Spectrum: Crunching the numbers

[Magicslots]

Well, I finally got my Spectrum hooked up and working.  I made some extension harnesses
to put the display on top, so i wouldn't have to modify the top box.  Now I just have to decide what
kind of box/enclosure to build for it.   What I need some help on:
The PSR tells which page does what, However..  there seems to be a number of key turns in each step I
am not sure exactly what they do.  So I am currently just playing with different settings as guesswork.  
Sure would be nice to have a few pages from the manual to get me through this quicker!
Also, what do the dip switches on the back of the board control?
Anyway, here is the machine as it currently sets:

[knagl]

The PSR tells which page does what, However..   there seems to be a number of key turns in each step I
am not sure exactly what they do.  So I am currently just playing with different settings as guesswork. 
Sure would be nice to have a few pages from the manual to get me through this quicker!

The PSR is 'the manual' -- there isn't some friendly step-by-step guide that you're missing.   

That said, can you please post what SP chip you're using and we'll be happy to help you with what the different progressive settings are?

[CaptainHappy]

Glad that you got it working! K+ for sharing!

To help out others would it be possible for you to document the connections and steps you took, and maybe pictures of that as well??? 

It would be nice to have it documented to help others in the future.

CaptainHappy

[Magicslots]

I'll be more than happy to provide pics and what I learned while doing this. I will have to download a pic program,
so that I can add text comments to the pictures for clarity. The real credit goes to Ken at OhioGaming for walking me through this,
and putting up with my dumb__s questions. 

I am currently using SP1137 (so I can stuff  in multiple coins at a time), and an SS3918 on the RWBWS 

[knagl]

Here's the blurb from the PSR about setting up the progressives (you'd need to use the set chip, I'm sure):



I presume that what you have is considered to be a dual level display, and have your dip switches set accordingly.  That means on the MPU board, switch 5 should be on, switch 7 should be on, and switch 8 should be off.  Do not change any other dip switches.

9-1 is the reset, or base amount for the first progressive (the top award -- three wild stars).  This the amount that the meter will reset to after the top award is hit.  If you want your progressive meter to start at 10,000 coins (the top award on your machine) and it's a $0.25 game, set this to $2500.00.

9-2 is the maximum progressive amount -- this is the highest the meter will go before it stops progressing.  You likely want to set that to something high -- like $999,999.99.

9-3 is the progressive percentage.  This is the amount that the progressive meter will increment for each coin that is dropped in.  (I'd like someone to please chime in and correct me if I'm wrong here, as it's been a long time since I set my progressive up and I don't remember the next bit for sure.)  I think that it's a percentage of the coin value.  Since your machine is a $0.25 machine, I want to say that if you set this value to 10, the meter would increment 2.5 cents (10 percent of $0.25) for every coin put in.  I'm not positive on this, but that sounds right to me.

9-4 is the current progressive amount.  That's the amount that will display on the meter as soon as you finish the setup and put your machine in service.  You'd likely want to start this at $2500 as well, unless you wanted to seed your progressive with some extra money.

The next settings (the lower half of the PSR text quoted above) are for the secondary progressive -- this is the smaller display in your case, and is for the second award on your machine (RWB 7s).

9-5 is the reset (base) amount for the second progressive -- the amount the meter will reset to after it is hit.  1199 coins on your $0.25 machine is $299.75, and is likely what you want to start it at.

9-6 is the maximum progressive amount for the second progressive.

9-7 is the percentage of the value of the coin inserted that will be added to the meter.

9-8 is the current amount -- again you'd likely want to set this to the base amount of $299.75.


Does this help to clear things up a little for you?

[Magicslots]

     Yes that helps a lot knagl, I have reset the meters to the proper starting amounts.   
The progressives now go up ten cents for every 3 coins played on the big display and a penny for each coin played on the secondary.
There are still those multiple key turns in each setting that I cant account for.  The only thing I can figure is that it has something to
do with the speeds at which the display changes.

  Now if I could find out what the dip switch settings change located on the back of the displays?  Colors perhaps? I am
reluctant to change them without knowledge of what they do for fear I may screw something up! 

Thanks again for the help!

[Bettor Slots]

I have a Spectrum related question as well...it's a quickie so hopefully okay to tack this on here.

Is they're a setting that allows the numbers or amount to be centered on the display rather than shifted all the way to the right?

[stayouttadabunker]

Yes,
Look in the options settings for "MFILE" (Meter files) and
you can change what IGT calls the "Justify" settings.
Meaning left, center, and right.

[Foster]

I have not found anything to adjust the justification setting on the Spectrum's, like you can on the Mikohn hardware.
If it is possible I have not found it yet.

[jay]

You mentioned the disparity of the odometer effect.....

I am running a single CON1 and have it connected to 3 LED5's - in 3 machines.
Two of the machines spin at 1 speed and the third is at a different speed.
The software is a different rev (like 7.15 vs 7.18) - I know I have tried swapping eproms with no success so I anticipate that there are other board differenes.

My 1x2 runs off a 7.22 LED4 and my 2 x 8 runs off 7.21 and it runs much slower (again all driven by the CON1).

The odometer speed is set with PSP in the CON1 and should be the same for all but it looks like it is related to either the software rev or the speed of the processor on the mikohn boards.

[stayouttadabunker]

I find when reading the instructions on the odometer settings -
It's not too easy to understand.
So, I played with the "Lag" settings and others...
I got "crazy" results.
I find that it works best when set to it's "Default" option.

[knagl]

Getting back to Spectrum discussion...

Now if I could find out what the dip switch settings change located on the back of the displays?  Colors perhaps? I am reluctant to change them without knowledge of what they do for fear I may screw something up!

I do not have a S+ spectrum display and have never tinkered with one.  There was a thread a while back, however, about the S2000 spectrum displays, and Dan #2 figured out what some of the dip switches did on his (including changing display color, and one setting that permitted the display to cycle through the colors) -- I can't promise you that it'll be the same for the S+ spectrum, but only one way to find out, huh?  Check out this link:

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=762.msg5308#msg5308

To be safe, you should probably not flip dip switches while the power is on.  You should also make note of what the dip switches are currently set to in case you mess something up.  Finally, since you already have two different colors on your two displays, compare the dip switch settings to the ones that Dan posted in the link above to see if your colors match his experience.  If they do, you can likely rely on the fact that his findings on an S2000 will match your S+ spectrum.

[Foster]

I do know that on the Spectrum (not the Spectrum II) that 1 or 2 dip switches determines whether that display is Level 1 (top award) or Level 2.

I guess I will have to pull mine out of the closet and hook them back up to see what each dip switch controls.

[stayouttadabunker]

The S+ Spectrum double-display I have,  goes through sort of a LED light test of lit "lines"
moving both vertically and horizontally when the #8 dipswitch is turned off.
I haven't seen anything else the 8-dipswitch package does yet other than that.

[Foster]

I will tinker with mine this weekend

[Magicslots]

The current settings on mine are:  Board on power supply 1-7 on 8 off.
                                                Top display on back  1-3 off 4 on
                                                Bottom display 1,3,4, on  2 off     

[stayouttadabunker]

The current settings on mine are:  Board on power supply 1-7 on 8 off.
                                                Top display on back  1-3 off 4 on
                                                Bottom display 1,3,4, on  2 off     

Thanks Magic! You made me go re-check and I see that you're correct!
1-7 dips are ON, while the 8th dip is OFF.
I have to remove my top display as I've already installed it...
My head is too big to stick into a 9" topbox with a display attached to it...lol
I can't see what the dips are set on for the top display.
I cut the foam rubber between the big and small display to separate them...
I only want the larger display for now.
What sucks about this though is that the display panel is too
large for the progressive opening on the award glass.
Now I see what Bettor Slots meant when he said the numbers are too far right justified.
The numbers light up behind the award glass where there's supposed to be graphics!
That's not good!
Since Foster said he hasn't seen any options to change that -
I might have to try to get into the chip and see if I can change
the pixel size or try to change the justification at least.

Let me ask you guys a question...
What do you think would possibly be on a eprom that could occupy the U34 socket?

[Foster]

I wonder if the controller dip has to set different for netplex and S+.