IGT PE - Capture RNG Output

[Cheeseweasel]

A few years ago I bought a circa 1986 IGT PE DW machine.  I rewired the machine to automate playing the machine.  It would automatically deal hands unattended.  It worked beautifully.  My intention was to video the resulting hands, write a video recognition program to convert the images to card denominations and suits, and analyze the output for randomness.  Then I moved.

I partially disassembled the circuit and did not document what I had done.  Now, several months later, I'm trying to rebuild the circuit to no avail.  I'm getting "DOOR OPEN" and "RESET" annunciators.  I can't remember how the door switch was wired.  Can anyone help?

I would prefer to capture the output directly from the RNG but I don't know where it is located.  Does anyone know how I can accomplish that?

Thank you in advance.

[jay]

The Reset message goes away after the first game is played.
I would be looking at the door optics regarding the door - open message.
If you do a search on Door Open you will find several threads on this topic and methods for debugging this,

With respect to analysis of the RNG this is pretty much a lost cause.

The S+ (Slot) and PE+ (poker) use the same RNG.
It has been proven time and time again that the % payback is based on the average of 10mm plays.
The difference between a 85% chip and a 97% chip on the S+ is the number of winning combinations.

The outcome from game to game however is totally random that is why 10mm plays are required to begin to see a payback nomalization based on statistical outcome.
of xx wining combinations in a field of yy winning combinations.

The RNG continues to generate numbers even when the game is not being played so the final aspect of randomness (also known as seed value) is that the lock in point is generated by when the player initates the game.
Since the frequency of crystal that runs the CPU (10mhz) far exceeds the players ability to be able to time a play statistical analysis in search of a pattern is practically useles.

With respect to video poker the players skill in poker also has an impact on the win.
Ie You have J Q K 2 7 .... 4 are clubs.... do you keep the clubs and play the 9/47 chance to pull a club or do you hold the high cards and go for the 9/47 chance to pull a high pair.
With the remote possibility of pulling 3 of a kind or 2 pair.  Depending on the game the flush pays more than a pair but less than 3 of a kind. With the odds slightly in the favor of the pair or better.

My point being that pattern analysis of a dealt poker hand has very little value until you apply poker theory to generate a winning combination.

Further to this notion it is my understanding that the PE+ generates a stack of 52 numbers. You are dealt the first 5 numbers. If you hold 2 cards you are then dealt the next 3 on the stack.
Again player input coupled with poker theroy would dictate the how many cards will ultimately be dealt. (ie max 10).

If you want to do statistical anaysis for the sake of it. I would suggest using a S+ with a game chip that supports auto-play. This way player input (as in poker) does not become a factor to output (wins).

[StatFreak]

Just to play devil's advocate, you could capture all of the dealt cards in auto play and analyze the results. If I were doing it, I would draw 5 cards every time to capture all 10 cards. The win or loss outcome would be irrelevant: you would only be interested in the distribution of the cards.

Of course, with only 52 cards, one would expect to see an even distribution of appearance each of the cards with a relatively small sample - much less than 10 million trials, but you might be more interested in analyzing the groupings of 10 cards exposed in each hand to see if they are sufficiently randomized. That would take more effort and might prove interesting...  ..although I doubt it, since the Gaming Commission would/should have tested the design thoroughly before approving it for use, but you never know 

Another thing to consider is that you will be removing the human factor in randomizing the outcomes -- which is always present in live casino play -- since your auto play device will draw cards at some fixed rate.