IGT Blackjack Machine

[rgull77]

Hi again,

All was well for a while! Now what is this phenomenon?

Edit: The video shows the cards blinking on the screen with each click sound while the background stays blue. The sound may be coming from the door, almost like a lock out coil or something but it is in rhythm with the cards.  This happens after the machine is on for a while, not upon startup. Then it does it every so often and I can hear it from another room.

Randy

https://youtube.com/shorts/VCt7aiQOVr0?feature=share

[Chris-socal]

Those Fortune machines have two red reset buttons usually on the back wall of the lower cabinet. I don’t actually know what they do but when you press them it does almost this exact behavior. Any chance one of those buttons is stuck slightly pushed in?
I don’t think the computer board is resetting because the cards are always in the dealt position. But it would be worth checking the 5v line on the board to see if it is dropping. You just need to find and clip onto the 5v lead on one of the components.

The other voltage lines are for bulbs and coin mech, etc.

I assume this is a Fortune one or fortune 2 but without seeing the board I can’t be sure. Kind of important for us to know what it is….IGT made games like this for many years, they all look similar on the outside.

Chris

[rgull77]

Hi Chris
I'm not sure which Fortune it is. I thought Fortune I so I posted here. Here is a picture of the board in the machine.

Pushing the left red reset button cuts power to the coin lockout coil on the door which gives the clicking sound. But when I push it, the cards on the screen remain the same. The right button resets the monitor which goes off completely, then back on when you let go. I have never checked voltages on a board  and while I have a Fluke, I'd have to find a tutorial first.

Side note: Whenever I turn the machine on it always shows a dealer twenty one and a player twenty, a basic finished hand screen. Now when I turn it on, the machine shows the last hand played (but altered) and a random extra card, so this is new.

Appreciate your help on this.
Randy

[Chris-socal]

Yes, Fortune one
Every IC in a socket needs to be pulled and cleaned.
Capacitors need to be checked.
My suggestion is to send the board to KLar and have Alan go through it.

Chris

[rgull77]

Good idea. I'm going to Vegas in a couple months anyway so I can pay him a visit in person.

Thanks Chris

Randy

[rgull77]

Reseating the ICs seemed to do the trick. The game is now operating as it should.
I waited awhile to post this so as not to jinx it! LOL

Thanks you for your help!

Randy

[Chris-socal]

Glad to hear it. Oxidation builds up over the years and lifting/replacing the legs swipes it off.

Chris

[rgull77]

I KNEW IT, I totally jinxed this thing! Next day, started flipping out again. Board is going to Klar.....

It's tripping one of the circuit breakers, can you say for certain that it's a board issue and not the power supply? I don't want to bring the board to Alan and get a good bill of health, then put it in the machine only to have it start tripping the breaker again.

Randy

[Chris-socal]

No, I can’t say that for sure.
Its possible the breaker is tripping for a completely different reason. Could be a mouse chewed insulation off wires and they are shorting. Could be the hopper is locked up, could be any number of things.it could be a diode on the game board is shorting or the voltage regulator on-board is drawing excessive load.
I have my doubts that the power transformer itself is failing but you can remove the board from the cabinet and start the transformer up and see if it trips the breaker without the board in it.
Traditional troubleshooting technique is to remove one component at a time from the circuit and see when the problem stops.

Chris

[jay]

There is also the possibility that the circuit you have it plugged into just has too many other toys plugged in.
Try running an extension cord from the other side of the room and see if the problem persists.

If your still popping breakers (and btw - if the same breaker pops with the extension cord, find another outlet that's on a different circuit).
Then try removing the board and powering up.....

The board would be working on DC power.
DC power is supplied in several voltages 5v, 12v, 24v and the outputs are typically protected by fuses.
Ie if the board was pulling too much 12v power then the fuse would blow.

Subsequently I would suspect its something shorting and nothing to do with the board.  Start at the power plug and work your way back to the machine.

[rgull77]

Great suggestions, thanks!

Inspection of the inside looks good. While it did house a mouse (before I got it), I don't see any damage.
The blackjack machine, along with a Keno machine, is plugged into a box that has a wireless on/off button controler.  They are the only machines plugged in there and always run together. I'll isolate the blackjack machine and remove it from the wireless switch and see how it goes from there.

Randy

[jay]

In most houses there are usually 4-7 electrical boxes on one circuit. So you might have lights, other outlets with stuff pre-loading the circuit.
If its your breaker that is popping - vs a button on a power bar or something on the wireless switch then I would still be moving it to a different circuit via vi an extension cord just as a test.

[rgull77]

It's repeatedly tripping one of the red breakers inside the machine. There is a link in my first post to a video of what it is doing.

[jay]

Much different than a breaker in your home .......

I am unfamiliar with the inner workings...... Pull the board and see if its still happening......

[Chris-socal]

I was making the assumption he meant one of the red breakers inside the machine since We had talked about them previously.

Also, look closely for loose quarters making contact around the transformer or even underneath the board.

Simple test to see if its the game board is to pull the board and turn it on.

Chris

[rgull77]

I did and I found a quarter next to the transformer but laying flat. The machine was on all day after that and not a sound from it so far but I'm sure I just jinxed it again! Lol.....

Randy

[rgull77]

Hi again, I'm kind of re-addressing this issue. To recap, it's a Fortune 1 blackjack machine. After it warms up a bit, maybe an hour, the lockout coil starts clicking (as losing power on and off) and the cards on the screen begin to blink.
 
This is the video from my first post.

I thought I'd check the voltage at the coil and there is a link to the video below. Is this what I'd expect to see? I know the left circuit breaker on the back wall of the machine is tripping but I'm not sure if it itself is faulty or maybe there is a voltage dip  from the power supply or from where the power is converted to 24volts ?

Hoping for some thoughts

Thanks
Randy

https://youtube.com/shorts/tCAcBs88bX0?feature=share

[Chris-socal]

If I had to guess I would say you are probing an AC line with your meter set to DC. Its really difficult to lend advice when we can’t tell what you are doing. Be careful probing around if you aren’t literate in what voltages you are probing. Especially if you are getting near the CRT.

If you have heat related problems;  power supply or onboard component failure is certainly suspect.
My suggestion is still to send the board to K-Lar and let Alan do his thing. He knows which caps to check, he can see if it plays correctly in a known-good test station and he can let it run for hours after he fixes it up and verify it is working perfectly.

Otherwise my advice is to check every primary component on the board, replace capacitors, check pin solder joints with a lighted magnifier…even if you claim to have 60/40 vision, broken solder joints around pins and traces cause more problems than you can imagine. Especially heat related variances in game stability.

Chris

[rgull77]

Yeah, I understand what you are saying Chris, it needs to go to a professional. The problem doesn't present itself often enough but when it does I'm like, "oh I should have that looked at".
I'm gonna let it go for now, again, I certainly can't do the things you describe, nor do I want to try! Lol. Oh, and the coil is AC as you said and it checked out ok.

Thanks again,
Randy

[jay]

I suspect the issue is with your monitor board.

I had a PE+ which would start up with the screen compressed, then start flipping and finally settle into a decent picture.
One day it stopped doing this. You run your finger over the screen and I didn't feel the static of the energized tube. Just a sad black screen.
You could hear the game play but nada on the screen.

In my basement I have 3 other slots, a multi-cade and a mall-style kiosk that shared a circuit. If I had more than 2 machines on the house breaker would flip.
It never did that when the PE+ was behaving. I replaced my monitor board (big thank you to Chris Socal) and the machine was back to normal and no more power problems in the basement. I am still not sure what was failing on my board - likely a capacitor but possibly a chip.

Typically when a monitor is starting it draws a higher level of power to fire it up, While your issue is likely a different component failing, the clicking of the coil (likely due to low power) and subsequent popping of the machine breaker sounds like it is trying to repeatedly power up the monitor.

In highschool electronics class we used to repair black and white TVs (yep a long time ago...) I probably only remember about 1/2 and of what I do remember is sorely out of date but the basic theory is the same. Most of our repairs were swapping tubes or the single high voltage transistor bolted to the side of the tube. Caps were the size of salt shakers and not elctrolitic.