Expert: Rodger Knutson - 12/3/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hey Roger,

I am in the process of trying to get an old Bally's slot machine to work. I guess the first question should be whether or not I have the right MPU board or not.  

The Metal plate located on the outer right side of machine says it's a Series E Model E-2099-23. The square LED Display would also indicate it's an E2000. The MPU board however, says that it's an E1000, based upon the diagram in the Complete Service Manual for Series E 1980-1986 on page 56. It's an AS 2978-3 MPU board.

So..., does an E1000 MPU board work on an E2000 machine?

If so, then the next question would be whether or not you have a part I believe I need.  During the memory test on initial power up, the LED indicates a failure on memory chip M7.  The chip in the M7 slot is labeled as 543887 e 2099-28 (in pencil). Also, the battery is definitely bad, since 1 of the 3 was leaking, and there was corrosion at one end, where the lead contacts the board. I am in the process of locating a new one.

As always...  your help would be most appreciated.

Thanks Roger!

ANSWER: Hi Doug,

Ahh your a good man, a guy that digs in to read about and learn about his machine and how it works and what it is, Good Job! I have your manual in front of me. Page 56 shows a e-1000 series board. The difference between a e-1 and a e-2 board is easy to see once you know, all e-1000 boards have a Piggy back board in which the mpu battery is soldered on to. On a e-1 board you could remove the Piggy back or (Ram Board) from the main MPU board by just pulling it out of it sockets, the battery and ram chips are on this little Piggy back board and will come off the mpu on this board. The e-2000 series mpu does not have this ram board, the 3.7 volt Ni Cad battery is soldered right on the main MPU via the battery's solder tabs. Another way to tell is by looking at your hopper board, page 47, see the different between the e-1 and e-2 hopper boards? Bally made some e-2 machines using e-1 parts as "let's use all the e-1 parts up first before you use all e-2 parts and save some money". So, yes, it is very possible that you have a e-2 model number which is made with E-1 parts, I see a lot of them. Also the reel reader boards are different between the e-1 and e-2 models page 46 and are different voltage, early models used lights to read the reels and later models used inferred emitters and receivers to reed the reels. Your eprom in socket U-13 is your personally program, this is the most important program on your board, it tells the machine what it is and what the game is and the odds, yours being 87 percent, see page 56 for this. Your bad battery could be your problem, as this keeps the memory. I have to get off to work but we can add and ask more information on this as we go. Need help in finding a new battery?

Thank You
Sincerely
Rodger Knutson
http://www.coinslots.com


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey Roger,

With the new battery I got past the 6-7 error and then failed on the #2 chip.  I swapped the #2 and #1 chip positions, just to see if the fault code would then point to the #1 chip.  Well low and behold...  hallejulah (splchk), the coin hopper started turning on the next power up.  That's the good news...

The bad news is that my E1000 hopper circuit board started smoking...  and yes...  I am serious! Turned out that I burned up the resistor in the R3 position. My roomie thinks that this may be due to the fact that I swapped the #1 and #2 chips on the MPU board, but I believe it's unrelated.  I think that I merely got to the next issue to deal with.

We are looking in our stash for the resistor and will solder it in if we find it.  If I don't hear back from you, I plan to leave the chips on the MPU board as they sit now, with the #1 and #2 swapped, when we get the Hopper board fixed, and try try again....

By the way...  if no one has told you lately...  you da man!  Great to have you out there in cyberland!  I just got this slot machine a couple months ago, and it't the first toy I have ever had like this! I can see why you got hooked!  Take care...  will update you later.

Answer
Hi Doug,

I haven't been able to get back to you right away as I been work has had me put in some 13 hour days this week. I think you moved to fast on this one. Here is some of your answers:

as for the e1000 - 6 is usually a power problem - check your power supply.  

not sure what you mean by swapping memory chips?  if you mean the M1 M2 and M3  no.  

There are two MAC-15 Triac's on that E-1000 hoper board. I hope you did not fry them, they're obsolete! and I have a couple new one's, but I guard them with my life! You can test them with a multimeter or continuity tester, if you show continuity between all three legs of the Triac it a goner. NO you can not swap those eproms around. Those I think I can get you if you fried one of those eproms to. Your hopper most likely took off running because the machine went out of whack with the eproms in the wrong sockets. I do have parts but there getting extremely limited due to the age of these and the E-1000 model only ran for a year or two before they went to the e-2000 which has different parts. After reading your question above about swapping the m1 Thu 3 programs around, looks like you will have to be buying your roomie the beers tonight. Did you know all electronics are made out of smoke, So, don't let that smoke out! As far as getting hooked on antique coin operated machine and slots, well yes it happens, and it did to me back in 1969 with the first slot I laid eyes on, and my money on, and took her home, and I have been looking to join Slot-a-alcoholics for years now, but I just can't kick it, it's too late for me, SO....... save yourself my friend! If you need to write me directly you can reach me at: Jackpot7@q.com Please remember to leave feed back for me at allexperts, as that is my total reward for doing this.
Sincerely

Rodger Knutson

Http://www.coinslots.com