Leaderboard

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-VHB-5mm-Double-Sided-Acrylic-Foam-Adhesive-Heavy-Duty-Mounting-Tape/153684683078?hash=item23c8522946:g:Xh0AAOSwUvBeb4E0

no

When you run the test software you do not need the reels present to test boards or for the test software to boot. There is also separate software for testing reel sets. You would only need reels present to run game software that looked for the pulses from the reels on boot up, these pulses may be timed, that is why you may be encountering errors if the opto pulses are not to what the mpu/software is looking for. Eg reel circumference is different...

Yeah, when I built my rig, I was going to try to integrate reels but decided against it as at the time, I had a few reel units to test and realised each unit has it's own reel board attached which also needed testing. For my purposes, plugging the reel unit in was easier for me. Looking good Dicky, looks very professional. I would stick with the test software rather than running game software (other than for the novelty value) as game software (as you probably are aware) will not test all the inputs and outputs on the mpu, whereas the test software will.

I'm surprised you managed to hold out for so long before throwing the switch. The feeling you get when it bursts into life is incredible, mind you on the other hand when you see plumes of smoke the opposite feeling is even worse!

Result dicky and well done .just one question is why did you decide to build your own reels?surely it would have been easier to just to hook up working mpu 4 deck ?

happy days

Hi Andrew ... yes you are correct ... i have the reels and lamp looms plugged into a breakout terminal strip, so under normal circumstances i can run one or the other ... i was surprised how close the drive current is to the maximum spec of the ULN ... when i design stuff i always keep plenty of overhead .. but they rode close to the edge with 430ma load on a 500ma transistor the lamps add 100ma on top but i wont be using in continuous operation with both active ... actually thinking about that.. i could add a switch on the front to switch between lamps and reels ... along with the power switch that i also forgot to add .... dont want to have to run around to the wall socket when the magic smoke comes out all the best ... Dicky

well it is great you have got it booting! I was surprised when you have the reels working it is ALSO connected to light lamps on the test rig, this was not done like this with the original test rig, you connected lamps OR reels to the reel drivers, so your drawing far more current than the mpu4 reel outputs were designed for, watch out the reel driver ULN's on the MPU4 don't burn up!! they burn up with just reels connected normally!

Well so much for getting the other jobs done ... the devil on my shoulder kept saying ... dicky you need to power up the test rig so i had to .... I noticed i had one of the reel lamps out ... but that was just a bulb ... will replace later ... here is a test with the lamp matrix connected ... and finally the reel test with sound ... the good thing is ther have been minimal issues so far ... but it has not been plain sailing ... i have a few reel alarm issues when i first powered up the MPU4 ... all i kept getting was a reel spin alarm across any of the reels ... i tested the outputs of the photo sensors and found out that the collector /emitter are opposite to the factory fitted units ... so had to swap the wires over on the sensors ... after that i was getting an output when the tab was in front of the sensor ... but it was not going high it was unstable .... I soon realised my mistake ... i had made the tabs out of blue plastic and the infra red sensor could partially see through the blue material .. causing an unstable output I fitted a black plastic tab instead and this gave me a stable output ... Although this allowed the MPU4 to boot it was not the end of my reel problems .... and these problems are self inflicted ... i have 3 basic rom carts but only the 1986 Gold strike initializes the reels ... ans then sometimes it gives an alarm mid spin ( when playing off credits ) but runs fine for ever in the reel test ( defeats the object of having a reel test ) i do believe this may be caused by the width of the tab not being in relation to the original size on the rotation of the reel ... i think they are too big for a small diameter reel and holding the sensor on for too long ... i am getting both reel spin and sometimes reel setup alarms ... i think i will cut the down tomorrow and test again with a narrower reel ... the other carts come up with the reel alarms every time ... i do believe ... if i remember correctly that they changed the code on later programs on how the tab detection works ... so that might be why other carts alarm ... I have tried the gold strike cart now on three separate boards that i had previously repaired but was unable to test ... 3x Mod 4 and 1x Mod 2 and it works fine ... it actually showed me that there is a light matrix transistor failed so that needs a further repair ... im pleased because all 3 were repairs from battery damage and all seem to function ok ... one thing i did notice was that Triacs 6 and 7 stay on all the time ... this was on all three of the MPU4s that i tested ... im thinking that these may be for the lockouts on the token and coin slots I also noticed that my 7 seg displays are not running ... so need to check that as well ... well thats it from dickys den ... must carry on with my other jobs now ... will report back here when i have the reel issue sorted all the best ... Dicky

that fault would easily have been picked on the factory scorp 4 test rig