Mills/Sega/Jennings Lucky Horseshoe/Devil/Chief

[brigham]

The soldered-on item is a spacer to stop the electric payout on the non-horseshoe orange. It shouldn't correspond to any payout hole.
I can't remember what triggers the feature on Lucky Devil. It doesn't just appear; you have to get some combination.
Probably the one which used to trip the jackpot; the feature was a work-around for the jackpot being outlawed. Try 'forcing' a jackpot win; it might just start the feature.

[pedroofn19]

I've cracked it, it lives again. After much messing and tinkering around it finally came to life when I poked a screw driver inside and triggered the bottom micro switch. It really started buzzing after triggering the switch. I jumped so much I almost fell off my chair. I had to bend the bracket so that the switch could be triggered when the Bell Fruits were in line, and then hey presto, the horseshoe lit up, and I got a jackpot on every pull of the handle. I am well chuffed as I never thought I would get the electrics working properly.

Unlike the Lucky Devil, My machine only triggers the jackpot when you get three Bell Fruits. When melons line up it only pays out ten, with no bonus feature.

On my middle reel there are two Bell Fruit symbols, and one of those has been added at some point, but is does trigger the jackpot on both of the Bell Fruits.

[grains]

Great news! Glad to hear you have got it working.

[brigham]

How many jackpot pulls did you get?
There should be a knob inside to adjust this.

[pedroofn19]

I timed how long, the shortest amount of time was around three seconds, and the longest was around 1 min 27 seconds. I almost emptied the coin tube after two goes on the highest amount of time.

I have learnt so much from buying and tinkering with this machine, and I only bought it as I wanted the backdoor for another machine I was working on. But now I have it all working I think I will keep the door on it and restore it nicely. It's funny how thing go sometimes.
Thanks for any help guys, it's always good to hear.

[pedroofn19]

I got the melons to trigger the jackpot feature. Just a bit of fiddling around and I got it all going properly now.

[coppinpr]

Topic merged - Site Admin.

I know that operators like to pull the wool over the player's eyes but this payout card fitted in this Hi-top asks more questions than it answers.

[treefrog]

Seems alright to me, if you remember how these work.

[coppinpr]

I guess your right,I know the machine, in fact, I've just done the artwork for one, it's just that nowhere does it say what the max is or how you win it. I realise now it should have the top glass (which there is no sign of) and (usually) horseshoes on the reel strips (which it doesn't have) which would have reminded me how these worked.

[dickywink]

I bought one of these in a second hand shop in Norwich when i was just 17 years old for £26 in 1979... It was a fortune for me then... but I managed to keep it for most of my life... and I wanted it so badly. My dad worked at Watney's brewery and I used to go to the Watney's social club as a boy and watch the "old folk" play these machines at 6d a time.

But I had it for many years... then eventually I went to America on a job and bought a Mills jackpot mech., so came back and removed the electronic timer for the horse shoe feature and turned it back into how it should be... And that was where it all started. Well, there was a lot more to it than that... but it sent me down that path... Lucky horse shoe my arse?

All the best ... Dicky

[brigham]

All of these Instone & Ashby type electric 'feature' conversions have mealy-mouthed descriptions, as if the Wrath of the Gaming Board is just around the corner.
It all becomes clear once you've seen it work.

[treefrog]

All of these Instone & Ashby type electric 'feature' conversions have mealy-mouthed descriptions, as if the Wrath of the Gaming Board is just around the corner.
It all becomes clear once you've seen it work.

I always thoughts these must have pushed the legality to the limit as although you put in another coin to win another jackpot, you are almost guaranteed it. I prefer the Instone versions as they were neat small units that do not damage the originality of the machine, whereas the Horseshoe conversion is a huge lump attached the hood, as such drilled into it. No idea who made these. I still have one Lucky Devil I plan to keep intact.

[pedroofn19]

It was my Lucky Horseshoe top flash that you made for me, and a very good job you made of it. Thank you.
To trigger the jackpot on my one the bell fruit bars, or the melons must be on the win line.
Then the light lights up in the jackpot window, it pays 10 coins out. Insert another coin pull the handle and 10 more coins come out, whatever fruits come in. There is a knob in the electrical control box that can adjust the amount of time the light stays on for. When set to the longest I can almost empty the machine, and the shortest setting you get 2 pulls and the light goes off.

[coppinpr]

That's interesting info on the payouts
usually, I think the additional payouts were subject to there being a horseshoe or another odd overlay on the reel one symbols to conform with the gambling laws of the time,but they simply put the overlay on EVERY symbol thus making the additional payouts timed only with no need for any mechanical payout changes

[brigham]

On mine, there was a lemon on the first reel with NO overlay symbol, to maintain the 'chance' element.
Evidence of a riveted tag corresponding to that symbol could be seen on the payout disc, but Nothing beside remains...

[grains]

Topic merged - Site Admin.

Please does anyone have a photo of the control box that is mounted to the back of the hood and how this connects to the 2 x female connector blocks inside the case and mech.
I have recently purchased a machine which has the wiring looms, solenoids etc attached to the mech and case but there is no unit mounted in the hood just 2 holes where it would have been fitted. Thank you.

[coppinpr]

I can't remember the details, but we did talk about this some years ago. There should be a transformer, somewhere, possibly not in the hood (can't remember) but the box you are thinking of was most likely the timer for the feature, it was quite a complex little devil and we discussed if it was timer or count related, we kind of ended up going with timer I think. Anyway, the point is we decided that it might NOT be essential as there seems to be a mechanical switch off for the feature as well. We came to the conclusion that it MIGHT be there to give a max time to the feature being on just in case the mechanical switch off (I think melon on the middle reel) didn't come up just to stop a possible, but unlikely, continuous feature staying on. If I remember correctly TF thought it might be a unit that stored a limited amount of power to hold the feature solenoid in the ON position, releasing the solenoid when the power drained out. So its possible an operator removed yours at some point and relied on the mechanical OFF switch.

[grains]

Thanks for the information.
I think this Lucky Horseshoe mechanism must have been disabled previously as there are no male connectors to link the power / lighting loom and the mech loom. I would have expected some kind of step down transformer to supply the solenoid on the vertical finger of the mech.
Here are a couple of photo's showing the 2 separate female connectors on the mech loom and case loom.

[coppinpr]

As I said , there should be a transformer (down to 24V I think), I don't know where it was housed but I guess in the top box.if all the solenoids and switches are still there it should be easy to get the lights and feature working without the timer.

[grains]

Here is a photo of the mech side on showing the solenoid and micro switch. Hopefully this part of Lucky Horseshoe is complete.