Fruit Machine 'Toppers'

[smithers18]

Hi all. 

I have bought a topper for my new cabinet build and I opened it up today hoping it might be clear how to wire it up but of course its not very clear! I have attached a picture below of the one I bought and inside the board is stamped with 'Barcrest' with a ref number of '94v-0 E157925' which seems to be a generic backlight inverter board (I would guess that's what is lighting up the main part of the display and there will be a separate circuit for the LED surround?). 

I can't fathom out what voltage is needed because there is no labelling on the input wires and they are all just coloured red so it isn't even obvious what the polarity is? I don't want to start poking around with it until I'm certain on the voltage and polarity so I was wondering if anyone here has had experience with these and maybe hacked one for their own build before? 

If I can't figure it out then I'll probably strip it and start over by putting my own LED strip inside with an ESP32 to control them via WLED. To be fair that might even be the best option regardless since I'd be able to make a custom playlist for the lights etc. 

[dondplayer]

What I would do is look at what we have:

A load of red wires so that tells me there is a common somewhere else - maybe through those screws I see.

Then I would put a multimeter on each of the wires (so from the assumed common to each of the reds) testing for resistance. If that turns out to work (so not open circuit) apply using a variable PSU 5V DC initially across each and go up from there. It's going to work from the voltages supplied by the internal PSU I would expect so you know what to try.

However better to wait to see if anyone else knows without guessing.

[fruitsnappa]

Doubt it being as simple as Appling a voltage and it flashing. It would be controlled by the MPU but you can try.

[smithers18]

Thanks for your replies. I figured it wouldn't be so simple and I don't want to start having to think about introducing 34v into my setup!  I have stripped it down instead and I'm putting an ESP32 in there with WLED. It would look just as good as the 'real thing' in the end but with more flexibility on the colour schemes, patterns etc. Only downside is that it won't integrate into any games by default but I imagine it could probably be achieved via the pacdrive and a GPIO input pin on the ESP32 if I ever wanted to try it. 

Here is my progress so far, out with the old LED's and in with the new and thats the main box done: 

 

(looks really good in person)

I'm now just working on adding the surround LED's for which I will add a rainbow effect via WLED. 

Thanks again, 

Steve

Edited October 9, 2025 by smithers18

[smithers18]

Well it was a pain in the backside but I got it all finished and it looks great. Its a self contained unit now with an ESP32 inside with all the wiring hidden within and I added a switch to the back so I can flick it on or off. I have a single barrel jack coming out of it (into a hole in the top of my cab which is not seen) which I plug into a 5v molex connector from the PSU and it boots up when I turn the cab on. Looks really good, maybe a little bigger than I thought it was going to be though! 

Video showing it in action:

(The cab itself is not finished yet, still got lots to do but at least I can tick this off the list!). 

[wearecity]

15 hours ago, smithers18 said:

Well it was a pain in the backside but I got it all finished and it looks great. Its a self contained unit now with an ESP32 inside with all the wiring hidden within and I added a switch to the back so I can flick it on or off. I have a single barrel jack coming out of it (into a hole in the top of my cab which is not seen) which I plug into a 5v molex connector from the PSU and it boots up when I turn the cab on. Looks really good, maybe a little bigger than I thought it was going to be though! 

Video showing it in action:

(The cab itself is not finished yet, still got lots to do but at least I can tick this off the list!). 

Looks excellent.

From the untrained eye, it doesn't look like emulation at all.

[joshx21]

On 11/10/2025 at 23:20, smithers18 said:

Well it was a pain in the backside but I got it all finished and it looks great. Its a self contained unit now with an ESP32 inside with all the wiring hidden within and I added a switch to the back so I can flick it on or off. I have a single barrel jack coming out of it (into a hole in the top of my cab which is not seen) which I plug into a 5v molex connector from the PSU and it boots up when I turn the cab on. Looks really good, maybe a little bigger than I thought it was going to be though! 

Video showing it in action:

(The cab itself is not finished yet, still got lots to do but at least I can tick this off the list!). 

i bought one of these at the end of 2024, just wondering did you replace all the LEDS that surround the £500 JP decal or kept the ones that was already in it. Wanted to try and see if i could try and program them but all i could do was change the stock animations/preset colours by pressing the two buttons on the board. i did notice if i connected a USB to RS485 connecter to the topper the surround leds went out with the normal blacklight staying on. 

[smithers18]

1 minute ago, joshx21 said:

i bought one of these at the end of 2024, just wondering did you replace all the LEDS that surround the £500 JP decal or kept the ones that was already in it. Wanted to try and see if i could try and program them but all i could do was change the stock animations/preset colours by pressing the two buttons on the board. i did notice if i connected a USB to RS485 connecter to the topper the surround leds went out with the normal blacklight staying on. 

Hi. No I didn't even try to be honest. Once I realised that it required a peculiar voltage I just gutted all of the original LEDs and controller boards completely and replaced it with WS2812b LED's for both the backlight and the surround and a single ESP32 running WLED to drive it all. 

I split the leds into segments in the WLED software, 1 segment for the backlight and another for the surround and it means I can apply different effects to each at the same time (e.g. white backlight with rainbow swirl surround). There are many effect options in WLED, way above and beyond what the original board would have offered, but you should be able to replicate the original board effects if desired, they just wont sync up to the game you're playing. I just created a playlist that loops through a few effects and I'm happy but I have a theory that you might be able to do this using a pacdrive output linked to a pin on the ESP32 board to act as a switch for a certain effect. I haven't explored this however it seems feasible.

The final benefit is that It now all runs off a single 5v output from the PC power supply, giving it more than enough amps for all leds and I added a single barrel jack connector so I can easily remove the whole thing if needed.