Sigma Deuce's Wild Poker. HR-BC C221

[tallboy33]

I was working on this machine for a friend and it supposedly was working for him at one time.  When plugged in it trips the GFCI that I am plugging it in to.  For starters, I suppose the power supply has issues.  Everything on this machine appears fine, all the boards and wiring.  It had a couple stuck buttons in the play surface that I was able to fix.  I can't find parts for this or any information anywhere. If anyone can advise on parts or if it's not worth bother with I would appreciate it.

[Chris-socal]

99.99999999% likely a Sigma machine has a Power Supply problem.
Also possible the monitor needs a capacitor kit.
If you can find the wire loom that goes to the monitor and disconnect it, try booting the machine without it. That should narrow down the cause of tripping a breaker. It doesn’t mean you still don’t have a problem with the 5v and 12v power supplies though.

Depending on the year it might have two silver /gold box power supplies or it might have one that has both heads in one unit. Pics of inside will help.


Chris

[tallboy33]

Thank you for your help. I unplugged the Monitor wire loom and power to the monitor and it does NOT trip the breaker and the fans are running now.  I have attached some additional pictures of inside and where the power supply is located. Maybe a cap kit for the monitor? Do you know if these be upgraded to modern displays? 

[Chris-socal]

Yup, those two power supplies right in front. One is 5v one is 12v. The 5v runs the computer board. The other runs lamps, BV, hopper relay, etc. It sounds like they are working but you should test them with a voltmeter just to be sure.
I can’t see the game board real well but it looks like a SG 50 series.

You have a few options on the monitor board.
1. Send it to Sharp Image in Las Vegas. They work exclusively on monitors.
2. I don’t think K-Lar repairs them anymore but you can send them a message, their contact information is on our home page.
3. Send it to me. No guarantees, but I can usually get them running. If not, I won’t charge a lot to try, cap kit will be around $20 upfront or you can order it and include it in with the board or have it shipped to me. If it fails to start I can forward to whoever you want. I won’t do the legwork for you but the boards are small and easy to ship.
4. Install a capacitor kit on your own.

Chris

[tallboy33]

Thank you Chris. I'm thinking about trying an RGB/CGA/EGA to VGA conversion board and lcd display.  This is what this guy wanted me to do originally but I was trying to see if I could get it working first.  Since the display is at least one of the problems I'm going to see if he wants to do that.  I'll let you know if I decide to send you the board.  I really appreciate you giving me that option. If you think a conversion is a bad idea please let me know.  Thanks for your help.

-Rick

[Chris-socal]

Im the wrong person to ask….I ALWAYS advocate using the original CRT.
An LCD conversion is going to cost more than the whole machine is worth, and changing to LCD doesn’t really increase value if you sell it. Its gotta have a monitor and no one is ever “Looking” for slant top Sigmas.

Chris

[tallboy33]

You are probably right.  If it was my machine I wouldn't bother with it.  I might just explore changing the caps.  I need to test the power supplies first when I get a chance.  I noticed only one of them had a lit led when the power was on. There are leads for +, -, FG and the 2 ac's.  I think all I care about it the DC voltage at + should correspond with the 2 power supplies.  5v and 12v.  I appreciate you getting me going. 
I might be in touch when I get time.

-Rick   

[Chris-socal]

You are correct, you only need to check the DC output.
I suspect the 5v unit is working since the game booted. The 12v  probably doesn’t work but both should be opened and checked.

Chris

[tallboy33]

I thought I would write a follow up.  My 5v supply was bad so I bought an arcade power supply that handled 5v and 12v.  Then I replaced the caps in the CRT.  The game came on and made sound but still no display so I bought a GBC 8200 and a 14" 4x3 format LCD.  I was able to get the game to come on and it actually worked.  The screen was jumpy so I decided to do the GBS Control mod and got that to work but it was cutting off a few pixels on the left side of the game and would not adjust past this.  I think the GBS Control software is grabbing the signal and missing that left side so there is no way to adjust it so I gave up and went back to just the 8200.  I put a 1k resistor in the video sync line and that fixed the jumpy screen I was seeing.  I had to build a carrier for the monitor and also printed a new bezel (In 2 pieces and had to glue it)  I tried to power the monitor with 12v and the 8200 with 5v from the power supply but this was too much for the supply, the game kept browning out.  So I supply those on their own with an internal power strip. It's all back together now and it works well except when first turned on it will still brown out 1 time and then it works great for hours. When the brownout occurs  the video loses stability and just looks fuzzy for a bit then recovers.  I'm thinking about changing caps on the main board.  I have the 5v at 5.2 and would like to try higher but I'm hesitant.  I measured 5.1 at one of the chips on the board. 

Hopefully this info helps someone.  And thanks Chris for your help. You got me going.

[Chris-socal]

Great summary. I think you are missing green.
You might have to combine V and H sync too

[tallboy33]

That's interesting, I didn't notice no green.  There was a white and yellow wire for sync.  The labels at the connector inside the CRT housing were White CS.HD and the Yellow VD and of course RGB and GND  I tried multiple combinations of the yellow and white wires but the yellow never seemed to matter.  Are you saying combine the 2?  I am using the 8 pin connector on the 8200 and white to the S pin.  I even tried using the yellow wire connected to VS and even HS and then I think I even tried to jumper the yellow to VS and HS but I'm not sure if I combined them.  Either way the yellow wire is not hooked up now.

[Chris-socal]

If your sync is ok it isn’t needed, it might have a jumper resistor between them on the board.
I was just basing my observation of no green based on the picture. I don’t see any green, it looks like blue and red only. Try removing the red and blue wires from the 8200 and see if you have green. Or go to the lcd monitor, mine has a Color menu on a 3 bar RGB display.


Chris

[tallboy33]

I guess there is no green in the game.  I looked at some other images online and I don't see green in those either.  I noticed that I do have yellow so (I had to look it up) and learned that with RGB, the red and green make the yellow so I think everything is fine.  I am going to replace the capacitors on the MB to see if that helps the Power Up Self test issue I see in the first couple minutes.  After that I need another project because this was kind of fun and I learned a lot. Thanks

[Chris-socal]

Honestly I wouldn’t change capacitors on the game board, nothing indicates a problem…other than blue being over pronounced. Maybe its just the LCD, it just looks so blue which over powers the other two colors. Here is a pic of a normal Sigma.
I think you should check brightness and saturation on the LCD.

Great job getting it up and running.

Chris

[tallboy33]

Because it is a sit down game you are kind of looking up into the monitor instead of straight in. So yes, it's a cheap lcd issue.  I played around with settings again today and I feel like it is better and probably as good as I can get it.  I'm calling it quits on this one. Thanks again.