Skeeball trouble

[bfunzone]

Hi. I am new here and am trying to fix an old Skeeball model S. I get everything working and play a few games, the tickets dispense properly. Then, after a few games, when the first ticket is due to dispense, two and a half tickets dispense. The game allows you to roll all nine balls, keeps the correct score, then after the 9th ball, goes to help. I have used different ticket dispensers and the problem continues. I assume the problem is in the controller, but I can not pinpoint it. The folks at skeeball have been no help. They even claim they fixed it. I have four alleys that work with three of my controllers, but I can't get this fourth controller to work properly on any alley. Always the same symptom: Dispenses two and a half tickets then goes to help. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[RandyT]

Hi. I am new here and am trying to fix an old Skeeball model S. I get everything working and play a few games, the tickets dispense properly. Then, after a few games, when the first ticket is due to dispense, two and a half tickets dispense. The game allows you to roll all nine balls, keeps the correct score, then after the 9th ball, goes to help. I have used different ticket dispensers and the problem continues. I assume the problem is in the controller, but I can not pinpoint it. The folks at skeeball have been no help. They even claim they fixed it. I have four alleys that work with three of my controllers, but I can't get this fourth controller to work properly on any alley. Always the same symptom: Dispenses two and a half tickets then goes to help. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I don't claim to be a skeeball expert, but based on the fact that it kicks out 2 and a half tickets instead of one, and you have used different dispensers and got the same result, it sounds like the controller is waiting for a pulse (on the "notch sensor" line, perhaps) to indicate that a ticket has been dispensed, which it never receives.  To keep a gazillion tickets from pouring out, there is probably a timeout which kicks in at about the 2 and a half ticket point, and when the game is over, it flags an error.

If you used the same cabling on all 4 machines when you did the test, try using a different set.  Otherwise, I would suspect whichever parts on the controller that are responsible for counting pulses being sent back from the dispenser.

RandyT

[mgb]

Uaually a problem like that would be due to a bad ticket dispenser, but being that the problem has continued with different ticket dispensers, that is probably not the case (as you have already determined).

A couple of things to try:
1)swap out one of the known good controllers into this machine and try that.
2) check all of the cabling from the controller to the ticket mech and make sure the cables are all good.
3) On the ticket mech, the tickets go through a optical sensor that counts the notches, make sure that is clean (bow it out with air) and verify the tickets are fed correctly.

[DillonFoulds]

Possibly a stupid question, but based on the replies, if you still can't find anything wrong with the dispenser's signal strobing, are you using all the same tickets in all the machines? Probably are, just thought I'd ask...

[Kevin Mullins]

Have you pulled the main CPU board out and checked the solder joints on all the header pins where everything plugs into ?

[mgb]

Possibly a stupid question, but based on the replies, if you still can't find anything wrong with the dispenser's signal strobing, are you using all the same tickets in all the machines? Probably are, just thought I'd ask...

That is a very good question actually

[kronic24601]

I have the same S model Skeeball machine, but I still haven't gotten my tickets to dispense at all as of yet. Haven't had too much time to play with it. However, I have gotten some good advise from calling Skeeball directly for misc issues, you might want to try the same.

And be sure to post back the answer if they do help you ... I have a feeling I'll need it

Thanks.