Jamiesons Skill Poker machine

[runner]

I recently acquired a Jamiesons Skill Poker machine and would like to get it working again. I have managed to source the 3/4" plastic ball, the florescent tube and starter, also the 36 bulbs that sit behind the cards and fitted a plug. I believe the machine had been through an auction house and therefore presume for health and safety reasons it had been cut off. The machine lights up via the florescent tube, however a penny washer had fallen behind the power supply and pressed on the metal connectors on the circuit board. When I first plugged it in I could smell burning and before I had a chance to switch it off a small pop sound, so at the moment the power is getting through to the florescent tube but no joy when I put 2 pence in. Can anybody help? The machine is also missing the part at the back of the machine that triggers the ball into the playing field.

[aristomatic]

Welcome to the forum.

I have no experience on these so will leave it to those that do.

[runner]

Thank you. It may be the case that I will have to find another Skill Poker machine in order to compare parts and swap things over to see if they work.

[pennymachines]

Smoke followed by a pop suggests a blown electrolytic capacitor. These invariably break down with age (exacerbated, I believe, by lack of use) - acrid smell, sometimes followed by an alarming bang. Easy to fix though. Hopefully some of our members who understand this new-fangled electrical stuff will be along shortly...

[badpenny]

Good to meet you .......

The only thing I can add is that your photo shows a relay missing. You have the multi pin base that it should plug into.

BP

[runner]

Thanks. Any views and information are much appreciated.
I can see 3 holes on the board, one larger than the other two in a triangular shape.

[coppinpr]

Might be worth contacting JC. I know he has or at least had, not this model, but a similar one, because I sold it to him. I don't think it was working and I don't know if it is now or if, perhaps, he would sell it for parts or at least photo the insides for you. I might be very wrong but I vaguely remember it having a wiring diagram. As I said, it's not the same model but quite similar.

[runner]

Yes, I have seen this similiar model, the Royal Flush which looks to be nearly identical to the Skill Poker machine. I have sent JC a message asking about it.
Thank you.

[coppinpr]

While searching for something else I typically found something I couldn't find when I wanted it - Five pages of wiring and game info for the range of Jamiesons machines mentioned in this post. They are not in the best condition but I've done what I can to improve them and placed them in the Resources section. Contact me if you need me to look closer at the faded sheets.

[badpenny]

I expect the writing is too close to the paper.

[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.