When we convert ours to new BVs, we usually change the BV and the housing. Sometimes a new harness is needed depending on the manufacturer of the machine. We've had a lot of problems with the WBA's on the floor with the new polymer bills, but it's only hardware errors. Reseating the BV clears the error, sometimes reseating it up to 10+ times. Because it was driving us crazy having a whole floor going into errors with the upgrade, we are converting all of ours to UBA and ivision BVs.

For a home machine, the errors won't likely drive you as crazy, so I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just letting you know what to possibly expect with WBAs and the new polymer bills.

-Styx

I am also in Canada and interested in this.

Remember these are S+ machines.
In the US JCM (The manufacture of DBV,CBA,WBA and now UBA) dropped support (ie never released updates) for the newer US bills for the S+ protocols.

While I am sure the UBA's would accept the new money I am not sure it will validate for the S+ platform. All of the Canadian Casinos have IGT S2000's or the newer AVP platforms.

That's US not C$

Those were all very good points. K+

I am unfamiliar with S+ platforms, and we do not have them in our casino.

-Styx

The link that Blueridge provided is the last piece of documentation that I have seen on the matter.

It says software is available to bring the validator up to bills that were last released in 2006. All of the newer polymer currency was not issued until at least 2010 perhaps later.
So unless the UBA or later supports the S+ protocol then you (we) are stuck with the WBA as the last supported model.

There are 4 pieces that comprise the bill system in an S+. These are the head, the transport, cash can and power supply.
In the DBV/CBA series the heads were physically different betwen the US and Canadian models  as the sensors for the security spots were in physcially
different locations from the US dollars.

I believe the same WBA head can read, US, Canadian and Euros. The only difference is the duck bill which aligns the different widths of bills.

In the DBV/CBA world the "validation chip" was kept in the head. In the WBA series this chip is in the transport.  
So to convert to Canadian bills you need to replace the transport.

The cash can typically does not need to be replaced however depending on use you may want to as the springs and things tend to become problematic from extensive casino use.

Finally the power supply - this is not the full power supply of the S+ but a small black box usually mounted under the reel tray. Between the older 2way acceptor DBV145 and the DBV200 you needed to change the power supply as the older did not have the amperage. IF you currently have a USA WBA you will not need to change this to accept the Canadian version of the WBA.

Knowing very little about the UBA - I would assume that the head, transport and power supply would need to be changed if we were able to upgrade .

In conclusion - what we need to be looking for is a protocol convertor. A small board that would go between the validator and the slot allowing the head to talk the new protocols and convert to the older S+.

Just looking at the cost of a bunch of this stuff about 2 years ago. I came to the conculsion that I would basically ignore my DBV/WBA on the slots and if I wanted to upgrade it would be cheaper for me to buy a $500-$600 S2000 (that takes all my older glass kits and software) + has TITO + new bills. The alternative is to buy a bunch of parts not designed for my machine, and still not end up with TITO.

By no means am I discouraging further research on this matter and as my first post said. I am very interested in your findings. So if you find an inexpensive way to make this happen I will be on your band wagon in a second.

I have 3 S+s and a PE+ (video poker from the same era).
They are all networked with both shared and standalone progressives.
I also have a roulette wheel with all the signage. A bar with 3 tap towers etc.

They are however still home machines so I don't use any real money.

I have just over 10000 tokens and a coin rolling machine.
When people come over I just hand them a couple of rolls of tokens and a coin cup.

ok, just to revive this topic a little im curious if theres any canadians with s+ slot machines and what bill validators they run. is there something i can get that will accept the newest paper canadian currency? before they changed to the polymer bills?? there are still 5s 10s and 20s in circulation, i could save up a few of those just as something to play with. make the machine more authentic

so your saying that if i manage to find a wba 23 i still will have to get it flashed or change the chip to be the most current it can be? where might i be able to find a used wba 23?? they seem to be hard to find. im guessing ill need the complete unit to swap out with my mei validator. then my next question is where could i get a canadian eprom???

Have a look at this.....

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/86KCq7Nr3sg&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/86KCq7Nr3sg&rel=0</a>
It is a protocol convertor board.
The video says its being used with a PE+ game and is doing a ID003 to ID022 conversion.
When I go to the appointed web site  http://agaslots.com
I don't see this specfic conversion but was thinking of contacting the vendor.

A couple of observations is that the game shown on the screen is not like any PE+ game I have other seen --- Comments ???

Theoretically you could take a WBA23 and have it talk to a PE+

I am wondering if a current UBA would fit in a PE+ ???

It would be exactly the same.
Different slot machines use different protocols.
Basically IGT abandoned the 022 protocol with the new machines using 003
So if you have a device that converts from 3 to 22 the machine and the head don't know any difference.

You would still need a new device that accepts Canadian bills + the convertor.

I don't know the cost.of either but I suspect your looking at $400-500