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Another hopper problem


davep180
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During the week, one of my hoppers jammed. No biggie. Except. I took the offending hopper out, cleared the coins and put it back. Went to play a machine. No payout.

WTF? Opened it up today had a fiddle, and now all works in test mode. Nothing in real play, but, I'm now getting rows of [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ appearing in any dialogue box. Could this be the dreaded common ground issue? I didn't have any problems before, despite using seperate psu. Could it be a dodgy connection from ipac to hopper? I've been messing about all day so far and seem to be going round in circles with it. Any ideas / suggestions will be gratefully received.

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23 minutes ago, davep180 said:

I don't seem to be getting [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ in diologue boxes now, but if I win, hoppers just keep chucking coins, nothing seems to stop it. Tests ok in led blinky too, so I think it is the common ground thing, but it worked before with the same setup.

you were promised a wind up.. but you know very well i'm on your side here. couldn't imagine anything worse tbh.. hope it gets fixed and if you need to remain positive you have possibly discovered the first home cabinet emptier method :) 

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living the dream

 

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I tried to respond, but I plugged my £1 hopper back in before hand and just got rows and rows of]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] coming up, which is weird because the 10p hopper is set to that, £1 is set to [ . This thing is f*cking with me now. Dammit Jim I'm a green keeper not a feckin' electrician/ person who deals with smaller scale wiring, whatever that is called.

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I think when my hopper was paying all the coins out in one go the wire what went into either the I pac or the pac drive had come loose (can’t remember which ) so the hopper got the notification to start paying out but was not getting the notification to stop hence all the coins coming out 

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The continuous [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[or]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] has now been sorted, the connector end of the wire from the ipac to 10p hopper was dodgy. The hoppers work ok in test, but just dump their contents on payment when playing a machine in mfme. It doesn't show anything in notepad when the coins are firing out, so it's not registering the outputs. Any ideas why please?

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When i say it works in test. If i highlight each hopper in mfme then press test, then the hopper spins. If i just press the test hoppers button, nothing happens.

I've also tested in ledblinky and it fires off ok, so i assume the pac drive part is ok.

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Thanks for the response. ctrl r? Resets the game ok, but I just can't get it to stop chucking out coins indefinitely in real play. I'm wondering if the ipac is buggered, but it accepts coins and the buttons work ok. I am stumped to be honest and close to saying f it.

:mess_33:

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The pac drive is sending out the signal to start up. As far as i know, it's waiting for a [ from the ipac to get it to stop. I moved it over just in case, but same result.  Looks like i need to invest in a volt meter and test each wire / connection individually.

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12 minutes ago, davep180 said:

The pac drive is sending out the signal to start up. As far as i know, it's waiting for a [ from the ipac to get it to stop. I moved it over just in case, but same result.  Looks like i need to invest in a volt meter and test each wire / connection individually.

can't you just use your tongue like you do for the windows? 

snarff

really though surprised it's still ongoing really.. i'd be unable to stay calm tbh haha

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living the dream

 

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If the Pacdrive  errors and you reconfigure something, remember to unplug the USB power to it, or it will not reset (rebooting PC wont reset it). If the hopper is spitting out non stop coins, have a keyboard handy so that you can manually press the [ or ] to at least eliminate certain faults.  

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Treat every day like your last, because one day it will be!

Fruit Machine <<<My new project! 

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Right. I've changed the wiring to the hoppers. I have several 12v Azkoyen parallel hoppers and they are each finding a different way to be broken. I tested the wiring with buttons and deduced the ipac is sending the right message from each "slot". I have a 24v Universal hopper and that is running fine with the wiring in place. Therefore, I am asking here, and I'll put a post in real fruit machines too, is there anyone out there who can test hoppers and look at the connections/boards to these hoppers, and see if there is a fix possible?

I know there are some people here who are good with electronic components, but would you have the time or inclination to take a look? I will gladly pay money to anyone who can fix one. Or can anyone recommend a company that might be able to do it?

Thanks to everyone who has tried to help me. I am truly grateful.

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Been following this topic offline for a few days... i feel frustrated for you, matey! Think i'd of chucked the damn thing out of the window!

Hope you get it fixed and if (no, WHEN) you do, please share how as all these build topics help others with their future builds...

in fact, i've just bought some buttons for a future cabinet build (tho not gonna lie, this is probably a 2 to 3 year project because of cost - buying bits as and when i can afford them)...

I ordered the buttons full of optimisim for a future cabinet of my own then this topic bought me crashing down to the ground with the reality that hoppers & coin mechs look to be a major headache at times!

Look forward to hearing you have the problem fixed and how you achieved it!

All the best matey!

Gary.

🪛🪛🪛

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Thanks Gary. First off, I did it exactly the same way as you are doing, getting a new bit each month if there was anything left in the bank. My biggest mistake really, was using an existing mame cabinet for the build, and trying to bodge it all together in one.

I seriously have had no problem with the coin mech, and providing you get the one recommended on here and follow Stoney's diagram, it's quite straight forward, especially as you already know how to set up buttons.

My hoppers on the other hand......

The Universal hopper (Money Controls) was setup for me by a member here, and is huge, but didn't fit inside my machine lol, so is used for testing at the moment.

The 3 Azkoyen 12v came from Poland, and I fear may have been abused in their past life! I had one working, and the others were incase anything went wrong and needed replacing, sadly as replacements, they are as bad as the now defunct original! Hence the plea for someone to test them.

I also have an Azkoyen 24v which runs slower, but does actually work.

If you do a build, make sure you design it with easy access in mind, and you'll have less hassle than me! Part of the problem is limited access to get to anything inside the machine.

 

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@davep180 Just out of curiosity are you using  one of them external USB hubs with 3-4 sockets? If so, that may, or may not be a problem? I have had a lot of Pacdrive faults (just keeps paying out) when I use one with a layout with fast hopper payouts. 

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Treat every day like your last, because one day it will be!

Fruit Machine <<<My new project! 

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