Big Bass Wheel Volume Adjustment
(Paul and Warren, Alpha-Omega Amusements)
Getting the proper volume on Big Bass Wheel does increase the revenues. Any time a new motherboard is installed the volume needs to be adjusted. Here are the steps:
- Turn off game.
- Plug in the keyboard and mouse.
- Turn on game.
- When system is up…..Press “Q”. This will bring you to the next prompt…
- Type “xwin jwin” then ENTER.
- Menu comes up asks you to make choices….just hit ENTER.
- Another menu comes up…hit ENTER again for defaults.
- Now you got a desktop that looks like windows….(linux)
- Move mouse to the lower right corner and click the sound bar….try increasing it all the way….when you 1st see the sound bar…it will probably be in the middle like ours was…….Bay-Tek said to take it down half way…but both times we had to do this…it was already half way….so I increased it all the way to high.
- Save and reboot……..there is no actual save button…just select reboot options in menu.
- A post script with some encouragement wouldn’t hurt. I’ve had two Big Bass Wheels that took more than one try to get it to save the volume. The second try on both worked though, which coincidentally were way too loud at minimum. So the process is correct!
Hoop Fever Basketball sometimes not giving out the proper amount of tickets.
(Chris Martin, Alpha-Omega Amusements)
Several weeks ago there would be a few complaints and I went through the ticket dispensers and checked all of the connections and never found anything wrong. As time went on the complaints increased. Of course I changed out the ticket dispensers. Last week the tickets won by one of the Hoop Fever’s stopped reporting to the EMBED system. Upon testing, I noticed that the ticket meter was not working. I installed a new ticket meter. The game now gives the correct amount of tickets every time. It never occurred to me to keep checking the ticket meter as it was always increasing as tickets were won but as time went on it missed more clicks. With a debit card system we do not check the ticket meter against the EMBED reports but now when I start to hear ticket award complaints, I will make sure to check the ticket meter first.
Circuit boards made in foreign countries can drive a technician crazy.
(Dave Forlano, Alpha-Omega Tech)
More frequently these days we have to provide service or advice on how to hook up circuit boards into games that are manufactured in foreign countries and instructions (if there are any available) are not in English. In many instances the board has writing indicating which designations the connections correspond to (i.e. motor, lights, display, bill acceptor, coin door, sensors) and of course the harnesses are not labled but they are easy to follow where they go to.
NOT to worry, http://translate.google.com/ to the rescue.
Easily, I typed these foreign words printed on the board into the very user friendly windows and “tout a coup”, I now knew where to make the correct connects.
Did you know there are 2 kinds of Loc-tite?
(Todd, Fun Spot)
Loc-tite is the perfect liquid to place on screw threads and on the inside of nut threads to keep them from loosening from vibration. Blue Loc-tite is used for applications where you may in the future need to remove or loosen the screw/nut to make a repair. Red Loc-tite is used for permanent applications. Best bet for our industry is to NEVER use the Red Loc-tite.
How to get the best sound out of game speakers.
(Dave Forlano, Alpha-Omega Tech)
When it comes to Dance Dance Revolution games, jukeboxes, video games, and even some redemption games, to get the best amplified sound (especially in the lower frequencies), the speakers need to be hooked up in phase. Generally, even if the speakers are hooked up with the wires reversed (out of phase) the amplifier will still work but the lower frequency sounds can cancel each other out.
Many times the speaker lugs are unmarked or even marked with incorrect polarity designations. Here is a simple way to check:
Take a standard 9 volt battery and place its terminals across the speaker lugs. If the speaker cone moves ‘outwards’, the +v (smaller terminal) of the battery is touching the positive speaker lug. If the speaker moves ‘inward’, the +v would have to be touching the negative speaker lug.
Simply attach the red speaker wire to the positive speaker lug an the black wire to the negative speaker lug.
Slam-A-Winner Wheel Stops Spinning
The first step was to jiggle the harnesses and connectors and see if there was a loose connection. The next step was to replace the motor. This worked but only for a few hours and the wheel stopped spinning. Then I replaced the stepper controller board and the wheel started spinning again, but stopped spinning in a few hours. Now I fully realize that I missed something obvious and wasted a lot of time (now more than a week the game has been down). But what was missed?
Next I went through all of the connections between the stepper board and the motor and checked the harness wiring thoroughly. Every pin was checked to see if any were loose or continuity could be broken by jiggling. The last thing was to slightly close up each female pin to tighten the pressure connection grip on the male pins. Benchmark suggested inserting a sewing needle of a smaller diameter than the male pin diameter into each female connector and gently squeezing the female connector around the needle. When the male pin is inserted, a snug fit results. This solved the problem. There must have been more than one bad pin connection but it is still strange that the first step in jiggling the harnesses and connectors did not restore a connection. I will surely add the sewing needle to my tool kit for future use.
