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General wiring question for an alternate power source

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markronz:

Hey everyone-
    I have a wiring question, that I assume there's probably a pretty easy answer to, but I unfortunately don't know enough to figure it out on my own.   It has to do with my slot machine (actually Pachislo) but anyone familiar with wiring should probably be able to help.  Just for background information, let me explain what I'd like to do and why.   The pachislo machine accepts tokens.  Judging from the gameplay I've experienced on the machine so far, it takes a lot of tokens during normal play.   I only have a certain number of tokens, so once you play the machine for a while, you inevitably run out of tokens, and you have put all of them into the machine.  This is the point where in an arcade or casino that I'd have to go to buy more tokens.  Now at home what I have to do is open up the machine and take more tokens out of the hopper to play with.   It gets sort of irritating having to do this all of the time.  So I thought it would be sort of cool to rig up a hidden button on the machine, that when you push it, it pays out tokens as long as you have the button pressed in. So that's the overall goal of what I'm trying to do here.
   
Now, in the machine I've found the motor that controls the coin dispensing hopper.  There's a red wire and a black wire attached to it.   When you win on the machine, it will feed 20V DC power to the wire, and it spins the motor and dispenses tokens.  I used a multimeter to determine that it was 20V DC power being fed to it.  What I'd like to do is to introduce a wall wort power supply that is also 20V DC power.   I want to wire it up to the button and then to the motor. Now this is where I'm not sure how to wire it.  I,obviously, need the existing wires to still work when the machine wants to pay out.  But I want these new wires to feed in power only when the button is pushed.  I will not ever push the new button at the same time the machine is paying out.  There's a picture below of the motor and etc...
   
Seems to me like I need to somehow rig it up so that the existing wires are connected by default, then only when the button is pushed, that it switches the power to the wall wort.  Once the button is released, the power switches back to the existing wiring. So first, I was hoping someone could help explain to me how I could wire this up? 
   
And secondly, is there any specific type of pushbutton I'd need to get for this?
   
Let me know if you need any more information, or if what I've said doesn't make sense!  Thanks!

BobA:

Don't add an additional power source just parallel a switch to the hopper switch to run the hopper. 

or

Just add an auto stop/credit add chip.

Pachislo Auto Stop Credit Add Mod

markronz:

Thanks for the response Bob.   I saw the auto stop credit add mod before.   For my machine I can't (and have no desire to use) any sort of auto stop feature.  This is because the bonus game on my machine requires that you stop the reels in a specific order, which can change each spin.   So sometimes you need to stop 1, 3, then 2 reels.  Next spin it might be 3, 1, 2.  It alternates.  I know there's probably a way to turn off the AutoStop feature, but I guess in the end, the whole auto stop thing doesn't excite me.  I just like stopping the reels myself.   About the credit add mod, I don't like that part either.  I do like using tokens.   I just want there to be an easier way to get the tokens out.  Anyway, so that option is out.

Regarding the first thing you mentioned, what hopper switch are you referring to?   I've read that some machines have like a hopper empty switch, that will simply spit out tokens while the button is pushed (much like my desired button will do). My machine does not have such a button.  I've heard that some machines even have an "unjam hopper" type button that will make the wheels in the hopper spin the reverse direction.   I thought maybe I could reverse the polarity on such a button, but my machine also does not have one of these buttons either.   So that's why I'm trying to come up with my own solution.    But attached is a picture of all the buttons in my machine.  The white button is like a clear memory type button, and the red button is a reset type button.  There's no other buttons in the machine that control the hopper.  

So is there some other "hopper switch" you are referring to?

If not, could you or someone else explain how to hook up the button with the external source then?

BobA:

The hopper has to be activated by the machine to dispense coins.  There must be a relay on the circuit board that controls the hopper that causes it to work.  If you can parallel a switch to this relay or solid state switch then you could dispense the coins manually.

Trace back the power wires on the hopper motor to see where they are controlled from.

markronz:

Attached is a picture of the wires on the back of the hopper.   

#1 is just the two wires going to the motor.  These only have power when the machine wants it to pay out.
#2 seems to run over to #3
#3 comes from the circuit board

But I'm not sure what you're saying I should do?  Am I looking for a wire in sections 2 or 3 that are 20V?  Or what are you saying?

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