Bingo Pinballs
This page was created on
11-14-2014
Well we didn’t get
to finish helping Gary, but Anthony wrote in on his CanCan,
so now we get another crack at determining whether or not we can fix any of
these old G.A.A. Bingos.
On Sunday, June 8, 2014 1:00 AM,
Anthony Toscano <anthonytoscano@hotmail.com>
wrote:
Hello
Danny,
Keith N gave me your email and suggested that you are the "Man" when
it comes to bingo pinballs. I have a 1990 French CanCan
solid state that has lost its programming as the battery was removed when the
machine was moved. I believe it was manufactured by GAA of Belgium or possibly Zaccarra of Italy.
I am in Australia and no one here has any idea as to how to go about
reprogramming. I believe there's a special interface box that maybe required to reprogram the machine. Do you know anything about these
or can you steer me in any positive direction? As a last resort, maybe I can
send someone the entire main board complete with
battery if that will work.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Well
after Anthony’s mail above,, I asked for a set of
pictures of the boards and he sent in a great set of photos and a video that
gives us a pretty good view of what is happening with the bingo:
http://danny.cdyn.com/cancananthonyspictures.htm
http://danny.cdyn.com/cancananthonysvideo.htm
Following up on that, I asked a few questions and got back
a few answers, I am still waiting to hear back from Anthony:
1)
Please tell me what happens when you drop in a coin?
2)
For your eeprom, have you replaced the battery yet?
3)
Have you put a new
battery in, plugged everything together, and tried to turn on your bingo? - Not very much - see video
4)
If yes, what
happens? (In detail please) - see video
5)
Do you know
anything about programming eeproms and other advanced
ICs? - Not really but I
am fairly technically minded.
6)
Have you started
reading through my "Solid State" pages yet on my website? - Send me the link please.
7)
If not, please
start.
8)
Does your machine
have any paperwork with it - manual, schematics - etc?
No paperwork or
manuals.
9)
please look at the "home made bally programmer" pages
in my "solid-state section" _ do you think you can build one of
those?
10)
How many balls are
in your bingo? There are 5
playfield balls and 4 extra balls so 9 in total.
11)
What is the
diameter? They measure 28.5mm
or 1.125 inches (I think that's 1 and an eighth)
12)
Are all of the balls together in the ball-channel?
13)
Does anything happen when you insert a coin - Does a ball
doesn't lift up into the ball-shooter area? No
14)
Please trigger the
coin mechanim with your finger, does anything happen?
- I have tried the
coin mechanism but nothing happens at all.
15)
What coin(s) are you using., i.e. U.S.
nickels, Australia decimal coins - etc.?
16)
Does anything happen when you press any of the (orange, red,
yellow) buttons on the front panel?
17)
On the handrail are the coin slots labeled,
something like "1BF" - etc?
18)
At the end of the video there is some noise, like the playfield
shutter is opening or closing, but the noise might also be the magic screen
moving or a ball lifting _ what is it? - You are Right, it's the shutter motor activating.
Based upon his answers I wrote back the following email:
All of those lights flashing is what they call “attraction mode”
and it is a good sign that your bingo has it _ It
means that some of the programming is there _ some of the firmware - Great !
19)
On the big circuit board there are 3 i.c.
chips next to each other, two have tape on them, did
you mark them? Yeah, not sure about the tape,
it was there when I got the machine.
Below them are 2 larger chips
from NEC. These 5 chips are the programmable i.c.s.
20)
are they
soldered directly into the pcb circuit board or are
they in sockets? They are sockets
21)
Do you know what the tape is? - I think the tape was put there over the chips by someone
else. There doesn't seem to be a reason as to why? I can see however in the
middle of the chip is an electronic component like a diode or resistor or
something similar.
22) What is the yellow paper under
the tape?
23) Have you ever had the backbox (top cabinet) disconnected from the lower cabinet? - Apparently they were disconnected
b4 I got it.
I do not think that the coin
meter on the left (as shown above) will work, since it only has one wire connected
to it _ Depending on which machine you have, they have to have 2-or-3 wires.
24)
In your video:
Does the bottom number ever change from a 5?
25)
In your video:
Other than when the “attraction mode is running” do the top numbers ever change
from being all zeros?
26)
Do either of the counter rows ever do something like show an error code like
E602?
27)
Please send me a
few pictures of the backglass?
28)
Please make some
of the pictures, the area over these two counters/readouts?
OK, I think we are going to have to make a few electronic
measurements and perform a few experiments in order to determine how to
proceed:
To start, I want to go ahead and concentrate on this circuit
board:
I think P7 on this board maybe the connector used for the remote
programming.
I think all of the diodes on this board form some sort of
“shutdown/enable” circuit/matrix that shut off the eeproms
when something is wrong.
29)
Do you own an electronic volt meter/multimeter?
– Yes, I have a
Fluke digital
30)
Do you know how to use it - to measure voltage? Yes, both ac &
dc
31)
Do you know how to use it to measure resistance? Yes
32)
Do you know how a diode works? Yes
OK, please read through this
next section on how to proceed and please answer the questions (above) that you
have not yet answered:
So we need to look at diodes real quick and try to figure out how
these are all connected, here are some notes and thoughts to help you look at
this circuit board:
Didoes are used in many different ways, but they can be used as a
switch and I think that is the purpose of them on your “interface board” – I
think the board is set up so, if you pull any of the cathodes low – they
in-turn pull their anode low and shut of the bingo
This is a very big guess – I could easily be wrong
Let’s say that there is a positive voltage on the cathode _ 5
volts, 10 volts – anything
When you do, it will pull the voltage on the anode low, toward
ground – most diodes have a 0.7 volt drop across them, so if the cathode was
originally at 5.0 volts, it would show 0.7 volts after the cathode was pull
low………… if at 10.0 volts, it would show 0.7 volts after the cathode was pulled
low – etc
The trick is going to be finding a ground we can use, that we can
measure from
Look around your bingo cabinet – for a power supply?
Please email me some pictures
Please use your multi-meter to measure resistance between the screw
and the black wire – are they shorted together – does it measure zero-ohms?
Ω = ohms
From the power supply – we need to also measure ohms to the screw
and then to the black wire _ and see if they are shorted (do they measure zero
ohms) ?
Once we have a ground – we can start measuring voltages on the
anodes of the diodes
Every diode on the “interface board”
What do all of the anodes measure?
D3-7?
D4-6?
Etc
If I am correct, we will see most of them read high – read a volate greater than 0.7 VDC – measure something like 5.0
VDC
If I am correct there will only be “one” or “two” that measure low
– that measure the 0.7 vdc
I think a low triggers a shutdown – triggers an alarm and prevents
start up
once we find which nodes (which diodes) measure low, we can follow the
wires back to the problem/source and make some more guesses as “to why your
bingo will not turn on and play a game”
trace the “wire connected to the diode cathode measuring low” _
trace it back to where it originates
I think the diodes sense all kinds of things:
1) Sense if the cabinet doors are open
2) Sense if the balls are present
3) Sense if the coin has been accepted
4) Sense if the power supply is good
5) Sense if the eprom
has been erased – or if the battery is dead
6) Etc
I think the diodes form a “fault matrix” that checks the health of
the system and decides if the “machine is ok” and if not, holds the machine off
– something like this:
Diodes or groups of
didoes connected up something like this?
Where the commons
then control a shutdown at one of the control chips………
If all of the anodes are “high” (measuring greater than 1.0 vdc) then there is another reason the bingo isn’t starting
up………
Again, it just a guess until we get a little more information.
_ Stay Tuned _
Links
http://danny.cdyn.com/solidstatecancan.htm
~