am »

3m microtouch drivers for windows if you want to test them. The deck lights don't light up until the game is up and running. The green light will blink until the mpu connects to initialize it. The fact that the light blinks green does not necessarily mean the head does not have the easytrax enabled, the only way to know to is connect it to the mei program or you get a com failure after the game boots (even if you have the jumpers on the backplane set correctly).

Paladin · « **Reply #16 on:** November 26, 2018, 10:15:11 pm »

The replacement MPU arrived and the machine is now booting! Whether it was a good idea or not, I ordered one from ebay that also came with game software so I would have 2 games instead of just one. My cabinet came with the second revision blue MPU and the one I purchased is the older green type.

I wasn't too happy to find the fan on the side of the replacement MPU box is seized to the point where I can't even make it spin with my finger, and the CPU fan takes a fair amount of finger pressure to spin. Neither fan ran when connected in the cabinet. Without a working CPU fan, I only let it run long enough to verify that it would boot. It got to the point with 'call attendant' displayed, and I used the reset key, then it showed an NVRAM error message. I should have taken a picture of it but I was just so happy to see the game actually boot that I shut it down there.

I've got mixed feelings about the board. On one hand I certainly don't like the fact that the fans are dead, and have half a mind to see if I can return it. On the other hand it does seem to be booting, which technically is all the ad stated. It also stated that there are no returns if any modifications have been made to the board.

It may bite me in the rear, but at this point I'm going to just keep it. I'll swap the metal box case fan with the working one from my dead MPU box, as well as the BIOS since the dead MPU has the V2 bios and the replacement has V1. I'll have to see if I've got a replacement CPU fan on hand, and get one if I don't. I'll also remove the heat sink and apply new thermal paste. I do not plan on running it again until I have a new fan on it.

I'm assuming that the NVRAM message is simply that it needs a clear after being placed into a different cabinet, although it's not clear to me if that was to be expected or not. I did remove the dead MPU from the cabinet several hours before I installed the new one. I have also purchased an 1810 clear card, since I knew I'd need it to swap between the two games anyway so I'll give it a go tomorrow if I get the fan situation taken care of.

I was super excited when I saw the POST screen, fingers crossed that tomorrow I can actually play! Although I have to admit that getting broken games working is at least as fun for me as playing them once working.

Paladin · « **Reply #17 on:** November 26, 2018, 11:13:45 pm »

Fans are different sizes between the two MPU's. Green PCB appears to use a 50mm x 10mm fan on the CPU heatsink and 50mm x 15mm on the metal box. The blue PCB doesn't us a fan on the CPU (650mhz blue vs 700mhz green) and has a 60mm x 15mm on the metal box.
The PCB layouts and metal box construction appears to rule out the option of swapping the metal box fans or even the PCB's to the other boxes. The 60mm fan will not fit in the opening for the 50mm without doing some work to the metal box, which is a bit further that I want to go. I guess I'll have to order some 50mm replacement fans.

johnnybgood1 · « **Reply #18 on:** November 27, 2018, 04:07:33 am »

These posts are fun to read. Not that the OP is having issues, just the process of getting the machine up and running. I have been through my own tribulations.

Keep us posted!

John

Paladin · « **Reply #19 on:** November 27, 2018, 06:53:11 pm »

Thanks John! I like to post details of what I do in the hope that someday someone may benefit from it.

Consider your post a good luck charm, because I just finished playing the first games on my now functional WMS BB1 slot machine!!

I swapped the V2 bios from my non working MPU board to the replacement. I went out and bought two 50mm fans to replace the bad ones on the replacement MPU, which were not just dirty but toast. I installed the MPU board into the machine with the clear card I had purchased and while watching Jim's (Bettor Slots) videos, I proceeded to do a successful RAM clear followed by the machine set up and loading of the Crystal Forest game!

I was a bit worried when I saw some repeated messages 'drive not ready for command' while loading but it eventually continued on. I was also a bit impatient I guess, as I thought it was stuck on the configuration screen with the progress bar continually rolling. It took several minutes for the configuration message to clear and the game to actually start.
I think I'm just too used to IGT S-Plus games! Turn them on, wait for BV and reels to cycle and away you go. These newfangled video slots have a bit more housekeeping to do before they're ready!

I'd like to thank everyone for all the help and encouragement!

I've got a Bettor TITO coming, so there's still work to do!

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Author Topic: New BB project owner seeking info and assistance (Read 4955 times)