Home-brew progressive display
poppo:
I hope this is in the right section.
For anyone interested, I am going to describe how I built my home-brew progressive display for my Haywire Deluxe. Please be aware most of these pictures were taken a few years ago when I first built it.
First, the items that will be needed.
1. A IGT slot machine.
2. A Basic Stamp, Basic Atom or other PIC type of controller.
3. A serial port equipped BetaBrite display (look on e-bay, but make sure it has serial input)
4. A RS51-SPR-BETA BetaBrite(Classic) Protocol Converter
Note: if you are a programmer and can figure out the BetaBrite protocol, you can probably eliminate #4. However, it would be simpler to just buy the converter.
For my project I chose a Basic Atom since I was used to programming it and it can be found with a nice little carrier board with a serial port input for programming. The programming software is free on the basicmicro website http://www.basicmicro.com/Downloads_ep_43.html There are various versions of prototype boards, but they all will do the same thing. You will only be using a few of the I/O pins, so the simpler, the better. I found my board on e-bay for about $15.
The BetaBrite protocol converter can be found here.
http://www.industrologic.com/rs51bdes.htm
Basically what we will do is use the Basic Atom to monitor the slot machine’s backplane J12 P3 & P4 (progressive out and ground). The basic atom will then do the math and send the data to the protocol converter which in turn will send the appropriate display information to the BetaBrite. The protocol converter uses a serial data input and the basic atom is capable of sending serial data out any pin. So interfacing the two is simple.
Here is what the Basic Atom prototype board and the BetaBrite protocol converter look like when connected. The serial port on the Basic Atom board is used to program the Atom and the output serial port on the protocol converter goes to the BetaBrite. Nothing needs to be done with the protocol converter except power it up. I used a wall wart plugged into the outlet in the bottom of the machine for that. It also powers the Basic Atom
I have attached the code for the basic atom (it's at the end of the post). I tried to make comments on most of the code so it should not be too hard to figure out what I was doing. The code is also set up to display on the serial LCD I have on the front of the machine, so some of it can be left out. Or it can be left in as it will still run fine even without a LCD connected. It’s a one way serial stream.
Total cost was about $150.00
I have the display set up to display various messages with various effect. This is what I currently have:
Welcome
Mark's Game Room
Starburst
FUN FOR ALL
Try your luck
Be a winner!
Bursting bomb
progressive display
Note: Playing credits always updates the progressive amount and displays that immediately regardless of where in the display cycle it is. A pretty handy feature.
Hard to take a picture when it's scrolling.
The busting bomb looks really cool as it explodes just before the progressive ammount is displayed.
knagl:
Wow, that's awesome. Does it talk to the machine if/when the jackpot is hit to relay the amount to the machine and also then get reset back to a base amount when the JP reset key is turned?
poppo:
Quote from: knagl on November 10, 2010, 07:44:25 PM
Wow, that's awesome. Does it talk to the machine if/when the jackpot is hit to relay the amount to the machine and also then get reset back to a base amount when the JP reset key is turned?
Thanks.
No, there is no talking back to the machine. So IF the jackpot is hit, since it would be a manual payout anyway, one can just look at the display. Also, I have that LCD on the front of the unit that also displays the amount.
As for resetting, I did put some code in there for a manual reset switch (momentary contact) which could be mounted somewhere inside. I never wired it up though since a jackpot is so rare and I can just connect the computer to the serial port and reset it that way.
So there are a few, but minor limitations.
Foster:
The machine signals a jackpot by closing coin in for 3 seconds.
The next coin in would reset the jack pot
StatFreak:
Quote from: poppo on November 10, 2010, 07:53:40 PM
...
I never wired it up though since a jackpot is so rare and I can just connect the computer to the serial port and reset it that way.
...
Actually, the odds for an S+ HD are only 21,845:1. That's better than most cm (coin multiplier) S+ games, except a few of the oldies with low jackpots.
If you play 750 pulls an hour, you could expect to hit it every 29 hours in the long run. Typically, you wouldn't go more than 60-90 hours between jackpots. If you play like a tournament player (about 1000-1100 pulls an hour), you'll hit it even more often, although the haywires will slow you down a bit.
HD was the first S+ machine I bought. I hit the jackpot shortly after I got it, but it also turned out to be the only cm S+ top prize I would win for years, mostly because I went on to play games with much longer odds.
I finally hit Double Dollars a few months ago. I decided to play it aggressively until I hit, and did so. It also has low odds: only 32,768:1.
The S+ games with higher top prizes typically have odds of 262.144:1 (64 stops with 1 combo) or 373,248:1 (72 stops with 1 combo). After hitting the top prize on my HD, I put in Five Times Pay and left it in for a long time (over 100,000 pulls). The odds of hitting the top prize on that game with my SS chip were 729,000:1 so it's not surprising that I never hit it.
Stat :31-
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