Electronics Manual For Vintage Pachinko Machines

ELECTRONICS MANUAL FOR
VINTAGE PACHINKO MACHINES

BY BILLY RAY CONNOLLY
© COPYRIGHT 2009 VINTAGE PACHINKO, LLC VINTAGEPACHINKO.COM

2 Electronics Manual for Vintage Pachinko Machines
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview .....................................................................................................................................2
Power Sources ............................................................................................................................4
Wiring, Light Bulbs and Switches .................................................................................................8
Schematics / Wiring Diagrams ...................................................................................................10
Installation Examples ................................................................................................................21
OVERVIEW
The most common definition of a vintage pachinko machine is one that has a chrome flipper on
the front that you pull down to launch a ball onto the playfield. Modern machines have a round
knob about the size of a softball which you turn and the machine will continuously launch balls
onto the playfield.
Vintage pachinko machines were made from the early 20th century until the late 70s and early
80s. We estimate that more than 95% of all vintage pachinko machines only had one to five
light bulbs and no motor. This manual is for the 95% plus machines with no motor or other
electrical components.
These vintage machines were originally wired to a transformer and ran on electricity which
would turn on one or more light bulbs for a fraction of a second when you get a jackpot. They
would also turn on a different light bulb and leave it on to let you know the feeder/supply tray
was empty of balls and needed to be refilled.
The workings of the vintage machines are purely mechanical and need no electricity to operate.
Everything operates by the weight of balls, gravity and levers. The electricity was only for the
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benefit of the lights. In fact when pachinko machines were shipped to the United States, the
pachinko parlors in Japan kept the transformers so the machines had no transformer and most
people played them without ever connecting the lights.
Some people however, would connect a battery or their own transformer to the machine to
have the lights work. This wasn’t always easy though. Pachinko machines weren’t always
wired the same way and the colors of wire used weren’t consistent. Sometimes a machine
might even start with one color wire for positive, then switch colors making it confusing. And
they never came with wiring diagrams.
Depending on how many owners a pachinko machine has had since leaving Japan, it is hard to
say exactly what modifications have been made to the wiring of a pachinko machine. Plugs
were often cut off, wires were cut down to get them “out of the way” and wires were spliced in
an attempt to get the lights to work. Some machines had the wiring stripped even before
leaving Japan.
We recommend that you replace the wiring, switches, light bulbs and light bulb bases with new
parts. We have wasted too much time trying to get original lights to work only to discover
there was a weak solder joint on a switch or fuse box, or corrosion in a light bulb base. We sell
new parts at vintagepachinko.com including kits that have everything you need power and light
up your machine.
PLEASE NOTE: we are not electrical engineers. The information we provide has helped
hundreds of people fix the lights on their pachinko machines. We may not always use the
correct or most accurate description or technical terms, so we thank you in advance for your
understanding. However, it is likely that if you are reading this, then you probably aren’t an
electrician or electrical engineer and our descriptions are just fine for your purposes. If you
have any suggestions on how to word things better, thanks for letting us know.
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POWER SOURCES
There are several options for providing power to the light bulbs. Most machines ran on 10
volts. This was plenty to power a few miniature light bulbs. Let’s look at three options.
9 VOLT BATTERY
This is our preferred option for a power source. It works great, is inexpensive and is safe. We
use 7.5 volt light bulbs and 9 volt battery lights them up nice and bright and it will last for a long
time. We still have the original 9 volt batteries we put in 2 of our machines a couple years ago.
Use a brand new, good quality battery like Duracell or Energizer.
By not using a transformer which would need to be plugged this into the wall, we don’t have to
worry about extension cords, electrical shorts, blown fuses, burning the pachinko components,
accidental electrical shocks or locating the machine close to an outlet.
With a 9 volt battery you don’t need a fuse. The purpose of the fuse is to protect the machine
from a surge in power. It isn’t needed because a 9 volt battery isn’t going to surge and burn up
electrical components.
A 9 volt battery is cheaper than a transformer and cheaper than a 6 volt battery. It also makes
light bulbs brighter than a 6 volt battery.
These are some of the arguments against a 9 volt battery. First, you may prefer not to use
batteries for personal reasons. Second, you may want to use a transformer because that is how
they were originally powered in Japan. Third, you may want to use a transformer because
there is the possibility of running down your battery (see the next paragraph).
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If the feeder/supply tray runs out of balls, the lights will come on and stay on until it is refilled.
If kids or guests don’t know this, the light could stay on for days until the battery is dead. To
avoid this we don’t wire the supply tray to a light bulb. We do this also because there are
usually 1 to 4 other ways to know the supply tray is out of balls.
First, a lever may be activated and you will not be able to launch any more balls. Second a
“sign” may appear in the window area by the flipper as an indicator to refill the supply tray.
Third, you may actually be able to see that your supply tray is empty through a window in the
front. Fourth, you will make jackpots and it won’t pay out indicating that you may need to refill
the supply tray.
Because we don’t wire a light bulb to a switch for the supply tray, it means we have an extra
light bulb that we can wire to the jackpot switch. This is nice because it means there is one
more light that will come on when you get a jackpot. Many machines only had one light bulb
for a jackpot so by doing this the light bulbs are doubled.
So to hook up your 9 volt battery to your pachinko machine, connect the red wire (positive)
coming off the 9 volt battery terminal plug to your pachinko machine (see diagrams below).
Connect the black wire (negative) coming off the 9 volt battery terminal plug to your pachinko
machine. There is no need for a fuse but it won’t hurt to use one, especially if the machine has
one already and you are attempting to use the original wiring.
6 VOLT BATTERY
About the only reason we can come up with using a 6 volt battery is if you happen to have one
lying around and you have no use for it. It has all the same benefits as the 9 volt battery with
the disadvantage of being a lot bigger and heavier, it won’t make your light bulbs as bright as a
9 volt battery and it is more expensive then an 9 volt battery.
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So to hook up your 6 volt battery to your pachinko machine, connect a wire to the positive post
on the battery and connect it to your pachinko machine as if it were a red/positive wire (see
diagrams below). Connect another wire to the negative post on the battery and connect it to
your pachinko machine as if it were a black/negative wire.
TRANSFORMER
The purpose of the transformer is to take the current coming out of your wall which is 110
volts, and bring it down or transform it to a lower voltage. For example many cell phones are 5
volts so when you plug them into the wall to charge them, that big square thing is your
transformer. Unless your pachinko machine has a motor, it is probably rated at 10 volts.
You have two options for a transformer.
OPTION 1
The first and simplest option is a stand-a-lone transformer that you buy at an electronics store.
It may have 4 posts on each side to attach wires, or it may have wires 4 leading off that you will
tie into.
Wires coming out of the transformer will go to your pachinko machine. Wires coming into the
transformer will come from the wall outlet. You can take an extension cord, cut the end off
opposite the end that plugs into the wall and attach those wires to the transformer. The
transformer should be marked to tell you which side is the input and which side is the output.
If you decide to use this type of transformer, you may want to put a fuse in the machine to
prevent a surge in power from blowing up your lights or burning out your wires. The fuse will
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need to come out of the positive side of the transformer in order to intercept a surge. You
need to get a fuse that is rated just a little higher than your light bulbs.
OPTION 2
The second option for a transformer is similar to the cell phone charger. The transformer is
built into the plug for the wall. If you look closely on the transformer, you will see its rating
something like 110V to 9V, or 110V to 5V. If you can get a transformer that is 9V or 10V then it
will work just fine. We have used answering machine or other small electronic device
transformers.
For this transformer, you will need to cut the end off that plugs into the device such as a cell
phone, separate and strip the wires back and attach them to the machine. You will need to
determine which of the two wires is positive. Hopefully one of the wires is marked with words
or a stripe. If not, mark the one of the wires before you cut it. Also on the transformer,
hopefully it will distinguish what part of the devise plug is positive. Typically it will be the inside
connection if it is a round plug but that is not necessarily always true.
Now you can take a multi-meter to check for continuity. Touch one of the leads to the part of
your plug that is indicated as being positive. Next touch the other lead to the marked wire
(strip off some of the plastic to get to the bare wire). If your multi-meter indicates that you
have continuity, then this is your positive wire. If not touch the other wire and your multi-
meter should indicate continuity which means your non-marked wire is positive.
Having identified which wire is positive coming from your transformer you can put an in-line
fuse on the positive wire. Coming out of the fuse you can continue with your positive wire to
your pachinko machine as if it were a red wire (see diagrams below). Using a fuse with this type
of transformer may not be required because this functionality may be built into the transformer
but putting a fuse in won’t hurt. The other wire is your negative wire and you can connect it to
your pachinko machine as if it were a black wire.
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WIRING, LIGHT BULBS AND SWITCHES
ELECTRICAL WIRE
You can use practically any kind of wire, especially if you are using a battery. We have used the
very thin wires in phone cable and they work fine. However they are usually solid so we prefer
stranded 22 gauge wire which is easier for us to solder.
LIGHT BULBS
You can use just about any type of miniature light bulb. We have tried different ones from
radio shack and the 7.5V bulbs work really good and are nice and bright. You can solder the
wires directly to the bulbs but we recommend buying light bulb screw bases, also from radio
shack. Often the bulbs are held in place in the machine with a rubber grommet that fits over
the bulb base which then fits into plastic holders on your machine or in a wood cutout. You
may find them at a hardware store. If you need these parts, we sell them online at
vintagepachinko.com.
SWITCHES
There are basically two types of switches used in original pachinko machines, a leaf switch and
a micro switch.
LEAF SWITCH
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The leaf switch has a plastic housing with two thin strips of metal coming out of it. On the
other end, wires are soldered to the metal strips (leafs). When the two leafs touch, current
flows through the switch and will power the light bulbs. Leaf switches are prone to problems
for several reasons: 1) the leafs are often bent out of shape and trying to bend them back so
they function properly is difficult. 2) the joints were the wires are soldered to the leaf are not
good and often with just a little tug, the wire will come off the leaf. This weak solder joint is
often responsible for sometimes the lights working and sometimes not working. 3) the plastic
housing is often designed so that the leaf and wire are incased in the plastic making it difficult
to get to the solder joint.
There is no source for new leaf switches so if you decide to use your old switch, be sure and
clean the leafs where they come in contact with each other. You can use fine grit sandpaper to
clean them. You can adjust the leafs with a pair of needle-nose pliers or a better idea is a leaf
adjusting tool often sold by pinball companies such as pbresource.com.
MICRO SWITCHES
The other type of switch is called a micro switch. Most of these are rated for millions of uses so
they are very reliable. There are dozens of designs for micro switches but we have only seen
two for pachinko machines: those with an arm of varying length and those without an arm. The
arm is a firm piece of metal that can be pushed down. When it is pushed down, it will activate a
knob sticking out of one side of the switch. When this knob is pushed down, it will make the
connection inside the switch (you will hear a click when this happens). The other type of micro
switch doesn’t have an arm, just the knob.
The micro switches generally have three posts 1) C or COM for Common, 2) NO for Normally
Open and 3) NC for Normally Closed. Typically you will want your positive wire to connect to
the COM post and then it will connect to one of the other posts depending on the normal
position of the switch. If the knob on the switch is pushed down when the machine is in its
normal position, then the wire would connect to the NC post.
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Typically when you have a micro switch under your top feeder tray, the balls will weight down a
lever and the knob on the micro switch would be pushed down, normally closed. In this
normally closed state power does not flow through the switch to light the bulbs. When you run
out of balls in the top tray, the lever lifts off the switch and the knob pops up and the switch is
now open, allowing current to flow through the switch.
For jackpot switches some are normally open and some normally closed. You will need to wire
the machine so that the switch activates and current flows through when you get a jackpot. At
the end of this manual you will see many pictures of pachinko machines and how we installed
new micro switches. This will give you an idea of how you may set up your machine.
SCHEMATICS / WIRING DIAGRAMS
The following diagrams will aide you in wiring the lights for your pachinko machine. Several
models are shown as well as some generic diagrams. From these you should be able to wire up
the lights for virtually any vintage pachinko machine.
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GENERIC VINTAGE PACHINKO MACHINE
This diagram is generic for any machine and is the one we use for wiring lights for most of the
machines we sell and restore. You can also wire the machine so that the positive red wire runs
through the switch instead of the black wire. While one wire will always be connected to the
COM post, the other wire will be connected to either the NC post or NO post as described
above in the Micro Switch section.
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In this version we see a leaf switch used instead of a micro switch.
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In this version we are using a switch for both the jackpot and for the feeder tray. Where the
wires need to connect you see a dot. Where the wires cross but do not connect, you see a
hump for one wire over the other wire. The blue line is actually a black wire; we just drew it in
blue to help you see.
This diagram is also showing a modification where all the bulbs will flash if you get a jackpot.
Also all the bulbs will come on and stay on if the top feeder tray runs out of balls. This is
because of the black wire going from the bottom of the feeder tray bulb to the bottom of the
right jackpot bulb. An original pachinko machine would not have this wire and the bulbs would
work independently from each other. The modification was recommended by a customer and
we thought it was a great way to get more flash when you get a jackpot.
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NISHIJIN MODEL A OR B ORIGINAL
This diagram is applicable to almost all Nishijin A and B pachinko machines. In this version we
are showing a leaf switch for both the jackpot and for the feeder tray. Where the wires need to
connect you see a dot. Where the wires cross but do not connect, you see a hump for one wire
over the other wire. The blue line is actually a black wire; we just drew it in blue to help you
see.
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NISHIJIN MODEL A OR B ORIGINAL WITH JUNCTION BOX
This diagram is virtually the same as the previous diagram, however they use a junction board
with solder points on either side to connect the wires.
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NISHIJIN MODEL A OR B MODIFIED
This diagram is the same as the previous diagram with one exception: it is also showing a
modification where all the bulbs will flash if you get a jackpot. And all the bulbs will come on
and stay on if the top feeder tray runs out of balls. This is because of the black wire going from
the bottom of the feeder tray bulb to the bottom of the jackpot bulb. An original pachinko
machine would not have this wire and the bulbs would work independently from each other.
The modification was recommended by a customer and we thought it was a great way to get
more flash when you get a jackpot.
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NISHIJIN MODEL C
Model C’s are less common as they were not on the market long before being replaced with
more modern components.
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SANKYO ORIGINAL
This diagram is wired so that one bulb will flash when you get a jackpot and one bulb will light
and stay lit when your top feeder tray is empty. Some Sankyo machines have more than 1
jackpot bulb.
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SANKYO MODIFIED
This diagram is modified so that all bulbs will flash when you get a jackpot and all bulbs will light
and stay lit when your top feeder tray is empty. To have these two functions be independent,
don't connect a wire from the bottom of the feeder tray bulb to the bottom of a jackpot bulb.
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SANYO ORIGINAL
This diagram is showing a circuit board with a fuse. Many times these were completely
removed from Sanyo machines be we have seen it on a few of them.
The micro switch with the red wires coming out was connected to something external from the
pachinko machine and it is not needed for your machine to work. That is also why there are no
wires going to the 2 posts connected to this switch. The other microswitch lights the feeder
tray bulb when the tray is empty.
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INSTALLATION EXAMPLES
NISHIJIN A
One micro switch wired to our transformer that will flash both bulbs when a jackpot is scored.
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NISHIJIN A TOP FEEDER TRAY SWITCH
On this machine a switch was added to control on light bulb in the top corner of the machine.
The other switch controls the light bulb in the middle of the machine when you get a jackpot.
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NISHIJIN A JACKPOT SWITCH AND TRANSFORMER
This is a close-up of the normally open micro switch for the jackpot wired to a transformer.
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NISHIJIN A JACKPOT SWITCH AND BATTERY
This is a close-up of the normally open micro switch for the jackpot wired to a battery.
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NISHIJIN A JACKPOT SWITCH AND BATTERY
This is a close-up of the normally open micro switch for the jackpot wired to a battery.
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NISHIJIN B PACHINKO MACHINE
Most Nishijin B machines only have two switches. The first is the top switch that would like the
bulb in the top right of the back of the machine. On a few models this switch might also be
connected to a light bulb on the bottom left of the machine just above the flipper assembly.
The second switch is the primary jackpot switch labeled Jackpot switch A in the picture. It
would like the remaining bulbs on your machine not wired to the first switch. This could be
from 1 to 4 bulbs.
This picture is showing a third switch which is a secondary jackpot switch labeled Jackpot switch
B. The way this machine worked when you get a jackpot, switch A would make contact first
lighting 2 bulbs behind the center jackpot housing. Then switch B would make contact flashing
the two bulbs on the left of the machine.
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NISHIJIN B
This machine has one micro switch wired to a battery and 3 light bulbs.
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NISHIJIN B
This is a close up of a micro switch wired to a transformer. For best installation you may wish
to cut off one of the plastic posts that were for the original leaf switch. Just at the top edge of
the left side of the switch you can see the round post with a hole in it. Just below the switch
the other post has been cut off. Nowadays we cut off the top post and screw through the top
left of the switch goes through that original hole.
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NISHIJIN B WITH TRANSFORMER
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SANKYO JACKPOT LIGHT BULB

While this is a Sankyo, many machines had a bulb in the center jackpot.
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SANKYO JACKPOT SWITCH
This particular placement of a switch on these yellow back Sankyo machines can be tricky. I
usually try and reuse the original switch on these machines.
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MIZUHO
Note we glued a white post to the bottom of the switch to bring it away from the wood, so the
metal arm would make contact with the lever as a jackpot was activated.
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GINZA
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ELECTRONICS MANUAL FOR

VINTAGE PACHINKO MACHINES

© COPYRIGHT 2009 VINTAGE PACHINKO, LLC VINTAGEPACHINKO.COM

Power Sources ............................................................................................................................4

Wiring, Light Bulbs and Switches .................................................................................................8

Schematics / Wiring Diagrams ...................................................................................................10

Installation Examples ................................................................................................................21

You have two options for a transformer.

WIRING, LIGHT BULBS AND SWITCHES

SCHEMATICS / WIRING DIAGRAMS

GENERIC VINTAGE PACHINKO MACHINE

In this version we see a leaf switch used instead of a micro switch.

NISHIJIN MODEL A OR B ORIGINAL

NISHIJIN MODEL A OR B ORIGINAL WITH JUNCTION BOX

NISHIJIN MODEL A OR B MODIFIED

NISHIJIN A TOP FEEDER TRAY SWITCH

NISHIJIN A JACKPOT SWITCH AND TRANSFORMER

NISHIJIN A JACKPOT SWITCH AND BATTERY

NISHIJIN A JACKPOT SWITCH AND BATTERY

NISHIJIN B PACHINKO MACHINE

NISHIJIN B WITH TRANSFORMER

SANKYO JACKPOT LIGHT BULB

SANKYO JACKPOT SWITCH

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