New Life Games Tech Forums

Hi.

I have IGT Game King Video Slot - https://www.igt.com/GamingGroup/Games/game_detail.asp?toggle=ovr&pid=5.113.120&type_id=2873&pl=#cnt and I would like to connect it to PC over RS232 port and communicate with slot over SAS protocol. Please tell me if something like this is possible on this slot and if it is, how to do it. Thank you.


Cheers.

Yes !
Before 3 monts I made conections between PC and IGT an Aristocrat machine but with RS 485 protocol with SAS command and in Visual Basic developed own software
and now i make pay in machine and payout credit (money) in machine and ofcourse read all electronics counters , and status ( game mod, free , byssy, open door .....)  . Can communicate with  32 machine .

best regards
Zoran Avramovski

zoran,
Can you send me a copy of your program to try it on mine? :91-

I appreciated very much! :89-

OH Sorry !

Software can't work with out hardware !
And they is maked with chelvetica on Macedonian language and not yet  complete developed  ( in this moment create print report for 32 machine)!
Of course not big problem translate him on english .

Maybe later - after fineshed him !!!

If interst you some details -can tell you .

 Great zocky!

I can't wait to check it out... :71-

Oh ! Sorry !!

What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate or Translate.  :5-

olololololololololololololollololo! :97- :72- :72- :25- :25-
That's for sure..lol

FYS CMF  :30-

Thank you very much zocky....interesting information actually. :3-

Hi.

Thank you for you replies. I have managed to connect my slot to PC through JB2 (J82) connector on slot comm board and I can issue general and long pools using SAS Tester application. Now I am developing my application in C# to try to get simple counters like (current game credits etc...). Until now I have implemented general pool which is sending 80 and 81 commands alternating every 40 ms, and I am getting response 00 from slot (No Activity). Problem appears when I try to send command like 01 1A + CRC (get current credits) and I am not getting any response from slot. From SAS documentation I have found out that I need to control wakeup bit (or parity bit), and that is impossible using C# and its SerialPort (correct me if I am wrong). Zoki, I would appreciate if you can tell me how did you managed to control it.

Here is my code in C# regarding serial communication:

private SerialPort port = new SerialPort("COM1", 19200, Parity.None, 8);
        public MainForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            port.DataReceived += new SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(port_DataReceived);
            port.Open();
            port.RtsEnable = true;
            port.DtrEnable = true;
        }
        private void sendPoolButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            port.Write(new byte[] { 0x01, 0x1A, 0x03, 0xA6 }, 0, 4);
        }

Thank you.

This picture is from SAS Interface

This is my Visual Basic Interface Software between PC and SAS Interface . Collect all information from Gamble Machine (GM) and save and calculate in PC .With this software I can and put inside Credit and Pay out from GM also.
With him I can command 32 GM .For more details contact me on my PM.

This is shematic diagram how connect PC and GM

And this is converter from RS232 to RS485 with max 232 and max 485 + 26ls31
Oooo , Pa ja sada sam uvideo da ti si iz HR.
Pozdrav od  SK - MK !!! Ne mogu ti pomoci oko detalja za tvog programa - neznam C - ja sam pocetnik u V.Basic Net ali dogurao sam donegde , moja specijalnost je asm za PIC microcontrolere.

What voltages go here, zocky?

See in this pdf .All specification is here ! This is RS485 protocol .Point A & B ( 0-5v )

protocol

Excellent Zocky! :89-

(Someone just asked how I drew the arrows in the photo I re-uploaded to Zocky...
Drawing arrows on a photogragh is pretty easy.

First, save the photo to "MyPictures" on you computer.
Send the saved pic to a photo editing proram such as Adobe Photoshop",
using the "Pencil", and a very light, bright color draw whatever you want on the photo and save it again.
Now you can upload the redone picture to the forum when asking specific questions to people who speak other languages besides english.)

Pozdrav Zoki.

Cini se da moj slot prima poruke koristeci wakeup mode, a u Windowsima ne postoji mogucnost kontrole wakeup bita, tako da s tim ne mogu nista napravit. Negdje sam pronasao da SAS protokol moze koristiti parity bit umjesto wakeup bita, pa cu se malo poigrati s tim i javim sta se desava.

Pozdrav iz Zagreba.

Zivio.

English: It seems tham my slot receives messages using wakeup mode, and since you cannot have that mode in Windows, i cannot do anything with this. I have found out somewhere that SAS protocol can use parity bit instead of wakeup bit, so I will try to get it working in this way.

Probaj sa 19 200 8 - 1 - Even  - ovaj parity je jako bitan!

Excuse me mate, what's the meaning of this?  (translation please ;) )

 Uhhhh....Zocky! ...what you say?  :5- :103-

Sorry ! Last message is only for ROBIM (Croatian Language).I am from Macedonia .

well, I'm going to have to get me a language descrambler! :72-

 :97- :97- :97- :97-   yeah!!!! me too...

Hear are the translations:

Probaj sa 19 200 8 - 1 - Even  - ovaj parity je jako bitan!

=
Try with 19 200 8 - 1 - Even - the parity is very important!



Oooo , Pa ja sada sam uvideo da ti si iz HR.
Pozdrav od  SK - MK !!! Ne mogu ti pomoci oko detalja za tvog programa - neznam C - ja sam pocetnik u V.Basic Net ali dogurao sam donegde , moja specijalnost je asm za PIC microcontrolere.

=

Oooo, I'm now uvideo that you are in HR. Greetings from SK - MK! I can not help you about the details of your program - do not C - I am a beginner in V. Basic Net dogurao but I donegde, my specialty is the ASM for PIC microcontrolere.

Oh, how I want to crack wise here. There's so much material... I'm just going to bite my tongue... :96- :99- :47- :30-

On a serious note. Thanks zocky for all of the information. :3-

OK!
Now I have a question !
How I connect aristocrat model 540pcb to DACOM or other protocol device and take data from machine like SAS !

answer for "smol64"

Sorry !  "smol64"
My software can't work without hardware !
I implement and hard-lock usb dongle .
See my picture published before ,
it work with 32 machine , can read all electronics counter from Gamble Machine,pay in and pay out money or credit
can read cabinet status ( open door, lock .....) , read PCB status ( ready , game mod ,.....)
and now implement and jack pot system on second LCD monitor 40" ( mystery and progressive , and TIME jack pot exam. every day from 8.00AM to
12.00 PM fix price for RND active machine but only is active min. 5 GM )
Of course available and shift report with printed document and other stuff.


I repeat before question ???
How I connect aristocrat model 540pcb to DACOM or other protocol device and take data from machine like SAS on who connector , speed parity ...!
I know that is possible but don't know how .

Hello Zocky

Thanks for the great info. Newer Aristocrats have SPC boards (Mk5 onwards ? - I could be wrong) that should translate whatever proprietary protocol Aristocrat uses to SAS.
There is a difference between the american and australian 540 - could you post a pic so we know what we are dealing with ?

Regards
Ian

Sorry for late answer !

I success connect on cabinet MVP MK5 with SAS interface on P1 connector an communication with him is OK , but can't communicate with MK4 on P1 serial connector because  I don't know
"question" (how many bytes and cheksum ) for MK4 , speed , parity, ...
On my last visit on Belgrade fair seed one solution who is connect on P1 RS232 connector , and try but , without success .


Where find data about this communication protocol !

GOOD LUCK, really you are not getting anywhere with all this. SAS is SAS , pay the money and you will get the answers.

If you are all interested in designing an on line system, you will need to pay "MEAGA BUCKS" to Igt to start off with.


Keep hoping...


cheers


O Z Z Y

you can use a trick to achive the wake up by snding first 0xff twice at 38400,8,n,1 and then the aset number (common is 1) at the normal sas speed of 19200 but in Mark parity state and then the rest in Space parity state and that will work fine.

the checksum is crc16 ccitt kermit, you can use an online calculator first an then make the code i all have it working allready and i did not pay a buck jo jo jo

and the "lenght of data field" does not count the aset number, the command, itself, and the crc (two bytes)

please, can anyone tell me what is the exact specification of the serial port? because i've seen somewhere that is 19200 baud 8n1 and somewhere else 8 data bits 2 stop bits ans mark parity & space parity alternating after address
so witch is true?
and by the way it is rts handshake right?
i appreciate any answer

so i understood that wake up bits stays in the parity bits,only the address byte should have mark parity ( a 1 in parity area) and the command bytes + crc must have 0 in parity area witch is space parity
i made a program under windows changing parity type (only by closing and opening serial port at different parity type) but is not working. the problem is that i am able to make it under dos( changing the lcr (line control register) in asm ( turbo assembler ) or q basic ( inp and out)), of serial port (&h3f8) but in windows i need some drivers to make it work.
i used some kind of visual basic(purebasic) under windows can anyone help me i've seen someone developed a program with visualbasic ( Microsoft)
i appreciate any help.

Adrian

i sent you a personal message.

I have a referral system to the system through the SAS protocol works well, but need the SAS protocol version 6.02, I would be very grateful if someone would give me thi

Which protocol version are you presently using Dneo?

Hi,
I'm designing a SAS module to SNMP. I have it already working; don't know very well what version since I got all data by researching on the soft SASTEST by IGT. What I'd need would be  more information or the 6.2 protocol so that I can finish my project. If you happen to have an available protocol, could you please send it to me? Thnak you!

Pablo, from Argentina

I wish I did Pablo,  :8-
I'd send it to you in a heartbeat to see what you could do with it! :91- :89-

I am trying  to connect directly to the j81 port on the igt machines I am using a standard  rs232 to rs485 converter but can not get any comms can someone help me with the pinout do i need to use a half or full duplex converter?  I can connect to the machine through the rs232 port but need to go through the 485   Please help
 

Welcome to NLG

Attached find schematic for comms board - Maybe this will help ?

How many people are actually interested in a PC app to run SAS machine? I can do it without the need for special hardware (i think) and have a bunch of code already written for SAS protocol machines. Language would be C++, but might make it into a DLL for c# or vb.net. I dont have a SAS machine at the moment, but might be able to commission one in the near future.

Does SAS allow for TITO usage (ie. would one be able to create a back-office TITO system for their basement with your PC app)?  If so, I'm sure there'd be lots of interest.

Yes, there SAS protocol does have provision for TITO. Not sure how wide the support is from gaming machines though. I only have the later version of the protocol, so might not be usefull for older games. Unfortunatly, I cannot give out the protocol, as is signed under a non-disclosure agreement and my company name is plastered all over the document.

lol...I understand that you don't want to disclose anything about the protocol.
That's under your agreement with the big shots.
However, would you be under fire if you wrote a program that would work for us
slot homeowners to put on their PC to get their tickets to work on their home machines?

Personally, I don't want to know anything about the licensed protocol or any of the code -
I couldn't care less really.
I'd just like to be able to allow my own machine accept the TITO tickets
it prints out using a cheap laptop hooked up to an S+ or my S2000.

Could you guys make something like that?
Hide or encrpyt the protocol if you need to...it will protect you from any problems with the big shots!
It's all mumble jumble useless stuff to us anyways.  :5-

Its impossible to hide anything! However we can make it hard!

When I have some spare time in the next couple of months I might put something together.

That would be awesome.  I know a lot of us would love to set up a working TITO system for our home game rooms, so that we could cash out a ticket from one machine and put it into another.   :3- :3- :3-

Completely agree...I would love to play around with that!

Jason

lol...That's great Andy... :131-
I can't wait to be the guinea pig on this project!  :96-

I'm in for that!  :89- :89- :89- :71-

I'm in vicariously.  :183-  :96-    :267-

 :31-

Count me in as well

So does anyone here have experience with c# and vb.net? I will write a dll and some basic testing stuff for folks to use, but am not going to do a full blown application.

both c# and vb.net dev tools can be had for free from microsoft.

Yes to both platforms, but I cannot take on this project right now. Sorry guys.

Thats cool. I am starting on dll now, be a while before I have anything solid. I am going to write a test app to interface to the dll for now.

BTW. The only SAS machine I have access to is an IGT AVP (latest gen IGT) which may not support some of the older SAS commands. Going to be a bit of trial an error here.

Andy,
Do worry or fret over it too much.
There's no rush to attack any of this difficult project from anyone.
If you feel like writing up a program to make this work - all I can say is that would be fantastic!
Remember, this is just a hobby and all we want to do is have fun with it!
Some parts of this hobby are tougher to complete
than others but that's perfectly understandable.

If I knew how to write programs, I'd might try it!
But right now, it's way too much for my mental capacities...  :96-

Hey I just had an idea. I just did a quick google for IGT's sastest program to see if anyone had it up on a server. Well it looks like it may be available as a torrent. I cant check whilst I am at work, but will have a look tonight. In the meantime, this might offer a simple solution if it is available.

rapid dog has it I think>>

MODERATOR: Link removed. SF :31-

Hello Andy

Sounds like a nice project to get involved in. Will your DLL functionality work with VBA(Excell). I have already established serial comms with an Arduino microcontroller from excel.
If so I can give it a shot. Not a professional programmer just a techie that likes to take things apart and see how it works.

As far a TITO goes I never could understand why it became so popular. Here in South Africa most of the Casino's are running on smartcards and its a lot less hassle than TITO.
I have ran both S+ and PE+ on cashless without problems so the potential has been there for a long time .

For home use its  simply a case of sending the correct command from the PC for a cashless transfer to and from the PC. You dont  need any BV's Cardreaders, Ticket printers or coin handling. You can expand this by adding user profiles to your program that will keep track of user balances and upload them to machine as required.

Ian

The DLL should work with VBA, as I am failry certain you can make calls to Dll's. I have it working at a basic level now, but it will take some time before I get all the messages in. I am going to work on it between projects (where I am now). I have a few days up my sleve at the moment, so I am working on it now.

TITO is easy and cheap, hence the reason it is popular. Most protocols have support for it. Machines have the gear built in. Also, for visiting clients, it means they dont have to register and sign up for cards and load them up.

And most importantly, clients are more likely to spend the money if its in the form of a ticket, because its easier to spend it than queue up at a cashier or change machine.

I use cashless transfers, as we dont use TITO here, and none of my machines have ticket printers. So there will be commands for cashless mode

Woohoo, I just successfully polled a SAS protocol machine without having to use specialised hardware or drivers!

Very crude, but never mind. Will tidy that up. Unfortunatly on monday, I have to get back to doing real work, so the SAS Dll goes onto the back burner for a bit. I will keep chipping away at it now I know its possible.

That's excellent Andy!
Which machine did you poll? An S+?

Could this be of any use to you guys working on the TITO problem?  Just found it on Fleabay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/IGT-EZ-Pay-System-CVT-Plus-Terminal-/280619439619?pt=BI_Credit_Card_Terminals&hash=item415638d603 (http://cgi.ebay.com/IGT-EZ-Pay-System-CVT-Plus-Terminal-/280619439619?pt=BI_Credit_Card_Terminals&hash=item415638d603)   :103-

I've seen that before.
I have a manual for it too... :89-
I don't know really if it will work though...  :103-

Dan #2 just bought two of them, so we'll have them "in the family" to fool around with. :79-

IGT AVP running latest US version of 100 pandas

Latest version being 3.0M Brain boxes correct?  Or, are you meaning the AVP 2.O Brain boxes known as Panda II's?

    As for the EZ-Pay system and the CVT units,  I believe that AVP Uses the same type of validation method as the 960 based machines do.  It's done through fiber optics going between Casino back room Ez-pay server to CVT to the Gaming machines.  AN XVU (Cross validation unit) interfaces multiple EZ pay servers' databases  together so they can communicate with each other.  I forgot how many machines a CVT can handle at one time. I believe it is 32 and then an XVU or (XVUs) needs to be added depending on the number of machines.  I believe the fiber optics connect to the com board in the i960 based machines and I believe via the Fiber optic Daughter card in the AVP machines.
The short of it is this, No EZ-Pay software, no validation.  The CVT is only an interface for the EZ-pay system. It can retrieve ticket data and or validate a ticket by retrieving the data from the Ez-Pay server.  The CVT units are also sometimes used at remote stations to validate tickets. When new the CVTs come with a power supply and a small receipt printer. There is a port for a bar code scanner on the back of the unit.  
E~

Ahh, yup. Soemthing like that!!

I have no idea, I just do the software. Video Gaming Techs or IGT do the other part! All I know is its an AVP machine and the game is 100 pandas. Shouldn't matter to much, as the SAS protocol does not change.

I am using an RS232 interface card plugged into the backplane, but typically we use a board specific to Australia that has NSW and QLD interfaces (X-Series and QCOM)

Hi Andy, It's great that you succeed in polling the machine, I'd like to know if you could share your program, because i've been trying to comunicate using SAS with an Atronic machine, I'm using a Rs232 to usb cable and a serial monitor program, but I haven't managed to recieve any data from the machine.

Its unlikely that you can use a USB to RS232 adaptor, as most dont support mark/space parity. SAS protocol uses a wake up bit in the first byte of the packet to signal the start of the packet. To emulate this, I set the parity bit to use mark parity, then set it to use space parity. If your USB adaptor does support parity, then it may also be unable to change the UART mode quick enough from mark to space parity.

Here is a quick peek of my test app. It uses the DLL I am writing. I have the comms side reasonable stable now, just need to be able to detect when game chirps occur.

At this stage, I am only polling for SAS exceptions.

Great work!

I wonder if that will work on the S+ (may not matter mine is up for sale - you come and get it)
How about reading accounting data or ticket validation (only for home use)

Hello!

I did buy 2 of them and have received them.  Can you send me a copy of the manuals you have?  That would be great!  :)

Dan #2

 :172-

I looked at some photos of an S+ on the web. Looks like what IGT marketed as a 'GameKing' here in Australia. I have a Gameking, but it does not have any SAS software. If anyone knows where I can get a CHEAP mainboard with a SAS game let me know. Not sure it would work, but willing to give it a go if the cost is not prohibitive.

There's almost no resemblance between an S+ and a Game King
other than they both may have a handle to pull...

You can probably get an S+ MPU board for about $15-$20 US on
the internet ( ebay for example) or from any of our vendors listed at top.
I really don't know what a Game King MPU board goes for
so I'll leave that up to the experts on GK's.

Both MPU boards are capable of processing SAS signals I'm sure and
I think just about any game chip will have the options for SAS in the settings.

S+ = 3 reel slot - 1990's vintage.

From the outside the S2000 closely resembles a S+ but the speakers are by the player tracking bar.... but that is where the resembalance ends.

Its my understanding that the S2000, Vision, and Gameking all use the same motherboard but with different software.
The motherboard is nothing like the S+

The PE+ (video poker - same vintage as S+), S+ both needed a extra chip to make SAS work. I am sure the gameking is similar.
I really doubt that you need a different motherboard just the one chip.

April (leemans sliot sales) - her emal address is in her ebay add would probably have the chip as her company does mostly professional sales to overseas casinos.

Yup, no worries. Can you tell I write the software :P 

Reeled slots are pretty rare in AU.

I might just have to work with a volunteer tester from here to make it work! PM me if you want to do the testing. I cant tell you how to set up SAS on the slot, so need someone who already knows. Also, a victim with a wide variety of machines would be great. If you have c#.net experience even better.

I am going to TRY and wrap up the test app and dll into an installer later this week. At this point still only going to be polling for exceptions and maybe some game config stuff. Might be a few weeks before I have anything usable.

I don't know a whole lot about SAS but I had heard that they use RS485 as the comunication protocol (I could be dead wrong about this).


The benefit of RS485 vs RS232 is that it can be used as a multidrop.
Using a single communication link - this is where you can daisy chain a bunch of machines and each machine has its own address.

This was common for things like security cameras for PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) control albiet the newer cameras are now sharing the Coax cable (coaxitron protocol) for this control.

The other advantage for the casino is that you won't get a kid with a PC hacking their control signals at least easily.
RS485 is also used for industrial controls like PLCs (Programable logic controllers). 

The protocol remains the same regardless of the hardware. However you are correct in saying that rs232 cant be multidropped. To use the dll with 485 or fibre you will need a converter.

Just on this one, it may be possible by doing something like this:

            SerialPort port = new SerialPort("COM1",19200,Parity.Space,8);
            port.Open();

            byte[] buffer = new byte[] { 0x01, 0x1A, 0x03, 0xA6 };

            port.Parity = Parity.Mark;
            port.Write(buffer, 0, 1);
            port.Parity = Parity.Space;
            port.Write(buffer, 1, 3);

HI I'am back !!!

Hey zocky,
where you been?
We have been working on this thing
but you've been outtada picture?   :88-

Hi there,

i have a IGT Buffet Mania.
Can anybody please tell me how to connect SAS on this machine? :99-
I would be very happy getting a manual with schematics :3- :3-
Also some simulation software would be very nice.
Thank you.
Regards,

there is a whole thread under  "Homebrew and Player Tracking Systems" that you should read. We don't talk about software on this forum, especially software that is not ours to distribute, that is the rule.

Sorry for that.
I  found the threads but i don't seem to get it right.
Btw i do not have a original sas interface in the machine.
So i don't know if J4 and J9 are the correct connections on
backplane of motherboard.
Thank you for helping.  :103-

-

Hi Zocky how did you switch from rs 232 to smib interface i didnt get clearly the schema you post. if you want to connect more then one SM you need to specify for each SM own communication.