JUMBO grayhound skill crane help

gutz

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Hi,

I have a jumbo skill crane board set (3 seperate boards) that will not run the "credit/timer" display. When the display ribbon cable is connected to the cpu, the crane will not coin up and the display does not come up. The crane cannot be played with the cable connected. When the display ribbon cable is disconnected the machine will coin up and you can play ONE credit at a time. I can see it coin up by watching the coin counter, but it won't coin up past ONE play. The claw is still timed during play, you just can't see the countdown. Also, the coin door lights turn off when you coin up and turns on when the play is done.

I have tried another display and cable with the same result. The power supply is working. The crane works great besides the display issue. Any suggestions?
 
the coin slot light shutting off during gameplay then back on after is normal. Mine does the same. I have a regular greyhound but im pretty sure its got the same boards. Too bad your so far away. If you were local id suggest we switch parts till iits fixed.

I wonder what voltage the display runs off of. meter out your power supply. Whats your 12v and 5v running? It could very well just be a boardset issue. Unfoetunately i havent hd alot of esperience messing with mine as luckily it has behaved itself.
 
the machine will coin up and you can play ONE credit at a time. I can see it coin up by watching the coin counter, but it won't coin up past ONE play. Also, the coin door lights turn off when you coin up and turns on when the play is done.

That kinda sounds like a "play until you win" option/setting. (or something similar)
Been a while since I've looked at the candy crane I have, never observed the coin door lights and such. Mines "play until you win", but I'm pretty sure I can still coin it up multiple times and stack the number of plays.(insert several credits at once)

Not sure about the display.
I would initially think it was a problem with the driver on the cpu board. I forget now what all is on that board chip wise.
 
The +5v is 5.1ish volts and +12v is pretty close to 12v (I can't remember exactly, but the voltages were the first thing I checked). A working board set (to swap around) would help tremendously to figure out the problem.

I'm sure that its not a "play til you win" setting, because I keep coming up empty then have to put in more credits :) I can not stack up credits (thats a better way to word it), its one play at a time.

This crane was missing 2 boards (cpu and relay) and I tracked down a set. The first cpu didn't work, so I found another cpu and got the crane working properly. Neither cpu made either display work. All boards were untested/as is, so it could be a board issue.

To recap, I have:

2 cpus, 1 working 1 nonworking
2 displays/cables, unknown condition

No combination of the above makes the display work. So either both boards have bad "display" parts or the problem is in the crane cabinet.

It is strange that the crane will not play with the display cable connected. Its not a huge problem, you can still play the crane, but if its an easy fix I would attempt it.

thanks for the replies.
 
Do you have the joystick or the two buttons? I had one recently that would not work when the dollar-bill acceptor was plugged in, but worked fine when it wasn't...
 
This crane has a joystick. Mod, interesting you mention the dollar bill acceptor...this crane has a pcb/wiring for a dba one but nothing in the coin door. I will try to unplug that and see if it helps. Unfortunately that wont be for a few days due to work.
 
You sure the display cable isn't backwards? Can it be flipped over on one side?

Glad at least one of those worked for ya. Not much to that board so it could prob be easily fixed.
 
Sorry for the old horrible pic.....
But is your display cable plugged in like this one, red stripe orientation and all that ?
(assuming it's the same boardset)
 

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I plugged the display cable in both ways, actually. I started with the cable heading "away" from the board (like you have pictured) since that seemed logical. Flipping the cable around made no difference.

Do you know if your header (on the cpu) is missing a pin? Both of my cpus are missing one corner pin on that header, yet the the connector is not pinned accordingly (it can be pluggged in either orientation). I thought that was odd...
 
I would have to go out during the day to check it out for you, but I will.
(it's in storage)
You're talking about the larger ribbon cable that runs over to the relay/control board, right ?
 
Ok, I see the missing pin you're referring to on the smaller display ribbon cable header.
And no, my ribbon cable isn't "keyed" either.
 

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A couple pics of the ribbon attached at the display side.
 

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My two initial thoughts in your scenario would be -

a. Something plugged in backwards causing a short.
b. Some component is already shorted and shorts everything else when the display gets plugged in.

Odd to see this happen with two sets of cpu boards and displays.....may need to test your displays on a known working cpu board, and vice versa, try your cpu boards with a known good display. This would help eliminate possibilities anyways.
 
Thanks for all your efforts Kevin. I will dig into the crane a lil deeper and see if I can resolve this. Wait for updates.
 
Resolved!!! I had 2 bad cpu boards. Found a good one, plugged it in, and all is well. Kevin - your pictures helped, thank you. The display works and I can coin up as many games as it takes to get frustrated playing a crane :) Thanks for your help. Another Greyhound brought back to life.
 
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