C.O.C.A. Times

works every time!
Help this time came in the form of Scott, my 18
year-old son. To do Scott justice would require
several chapters which I'm not going to do .
Suffice to say that he is the family's self-taught
genius. We had an inkling when, in the 5th grade,
he made a "Star Trek" transporter entrance to his
bedroom, completely self-wired with strobe lights,
black light, smoke, siren, escape tunnel, touch pad
LED's and thumbprint identification. It was
housed in a seven foot tall wood frame structure
with plywood and cardboard, about the size of a
small ice fishing house (we're in Minnesota,
remember) and it took a good 5 minutes to follow
the protocol just to get into his room. Far as I
know, Dearly Beloved was the only one who was
ever actually "transported" when she inadvertently
backed into one of the live wire bundles with the
monster plugged in. It is a blessing that the boy did
not burn down our house. After describing my
problem, Scott solved it rather quickly. Here is
what he explained.
When the coin is deposit-
ed, it drops down the coin
slide until it reaches a copper
toggle bar. Photo "D" is a
picture of a coin resting on
the toggle bar. This bar is the
heart of the circuit and acts
as a switch to turn the power
on and off. When the coin
rests on the bar, the circuit is Photo "D"
completed and the two brass knobs on the front of
the case are "hot." The toggle bar protrudes
through the front of the case and is controlled by
the player. After the player has been electrically
refreshed, he pushes the toggle to the left allowing
the coin to continue down the coin slide, breaking
the circuit and de-powering the battery. From this
point forward, the game function s as a normal
Allwin reserve machine. The battery will only
come on line again with the introduction of anoth-
er coin. And what about the potential for deliberate
battery drain? Would it be possible to insert a
penny and leave it resting on the toggle bar, drain-
feature to a game of skill, certain problems must be
overcome. For one, you must design it so that the
battery is powered only during a portion of the play
and does not remain energized either before the
coin is inserted or after the play is complete. To do
otherwise would drain the battery in short order.
Secondly, you have to have a design that allows the
players to bypass the shock feature completely if
they so choose. An electrical shock may be enter-
taining to your casual patrons but it's a liability to
your regular customers. Examining "Electra
Amuser" provides some answers.
Do you find your games in first class condition?
Am I the only one who unearths games in need of
serious attention? If I am, then it is a gift for
almost all the games I find and purchase are in non-
working status. "Electra Amuser" was no excep-
tion. Anytime you have a mechanism that has suf-
fered after-market modification, it's best to expect
some surprises. The first thing I found was that the
shocking mechanism interfered with the coin pay-
out. Whoever installed the shocker placed it in
such a position that the proper coin would not drop
down the slide into the payout cup. In fact, the
proper size coin could not even fit through the hole
in the door that leads to the payout cup due to the
positioning of the shocker. A smaller sized coin
would fit but would not work the mechanism prop-
erly. The correct coin was the larger ID penny.
How to correct these two problems and make
"Electra" amusing again? The first solution was to
toss the existing coin slide and find one that cor-
rectly carried the ID penny from the coin tube to
the payout cup. The second required repositioning
the shocking mechanism.
The third and most challenging problem cen-
tered on the shocker itself and how it would be
wired. Besides providing an electrical shock, the
solution would have to perform as described
above. To make matters worse, the existent wiring
was incomplete and unconnected which made it
very interesting for a person of such limited talent:
me. When faced with these apparently insolvable
problems, I call on friends or family and make it
their problem. I know, it's a weasel's refuge but it
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