Free play and the anti-cheat relay
Surf Club |
| older style anti-cheat relay with tied down plate |
|---|
The anti-cheat relay has one main purpose in life. When it's not powered, it lets the replay reset relay close and remove credits from the replay register. It also turns off a bunch of lamp circuits and disconnects the extra balls play circuit, so when a game is first powered on, no doofus thinks they can start trying to play for extra balls on the game that was there when the game was turned off.
Turns out, however, that we want to be doofuses. It is very convenient for debugging to be able to turn the game off and on, and have the machine just keep doing what it was doing. In addition, for home use we probably prefer to not reset the repay register to zero at game power-on.
To achieve this state of bingo bliss, all we need to do is make sure the anti-cheat relay stays closed all the time. So many options:
- If you have an older game that
has the little metal tab above the relay plate to stop the plates up-travel,
all you need to do is stick a hunk of cardboard or folded paper under the tab
to keep the replay plate down against the coil all the time. Try to suppress the
urge to just bend the tab down. If it gets bent too much, it'll break. In the
picture, we have one of these older style frames, but we didn't use the
"bend down the tab" approach.
- If you have a newer game without the tab, you can use a cable tie around the coil
and bracket to hold the relay plate down. You need to unscrew the bracket
from the machine to put the tie underneath. Naturally, the handymans solution
(duct tape) works as well...just use a thin strip, as you don't want to mummify the
coil in a duct tape wrapper and trap all the heat in. If you physically
hold the plate to the coil, do it slightly loose. If you pull down on the plate and
force it to not seat squarely on the top of the coil, the plate will vibrate/buzz.
- the anti-cheat relay has a lock-in switch to keep it closed once it's closed. just bend the switch blade to close the switch permanently. You need to look at the manual/schem to figure out which switch needs to be permanently closed.
Personally, I prefer a nice bright cable tie because it's obvious to someone that
you added it to the game, and it won't fall out like the cardboard/paper might.
Having said that, I used a black tie in the pic...oh well.
