Need people who know Grayhound skill cranes!!! problem with mine!

[matt_3756]

I have a Grayhound single player joystick plush crane. I was tinkering with my coin mechanism trying to get that little light bulb behind the coin mech to work... and I think I connected 2 wires I shouldnt have because I heard a small spark sort of... and from then on, my crane when turned on, does not go to the home positon or anything. Coin mech does not work either. Power to the machine is fine, so I doubt it has anything to do with the power supply. I checked all fuses, and even replaced the one on the control board, and those are fine. I need advice from people who know these cranes. I have searched this entire earth, and can't find someone who services these types of cranes. I do not have a manual or anything because the idiot I bought it from all of a sudden says he does not service them anymore and has no parts or anything.

Now just today, I put the machine on self test mode, and the gantry moved about randomly, and the claw went up and down randomly while self testing. Just today without self test on, I noticed when I jiggled the harness that connets to the TOP (claw) the claw started acting funny, random numbers on the credit board, and the gantry and claw going nuts, moving in random positions and not stopping when it hit the corner of the machine. (Wheels kept turning.) Could this be a problem on the CPU board, or a problem with a relay? Could I have fried a chip on the CPU board... just enough to where the claw still moves, but not the way it should?

Any help is appreciated and if you have experience in repair or anything with Grayhound cranes, please contact me, post a message, or call me. I have uploaded several pictures of the front and back of both the control board I have, and the CPU board. Feel free to download the full size images... they are big so you can zoom in pretty good if you need to.

Thanks in advance everyone! Hope I can figure this out! I will post more info / pics as needed in the future.

-Matt

Cell: 724-462-8170


PICTURES:

- CONTROL BOARD

- CPU BOARD

- BACK OF CONTROL BOARD

- BACK OF CPU BOARD

[grantspain]

sounds like you shorted out the switch lines,this is gonna be a long fault finding process
first locate the wires you messed with and id where they go,if its electronic coin mech check the input voltages at the mech.
what tests are available to you?from this you can determine what is faulty.
my guess without more info is the uln2003a ic's on the control board are shot,these ic's are darlington arrays that control switches.these ic's are very cheap and common

[D_Zoot]

Greyhounds eh?  I've still got about 20 of those out on location!

The ULN's mentioned are the drivers for the solid state relay's, since the carriage moved about for you I would have to say the ULN's are probably ok.

Take a look at the 74xxx logic chips on the cpu board.  It seems likely that one of the 373's has gone bum on you.   A logic probe would be handy for that, if you don't have one I suppose you could shotgun the 373's, it will probably fix it.

If you would rather not mess around with them, you can shoot me both boards, I have a bench rig for testing them.


D

[matt_3756]

D Zoot, you are just the person I am looking for! 

Now I cannot tell with the naked eye if they are bad or not and I don't really have anything to test them with except a multimeter. If one of these chips are bad, is it fixable?

So I eliminated several things for sure that could be the problem, correct me if I am wrong though:  fuses, power supply, board that controls the solenoid. Im thinking for sure it has to be one of these two boards.

My coin mech is an electronic coin mech from Happ, new actually, not sure the voltage.

D_Zoot, if you would not mind, I would extremely be grateful if you would be able to take a look at the boards if I shipped them to you. I will even give you some money for parts and whatnot. Please email me or you can call me today if you want so we can discuss this further. I will get a picture of my actual machine today for you.

Email: matt.magnone@gmail.com

cell: 724-462-8170


Thanks alot guys for your help!

[D_Zoot]

Now I cannot tell with the naked eye if they are bad or not and I don't really have anything to test them with except a multimeter.

You wouldn't be able to tell by looking,  you would need to test them using a logic probe, scope, etc...       Not being able to test them, you could always just replace them and see what happens.

If one of these chips are bad, is it fixable?

Yup!  Regardless of what's wrong with the boards they are fixable. The CPU and driver boards are pretty straightforward in design, plus there are no rare or hard to find parts on them.

So I eliminated several things for sure that could be the problem, correct me if I am wrong though:  fuses, power supply, board that controls the solenoid. Im thinking for sure it has to be one of these two boards.

You will have to be very sure about the wiring.   If any of the switch wiring is, or gets, shorted to power it will keep taking out chips in the CPU board.

The third board is the claw board.  It's pretty robust, failures are rare.  It wouldn't cause the symptoms you have.  The only symptom a bad claw board will give you is claw won't close or claw locked closed all the time.

D_Zoot, if you would not mind, I would extremely be grateful if you would be able to take a look at the boards if I shipped them to you. I will even give you some money for parts and whatnot.

Email me,    dzoot  at   yahoo . com   for shipping info.  There would be a charge if I need to make repairs, however these boards are fairly simple so it would be pretty cheap.   If I test the boards and don't find anything wrong, no charge, other than return shipping.


Regards,
D

[matt_3756]

Thanks D, I love you!!!!!!!! 

Just one question... when you say "any of the "switch" wiring", what do you mean by switch? Like joystick, coinmech wiring, etc?

I am going to email you now, as well as an attachment of a picture of my actual machine and claw.

Thanks again, look for my email!   

[D_Zoot]

Just one question... when you say "any of the "switch" wiring", what do you mean by switch? Like joystick, coinmech wiring, etc?

Any of the switch wiring is just that,   the joystick switches, the "signal" circuit(s) from the coin mechs are all "switch inputs" to the cpu board.  If a power wire touches any of these circuits because of a wiring problem then *poof* goes the cpu input chip.   The input chips can't handle being shorted to power.


D

[Kevin Mullins]

Just one question... when you say "any of the "switch" wiring", what do you mean by switch? Like joystick, coinmech wiring, etc?

Basically... whatever you were messing with that caused the problem.... make sure it's all UN-done before getting the board repaired otherwise it may take something out again. 

D_Zoot - Vectors and Greyhound cranes..... you the man !!
(two of my faves)

Just from looking at the board pics, his looks a bit newer model than mine. I have an old Candyshop Crane I like to tinker with.

[D_Zoot]

D_Zoot - Vectors and Greyhound cranes..... you the man !!
(two of my faves)

I have a soft spot for the sweet goodness of vector graphics! 



D

[vintagegamer]

So was it the 373's?  I have a skill crane with the same prob.

Also, how does one initiate the self test?

[matt_3756]

I know this thread is extremely old but I am having a problem with my grayhound crane again and wanted to reply to the guy who posted in April 2013 having the same problem as me. Here is the reply I got from the guy who fixed my boards (D Zoot)

I found dead I/O lines on the Z80 cpu chip, a dead
2764 eprom and I also had to replace 4 I/O buffer IC's
(the 74ls373's).

This kind of damage on any sort of board is often
caused by voltage making it's way to the data lines.
Before you reinstall the boards you should make sure
all the wiring is correct. If 12v, for example, is
getting sent down the switch circuits it could be the
cause of this.  I'll be including wiring schematics in
the box for you in case you don't have them already.

After repair the boards were double checked in an
actual crane, not just the bench jig, so you should be
good to go once all the wiring is verified.


I hope he still is able to be contacted because he was awesome at fixing my boards back in 2007!

-matt3756