Amazing to think this whole system including all the music would now fit on a circuit board the size of a credit card. Would love to own a proper old jukebox like this, one day!
Been a huge Billy Joel fan since the 80s...and I'd never even heard of House Of Blue Light! Thanks for another great video Ron, once again I've learned something. Love from the UK.
I freaking LOVE your jukebox videos. The mechanics behind these things is nothing short of amazing. Every time I see one of these from the early to mid-80s it makes me think of the dark arcade room at Kate's Skating Ring, where I used to put in my quarters to play KISS and other 80's rock bands, and play the KISS Pinball machine with the smell of pizza looming in the air. Thanks for the jukebox videos man. The new ones are just glorified MP# players now. Although I do like being able to pick songs to play using an app on my phone when I am having breakfast, or a very late dinner at the Waffle House near my house. See ya - Brant
They had optical then? I remember the magnetic pickup and light beam would be used to see a bill in the accepter.. optical came out from mars and coinco about 1989.. I worked on a lot of soda and candy machines during that time.
Remember them in the 70's in the bars they would play between sets of any band or were whenever there was no band. Pretty cool looking and sound was good for the day home stereo equipment was really expensive for good sound back then. The one in the Hotel my family ran was in the bar remember the guy installing new records one of them was Wreck of the EF. As an aside same guy serviced the pinball machines in the dining area where us kids could go. Remember a Royal Flush and Surf Champ... I think. Pinball was big in 1977.
I have a 1977 Wurlitzer Niagra. I like to play old 45's on it. When we walk past it in the hall, we drop our quarters in the slot. I just can't get it off free play.
I haven't messed with the freeplay on those much, some have a little plug you can put in to make it freeplay and on some people bend a switch so it's always on freeplay... Not sure how that one's modified...
Ron, i've been ask to look at a 477, and i feel quite confident in having a go due to watching your repair videos. I know the mech is jammed so i'm going to strip that down first before i turn it on. Just a bit worried about the electronics. I normally mess with Pinballs and Bally ome armed bandits
They're all pretty similar, the main issue will be that mech being gummed up... Then you have the power supply, they're similar to the pinball power supplies just make sure you have your voltages and if you don't fix that area... Then you have the Profit Setter, if that has issues you may have a problem! It's about 50/50, I haven't done too much work trying to repair one but the issue is they use strange chips that use a strange voltage (9.6 volts?) so when they die it's hard to diagnose.
I have a 488 rockola but it has NO power at the selection buttons . Everything else seens fine but no power to the keyboard. Would you have a thought on this ?
For those of you that would like to know more detailed description of at least part of the operation of a jukebox regarding actual playback and record handling if I remember correctly technology connections has a video on this subject
@@LyonsArcade I was hoping for a few more details - did it lock out the other devices while someone was choosing their records? How does it remember all the songs that have been chosen and in what order? These probably were long before the Rockola - my guess is pins were set when a record was chosen which caused the carousel to stop.. Royalties for BMI and ASCAP and ratings would be an important part of the operation - not just for the operator to get more quarters. I don’t know a lot of the details and would like to keep my kneecaps
JOES CLASSIC, can you go over the schematics for the Profit Setter, Hit Tracker, Rock Ola Amplifier just to go over the theory of operation in general to get familiar with how they work. I'm not sure why the designers choose 9.6vdc as the standard because that is very unusual to design a circuit around 9.6vdc
I literally just wipe them down with windex! They make special cleaner for them though but man they're plastic, you can't really damage them with a mild cleaner like windex which is basically soapy water with a little ammonia in it. Be careful with the paper labels though it'll stain those of course. If they're completely filthy maybe something stronger like 409.
Pizza Hut Vibes ... and then our pizza hut got it upgraded to something similar but I think it played CDs, with 4 digit codes. No idea if the same brand of jukebox or not.
You should include a "land mine" inside the player... By that...I mean a recording that no one in their right mind would even come close to consider touching...
A lot of them had different designs, some lit up and some didn't it kind of depended on the model and how the inside was laid out... .some had their own light bulb behind the key pad and some just had a clear space behind it to grab the ambient light from inside....
They were sold to operators, i'm not sure what the price was but likely $3-$4000 or so.... they didn't come with records, the operator would swap the records out often in them to put new songs in that had just came out.....
To think that in 1982 first-generation compact discs were making their way to record stores! The record industry is pretty much dead. It took less than 10 years of mp3 and the industry not adapting to reality and changing its ways (lousy, overpriced albums; arguably obsolete format/CD that NEEDED to be replaced; generally bad new content being released) to wipe out what USED TO BE the largest entertainment sector. Most stores don't sell albums anymore. You have to buy soundtracks online. A lot of stuff is out of print and ridiculously overpriced. That's NOT a healthy industry. Comic books are headed this way, too!
