I’ve screwed my BV up somehow

[RubySlipperLover]

I pulled the bill validated out and cleaned under it and put it back in and it made the noise it always makes “as of its validating a bill” then it stopped accepting Tito tickets. (I have bettor Tito). Then it would only accept genuine bills (actual 20’s) about half the time. So I tried to reseat it again and same thing it makes the noise like when you select netplex in devices or feed it a bill but now it accepts nothing. Am I totally screwed? I know BV’s are pretty expensive even by cheaper less reliable standards. Please someone if you know if there it something I can do please help me to fix this. I don’t have the money to buy a new BV at this time and I don’t even know that much about them. I know I probably should have just left it alone but I was trying to keep it clean so it wouldn’t break and now I’ve caused the opposite problem.

[rickhunter]

Post a photo of your validator, unless they are the newer type (UBA's or vizions) they are all going to be under $50 typically.  Did you pull your validator with power on the machine?  Also when you said you pulled out and "cleaned under it" what does under it refer to?

[RubySlipperLover]

Mine is a MARS, but it’s the weirdest thing now it’s accepting tickets and cash again. Could this mean it’s going bad? I was under the impression that they were crazy expensive but I’ve window shopped for ivizion from jcm so i thought of the most expensive is $4-500 brand new I thought even the cheaper older models would be closer to $200 than $100 so at least that’s good news you can get older ones that cheap. Off topic but I had a friend who used to buy broken down vending machines, slot machines, etc just to sell the BV. Of course that was close to 10 years ago so I’m sure that wouldn’t be a viable business strategy anymore. The power was on and gently lifted the little bar so that the BV had some room for me to take a microfiber and very gently clean what I could reach without unplugging and completely removing the BV. I don’t use any force just a gentle dusting between deep cleans when I actually disassemble the the BV, stacker,etc. I’m not an expert by any means but I’m pretty good with electronics and this has me completely baffled it’s now accepting bills and Tito tickets at 100% rate again. And I’ve never figured out how to post pics. I’m sorry, I know that would be so much easier for anyone who’s trying to comprehend what I’m saying if I could but I just never got the hang of it. Anywho if anyone might now what happened or what might make it happen again please let me know. If it happens again I’ll “sound the alarm” lol. Do you guys think I should start looking for another BV or do you guys think it might just have been some kind of glitch?

[rickhunter]

You should NEVER remove/add/plug/unplug things on a slot machine with the power on.  These things are not designed to have anything hot plugged.  You were lucky nothing cascaded out of control as a 12v or 24v spike sent through the system would have killed a lot of components.  The next time you get an urge to clean anything, power down before you do anything. 

As far as your current situation, if the validator is working, I wouldn't worry about it for now.  I would buy a known working unit to have as a backup. You should be able to get just the head for around $30-$50 depending on condition.  You need to have 6607 head flashed with WMS software.  Although the part that most often fails on these cashflow series is the little control board that is inside the stacker assembly.  These also usually go for $30 or so.  I would buy a spare of those as well.

[Eddiie]

Did I read correctly that your BV will take bills but not tickets ?
That would be the BettorTito choking.
I dont think the BV asks the BettorTito if the bill is OK, so it accepts cash.
The BV will ask the BettorTito if the ticket is valid.. 

Make sense?

[RubySlipperLover]

To answer the last  question yes originally that’s what I thought as well. But it also would only take regular currency and genuine bills about 50% of the time at first, then it stopped excepting genuine currency at all as well. But now it seems all is well.  I am going to check out getting some spare parts as suggestion such as the board and a back up validator. Just one last question, should I get him ours or should I go with WBA?  are there pros and cons to getting one over the other? Or, should I just stick with what I’ve already got and get spare parts and a spare validator like I have now. I may also in the future go with an ivizion, but since they are so expensive that would be a purchase I would need to save up for.  by the way thanks for the information on the fact that I should unplug the machine and turn it off anytime I clean anything even if I just move some thing a little bit and don’t really disconnect or unplug any of the components. As usual, all the users on this site are very knowledgeable and helpful and I very much appreciate all the help I’ve gotten this time in over the years.