Any info / manuals available for "Lucky Crane"? (UAI, Japan 1970's) -

[BeTheClaw]

Hi folks,

I'm new here... Does anyone have any information or know where I may be able to find anything on this crane? It was made in late 70's, I believe in Japan by UAI (Universal Amusements Int'l?). Just trying to find out if it has any adjustments, or anything that can be done to it. I've replaced its small claw with jewelry claw that can be found in Sugarloaf Treasure Shoppe cranes, but that's it. Tried to wire a momentary switch to the coin switch for free play, but that doesn't seem to activate the game. If anyone has any sort of information on this crane, I'd be grateful.

Thanks in advance!

Allen K

BeTheClaw.com

[caserri]

Allen,

That's a sharp looking crane! I love the look of it. We have a few very knowledgeable crane members on board and I'm sure you'll get the info you need very soon.

Welcome to TVF!

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

[BeTheClaw]

Thanks so much... this thing is very old, but apparently was built to last. I saw a flyer that indicated that some adjustments are possible, but I have no idea what or how. It's still used in some Boardwalk arcades to this day, so I'm hoping someone may be familiar.

Allen,

That's a sharp looking crane! I love the look of it. We have a few very knowledgeable crane members on board and I'm sure you'll get the info you need very soon.

Welcome to TVF!

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

[caserri]

Thanks so much... this thing is very old, but apparently was built to last.

That's how most things are. We just replaced our refrigerator. The one we replaced was made in 1970. It was still working fine but we figured we should get something a bit more energy efficient. I doubt our new one will last 42 years!

Is that crane in a rec room or something?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

[BeTheClaw]

Sort of... I'm a big claw addict (going on 30 years of playing) and 5 years ago started making tutorials / tips / tricks of playing cranes for YouTube and more recently, for the website I created (betheclaw.com). So in addition to my own entertainment, I use it to practice and make videos for my viewers.

Luckily, I was able to buy 2 identical ones, so I can use one for parts since they're hard or impossible to find... now, if I could find some information on how to adjust it, that'd be awesome. Unlike majority of the cranes, claw itself is not adjustable, since its coil is only used to open the claw, and then it closes under its own weight to grab the prize, but it 'works' the same as any regular crane and can pick up stuff of various sizes and weights. I wouldn't mind adjusting the speed a bit.

Allen

That's how most things are. We just replaced our refrigerator. The one we replaced was made in 1970. It was still working fine but we figured we should get something a bit more energy efficient. I doubt our new one will last 42 years!

Is that crane in a rec room or something?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

[dogcow]

Sort of... I'm a big claw addict (going on 30 years of playing) and 5 years ago started making tutorials / tips / tricks of playing cranes for YouTube and more recently, for the website I created (betheclaw.com). So in addition to my own entertainment, I use it to practice and make videos for my viewers.

Luckily, I was able to buy 2 identical ones, so I can use one for parts since they're hard or impossible to find... now, if I could find some information on how to adjust it, that'd be awesome. Unlike majority of the cranes, claw itself is not adjustable, since its coil is only used to open the claw, and then it closes under its own weight to grab the prize, but it 'works' the same as any regular crane and can pick up stuff of various sizes and weights. I wouldn't mind adjusting the speed a bit.

Allen

i havent seen your videos but i watched a series of videos by some young kid

who shows tricks to playing crane games. it actually helped a lot when i first

got my first few units out and needed to play them to calibrate them. however

he doesnt ever really discuss percentaging which i think it is a little dishonest. he shows

an old grayhound claw in his basement, like yours these are OLD units from the 80s, they

dont have percentaging, but modern cranes do . fact is most operators DO NOT run a fair

claw, so i dont really see how tutorial videos help anyone win

the only tip i can see that his videos are honest about is that the basic objective is

find a prize near the chute and hope it falls in when the strength transitions from grabbing

to retaining power. thats contrary to what most people do which is go for the prize they want

not the prize that is "winnable". also nearly empty cranes are easier to win

can you explain how the coil is used to open the claw? i cant figure how that would work. all of the cranes

ive workd on are on the same principle. the claw has a pole coming from it that goes into the coil the coil (solonoid) energzies and a magnetic field pulls the claw closed by pulling the pole "up" if that makes sense. I am not sure how it would be used to

open the coil unless the coil is magnetic?

[BeTheClaw]

I believe you're talking about Matt Magnone... he's pretty popular on YouTube. His videos are a bit more fun to watch because he just goes and plays .. people like watching that. My videos are a little more concise, with specific pointers in mind. I mostly show clips of me winning and explain how.. and more recently, I've mentioned which machines you should avoid (such as those with greedy payout rates). I agree that the whole percentage thing is very dishonest, but I've mentioned that numerous times in my videos, and especially so in one of my latest ones. Unfortunately, there's no 'Skill Crane Police' to enforce fair practice. There are some laws that require at least 1:10 - 1:15 payout ratio, but whether any place adheres to it... you won't know until you spend a few bucks.

I was also surprised to find out that my crane only energizes the coil to open the claw. Unlike regular claws, where the coil pulls the inner rod up to close the claw, on my crane, coil is at the top half of the assembly, and the inner rod is fixed. When the claw is energized, it pulls the top outer ring of the claw assembly up toward the coil and opens the claw. When the claw reaches the bottom, power is cut, claw closes and returns home.

I have 5 videos so far, but here's a link to the one explaining how this particular claw works. This was one of my early videos from 5 years ago and my presentation is quite lame. To avoid wasting your time, the link starts at around 5:50 mark, where I'm talking about the claw function:

p.s. I would've LOVED to have one of your mini claw machines. If only you lived closer...shipping is too expensive.

i havent seen your videos but i watched a series of videos by some young kid

who shows tricks to playing crane games. it actually helped a lot when i first

got my first few units out and needed to play them to calibrate them. however

he doesnt ever really discuss percentaging which i think it is a little dishonest. he shows

an old grayhound claw in his basement, like yours these are OLD units from the 80s, they

dont have percentaging, but modern cranes do . fact is most operators DO NOT run a fair

claw, so i dont really see how tutorial videos help anyone win

the only tip i can see that his videos are honest about is that the basic objective is

find a prize near the chute and hope it falls in when the strength transitions from grabbing

to retaining power. thats contrary to what most people do which is go for the prize they want

not the prize that is "winnable". also nearly empty cranes are easier to win

can you explain how the coil is used to open the claw? i cant figure how that would work. all of the cranes

ive workd on are on the same principle. the claw has a pole coming from it that goes into the coil the coil (solonoid) energzies and a magnetic field pulls the claw closed by pulling the pole "up" if that makes sense. I am not sure how it would be used to

open the coil unless the coil is magnetic?

[dogcow]

Oh in the video I can see the angle on the claw better. that makes sense now.

[Billnuts]

Can you take pictures of the motherboard and control boards?

that will help greatly in helping you fix this machine

any pictures of the connectors, fuses as well

it looks like a big choice board

bill

[BeTheClaw]

Here are the only electrical components this machine has: main control board, relay board (I'm assuming that's what they are), and another small board that distributes the wires to the claw motors. Here's a high res version of the photo below: https://dl.dropbox.c...ucky1-hires.jpg

Another board with capacitors (guessing) and power switch

These boards are attached to the motors and even though they have soldered wires, I wonder if these can be reconfigured in any fashion.

Here's the coin mech... I tried attaching two wires to both poles of the coin switch and using a momentary switch for coin-free play, but that doesn't seem to work at all. Even just shorting the two wires makes no difference.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or would like to see any other photos, I'd be more than happy to supply. Thanks in advance!

Allen K

BeTheClaw.com

Can you take pictures of the motherboard and control boards?

that will help greatly in helping you fix this machine

any pictures of the connectors, fuses as well

it looks like a big choice board

bill

[Billnuts]

I agree its late 70s early 80s

I see the coin mech and the switch

so as its wired now,,, you insert quarter and it give a credit and let you play

but your pushbutton switch you wired the green/white wires do nothing, i can explain why if the above is correct

looks like the switch is set for NC normally closed so at rest the two wires are connected inside the coin switch when

a quarter passes thru it breaks the connection seperating the two wires and thats how it knows a quarter was inserted

so even if you added a external pushbutton switch pressing that does not break the origional connection between red and black inside the switch

you would need a NC pushbutton switch and wire it as follows

red wire from switch goes to green wire to your pushbutton switch white wire goes to coin switch terminal where you removed red.

so when you press the momentary pushbutton switch it would break the connection between red and black..

also thats odd that it uses six relays usually two button cranes only used 3

basic ascii drawing

[____________]

{ 00 {00000 ]

black0000000 red

[______________]

[ 0000 ]00000000 ]

black 000000000 green -----------( )------ White-----RED

( ) = Nc pushbutton switch for free play

bill

[BeTheClaw]

Thank you so much, Bill... I'll give it shot as soon as I can find an NC switch

Allen

I agree its late 70s early 80s

I see the coin mech and the switch

so as its wired now,,, you insert quarter and it give a credit and let you play

[dogcow]

radio shack has them, also u could use a spdt switch/button just wire it with the coin line

on the NC and leave the NO unwired. that should have the effect ur looking for i believe.

[BeTheClaw]

Thanks, DC. I got my original switch at Radio Shack. Not sure if they had any NC ones, but all of them were tiny. I just ordered one from parts-express.com, which is a little larger. Appreciate your advice.

Did you have any luck selling your mini cranes?

radio shack has them, also u could use a spdt switch/button just wire it with the coin line

on the NC and leave the NO unwired. that should have the effect ur looking for i believe.

[dogcow]

does your switch have 3 terminals or 2?

no the cranes are still for sale

[BeTheClaw]

The crane coin switch has 3, but middle one is unused. The button switch I ordered has 2 terminals.

does your switch have 3 terminals or 2?

no the cranes are still for sale

[dogcow]

The crane coin switch has 3, but middle one is unused. The button switch I ordered has 2 terminals.

then the switch you have will work, its a spdt switch.

look close on it the terminals should be labeled

C (or COM), NO, NC

the ground wire should be connected to COM, and the coin line should be connected to

NC, its probably connected to NO right now.

that should solve your problem because it will keep the switch closed, and pressing the switch

will interrupt the circuit.

[BeTheClaw]

Actually, factory wiring has the black wire connected to COM and red wire connect to NC. The green and white wires are the ones I tried to connect with a push-button switch, but since the switch is not NC, that obviously doesn't work. I ordered an NC switch and will rewire to have it in-line.

then the switch you have will work, its a spdt switch.

look close on it the terminals should be labeled

C (or COM), NO, NC

the ground wire should be connected to COM, and the coin line should be connected to

NC, its probably connected to NO right now.

that should solve your problem because it will keep the switch closed, and pressing the switch

will interrupt the circuit.

[dogcow]

i dont follow, why not just wire in the switch you HAVE in line?

[Billnuts]

he has a off/on momentary pushbutton or a two wire N/O

so if he wired it in it would just give endless credits

he needs a two wire NC pushbutton switch

older arcades were wired NC

so when players learned they could slam hit the door fronts the switch would sometime lose contact for a second giving free games

so they switched to N/O with slam stop switches on most coin doors

this is very old school

[BeTheClaw]

Yep.. what Billnuts said. the current through my coins switch is constantly flowing, and when a coin is inserted, it briefly breaks the connection and adds a credit. If I wire in my current non NC push-button switch, it's only closed when the button is pressed, which is opposite of how the crane is set up to accept a credit.. Date stamp on the control board is '78

i dont follow, why not just wire in the switch you HAVE in line?

[BeTheClaw]

Just a quick update... upon further examination, I realized that this particular crane works with both NC and NO switches... Since my coin switch had both NC and NO terminals, in order to use the NO button switch that I originally bought, I just needed to move the the wire soldered to NC terminal on the coin switch to NO terminal.

To maintain factory configuration, I got an NC switch and wired it in-line with NC terminal. Works great.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed.

[Autocrib]

I found a video on the youtube, May that one will help!

[BeTheClaw]

Thank you, I have seen it

I found a video on the youtube, May that one will help!