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Got my TITO working today with 1 machine now to work on multiple machines at the same time

what it does

when i hit cash out it sends the validation number and amount to my laptop which puts in a database.

when ticket is inserted it sends validation number to the laptop which then looks it up in the database and then redeems the ticket.

yeay

 :105-    Fantastic!!  :3- :3-  :267-

So, what settings worked?
      What database program did you use? (MySQL, MSAccess, SQL Server, etc.)
      How did you access the database from the program?

right now I am using standard validation,(enhanced validation not working quite yet will need to get andyp to fix that)
useing sql server for the database
i am using visual studio 2010 to modify write it using andyp's dll

That's awesome!  Congrats.

That is Awesome. Congrats!  That is definitely a great achievment  :131-
K+

 :267- :267-  Congrats....Superb  :131-  It makes me jealous...guess I am gonna have to get off my butt and start working on getting mine to work... :244-

Way to go zarobhr.  :244- :244- :3- :3-
I think it makes playing the game  fun & more interesting.
Ford

Once you feed a ticket in can it be used again?

Not on my setup

Only if you do a game change.
I keep an extra MPU with another game set-up on it. his way I can pull out the tickets from the cash can and re-insert them with the other game installed.

Then tickets cashed from that game will validate and go back into the cash can.
A change back to the original game, and the tickets from the cash can will validate again.
Theoretically, never have to use cash again.

But mine is a little different set up on a UV1700

You can write your code either way. If you want to reuse tickets, leave them in the database and don't perform any checks to determine if the ticket has been used. If not, then either delete the records (not best practice) or have an extra field and set a flag with your code when the ticket is redeemed.

thats what i do , is check the database and flag the entry as redeemed.

reuseing tickets has nothing to do with game change since the game doesnt retain any info about the ticket .

btw i had to completly rewrite my one program since andyp dll wouldnt work with my serial ports

i am using tibbo ethernet to serial(3ports)

total of six machaines being polled now and as soon as i get another adaptor will have 9 on my tito system.

also got sas progressive working so once i get the bugs worked out i will have progressives on most of my machines

zarobhr, Can you take ticket from one game & use it in different game?

yes

That's cool.  :244- :244-I have to us my tickets in machine they came out of.

That's because you don't have a back end program and database managing the tickets.

SQL server is a resource and memory hog and is expensive (if obtained legitimately). You can get and use MySQL for nothing, and it has a much smaller footprint. I'm guessing that zarobhr already had access to a SQL server db, so it was the easiest solution for him. A few years ago I would have been in the same position, but not now.

If using SQL server or MySQL (hey, anyone for Oracle? :30-) you'll be building a separate front end, and will have a choice of building it to run in a browser window or as a local stand-alone app. You can program it in any language, C# (or C#.net) being the most common choice, but you could also use VB.net or others. A browser app would also require some HTML skills and possibly javascript, plus asp or php.

I'm an expert MSAccess programmer and already own full versions of MSOffice, so if I ever set this up, that's probably what I would use, since it's a complete solution in a single package and is fine for a small home envronment. It uses ADO and ADOX, SQL, and Access VB, which is not as complete as VB, but has a few commands that VB doesn't.

In any case, you attach AndyP's dll to your project and then access it via exposed method and property calls, which I assume he has documented. You can write your own code to interface with specific hardware, as zarobhr did to use his serial ports.

There are multiple solutions. It just depends on what you've got available, how well you know the various tools, and how much time you've got on your hands. :5-

sql express is free. but i do have the full version

With my lack of knowledge in this stuff I think I have to be happy with what I got. You guys lose me in the dust. :279- :279-
Ford

What we need is solution that doesn't require expensive software to run and that can be easily installed. Since it would be for everyone, it wouldn't address members' specific hardware problems. MSAccess 2007 and 2010 have a free runtime for end users. MySQL and a stand alone C#/VB app would be free, as would a web front end.

Heck, for home users who don't intend on having too many unclaimed tickets, we could even use a simple .csv or comma delimited text file, or a simple binary data file, and load the data into an array each time the program runs. It would then write back to the file as old tickets were deleted and new ones created. Security would be a non-issue for home users.

Of course, having a database would be more useful down the road, as I suspect people will want to have multiple progressive capabilities, and might try to use their player card readers.

i wish i could figure out the player card stuff, everything i have uses mastercomm 250 but i dont know how to communicate with it

Could you add a drop down menu with an options selection?  Under this options selection have options to turn on or off having the data base mark the tickets as validated?
Maybe have in addition to these options, an input field where you could type in certain data base entries so that you could keep those entries from being marked validated.
Just some ideas. 
Eric

The thing with the master comm is how does it communicate with the machine and how does it communicate with its back end system
I would love to see this app,

the master comm 250 one end connects to the machine via the serial port , backend no clue

my app is definately not ready to send out yet, no gui yet

as for putting an option in to clear or not clear tickets as redeemed and options to not clear certain tickets would not be a problem

hardware differences may also be a little issue but if the options are right with adjustable delays most should be overcome.

If MasterComm connects to the machine via Serial port, which port is it on the S2000?
I hope it not the same one I am using for SAS now.

yes it is the same port, but why would you need both connected (unless you have finally figured something out to communicate with the mastercom

I havent figured ou the maastercom to mastercom server comunications yet.
IF the mastercom is not connected to the S2000 then it would be harder to figure out the communications to a server.

aw ok, all i know it appears to use rs422 but since i dont have that on pc yet i am lost. i do think that the mastercomm takes care of all the sas commands and talks to the back end in a different protocol

have you gotten any type of connection from MC250 to a pc yet?

Nope havent gotten that far.
The default communication setting when a machine is cleared
SAS is on channel 1 (If I remember right) which is the fiber optics port.
Bally Mastercom is channel 3 and there are 2 protocols available.

When I do tackle this I will see if the S+ DCS TTL to RS232 interface I built still functions and will reconfigure SAS to channel 2 (DCS port on the S2000 motherboard)
I say this because right before I sold my S+ it quit communicating via SAS.

Hey zarobhr, what was the issue you had with the DLL? Let me know what is wrong with the extended validation stuff and I will see if I can make a few quick changes to it.

StatFreak. Ms-sql express edition is free http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/editions/express.aspx. Its a lot more robust that that mysql and its not a resource hog. ms-sql is probably one of the best databases available these days. Best part about using it with c# is that it all integrates really well and is easy to use.

In fact, all microsoft dev tools can now be had for free: http://www.microsoft.com/express

Just need to get that SAS game simulator now and I will be able to do some more work!

i dont remember now. since uyour dll had timing issues with the tibbo ethernet to serial adaptors i am using i had to write everything from scratch, so i am not usiing your dll anymore

and are you using one serial port per machine, or are you attempting to multidrop?

one per machine. the tibbo device has 3 serial ports per converter adn have 12 machines connected
i dont think i can multidrop with out going fiber or (i forget which) rs422 or rs485

cool. my dll was designed for multidrop, and thats the tricky part. Might just go back to single machine per port for now and get all the features working then attempt multidrop.

RS485 and it is not that hard to implement.

RS485 allows each node to transmit or receive.

RS422 is one transmitter and multiple receivers.

thats rs 485 it is then, is there a rs485 port on igt machines or would i need a converter from the rs232 to rs485

The I960 platform has them.
I think they they use 4 wire + the ground/shield so they can do full duplex
it is J81 on the comm board and the driver/receiver IC's are LTC491
Also looks like they use over voltage protection there are 2 zener diodes per connection 6.8V and 12V

you can actually multidrop rs232 by daisy chaining, ie tx from pc to rx of machine 1, tx of machine 1 to rx of machine 2, tx of machine 2 to rx of PC. Since SAS is addressable it can be done that way.

could be wrong but issue with that way is that if one machine goes down then they all go down.
if i get time today i am going to see if i can get this method to work.
i brain is not think this early  so was wandering this

if pc sends something to machine 2 and its tx is on machine one, does machine 1 resend it out to machine 2

Yup, thats the way it works. Loop down we call it in the industry when the line is broken!

The rs232 needs to 'pass through' regardless. Look at any fibre optic board in a slot machine, the principle is the same. The data is fed from rx to tx, and machine tx is 'or'ed into the loop.

Has anyone got the SAS to work on WMS machines

Wes

If I can be of any assistance let me know.  I have access to any type of adapter / converter / fiber or R232/485/422/TTL.  I can only do SC or ST in the fiber though.  I just know industry standard (BICSI, TIA/EIA).  Once it hits a machine I am clueless as far as the SAS protocol.  Before anyone starts dropping money on fiber converters let me test the theory  I would be happy to setup any type of "bench test" on my machines.

Wes - Assuming its for Bluebirds have a look at this thread. Dont know if anyone has had any luck on the 550 platform.
http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=11885.15 (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=11885.15)

Thanks, Ian

I'll check it out

Wes

hmm last response didnt work.

i trid the daisy chaining of rs232 and it did not appear to work. i daisy chained 3 machines together. and changed the sas address for those machines

anything that i transmitted from the pc was only recieved by the first gaming machine in the loop
likewise anything transmitted from machines, the pc only saw what was transmitted by the last machine in loop

i would actually like to explore the rs485 option though, i dont like the idea of all  machines going down if one is powered off.

I've always said that single RS232 to each machine would be the easiest to implement. And for a home environment, it just seems to make the most sense.

At least the way RS232 is implemented on a S+, daisy chaining won't work. Not sure how it is on a S2000, but I expect it would be pretty much the same and TX is not passed to RX. What you saw is what would be expected.

i did not expect it to work, but figured i would try. rs232 is a point to point and is not designed for multidrop or multipoint.

In theory it 'could' work if the machine retransmitted whatever data it received, but even that could become an issue because each machine would need to retransmit (via software) whatever came previously. So in other words each machine down the line becomes more bogged down having to filter and retransmit not just the incoming SAS commands, but also the replies from the previous machines. And as you said, if one machine goes down, everything is dead.

Well i ordered an tibbo ethernet to rs485 converter so i can test with it next week

You need to feed the tx through to rx and or machine TX. I think I posted an example schematic here somewhere that can be made on protoboard with jelly bean parts.

rs485 is still a good option. You could also make interface to the EGM with jelly bean parts on protoboard. In fact, here is some cheap stuff off ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RS-232-RS-422-Communication-Data-Converter-Adapter-/270795858242?pt=AU_Components&hash=item3f0cb0e142

Does anyone know what this adapter is for
it's a WMS eithernet to DB9,
it uses pins 2-3-5-7 at the DB9 end, the pin 5 is ground
anyone know what that DB9 pinout is
I'm wondering if it's an adapter for the com port in a Bluebird

Wes

if you can tell us what the IC is and what pins of the IC that pins 2,3,7 of the DB9 go to we might be able to tell you whether you need a straight serial cable or null modem (crossover cable).

Pin       DTE or PC               DCE
2          Transmit Data  -->  Recieve Data   
3          Recieve Data  <--  Transmit Data
5          Ground         <->  Ground

Not sure about pin 7

It's hard to tell from the picture, but that looks more like a Ethernet 'cable' to DB9 converter than a Ethernet 'signal' to RS232 converter. There does not seem to be enough electronics on it to be a signal converter. Looks like there is just a MAX232 chip and one other (probably an opto-isolator).

If it's just a cable converter, it's probably pretty useless for a home environment since a standard RS232 cable would suffice. Despite the 'official' lengths for RS232, you can easily go several hundred feet if not more with no problem.

If it is a Ethernet signal converter (which I doubt), then you still may be SOL without the drivers for it.

Thanks for the responses

it has an i/c with 16 pins its marked

ICL
3232ECA
L548GBR

if the dot on the chip is pin 1 then
pin 11 goes to pin 2 of the DB9
pin 12 to pin 3
pin 15 to pin 5
and pin 7 of the DB9 comes up under the chip and I cant see what it goes to

I got this as a freebie from Johnny to many numbers, so I was just curious if it was good for anything

Thanks for your help

That is just a MAX232 equivalent. What does the other chip say?

It appears to have small jack on the front right hand side of it too.
I imagine it needs to powered up with some voltage to make it work?
Is there a hanging 2-wire harness laying around in the machine that would fit it?

Looks like power that you would get from a wall wart.

The other chip is

MAX3080E
CSD 0508

And it does have a power input on it, and there is no power plug for this in my machine
it would use some sort of power adapter, probably 12v
I'm thinking its just an Ethernet to RS32 adapter.

"The MAX3080–MAX3089 high-speed transceivers for RS-485/RS-422 communication contain one driver and
one receiver."

http://pdfserv.maxim-ic.com/en/ds/MAX3080-MAX3089.pdf (http://pdfserv.maxim-ic.com/en/ds/MAX3080-MAX3089.pdf)

So, RS-485 over CAT5 to RS232

Most likely a 5v PS as the max VCC is 7V. Unless there is a voltage regulator somewhere on the board.

Thanks Poppo

I was wondering if it would be good for the SAS communication with my Bluebird,
now I know a lot more about it

I know that if you use a foreign JUR chip in the Bluebird, that it will make more options available
in the com options, that's how I was able to get my printer to work, so that may help in getting the SAS working in the BlueBird as well

Wes