What is a lock out coil?

Brentradio

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I see in the schems of my Atari games there is something called a lock out coil on the coin doors. Is this to prevent the coin door from taking coins when the game is off? Are these needed at all? I am rewiring a coin door and if I don't need it then I won't wire it up.

Thanks,
 
Coin lockout coils are a holdover from the electromechanical pinball days. On one of those pinballs the coils served 4 purposes:

1. To reject a players coins if inserted when the machine was turned off. In the old days there were no "On-off" power switches installed on the machines--you had to unplug the machine to turn it off. When plugged back in nothing would light up. You had to put coins in it to turn on the lights again.. a sort of Catch 22 situation.

2. To prevent getting free or extra credits if a coin was inserted while the score motor was in the middle of a cycle.

3. To prevent getting free credits if you kicked/banged the hell out of the coin door in an attempt to get free credits from vibrating the coin switches. If you banged the coin door hard enough, an "anti-slam" weighted switch would open thus killing power to the lockout coil and the coin relay.

4. In the event the "coils" fuse blew the lockout coil would block coins thus the location owner would call for repairs.

I strongly feel that lockout coils should be brought back. With expensive machines like "Let's Go Jungle" that cost alot to play and have a very long power up sequence due to the fact it uses a computer. If a person puts in coins while it's still powering up they lose their money.
 
Wow Ken, thanks for the detailed explanation.

Good to know.

If I see anybody kicking my coin door to get free credits, you can all just call me OJ...

grin.gif
 
Ah...so now I know what the little hanging switch was on my Centipede coin door. It looks like a small hanging leaf switch ...with a little jarring it would cause the switch to make contact. I ASSUMED it was some sort of security device, now I know that is an anti-slam switch.
 
5. When you put enough coins in that the game will stop counting it will prevent you from putting in more. Some games that's 99 but I seem to remember there are some as low as 9 or 19.

I only have 1 game that has them; deco cassette burger time. They make a noticeable hum when the game is on, I will probably disconnect them when I get around to it.
 
Lockout coils are manufacturer specific to the particular coin door. They are available in several voltages:

6 volts DC

10 volts DC (Atari specific)

12 volts DC

24 volts DC

48 volts DC

24 volts AC

48 volts AC

120 volts AC
 
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