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BusyChild04

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Hi. I'm new here. I've always had a fascination with claw machines. All types. Ever since I was a kid. After spending $10 every time I see one I decided that it was time to start collecting them. Been lurking and salivating at some collections I've seen on here. Amazing stuff you guys are doing.

Living in south Texas its kinda hard for me to find machines. Or maybe I'm not looking correctly. But Ive finally managed to find this Greyhound Skill Crane. The guy sold me 2. One that works and one that doesnt. The one that doesn't has most mechanisms and is missing a few parts. The one that works is joystick. The other is button. Here is the one I got. I couldn't go for a fancy one. Being a teacher I'm always on some kind of budget.

20111225011825.jpg

(And please excuse the decorations. I decided to put my New England Patriots Cheerleader calender in the back)

Everything works...kinda. The bill collector spits out the bills. But thats not too much of a priority for me. But also for the past 24 hours it's been having the problem of it not wanting to move left when the joystick is moved. It moved in every other direction correctly but left. Sometimes it moves to the left fine, sometimes it slightly moves, sometimes doesn't move to the left at all. It returns to the home position correctly. The one that doesn't work used to have the joystick and this one had the buttons. All he did was switch them. Any idea of what it could be? Do i need a new joystick? Also any advice/tips I should know about these machines. Do's and dont's. I appreciate any help and advice on this issue or claw machine/arcade machine collecting.
 
I may not be the right one to answer you because I am in the same boat but what I have found is that there are micro-switches around the joystick. It is possible that the one on the left may be bad or have a bad connection. I would try checking the connections and then switching it out with another one to see if the the problem moves in the direction you moved the switch to.

Hope it helps.
 
Yes, agreed. Sound like a micro switch to me if its intermittent. Do you hear a click when you move the control left, or does it make no sound. If it has a micro switch and if its working it should make a small click when you move the joystick if either direction.
 
The joystick does make a click noise when moved in any 4 directions. Here are some pictures of the joystick part. Maybe you all can spot something odd.

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20111226_023547.jpg


Here is a picture of the "guts"

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I didnt buy it from a high end seller. This electrician needed cash. Again, being a teacher I needed something cheap. Another question: My claw grips good. Too good. How can I change that? I don't want to fiddle with stuff without knowing what it is.
 
Do you know how to use a multimeter? Can you check for continuity on the switches when depressed?

The tension of the claw is adjustable, but I am not sure where the adjustment is since I don't have a claw machine.
 
It's probably those spade connectors on the micro switch. Normally when I have problems with them I cut them off and solder the wires onto the micro switch. The other thing I see is some of those micro switches have there lugs bent hard. That can make them not work properly or sometimes make them work when they aren't. Or like others said you might just have a micro switch that is not working all the time. For the cost of a micro switch I would just replace it and cut the spade connectors and solder the wires onto the micro switch.
 
It's probably those spade connectors on the micro switch. Normally when I have problems with them I cut them off and solder the wires onto the micro switch. The other thing I see is some of those micro switches have there lugs bent hard. That can make them not work properly or sometimes make them work when they aren't. Or like others said you might just have a micro switch that is not working all the time. For the cost of a micro switch I would just replace it and cut the spade connectors and solder the wires onto the micro switch.

UGH! I would sooner sand the contacts and replace the spades than directly solder to a microswitch. (And I would replace the microswitch outright if I wasn't pressed for time.) Having the easy convenience of being able to quickly rip out and ohm out that switch is worth the possible connector issues IMO.

(If the switch is directly mounted to a PCB that's different, but this? no.)
 
I straightened the parts that were bent. As of last night's it hasn't stuttered or anything since. Although I still don't fully trust it. Yesterday when I straightened them it worked fine but stuttered from time to time. Is there anything I should be aware of about these greyhound machines?
 
So today I got home and powered on the skill crane. I decided to have a little fun and play a bit. Started fine and all. But when I push the button to drop the claw it doesn't even go down 1 inch and quickly goes back up and returns home. The claw doesn't even close. When I play again the digits on the counters read random numbers during every play. One play it says I have 34 credits with 60 seconds then the next time it displays another set of random digits. It was working perfectly fine yesterday. Any idea what may be going on?
 
UGH! I would sooner sand the contacts and replace the spades than directly solder to a microswitch. (And I would replace the microswitch outright if I wasn't pressed for time.) Having the easy convenience of being able to quickly rip out and ohm out that switch is worth the possible connector issues IMO.

(If the switch is directly mounted to a PCB that's different, but this? no.)


It's not brain surgery, it's just a little soldering. It doesn't take long to solder in a new switch. But, whatever works for you.
 
So I finally got around to having some time to fiddle with this thing. Main problems again are:

1) Claw does not move left.
2) Claw only goes down about half an inch then returns up without closing.
3) Claw returns back towards you but the claw doesn't go over the prize chute.
4) After claw returns, the time and credits screens display random numbers every time.

I checked all the wiring and found one flimsy wire that was just twisted together. I disconnected them to see the results but nothing. Put them back the way they were. All the other wiring seems fine. Nothing else has been disconnected. Just moved them around a bit to see if anything was lose. I measured the voltage and the 12v is at 13.64 and the 5v is at 6.04. I am at a loss. Don't know what else to do. Anybody have any idea what it might be or what could be done to fix this? It was working fine before. Then one day it just went out like this.
 
First machine I've ever owned. Don't know much of the normal level's theyre supposed to be at.
 
First machine I've ever owned. Don't know much of the normal level's theyre supposed to be at.

It's right there in the name -- 5V, 5 volts! 6.0!? That shouldn't be more than 5.3. 12V is a bit more tolerant in most cases, but 13.6 is WAY too high. You may have fried something with those voltages!
 
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