New Life Games Tech Forums

So I opened up the top glass compartment in my new S+ and came across this Bally Mastercom 200.
From what i found it is a tracking system.
Is there any use other than tracking that it might be capable of?

As you said, it's for player tracking.  What other use are you wanting it for?   :103-

Not looking to do anything with it specifically. I just thought maybe if it had multiple uses like tracking and maybe a progressive board use of some kind, i could find a way to use it. Not looking to hook up tracking in my game room though. lol

A doorstop or a coaster? :96- :30-
Even Bunker hasn't found a use for these.  :79-

  Oh well wishful thinking never hurt. (never hurt too bad anyhow)

Guess i could hang onto it. If i ever get board maybe ill hook it up.
Possibly get it running and hook it up to a PC to see all stats it offered about the player.
Sounds like an entire project within itself. Software probably not easily obtained. and being as old as it looks probabaly even harder.
Save it for a rainy day i reckon.

I actually have one made by IGT in 1993.
When I apply 115VAC to it, I get 4 flashes from the VFD/LCD display,
then I receive "Reader Inactive" message.
The only harness I have for it comes from the main-board's J2 22-pin header
going out to the card reader and the display.
The number etched on the main-board is ASSY NO 75508108 REV A 7/94.
The eprom has a label on it that says:

EF4B2001
01/13/95
A489

The main-board is labeled as ASSY NO 75508108 REV A 7/94
2 main board headers are unoccupied - a 4-pin J1 header and a 15-pin J5 header.
There are also a set of 7 dip switches on the main-board. I never moved the switches and
they're set as 1-6 "off" while only the 7th dip switch is "on".
There are also 2 fiber optic headers but they are occupied with rubber plugs - "not in use" I imagine.

There is a smaller piggyback board attached on top of the main-board labeled ASSY NO 7542440
There are 3 headers on the piggyback board  J2 (20-pin), a J4 (7-pin) and a J5 (5-pin).

Like I said earlier, I get the "Reader Inactive " message when it's first powered up.
However, fooling around with 7 dip switches gave me different results somewhat.
When I turn the 7th dip "off" - I get a "SYSCFG 00000000" on the display and
it alternately flashes with a code of "0105FE20"
Sticking in a Price Chopper swipe card into the reader does absolutely nothing.... :96-
If anyone can help me with the documentation/instructions/wiring schematics for this,
I would document how this is completely set up....we could all learn a bit from this perhaps?
PM me if you'd like my email address if you have any information on this card reader and how it is set up?
Thanks for any help you can give me on this little winter project!
Attached to this post is a poor short video of me first applying power to the board and
watching the display go through it's 4 blinks and then showing us the error.
I then turn off dip switch 7 to show you the configuration message.
Here is the short clip I made to show you a bit of what I'm seeing...>>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peT9bfX09i0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peT9bfX09i0)

S.B.  don't know what all you can do but might have a little better luck fooling around with a Mastercom 250

Maybe you can get a message like this:


07 VIP Indicates card-in and game play by a VIP player at a slot machine. The player’s last
and first names, drink preferences, and other casino comments are displayed so that
the player can be greeted by the slot host or other appropriate personnel                                           :89- :89- :89-

Well,
I did accept an offer of a Bally Mastercom from one of our well known members (r273   :3- ) and
I will try to get it up and running in an S+ first.
Does anyone know offhand if these things also work in S2000's?
Statfreak and Gusco got me going on this old IGT card reader I had sitting in a box for some time.
I really don't need it but I thought that if I could get any of these things up and running -
it would be neat to document for our future members should they want
to try and install one into their machines! :89-
I'm going to try and contact some of our members and
see if I can land some instructions and reading material for this set-up.
If anyone reading this, please contact me if you have any documentation that might be helpful?

Could DA and DB be Data channel A and Data channel B?

It could very be! That makes more sense actually...
I was calling them "data base transmit" and "database receive" in the video clip. :25-
Then I realized I didn't know what to call the "DA" TX and RX LEDs... :96-
The DA TX was the only LED flashing beside the display LED on this IGT Card Reader board.
I wish I had the proper harness that goes from the board to the machine's motherboard.
Does anyone know what the display would show if it were to work?
I wonder what info was put onto the magnetic stripe?

The strip is probably just the mag equivalent of a bar code, which is then referenced to a player account on the back end server. I'm pretty sure the data coming from the machine to the card reader is just money and spins playeed by the user, and all the accounting is on the back end.

I'm not sure if the 200 does any more in-depth machine status like the Acres system, which I hear tracks pretty much everything about the machine, like doors open and closed, test button and reset key state changes, etc.

Mstercom 250 works in the S2000 just to note.


I am not sure what in the end you are going to get out of this effort, the mastercom is just a gateway to a backend casino player tracking system. It's not designed as a standalone component

The best I have seen anyone do with it is to turn it into a display system (Hello welcome to xxxxxx casino)



 

The Mastercom on my machine had wires leading to a a seperate switch on the belly door. Sowhat was mentioned above about tracking door opens  is surely correct

It would be great Gusco, if you could trace those wires (colors and pin locations) to the belly door switch
and back to the Mastercom for future members that might want to hook one up! :89-

Will do, Ill trace them when i get to the house this afternoon. Along with anything else i may find in the process

Bunker   If you want one or more like pic at begining of this thread Mastercom 220  I have about 40 of them, mater of fact I sent one to Ron sounds like your getting junk no sane person wants !! :30- :30- :99- :99-

Havent taken any photos but it has connection points for lots of stuff like, Doors, Bill aceptor, SLot interface, One says j mystery.

Ill get photos up later if i can get to my other computer, Wife is on it LOL

well, like they say " One's mans junk is another man's gold"... :72-

Let me see first if I can get ron's unit in and get it up and running on my bench.
I believe he's getting it all together and shipping it out to me to see what I can do with it.
There will be a few posts and video clips next week for sure - when this puppy arrives... :96-

A couple more photos.

2 more

Excellent pictures Gusco!  :3-

Ok,
The Bally Gaming Mastercom-220 came in today however
it's missing the the main U1 chip on the piggyback board. :8-
I've done some research on this but I'm unable to determine which one of these blanks I should get.
There all pretty much the same except for the speeds of the devices.
Whne they are talking about chips speeds, do they mean that a 70ns is "faster" than a 120ns?
Would anyone have any recommendations?
I've listed below several different ones I can get>>>

IC,FLASH NOR,29F040-90 5V,512kx8,DIP-32,90ns

IC,FLASH NOR,29F040B-120PC, 5V,512kx8,DIP-32,120ns

IC, 29F010-120PC, DIP-32, 128K X 8 FLASH 5V PROM, 120ns

IC,FLASH NOR,29F010-70 5V,128kx8,DIP-32,70ns

IC,FLASH NOR,29F010-90 5V,128kx8,DIP-32,90ns

ADD>> I also wanted to know what type of card goes into the reader slot?
Any magnetic stripe card?

I looked at the chip in my Mastercom 220 and it says the follwoing

AM29F010 120PC 9518EBC

Thank you very much Gusco!
I looks like I need 120ns (nano seconds) speed chip.
I will place an order and come back here when they come in.

Yes. The number is the access time, so the lower the number, the faster the chip.

Awesome brichter!...Thank you very much!
You solved something that's always slightly pestered my brain... :96-
It looks like these Mastercoms are using slow-boat-to-china chips.

I had a Bally Mastercom in the machine I bought from Jim, sorry, chucked it thinking no use would ever come of it...

Well, the cool thing about these is that you can go into the chip
that I'm missing and change the wording to display a message across the LCD screen
with something in the vein of "Welcome To My Casino -
Where You Only Get Lucky When I feel Like It"... :72-

Hahah Nice!