Edge-Lit For Fun! Mystery Fruit Machine Display

Oh well, just thought I would tell you how I solved it, nowadays I take them for a heart complaint anyway and my soldering is fine for my purposes- just keep bringing these wonderful videos of you finds etc and you make a lot of people very contented. take care, Mike,

Mike Hughes

Side effects negate their use for me. Thanks.

Fran Blanche

Hi Fran, re the tremor in your hands, I suffer similarly, and have a prescribed very low dose beta blocker called Propranolol 5mg, you can take it regularly or just occasionally, but is sure does get rid of the shakes for me, especially when soldering or doing finicky stuff. Talk to your Doctor- it may be of use to you too.

Mike Hughes

Hi Fran, re the tremor in your hands, I suffer similarly, and have a prescribed very low dose beta blocker called Propranolol 5mg, you can take it regularly or just occasionally, but is sure does get rid of the shakes for me, especially when soldering or doing finicky stuff. Talk to your Doctor- it may be of use to you too.

Mike Hughes

Fran, I just cannot find an example of a Japanese slot machine with this display type either. I did find an interesting website that is dedicated to old technology, and display technology, which shows another type of Stanley display along with a competitors edge-lit display. https://www.industrialalchemy.org/tubepage.php?item=10&user=0 You may have an "engineering sample" that was provided to IEE and happened to have the slot machine symbols to demonstrate it could display more than just numbers. You may have one of the last remaining examples of this short-lived technology. I did find it interesting that Stanley is still in business in Japan and offers all kinds of cutting-edge lighting products for automobiles and exterior lighting.

Matt Wietlispach

ok ,i just found out that i can patronize any amount i wish .. stupid me. I first thought, that i was limited to your very limited 3$. Much love. Daniel

I see! Thank you!

I can't find a record of any such machine.

Fran Blanche

Well Daniel, always take care of yourself first - THEN FranLab!

Fran Blanche

There are 4 bulbs on the other end.

Fran Blanche

Fran, I just lost my job but i still love "patronizing" you ;)

neat display freaking really neat. Keep em coming! Your the one.

William Nimmo

Think you need to etch your own plate(s) with the Franlab orbiting thing from your logo :)

I wonder how the light enters the right plate. If I saw correct there were 3 bulbs, but 7 plates. Were the some optical binary trick going on, in that is you light up two bulbs the light would enter a different plate, than if you light up those two bulbs individually?

I think the "shims" were actually reflectors also preventing light travel from wrong light block?

I think I might have figured out what that specific module is for. The movie "Casino" was on cable TV yesterday and they showed the slot machines pretty often. The fruit symbols and "7" would be on the classic mechanical rotary drums. Naturally, a row of "7" symbols was a jackpot and it would dump coins into the hopper. This looks like somebodies attempt to replace those mechanical drums with something that provided the same symbols but eliminated the noise and mechanical grinding the mechanical drums would have used. So three or four of these in a row would have those symbols and I guess the user pushed a button to silently throw up random symbols until a "777" was randomly generated and the payout was made.

Matt Wietlispach

Seems like a very practical device for the time.

William Alsing