Tilt light comes on after spinning reels- locks down machine

[Kruss8]

Hey there, I got this machine in via freight a few days ago and had to replace a couple of fuse caps before I could get it to turn on. Once on after a few seconds something sparked near the hopper and turned the machine off. It didn’t blow a fuse and turned right back on. After this when I spin the machine it immediately goes into tilt mode. Just to clarify I haven’t seen the machine operate normally yet without this. Machine is in good shape otherwise and worked well for the previous owner. Any thoughts on what could be causing the tilt light? I’m kinda thinking it is either something that popped loose while shipping or something electrical in the hopper is causing an issue.
Any info on what machine this might be would help as well, the plate on the lower side is missing?

[Kruss8]

More pictures

[shortrackskater]

For starters, pull the hopper, pull the reel bundle, then get a flashlight and a small mirror.
Look EVERYWHERE you can for loose coins. They always escape and end up creating connections and completing "new circuits" that you don't want that can cause arching/sparks. etc. Unlike a fuse, a coin won't "blow" and the results can mess up things!

Also I'm fixing your sideways photos. For future phones, just EDIT them in your phone even if they are already upright. Flip them to the side, then back upright. That usually changes the original metadata for orientation.

[Kruss8]

I appreciate the reply and the info about the loose coins.

Any insight to how to get into the top compartment to check if anything is loose up there or a quarter snuck up there in transit?
I have gone through it top to bottom and cant find anything in the main cabinet(accessible by door)
Very new to this and trying to learn as much as possible.

I'll also note the picture orientation in the future. I'm still figuring this website out.

[DavidLee]

Open the door, there are two screws holding the top glass frame in place.
90 % of the time these screws have been removed and never replaced.

With the screws removed, apply upward pressure to the top of the chrome frame.
As it is resting on two internal hooks one on each side.
Depending on how long the top glass frame has been in place and if any liquids have seeped in.
It might take a few tries to get it to pop up.
The light panel usually has rings to pull the unit out of the machine.
In most cases the unit will guide itself back into position when reinstalled.
Don’t think the tilt light problem will be in the top unit, but it’s good to check everything while it is open.

[wolftalk]

looks a bit like an E1000 series machine ... in which case this topic is in the wrong area since the game is partially controlled by a computer.

you have circuit boards in the cabinet behind and/or left of the reels?

[Kruss8]

Appreciate the replies all!
Yes it does have two circuit boards behind and to the left of the reels.
I was able to get the top glass off of the unit and get behind the lights, didn't find anything back there.
My apologies for posting in the wrong section.
Do you have any other ideas on checking if the motor shorted or wires than might be lose causing the tilt light to come on?

[Kruss8]

Update:
Been working through a ton of old forums and suggestions to figure out what is going on. After bench testing the hopper motor (works well) I got an error 42 code when the machine went into tilt mode. Cleaned all connectors and pins, checked ohms on each wire that the reel harness, oiled  all of the reels and set them to 1/16 of an inch into the readers. Also swapped out the middle reader to position 3 and the error code stayed with the middle reel. I ran the machine in test mode ( and it played and read the correct payouts for all of the three reels. Is there something I’m missing here? Does anyone know of any resistors that might need to be replaced that might be causing the error 42 to remain?
Appreciate the help as always!
Feel like I was duped by the previous owner, who may have sent an old video of it working properly and sold it to me knowing that it had this error codex

[wolftalk]

keep in mind I've worked on only a few E-series machines - a bit less than 2 in fact :-)

wrt error 42, page 18 of the fo-650-13 manual is probably what you want.  iir, the cpu is looking for the reel reader board data to be changing and position data to make sense to conclude the reel is spinning.

you did the reel position test on reel 2?  If done with the personality prom removed, the display will show the reel position instead of what symbol is at that position.  You can then verify all the positions encode correctly ... or since you already swapped reader boards and the problem stayed on reel 2, did you verify all the leds are turning on?  Although the leds are connected in series, the light output can be reduce/gone on individual leds and the others still work.

the fo-650-12 manual has info on the reel reader test (page 13).

if poking around doesn't help, you may need a logic probe, logic analyzer or oscilloscope to see what is happening on the various signal lines ... especially pin 11 of reel 2 to make sure it goes low and pins 2-6 to make sure they are all wigging as the reel spins.

[Badbaud]

Also make sure the kick and arm switches on the outside left side of the reel mechanism are healthy and their contact terminals are clean and shiny.

[Kruss8]

Want to thank you all for the help in trying to get this solved, after completely tearing apart all of the reel mechanism to ensure the problem wasn’t there I noticed that the black rod that should be spinning freely(found this info on an older forum) was gummed up causing the second reel to stop with the first one. Being a novice to this I’m sure you all would have figured it out much quicker than I, nonetheless I’m super excited to have it working! Needs one new lamp up on the top and a good polish job to the chrome and she will be good as new. As frustrating as it was to get it going, man this hobby is addictive!