Ami R85 1981 - Carousel Issue

[Brownie]

Good evening, New from Essex, I'm going to bid on my 1st Jukebox (looking for R84 onwards),  to go in my games room along side my Midway Galaxian/Cueball Wizard/Riley pool table....The one I'm interested in mentions the following:

as it has not been used for a while and so some of the selection push buttons are starting to stick (maybe some WD40) and you have to push them a few times, and also the carousel goes round sometimes without stopping (it doesn't do it all the time just sometimes).
The simple answer is to switch off the machine and then back on again and its all right.


Look forward to using this forum & I really appreciate any/all feedback

Kind regards

Dean

[Adjuvant]

Hi all.

Got my R-85 Starlight home today.  Looks beautiful (besides a few burned out bulbs), but no music.  When I turn it on, as mentioned by many other posters before, the carousel just spins continuously.  On the Mechanism Control board, the Opt. Sw. Index light blinks continuously and the Opt. Sw. Home blinks once per rotation.  I've tried unplugging and replugging all of the plugs on the board.  The only thing I can get to happen is when I unplug, then replug the long plug underneath the plug marked P207, the selector arm will drop a record on the turntable, the tone arm will drop onto the record, then immediately return to its resting position (without the turntable ever starting to turn) and the record will return to the carousel.

My service manual is in the mail, but from reading this board this sounds like a relatively common problem that I haven't been able to find a good answer for so far.  Any words of wisdom?

Thanks,
- A

[ami-man]

Hello Adjuvant,

It sounds like you need to send the following boards to a Rowe Ami specalist for testing/repair:-

CCC Central Control Computer
Mechanism Control
Pricing Board

If you were in Europe I would suggest that you send the boards to us for repair.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[ami-man]

Hello Dean,

Welcome to the forum.

Rowe Ami jukeboxes of the era you are looking at the R-84, R-85, R-86 etc if set up correctly are vertually a maintenance free jukebox other than the electronic boards and amplifier.

WD40 should be left in the can it has no place on any jukebox and it only results in problems, the same can be said for oil & grease on a Rowe Ami jukebox of this era. They should be clean and dry with only lubrication in specific points and only then in a drop of oil at best.

Please let us know if you get a jukebox and if we can help.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood (ami-man)
Games Unlimited & Datex Systems
Units 4 & 5 Lion Park
New Street
Halfway
Sheffield
S20 3GH
0114 247 0242
alan-hood@datex.co.uk

[Adjuvant]

Thanks for the reply, Alan.

I didn't pay much for the jukebox and bought it primarily for the music and aesthetics, but also in no small part as a personal rehab project.  I've seen you refer a few times in the past to cold joints on the boards.  When you're recommending the boards be sent to a specialist here in the US for testing and repair, and without having to give away too many trade secrets, are you able to tell me how much of that is evaluating for and resoldering cold joints and multimeter testing?  If I want to give it a shot on my own, would you have any recommendations, within the limitations as to what you're willing to give out as free advice, as to where I might begin looking to evaluate and repair the boards?

Thanks again,
- A

[ami-man]

Hello Adjuvant,

In the USA Bruce Wentworth of AB Leisure is the chap you need to contact for testing/repairs.

The CCC is beyond most peoples experience other than a Rowe Ami bench engineer.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[Adjuvant]

Well, I got my R-85 manual in the mail yesterday and in the Troubleshooting section, for the spinning carousel issue it recommended checking the connection between the Mechanism Control and CCC.  I gently wiggled with the harness connection to the CCC on the Mechanism Control (17) and BOOM, I got records to play.  The connection is pretty touchy and intermittent.  I can tell the connection is good when the numbers on the display are cycling as the carousel turns to select the next record.  It jukebox was pretty neglected by its last owner (not his fault, we'll just leave it at that) and is dirty and a little mildewy on the inside, so maybe once I clean everything up, paying extra attention to the harness connections, the connection will work more reliably and consistently without me having to open it up and gently wiggle the plug.  Could it also be cold joints on the mechanism control board causing the intermittent connection problems? 

[Adjuvant]

UPDATE

Finally, after much hair-pulling and many red herrings, I finally solved the non-stop spinning carousel issue.  For future reference, I'll detail my process here

Eventually, wiggling the CCC-to-Mechanism-Control plug stopped working and the carousel started spinning endlessly again.  I pulled the Mechanism Control board and took a close look at the solder joints at the plug connection. Lo and behold, I found an honest-to-goodness cold joint:

 

So I solder-sucked that joint, as well as all of the other joints on the connector, just to be safe, and reflowed fresh solder at all of the joints.  Plugged everything back in and ... spin, spin, spin. 

Next, for good measure, I pulled the CCC and checked all the solder joints.  No obvious cold joints, but I resoldered all of the connections to the Mechanism Control board connecter, just to be safe.  Plugged everything back in and ... spin, spin, spin.

I next took a closer look at the Mechanism Control board.  I noticed that one of the resistors was looking a little not-so-fresh:



The multimeter reading across the resistor was 1075 ohms.  Not terrible, but outside of the 5% tolerance.  I guessed that probably wasn't the problem, but I replaced it anyway.  While desoldering, its neighbor started to crack open a bit as well, so I replaced that one, too:



Plugged everything back in and ... spin, spin, spin.

I was pretty convinced that the problem lay somewhere in the connection between the CCC and Mechanism Control board, especially since I was getting all the right flashing lights while the carousel was spinning, i.e. solid Detent and Magazine Motor lights, flashing Opt SW index and occasionally flashing Opt SW Home.  I had nearly zero resistance readings plugging my multimeter leads into each of the slots on either end of the CCC to Mechanism Control connection.  However, when I closely inspected each of the slots in the molex connector on the Mechanism Control board side, I noticed that I could see a bit more light coming through slot 10.  When I put a jeweler screwdriver into slot 10, I got encountered no resistance compared to any of the other slots.  The manual tells me that slot 10 is the optical switch index connection.  I pushed out the terminal in slot 10 and two pieces fell out:



As before, I was unable to uncrimp the wire, so I just snipped the crimps off and luckily my order of new terminals had just arrived in the mail today, so I just crimped on the new terminal.  I posted this in another topic, but the terminal is from TE connectivity / AMP, part 3-640707-1 contact, receptacle, 24-18AWG, crimp (http://www.newark.com/te-connectivity-amp/3-640707-1/contact-receptacle-24-18awg-crimp/dp/52K3550) and it's a perfect fit.

I plugged everything back in and ... carousel spins and stops when it's supposed to.  All selections play in the order given without slippage.  SO HAPPY!

Now to fix the Starlight light control ...

-A

[ami-man]

Hello Adjuvant,

I am glad that you seem have to have rectified your lastest issue on the jukebox.

The dry joints (cold joints USA) are an issue on the connection pins on this era of Rowe Ami jukeboxes.
The connection on the mechanism control P205 is normally a problem with tarnish and corroded connections.

Regarding the light controller the lamps have to be 14 volts (DO NOT USE 12 VOLTS, it will burn out the unit)

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK