Week of 4/20/2014
Cyclone
I found it turned off along with everyting else that was plugged into the power strip along that wall.  I couldn't find anything wrong with any of the equipment.  One item that is also plugged in there is a Massage chair that if you sit on without putting money in will keep asking to put money in.  I assume someone got tired of hearing that so they turned everything off.  I am planning on replacing the power strip with something else that will make it harder to shut off my equipment.

Air Hockey.
The one puck return door looks like someone tried to pry thier way into it with a screwdriver.  I have no idea why you would try that as there is nothing in there.
It seems like a lot of work to try to get a free game.  I will talk to the location manager when I see him and find out if he knows what happened to it. 

Slam A Winner
The one ticket dispenser wasn't working.  I found that the rubber O ring had broken.  Some days I can replace them in just a few minutes.  Unfortunately today was not one of those days and I struggled with it for a long time.  I forgot the "trick" to get it done quickly.  I need to go watch the How to video again to remind myself.
One delay that I had while working on it was that I kept hearing someone in the building with me.  Which I should have been the only person in.  It sounded like kids messing around but I didn't want any hassles so I got up and locked the back door.  Then I did a walk through of the building to see if I could find anyone.  I didn't but I did hear what sounded like someone trying to open the back door a while later.  The building has security cameras and a security system so there is little chance that there was anyone else in the building when I left. 

Spider Stomping
I had worked out a trade deal with this game and another one for a Pinball machine.  Unfortunately this game was buried behind several other games in my basement.  So I spent a couple of hours playing a game of Tetris with arcade games to get this machine out.  The base is extremely awkward to move around.  Eventually, I got it free and put it back together to test it.  Sure enough only two of the switches were now working.  I cleaned switches and reseated connectors and didn't make any progress.  I gave up on it for the night and let the buyer know what was going on.  The next day I noticed that I had it plugged into this "energy saving" power strip that has caused some strangeness out of equipment that I had plugged into it.  I plugged the game in somewhere else and it worked fine.  I let it run a few hours and it continued to work fine.  It is one of those situations that I wouldn't believe if someone else had told me the story.  I didn't bother to plug the game back into the power strip to see if it continued to work fine or act up again.  I was just happy it was working.  I explained this to the person I was trading with and he was OK with the situation.  For the record, I did offer and want to keep the game a bit longer to verify that it was working 100% but the person I was trading with wanted the game that day.  I'm sort of sorry to see this one go as my son loved playing it for the past few years but apparently he has outgrown stomping on spiders.  He was happy to see that I got a Pinball machine in the deal. 

Dr Who Pinball
I needed a game to take the Allentown show and realized that I didn't have any even close to ready that I want to sell.  So, I decided to take one just to show and looked around and decided that Dr. Who was the best candidate.  It was in need of some cleaning and new rings so I started on that.  Apparently, it has been a while since I cleaned this one up as pretty much all of the rings need replaced.

Skee Ball
I found one lane with a coin jam.  I found a quarter in the mech that looked like someone used a hammer and punch on it.  After clearing the jam, the lane worked fine.
I moved three balls back into the proper lanes.

Cyclone
I found it moved a couple of feet and unplugged.  I moved it back and plugged it and it worked fine.

Jackpot Crossing
I found it with an out of order sign on it.  There was a ticket jam, I cleared the jam and the game worked fine.  I am still looking for a replacement for this one.

Rowe Changer
The out of service light was lit.  I found that there was a huge jam in the bill stacker area.  It is possible that I didn't get the stacker latched last time I installed the stacker.  I cleared the jam and ran several dollars through it and it worked fine.

Collection

While I was doing my collection at the location that the change machine that had the jam was at, I noticed that they had a couple of shredded dollar bills laying on the desk.  They weren't aware of the huge bill jam and apparently the machine was shredding money or the patrons were ripping the bills apart trying to get them out of the acceptor.  I explained where the shredded money had come from.

Skee Ball
I moved four balls back into the proper lanes.
One lane was making a horrible noise when the ball release solenoid was active.  I moved the lanes and crawled underneath to find out what was going on.  It turns out that a glow stick had found its way into the ball release mechanisms.  I removed the glow stick and the noise cleared up.  While I was under the Skee balls I found some of the rubber bumpers I had replaced in the score rings just a few months ago.
One lane had a coin jam and after removing the quarters, I found dimes and pennies jammed into the mech. 

Cyclone
I slid it back a foot into its normal position.  I've been considering replacing this Cyclone with a New Harpoon Lagoon but knowing that the game is getting kicked around discourages that idea.

Slam A Winner
I found the ticket dispenser laying inside of the game yet again. I moved it back and it worked fine.

Game Swap
I pulled the Western Train off location and replaced it with a Tic Tac Toe game.  I couldn't find the keys to the Tic Tac Toe game and spent at least four hours looking for them.  Eventually, I found them with the rest of my keys in the truck.  Other than the key search, the delivery went fine.  I also found out that the roof at the location has been leaking and probably has leaked over a few of my games.

Prize order
The prizes that I had ordered arrived.  I started on the inventorying and pricing of the prizes. 

Storage area
I moved a few more games out of the shop and into storage.  The shop still looks packed.  I still need to move more games into the storage are but just the few games so far has given me some much needed room to work.

Nintendo Red Tent
I picked this up a few weeks back and one of the monitors in it seems to have a bad picture tube.  The monitor and picture tubes in these games are difficult to find.  My son has been playing the side with the bad monitor because he likes the game in it.  So I swapped the monitors around so he could play on the good monitor instead of the bad monitor.  It was fairly easy and the monitors are light.

Air Hockey
I found it unplugged.  I plugged it back in and it worked fine.

Armor Attack
I had some free time so I took a look at my Armor Attack with the bad monitor.  The breaker would pop after being on for a minute or so.  I disconnected the Yolk and got the same results.  I checked the output transistors and found two that were shorted.  I replaced them and the breaker stopped popping but I didn't have any horizontal deflection, so I replaced the other two output transistors and the picture looked good.  I did some testing and found that one of the LF1331 chips I had on the shelf was bad.  I need to find a source or suitable replacement for them.

Air Hockey
When I tried to pull the cashbox out of the game for the weekly collection, I found it was jammed in and wouldn't move.  Eventually, I managed to force it free but it took a lot of time and effort to accomplish.  Apparently, last week I had managed to wedge the key to the score areas under the cashbox when I replaced it.  I'll try not to do that again.

Shaq Attaq
This is the pinball that I swapped in last weekend.  I played a game on it and found that it was awarding credits at 10,000 points.  I don't remember setting it that way but I may have done that while it was in the shop so I wouldn't have to keep adding credits to it.  I used the factory restore option to set it back to the right settings and played several games on it to verify that it was working properly.  I must not have played it after I put it on location.  Usually I do but I was short on time when I dropped the game off and must have forgotten.

Change Machine
I had the coin buckets out and when I put them back in place the middle bucket wouldn't go the whole way back.  I couldn't see what the bucket was catching on but it was catching on something.  I swapped it to the far left position and it latched fine there and the other bucket latched fine in the middle so I let it go for now.  There has to be a screw or something sticking out on the bucket on the left side that was the cause of the issue but I couldn't find it.


Ticket Eater
I found it with the PAPR error.  I cleared the error and the eater then worked fine.  I printed several receipts with it and every time it worked fine.  I didn't have all my cleaning supplies along as I was delivering a game but my next trip there, I will clean the rollers in the printer just in case.  As I was heading out the door of the location, I got a text from the Manager saying that he was just informed that there was a problem with the Ticket Eater the night before and asked if I could look at. It appears that my frequent stops and checking of the equipment at this location is worth the effort.

Skee Ball
I moved three balls back into the proper lanes.

Western Train
I found it with a ticket jam, I cleared the jam and tested the game and it worked fine again.

Slam A Winner
When I turned it on, it was giving the check tickets message.  A quick look at the game and I found the reason, the ticket dispenser was laying in the bottom of the game.  Apparently, someone was kicking or shaking the game pretty hard.  I put the dispenser back in place and made sure it was secure and the game worked fine.

Crane follow-up
A few weeks back I had adjusted the voltage to try to increase the win rate.  The win rate has indeed gone up.  It hasn't been long enough that I can verify how the earnings are doing but I am leaving it alone for now.  I want to clear out some of the old stock of stuffed animals that I have. 

Game Delivery
I swapped out the Corvette Pinball at the location.  It has been there for over a year and more importantly, I've been having issues with the upper flipper on it that I can't seem to get straightened out.  The game swap went well with the only issue being that it was threatening to rain the whole trip back to the shop.

Corvette Pinball
I got the game back to the shop and set it up to see what the story was with the flipper and order parts if I needed them.  I replaced all of the mechanical parts and the flipper was still weak.  After about three hours, I swapped the flipper opto boards around and that solved the issue.  Apparently the opto for the upper flipper was going bad or the plastic actuator wasn't working properly.  Either way, I know it is on the opto board now.  The right side doesn't have an upper flipper on this game so I will leave it that way for a while and verify that is the problem before I buy any more parts for it.
I had disconnected the racetrack on this game on location a while back as it was intermittently blowing fuses when it got shaken really hard.  I think I found out why that was.  The plate that two of the screws went into was loose and laying in the housing and could have easily been shorting out the boards when the game was shaken.  I reconnected the racetrack and found that one of the lanes wasn't working properly.  It looks like one of the opto's for the encoder has failed.  I wish I would have known that when I had the assembly apart on my workbench before I put it back into the game.  From what I can tell the Encoder uses the same opto as the switches.  I need to check and see if I have any.  I have found that you can buy a new board for around $55.  I’m going to try replace the opto first.  It is a lot cheaper.

Storage Space
I was talking with one of my customers / friends and I mentioned that I was out of space.  He offered me space in a building he has for a great price.  So I know have some much needed storage space.  The only flaw with the space is that I won't be able to unload my trailer into it as it has a loading dock for an entrance. 

Skee Ball
I found one lane with a huge coin jam in it.  After digging out the quarters, I found pennies and nickels at the bottom of the jam.
I moved eight balls back into the proper lanes.

Toy Taxi Crane
It was rejecting all quarters.  I took the acceptor apart expecting to find a redemption ticket but I didn't find anything.  But when I put it back together it all worked.

Johnny Nero Action Hero
I just picked this game up in a trade deal and I am getting it ready for location.  It needs the standard cleaning, lock changing and bulb replacement.  It doesn't need a whole lot of work but I spent a few hours on it and I still need a way to stop the guns from hitting the floor. The location where it is going to has a lot of problems with damage to the games and if I don't protect the guns I will be replacing them in a few days usage.

Megatouch
I'm almost finished with the swap.  I've moved everything over and it works well but I still need to do some minor things like hook up the coin switches and coin door lights.  The old cabinet is ready to be disposed.

Skee Ball
I moved three balls back into the proper lanes

Rowe Change Machine
The Out of service light was on.  The status lights indicated that the P4 sensor was blocked, I pulled out the bill transport and found a redemption ticket in the path.  I removed the ticket and the changer worked fine after that.

Corvette Pinball
I found it with an out of order sign on it.  The upper flipper wasn't working but I spent a few minutes working on it and got it working.  The flipper needs rebuilt, pretty much all of the moving parts on it are badly worn.  Which is strange as I rebuilt it before I put it out on location and the other flippers don't show anywhere near the amount of wear that flipper has.  The weather is looking good for the next couple of days so I will just swap it out for another game as I have been trying to do for the past few months.  The weather has been preventing me from doing the swap.

Slam A Winner
I replaced the part that had broken.  One of the simplest fixes I have had to do in a while.  You just pull off three clips and slide the part out and put the new in.  The only minor difficult part was finding the holes for the clips in the new part.  While I was at it I also replaced the seven balls in the game with new ones.  The old balls didn't appear worn until I put them beside the new balls and it was pretty obvious which balls were the new ones and which were the old ones.  The new balls bounce around a lot more than the old ones did.

Western Train
Someone had put a ticket into the coin slot, it was just out of reach, I had to pull the coin mech out and push the ticket down through the coin slot to remove it.

Golden Tee Complete
Someone had stuffed around ten tickets into the Bill Acceptor.  I pulled the acceptor apart and cleared them out.  As usual the acceptor wouldn't go back online after pulling it apart.  I don't know if it is the acceptor or the game but this game frequently has an issue where the bill acceptor won't come back online after being serviced.  A power reset clears it up.

Garage clean up.
Since the weather has finally started to warm up, I can do some work in the garage where I store the unused games.  I spent a few hours moving games around and when I was done, the garage looked even worse.  I need to either get rid of some of the games or find some storage to house them.

Ticket Eater
The location called me in a panic they had a huge a crowd and the ticket eater went down.  When I got there it would accept the tickets and eat them but not count them.  The customer said it occasionally counts some tickets but it then removes them.  The front sensor didn't appear to be registering, so I replaced the front and rear sensors and the resistor that the document came with the sensor said needed to be changed.  I put it back together and spent a lot of time getting the sensors aligned with the hole in the assembly again.  But the problem was still happening.  I reseated the cable between the CPU board and the reader and the problem cleared up.

Tokyo Drift
The location reported that the game would occasionally display an error on the screen that said I/o board not responding.  I couldn't reproduce the error so I switched the computers between two of the games and let it run to see if the error follows the computer or not.  I suspect that the problem is on the I/O board itself but I will try this first before replacing a $500 part.

Skee Ball
I moved six balls back into the proper lanes.

Ticket Eater
The location called and reported that the eater was now running constantly and wouldn't print a receipt.  I walked the customer though adjusting the front sensor and he got it working.  I need to adjust the sensor as it is still too close.

Game Trade
I traded a game to another operator.  I need to do some work to get the game I got in the deal ready for placing on location.  The marquee light is out and the game really needs cleaned.  I also need to figure out a way to keep the guns from hitting the floor.

Megatouch
I have a pair of standup Megatouches I am working on combining into one working game.  It has been a much larger project than what I thought it would be.  It turns out that the wiring harnesses between the various platforms are entirely different and need to be swapped too.

Skee Ball
I moved eleven balls back into the proper lanes.

Road Trip
When I went to collect, I found that the small prizes were almost gone.  There were only three left.  The game did have a good week but I don't know if it was good enough to empty the small prizes out and yet there was not medium prizes won.  I tested the sensors and spindles and everything worked fine but I am suspicious that someone found a way to empty the game.  I can think of a way to do it but I didn't have the time to test it.  It would take some time to pull off but at this particular location, it is possible that someone could stand in front of the game and pull it off and not get caught.  I loaded it back up with prizes and will watch it carefully to see if it happens again.

Sonic and Tales
I found a coin jam.  The jam was caused by two cardboard quarters that were jammed in the coin mechs.

Skee Ball
I moved four balls back into the proper lanes.

Slam A Winner
A rather large piece of plastic has broken away from the part that directs that balls back into to the ramp.  I ordered a new one it was only $35.  The game seems to work fine with the part broken but I suspect it won't for too long.

Megatouch
I've had this one sitting in the shop for a while, the touchscreen was destroyed on it.  I found a complete non-working Megatouch with a good monitor and touchscreen on it.  So I swapped the monitors.  Oddly enough, I had to swap the frame of the monitor around too as they were different and wouldn't line up with the mounting holes.  The monitor is the exact same model but the frames are different.  I spent a few hours doing the swap and the game works great now
the picture on the new monitor is much nicer than the picture on the old monitor and the touchscreen works perfectly.

Air Hockey
I found it with an out of order sign on it.  I found two pucks jammed at one end with a Reese’s Pieces candy holding them in the slot. Apparently, I missed on the other day. 
After locking the puck access door closed I was testing it and managed to through the keys into the score area.  Luckily they fell through but there was a split second there where I was wondering how I was going to fix that mistake.

Trap Door
I called Benchmark again to get advice on how the coiled cable is run.  Word of caution to anyone who has one of these games and is thinking about cutting the zip tie that holds the Molex connectors
and wiring in place.  TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES AND MAKE MARKS ON HOW THE CABLE IS TO BE RUN!  The cable routing is extremely important and not nearly as obvious as it seems.  The manual does not mention the cable routing or even feature any pictures of it!
I found that I had got the spring on the wrong side of the post and that was the issue with the claw. It was an easy fix and I didn't have to tear into the assembly again. I installed the crane trolley again.  I had to pull it out and rework the coiled cable routing yet again but after that the game ran perfectly I was preventing it from dropping the animals and
it never got stuck or even hesitated.  I've haven't been this happy about getting a game repaired in a long time.

Tokyo Drift
It had power but there was nothing on the screen.  I moved it out and turned it on and off and it came back up.  I reseated the cables and let run for a couple of hours and it seemed to be running OK.

Skee Ball
I moved three balls back into the proper lanes.

Trap Door
The parts came in and I swapped everything from the old plate over to the new one.  I also replaced all the rollers and bearings that the trolley rides on and the coiled cable for good measure. I installed it and the game kept making the noise that it makes when the claw is at the bottom of the travel, so I didn't get part of it back together properly.  But the trolley moved around the track without getting stuck so that was an encouraging sign.

Tokyo Drift
While I was testing it a message flashed up on the screen in huge red letters about I/O board not responding.  After a reboot, I couldn't get it to happen again.  I found the shifter isn't working properly on the one side.  The part that activates the switch broke. 

Skee Ball
I moved four balls back into the proper lanes

Prize Order
I placed a small order for prizes. It had been slow due to the weather but a couple of nice days caused me to be all but out of prizes.  A nice day or two after days of cold and snow are always good for this business.

Game Pickup / Delivery
I picked up a game and delivered it to a friend's place where I picked up a couple of games.  One is non-working and is going to be stripped for parts.  I did manage to drop one game on it's side while Moving it.  Luckily it landed on a snow bank and other than getting some of the metal parts wet, no harm at all. 

Air Hockey
I found a bunch of Reese’s Pieces laying on the game and on the floor near the game.  I picked them up as I know that they will end up in the game if I don't. 

Collection
I normally schedule the collections for when the public is not at the location.  I do it that way so I can get my work done.  And collecting from several games is work.  Usually it takes me 2-3 hours at this particular location.  Anyhow, today I had to collect while people were there.  And within two minutes of starting, I had help.  Two young loud mouth kids asking tons of questions and demanding free games.  I frequently give kids free games if I am collecting and they ask nicely or are polite with me.  These two did not get any free games and I was wishing that I had some Advil in my tool bag after a while.