Jamiesons Skill Poker machine

[coppinpr]

You'd be ok with it BP, none of it is the joined up kind.

[runner]

Thanks very much, that helps a lot. There were 3 fuse holders that I wasn't sure what amps were right, but it looks like 5 amps would be correct. I have got the machine in a TV repair shop in Liverpool at the moment, the first shop that have said that they will take it on. I had rang 4 places previous, but as soon as you say arcade and electro mechanical they don't want to know. If it is a small machine you want repairing it is a good idea to tell them that, as I think they assume it is going to be a Space Invader type machine that will take up a lot of room in their shop.

I would have liked to have made more progress in repairing the machine myself, especially as one company wanted £290 before they would even look at it! I might have to take an electronics course at college? The shop rang me on Friday saying that they had made a fair amount of progress on it, cleaning contact points, repairing any faulty capacitors etc. It seems to be going through a reset mode and that they had got as far on it as they can, so I am picking it up on Monday to check it out. They have had the machine for 4 days and the repair cost is £150. Although they say that they hadn't checked the coin mech, interestingly my machine seems to only accept the older two pence coin. I will see what happens when I try to register a credit.

[badpenny]

Sounds about right. The older 2np coin has no steel in it. The newer ones have and get stuck in the mech.

[glittering-prize67]

First job is to remove the pcbs and replace all components, especially capacitors and resisters. You won't get exact parts but you will get equivalents. In the case of caps, always go higher, especially on voltage. It will work the same but last longer. Check for dry solder joints, clean all pcb connector pins. Then check your machine's wiring with a diagram. Relays are very easy to get and alter, if needed, to how it needs to be wired.

[runner]

Got the machine back from the TV repair shop and some progress has been made, as now some of the playing card lamps are illuminated, though keeping more than 10 lamps on causes one of the 3 fuses to blow. The machine did come with some information about this, which mentions the checking the bulbs, the 1 amp deck fuse would blow (not sure which fuse is the deck one).

I presume the machine needs to be reset somehow? I might try turning on the game with one of the connectors disconnected.

[tuffing]

Did you ever get the machine running? I have one of these but most of the electronics have been stripped out. I was thinking to rebuild the electronics with modern components as authentically as possible, but I would need to see the game in action to see how it behaves when playing. So if you have it running I'd love to see a video of it in action.

[tuffing]

Hello all!

I've found myself with one of these machines (Jamiesons's Skill Poker) however most of the electronics have been stripped out. So now I'm attempting to get the machine running by designing my own pcbs and programming it. I want it to play as authentically as possible, but I've never seen it operate so I'm not sure exactly how it operates. So if someone has one of these working, I would greatly appreciate a video of it in action - like a whole playthrough with free plays and all.

Thanks!

[runner]

Tuffing, I have not got mine working just yet. I am intending to take part of it to my local TV repair shop. I can't find any footage of one in use as yet, or the almost identical Royal Flush model. Can you put some photos of your machine on here?

[tuffing]

Sorry for the very late response.

Okay, if you do get it working I would appreciate it a lot if you could upload a video here.

Sure, I've attached some photos of the machine. It doesn't show in the photos here, but I do have the free play counter, the solenoid that stops the ball, all the buttons as well as all the ball detector switches. So I'm basically missing the electronics except for the power supply. As I mentioned earlier I'm working on designing my own circuitry to get the machine running again. I can post an update once I have something to show.

[runner]

Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures, I'm sure between the two of us we can get these machines working again.

[runner]

Which part of the country do you live? Might be able to get both machines together to get them both working.

[tuffing]

I'm in Sweden, so I'm guessing we're not even in the same country?

I've been working on some custom circuit boards to replace the originals (which I don't have) and I can post some images of it soon. So currently I have circuitry for handling the inputs from the buttons and the levers that detect the ball as well as an LED panel for lighting up the cards.

What is the issue with your machine at this point?

[geofflove]

I’d be really interested to see your circuit diagrams for this…

[tuffing]

I’d be really interested to see your circuit diagrams for this…

I want to emphasize that my cicuits are not in any way compatible with the original circuitry of this machine. The only thing I will be able to use from the machine is its power supply, and inputs like buttons and levers. I also want to mention that I am in no way an electronics expert. I am a software developer but I've taken this occasion to read up on electronics and learning a bit about it. But if you're interested I can post my diagrams when I have time.

[geofflove]

I'm always interested to see different solutions so yes - I'd be interested to see when you get a minute. Thanks

[slotalot]

I want to emphasize that my cicuits are not in any way compatible with the original circuitry of this machine.

You have nothing to apologise for. What you are trying to do is breath a little life into an otherwise dead cabinet. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavours.
And bear in mind that when your machine was first made, Laurie Binns, who was a partner in Jamieson's Automatics had to teach himself basic electronics from scratch before he could design the machine in the first place, so kind of like history repeating itself.
I look forward to seeing the results.

[tuffing]

So here's what I have so far with this machine. I have an "input board" with handles 9 inputs. The idea is to use one of these for the levers/ball sensors and another one for the buttons for the user input. Basically I've implemented hardware debouncing of the switches and a signal going into a schmitt trigger (74HC14) which in turns outputs a signal into a shift register (74HC165) which I will later interface with from a microcontroller.

input_board_schematicsa.jpg (172.69 KiB) Viewed 2670 times

I've also modelled a mount for the levers which I have 3d printed which also holds the circuit board to make it into a nice module.

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IMG-3702a.jpg (56.92 KiB) Viewed 2671 times

Additionally I have created an LED matrix that I will use to light up the cards. I'm using WS2812B LEDs which are addressable so they're very easy to work with and they are fairly bright and with initial testing it looks like it will work well. (Don't have any photos from it running at the moment but I'll post when I have it) - Edit: I noticed I don't have the capacitor values on the schematics, but they're 0.1 uF caps.

[slotalot]

Excellent work, very professional, look forward to seeing more as your work progresses.

[coppinpr]

Oh boy, you're good!! Arthur would have given you the job of chief design engineer in a heartbeat (although Laurie would have seen his job at risk but then again, without people like Laurie the modern components your using today would never have come along

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Arthur Jamieson

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Laurie Binns (chief design engineer)

[geofflove]

Impressive work. Looking forward to seeing it all working!