Help Me Build a &quot;Coin Door&quot;

http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/2273/Valley_Spectra_IV.pdf

Hello everyone. I picked up a rather unique Valley Spectra IV the other day that didn't have a coin door. I was thinking I might be able to get it playing by building a "coin door" with 2 button switches - on for credits and one for start. How would I go about doing this? I can live with having factory settings. Would I just splice in the switches to the corresponding wires on the molex?

41274_resized (resized).jpeg

Am I correct at looking at splicing in a switch on this line for credits? Where would I look to add a start button?

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Full manual/schematic:

Thanks in advance!

#2 7 years ago

SEF

Mk1Mod0

Neat game! I remember playing one at my first TPF show years ago. Very unusual.

What plug is in the first picture? Is that J-11? I'm going to have to look at the full schematic to see.

#3 7 years ago

SEF

Mk1Mod0

OP
Quoted from Pahuffman:
Would I just splice in the switches to the corresponding wires on the molex?

Almost... According to the manual, you will also have to fool it into thinking it has SW30 in "play" mode. Otherwise, it will not take credits and it will not start a game. It wouldn't be too hard to breadboard the whole coin door setup so you get full functionality out of it and make it easy to coin up and play.

To add credits you should be able to jumper the blue wire you outlined to and the black ground wire next to it. To start a game, jumper the "demand" button in the lower right corner. The violet wire in position 1 on the plug to the black ground wire at position 8.

Shawn

#4 7 years ago

ALX

Pahuffman

Pinside member

Quoted from Mk1Mod0:
Is that J-11?

I believe that's J-11.

#5 7 years ago

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Pahuffman

Pinside member

Quoted from Mk1Mod0:
To add credits you should be able to jumper the blue wire you outlined to and the black ground wire next to it. To start a game, jumper the "demand" button in the lower right corner. The violet wire in position 1 on the plug to the black ground wire at position 8.

This is great! Will any ole push-button switch work?

#6 7 years ago

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Mk1Mod0

Pretty much. You want a simple push button that is NO-normally open and momentary close meaning you press once and get a credit or it starts a player depending on where it is hooked up. Let us know how it goes and if it doesn't work we'll figure it out.

Shawn

#7 7 years ago

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Pahuffman

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@mk1mod0, I wired in the switch for credits and one for start or "demand," but I'm getting no response from them. It boots and brings up a 0 for a moment and then occasionally other random numbers will come up.

Is the issue coming from not fooling the game into thinking it's in play mode? Can you highlight how I'm supposed to do that?

I think this is what I have wired up so far:

pasted_image (resized).png

#8 7 years ago

ALX

Pahuffman

Pinside member

pasted_image (resized).png

#9 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

Pinside Moderator

9y 238K 31,358 268 14

Yikes, why are you hacking up the harness?

There's a connector there. The best thing would have been to find a mate for the connector and add your modifications to that.

#10 7 years ago

SEF

Mk1Mod0

OP
Quoted from Pahuffman:
Is the issue coming from not fooling the game into thinking it's in play mode?

I believe so, although someone smarter than I with schematics might be able to figure differently. The "crem" wire passes through a relay and capacitor before returning to ground to tell the machine it is in play mode. Not sure what directly wiring that might do and I would not advise you to do it.

#11 7 years ago

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Pahuffman

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Quoted from ForceFlow:
Yikes, why are you hacking up the harness?

There's a connector there. The best thing would have been to find a mate for the connector and add your modifications to that.

I'm more adept at fixing EMs. Bare minimum electronics experience and I don't have those kinds of parts laying around!

Quoted from Mk1Mod0:
Not sure what directly wiring that might do and I would not advise you to do it.

So this probably means it's just going to be a really tall pinball-looking coffee table?

#12 7 years ago

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Pahuffman

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It looks like I can get one of those capacitors on eBay. I may order one and try to wire it in there. Might as well push through this thing now.

#13 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

Pinside Moderator

9y 238K 31,358 268 14

OP
Quoted from Pahuffman:
I'm more adept at fixing EMs. Bare minimum electronics experience and I don't have those kinds of parts laying around!

But there's a right way and a wrong way to do this. Hacks aren't really the answer. I spend a lot of my time undoing stuff like that on routed games or games that other people gave up on repairing. It makes repairs much more difficult.

#14 7 years ago

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Pahuffman

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Quoted from ForceFlow:
But there's a right way and a wrong way to do this. Hacks aren't really the answer. I spend a lot of my time undoing stuff like that on routed games or games that other people gave up on repairing. It makes repairs much more difficult.

I see what you're saying. Once I get it up and running I can go back and un-hack all my mess. I actually have to put in a parts order soon so I may just hold off so I don't do anything stupid until I can do it the right way.

#15 7 years ago

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Pahuffman

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Can I use a 100uf 25v or 100uf 35v capacitor instead? Are they interchangeable?

#16 7 years ago

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Mk1Mod0

35V. Always go bigger if you can't match it exactly.

#17 7 years ago

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Pahuffman

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