looking for expert on smart gen 6 candy crane

r5g

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would like to chat via email to expert on smart gen 6 candy crane
i have one thats got alot of odd problems
its used, came from super hi volume location
it resets alot, makes a beep noise and energizes claw 2 times, then goes into a tilt like mode.
occasionally the claw will be dropped and then not come up correctly also.
i suspect the wire harness to the claw/motor /carraige assy, and some sw on claw unit and near motors may be bad. it has alot of old work done to it,
it has had like 200,000 plays, could the wire harness making intermittent contacts cause these issues? (wires frayed in main harness due to it being moved during game play in excess of 500,000 times?)

the power supply has been replaced,
the eye has been cleaned and seems to work
the various sw on carriage assy have been checked and appear ok although may be intermittent?
spring for return string on carriage assy and sw is ok
main pcb joints reflowed, socketed devices removed and cleaned
not much improvement
 
bad wiring harness would cause any number of those issues. from what I've seen of Smart's designs, they're kind of total shit. your tilt error is probably from the home switch not getting triggered or something though. there's several switches as you probably know, and if any one of those doesn't make proper contact, the machine won't know where the claw's at or what's going on, so it'll cause that tilt I'm guessing.

really all I have to offer on the subject. good luck.
 
smart

home sw, thats one i have not spent alot of time on, ill check into that one
 
We have a generation 7 on location (the same location) for 12 years now. It has lots of miles on it and the wiring harness was finally becoming too brittle and causing too many service calls. We broke down and bought a new wiring harness for it straight from Smart. We installed that new harness over 8 months ago. There have been ZERO service calls on that crane since.
 
I am working on a 5th generation clean sweap right now. I called their tech line and the guy was pretty helpful. My problem is, the crane drops but the claw doesn't close. The coil ohms out ok, there is continuity all the way to the motherboard, the diodes on the main board are good, the pot that adjusts claw strength is good, that leaves the big relay. I am going to change that and see what happens.
 
Dave, FWIW I've seen those relay's fail fairly regularly.

Sorry about the hijack!
 
from what I've seen of Smart's designs, they're kind of total shit

Serious question: have you seen a crane that ISN'T "kind of total shit"? I'd say Badger's Smart Candy Crane (Gen... 8 I want to say? It was made in 2007) is the best designed of the bunch, and that's not saying much.
 
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Serious question: have you seen a crane that ISN'T "kind of total shit"? I'd say Badger's Smart Candy Crane (Gen... 8 I want to say? It was made in 2007) is the best designed of the bunch, and that's not saying much.

The domestic cranes are OK but the Chinese cranes are shit.
 
crane

wow, the factory tech line said to adjust voltage to 5.3 vdc at pcb
i will try that with hi hopes lol
as a side note, gun games need 5.25 vdc at pcb to give a little extra push for the light optics to work, and the crane has a light sensor for the prizes
 
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I don't mean this as a further hijack, just more to consider. On the one I am working on, I went to order the relay from Smart. They wanted $28 for it. I punched the number right off the relay into Mouser's site and it crossed over to a part for less than $5.

Also, it appears that the operator that had this stuck the wrong coil in it. He put in a coil that runs on 24vdc from a 7th generation game and this is a 5th generation that operates on a different voltage. You really have to look and see what other people have done to these things. I am hoping that between putting in the relay and the correct coil, it will work.
 
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