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Randy Fromm's

Slot Tech Magazine

EditorRandy Fromm

Technical WritersJames Borg, Todd Brooks,Wilder Contreras, NathanGalloway, Chuck Lentine,Jerome Mayard, Pat Porath

Slot Tech Magazine is publishedmonthly bySlot Tech Magazine401 W. Lexington #777El Cajon, CA 92022tel.619.838.7111 fax.619.315.0410e-mail [email protected] the website at slot-techs.com

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Copyright 2017 under the UniversalCopyright Convention. All rights re-served.

Slot Tech Magazine Editorial

-EditorialPage 4-IGT Monitor, Deceased Part 2 of 2Page 8-Slot Tech Training at Clearwater Casino ResortPage 10-Wilder Things #4Page 13- The Slot Academy at TechFest 33Page 15-Slot Tech Training Schedule for 2017

Publisher-Slot Tech Magazine

Dear Friends of Slot Tech Magazine,

I would like to make a last-minute request that youconsider attending the Slot Academy at TechFest 33.The Slot Academy is an outstanding program, espe-cially for folks who are beginning their career as aslot manager. This is a University Accredited (UNR)course.

There are seats available for the class. More detailsare available at the website at slot-techs.com. Tech-Fest has available seats as well.

See you at thecasino.

TechFest 33 @Mystic Lake CasinoFeaturing the Slot

AcademyMay 16-18, 2017

Randy Fromm

May 2017Slot Tech Magazine

Slot Tech Feature Article

This supply is a 12V,4A unit and, as withmodern PSUs, they

have an input voltage swingfrom 100 – 240V acnominal, with the inputfrequency spanning from47 – 63Hz

A quick visual of the PSUdidn’t show anything out ofthe ordinary, no blownsemiconductors, capacitors,and no carbonizedresistors. And yet, if therewas nothing actually wrongwith it, something wascertainly effecting itsoperation.

Supplies tend to sufferwhen leftconstantly onfor a great dealof time. I’mreferring tomonths andyears here.When thepower source isthen removed,you mightneed to braceyourself for theworst once thisis re-introduced.

Funnily enough, even if acomponent on it has gonefaulty, obviously dependingwhere it is in the circuit,this might not have anyeffect on the operation ofthe unit, until the powersource is plugged in again.There could be an ‘every

man for himself’ scenario,and panic stations arelikely to follow.

In a quiet place, you mightjust hear the PSU goinginto overload mode. Thiscould be triggered eitherbecause there is a short

IGT Monitor-Deceased!

By James Borg

W801

Part 2 of 2

Slot Tech MagazineMay 2017


circuit on one of the boardsit is supplying or perhapsthe PSU itself has goneFUBAR. The noise it wouldmake, during overloadmode, would be like aticking clock. That’s thenoise of the supply startingup and then turning itselfoff as it has sensedsomething out of theordinary. This ticking noisewould carry on until theproblem of the overload hasbeen rectified. In raresituations, I’ve had caseswhere the supplyeventually blows, making itnext to irreparable but sofar, this hasn’t happenedwith this model.

In order to eliminate a greatchunk of fault-finding anddiagnostic work, you canremove the four-pinconnector on W801, whichis at the other end of themains input connector,P801. From the picture,four wires are visible onW801, two coloured black,and two white. The blackwires are common to eachother, and the white are aswell. On the solder-side ofthe PCB, the tracks connectthem together. In thissetup, the black wires arepositive, and the white arenegative.

If, once the connector isremoved the overloadnoises stop, then chancesare that the image boardhas an onboard short. Youcan check the output of thepower supply with amultimeter or a ‘scope,whichever you wish. If the

output is fine, you shouldsee a steady 12V on it. Ifwhen the connector isplugged back in again, theoverload noise can be heardonce more, you need toconfirm the image board’ssupply rail isn’t shortingout the PSU, sending it intooverload.A quick continuity test,compared with a knowngood image board, shouldsettle any doubts to it beingfaulty or not.If the compared readingsare similar, then you haveto go back to the PSU.Normally, in many of thecases I’ve had of PSUs notworking properly, I havemostly found the outputcapacitors to have lost theirvalues. These can easily bechecked with an ESRmeter.

On load is the ideal way totest a PSU. If the outputisn’t a clean DC, a meterwon’t catch this so a ‘scopehas to be used. Noteverybody has access tosuch a precious piece ofequipment, but an ESRmeter can save your life.An ESR meter can be

looked at as a glorifiedcapacitance meter but itdoesn’t tell you the value ofthe capacitor inmicrofarads. It tells you ofits Equivalent SeriesResistance, hence the termESR. In fact, the result itdisplays is in Ohms. All anESR meter is a two-terminal unit. Its primaryuse is the measure of the‘series resistance’ of acapacitor. The beauty aboutthese meters is that youdon’t need to remove thesuspect components out oftheir place in the circuit,unlike when usingconventional capacitancemeters.

The way an ESR works isthat it generates a signal ata specific frequency atwhich the capacitor’sreactance is slight andthrough a voltage dividercircuit, the capacitor’sinternal resistance canthen be measured.The capacitors on the finalstage are designated asC813, C814, and C815.C813 and C814 are1000uF/25V, while C815 is470uF/16V respectively.


Nine out of ten, you canactually see the capacitortops being lifted or inflatedor “domed” which meansthey are most certainlyFUBAR. Other times, youwon’t recognize them froma new capacitor, so justgiving them a visual won’treally get you that far. It’salways best to check theseout with an ESR meter. Onthis board, C813 and C814had a higher than normalESR reading, which quicklyprompted me to replacethem. A brand newcapacitor gave a reading of0.11 Ohms, while my twosuspect capacitors read4.59 Ohms, and 3.99Ohms. C815 was found tobe fine, so I left it in place.Should this inexpensive,yet priceless, tool not beavailable, then just replacethe three of them in oneclean sweep. There is nothrough-plating involvedhere, so changing them ischild’s play. Make a note oftheir orientation beforesoldering the new ones inand don’t just take forgranted the markings onthe PCB for these might notbe correct. Anybody mighthave a bad day, but it willsave you a great deal ofhassle if you double checktheir orientation.

While the board is out, aquick test of the two outputdiodes, D808 and D809(both FCH20U10) next tothe capacitors in question,surely won’t be a step inthe dark. Should you findeither or both of thesedamaged, before screwing

the new ones on to theirheatsink, apply a thin layerof thermal paste on to theirheatsink side. In my case,these two diodes were bothfine and as far as I canrecall, I’ve never ever foundthese to be FUBAR butthere’s always a first timefor everything, or almost.If, after you’ve come thisfar, there is still no decentoutput (or no output at all)then check or just replaceC807, which is a 47uF/50Vcapacitor. This componentis a vital part which worksin conjunction with theheart of the power supply,the FSDM07652RB powerswitch, by Fairchild. C807’spositive terminal isconnected across pin 3 (thedevice’s supply rail) and pin2, its ground.

This part is actually a sixpin package integratedPulse Width Modulator, orPWM, designated as IC803on the PCB, and it’sattached to a heatsink forobvious reasons. This deviceis quite sturdy, but shouldyou decide to replace it, asin the case of D808 andD809, always apply thermal

paste. You’ll be amazed atthe difference applying thispaste does to keep thecomponents’ temperatureas low as possible. It’s notnecessary to cake it on.Actually, doing this doesmore harm than good. It’sbest just to apply a thinlayer of paste and forgetabout it for a few years. It’salso recommended to cleanyour hands when handlingthis paste as somechemicals present in itaren’t very beneficial toyour health.

The problem with myThe problem with myThe problem with myThe problem with myThe problem with mysupply, apart from C813supply, apart from C813supply, apart from C813supply, apart from C813supply, apart from C813and C814, was thatand C814, was thatand C814, was thatand C814, was thatand C814, was thatC807, a 47uF/50V hadC807, a 47uF/50V hadC807, a 47uF/50V hadC807, a 47uF/50V hadC807, a 47uF/50V hadgone nearly open.gone nearly open.gone nearly open.gone nearly open.gone nearly open.

Once this was replaced andthe image board pluggedin, there were no moreoverload mode noisesApplying a VGA signal tothe monitor, I had a lovelypicture to admire whilesipping away at a cup of myfavourite drink, tea!

- James Borg-Malta - James Borg-Malta - James Borg-Malta - James Borg-Malta - James [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]


Slot Tech Event

Slot Tech Training at Clearwater Casino Resort

I had a great time at theSuquamish ClearwaterCasino Resort for one of

our regional slot techclasses for power supplyand LCD Monitor repair. Ihad been to this propertytwice before and it waswonderful to return. Ninetechs participated in thetraining event, from Wash-ington, Oregon and Califor-nia.

Attending the four-dayclass were Jerimee Cynor,KLA-MO-YA Casino, TravisBrehm, Lucy George,Anthony White, YakamaLegends Casino, RyanColeman, Ryan Fogelberg,Clearwater Casino, EmmaWegener, Elwha RiverCasino, and Julie Pattersonand Melvin Cardenas fromMuckleshoot Casino.Thanks to Johnny Walkerfor the last-minute signups.


Figure 11

It’s Movie Time! Before we startthe soldering lab on day three,we watch a little movie onproper soldering techniques.

Then we get to work. We startwith a practice project andmove on to build a nice littlecomponent tester that testsresistors, capacitors, transis-tors, diodes, MOSFETs andmore.


Slot Tech Feature Article

WILDER THINGS #4By Wilder Contreras

So we ran into an issue with a Will-iams blade. It had a broken spinbutton. The plunger had popped out

because the little plastic clips that hold itin place had broken off. See FIG.1.

The main problem we ran into other thanthe button being broken was we were outof this specific button type. Once again, Ihad to improvise a temporary solutioninstead of just leaving the game out ofservice. Actually, it became a permanentsolution as it’s still holding.

For this repair, you will need a small file,a paperclip, Krazy Glue, some baking sodaand, of course, a wire cutter. See FIG.2

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

If you put the button together you canmark off the two spots where the plasticpins used to hold the plunger in. SeeFIG.3


Get your small file and create smallgrooves. Make sure the depth of thegrooves are about the thickness of thepaper clip or actually a bit deeper wouldbe better to hold in more glue but not toomuch. See FIG.4.

When you’re done filing down the buttonyou should end up with something likethis that will be able to hold the paper clipin place. See FIG.5.

Now you’re ready to cut your paper clip

Put the button together so you can mea-sure the paper clip (so you know whereyou will cut it). Make sure you give it alittle bit of a tip to hold the plunger inplace. See FIG.6.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

For software, manuals, schematic diagramsand more, visit the free Slot Tech Magazine

Technical Department at http://slot-tech.com


Once you have the proper size, you cancut both pieces of the paperclip evenly aspossible. See FIG.7.

Now you are ready to glue the paper clipsin place. Once they are glued in, makesure you file down the spots that you haveglued (including the sides) and make themas flat as you can so when you put thebutton back together you will have a per-fect fit. See FIG.8.

Test out the fit in the entire button tomake sure it fits properly and it’s notrubbing anywhere and it doesn't pop out.It shouldn’t fall apart if you measured thepaperclips correctly. See FIG.9

Then you are ready to assemble yourbutton with your switch. Make sure youhear the click of the switch. If you canhear it, then you know you got it right andit’s ready to be installed back in the game.See FIG.10.

I hope this helps someone out there.Wilder ContrerasWilder ContrerasWilder ContrerasWilder ContrerasWilder Contreras

W. [email protected]. [email protected]. [email protected]. [email protected]. [email protected]

Figure 7Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10


Technical Presentations:Ceronix-LCD Monitor RepairFutureLogic-Gen 2 and Beyond-Ticket PrintersJCM-UBA and iVIZION Bill ValidatorsMEI-CashFlow SC66 Bill ValidatorPLUS-Randy Fromm on:LCD Repair/Power Supply RepairComponent Identification and Testing

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For a few years, I have been trying to bring the Slot Academy in to run their program alongside TechFest. It's anatural fit and it “rounds out” TechFest so there's something for everyone, not just the slot techs. Lucien's abusy fellow but this year, our schedules matched and the Slot Academy has agreed to appear at TechFest 33.

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Slot Academy at TechFest is produced by:Slot Tech Magazine401 W, Lexington #777El Cajon, CA 92022tel.619.838.7111fax.619.315.0410e-mail [email protected]

Company Name: ___________________________________________________Name of attendee(s) - Attach a list if necessary or just send all of this information on a PO.

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Using a Digital MultimeterThe DMM is the single most importantpiece of test equipment you can use.

Electronic ComponentsAll of the individual components usedin gaming machines are introduced.Students learn how to test them forproper operation.

Day 2-Diodes, Transistors & OtherSemiconductorsHands-on Transistor Testing LabThis part of the school takes a look atall of the different types of semiconduc-tors commonly seen in gaming ma-chines. We'll take a look at the opera-tion of each component, along with test-ing procedures to determine if the partis good or bad.

Day 3-SolderingGood soldering technique takespractice but there are some tricksthat can really help speed thingsalong. During this segment, eachstudent will be provided with theirown soldering supplies and some funproject kits they will assemble. Cur-rent kits include a versitile compo-nent tester that can be used along-side the DMM to test electrolytiuccapacitors, semiconductors, resis-tors and other components. Thisequipment will be theirs to keep. Thisis a VALUABLE shop tool.

Day 4-Morning Session-PowerSuppliesThis module covers all types of powersupplies, including linear power sup-plies and the Switched-Mode PowerSupply (SMPS) found in virtually ev-erything in a modern casino.

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Attend or Sponsor a Class Near You!

Since 2001, Slot Tech Magazine has been holding slot techtraining classes at casinos across the USA. These classeshave mostly been held at larger properties with a dozen or

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Cost of the ProgramTuition is $795/personIncludes:Digital MultimeterSoldering iron, tools and solderingsuppliesSample componentsSoldering Instruction KitComponent Tester KitTextbook

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2017 Class Schedule

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