Debug SAS DLL for testing

[AndyP]

Not gone, just dont have a SAS machine anymore and I am pretty busy at the moment.

[jdkmunch]

Hey !   It's great hear from you ! 

[FORDSBS]

Not gone, just dont have a SAS machine anymore and I am pretty busy at the moment.

Andy, thanks for all the help you gave us.
Ford

[AndyP]

No worries. We are working on getting 3 casino's onto a new monitoring/jackpot system at the moment so everything I was working on has to be shelved for now. I have personally got about 4 projects running at the moment and one of our staff leave in 6 weeks leaving me with another half dozen projects until I can find a train someone else!

[TZtech]

Hello Andy

Nice to hear from You again. Is there nothing available that emulates SAS comms coming from machine side? I have seen mention of a SAS toolkit. Unfortunately only available to GSA members. Any idea what this is?

Ian

[AndyP]

Hello Andy

Nice to hear from You again. Is there nothing available that emulates SAS comms coming from machine side? I have seen mention of a SAS toolkit. Unfortunately only available to GSA members. Any idea what this is?

Ian

Only emulation from the server side. No game simulators. I got the toolkit, but its pretty much useless. I think its posted up here somewhere from memory, search for SASTest.

[AndyP]

Andy,

The Windows serial driver can be send an IOCTL that places a copy of the uart line status register when a parity error occurs. This allows you to place the serial port into SPACE parity mode and you will receive the LSR byte with every data byte and can check if a parity error occured and hence data with the wakeup bit set.

The IOCTL is: IOCTL_SERIAL_LSRMST_INSERT

Check MSDN docs for the details.

HTH

pshoey

Trying to get this working now, without much success

[Foster]

Where are the C# programmers?
I need your help.

[Foster]

I have figured out something
I do not know who is the blame, Microsoft, motherboard or device makers.
I can not get Andys DLL or my own code to work with motherboard serial ports, but both work with USB to Serial adapters
Why is that?

[clone]

Hey all, sorry for waking up an old thread, but I'm just entering the world of SAS.

I've read a lot of this forum, and will probably read all the rest, but this test thingie got my attention. I also get "Unable to load DLL 'SASEGM.dll': The specified module could not be found." error when trying to run the program, and when I load the solution in VS 2008 and try to add reference to SASEGM.dll I get: "A reference to 'C:\Program Files\AP\SASEGMTest\SASEGM.dll' could not be added. Please make sure that the file is accessible, and that it is a valid assembly or COM component."

Any idea why the dll doesn't work?

[Foster]

You have to look at his code and see how he references it.

I would match how he has it referenced.
You might have to translate it to the language you are developing your program in. (C#, C++, VB)

Try his TestApp with your system and machine
You cant do much with his test app but if it does the basics he has coded then you know his DLL will work with your Com/Serial Ports

Also you must understand how to configure SAS on your Machine and how to connect to your computer..

I can tell you that the State of Montana has a SAS document on their web site
I am using it to help me code my own program

[AndyP]

Back onto it now.

You lads are going to hate me, cause I have to do this commercially, so I need to use the IOCTL_SERIAL_LSRMST_INSERT command that was suggested to me elsewhere, this means it will only work with hardware serial ports from what I am aware.

Stay tuned.

[AndyP]

Did a quick change to the serial port driver using IOCTL_SERIAL_LSRMST_INSERT to detect the parity errors, sooooo much more reliable now!!! Only tested it against a SAS Simulator, so now I will go and find a real SAS machine to do some tests.

[Foster]

Andy look up DCB (Device Control Block, if you change one bit fParity = false that will tell the UART or drivers to ignore any parity errors.
I just have not figured out how do so in Managed C#, I know it involves using the Win API calls instead of the .Net serial port class.

[AndyP]

Andy look up DCB (Device Control Block, if you change one bit fParity = false that will tell the UART or drivers to ignore any parity errors.
I just have not figured out how do so in Managed C#, I know it involves using the Win API calls instead of the .Net serial port class.

I need to know when there is a parity error. The parity bit is used in place of a wakeup bit, and the wakeup bit is set with the machine poll address to denote a 'chirp' from the VGM. I need to detect the chirp to differentiate between a chirp and an exception code.

[Foster]

The EGM's only assert wake up bit when they do not see polling from the host after 5 seconds.

There can only be a few reasons for this
Problem in the physical hardware of the host or EGM, cable cut or disconnected.
Host power failure, Something on the host crashes.
The Host software not polling often enough.  That is not likely to happen with the computer hardware available today.

if you can tell me how to disable parity checking in C# please do.


 

[AndyP]

The EGM's only assert wake up bit when they do not see polling from the host after 5 seconds.

There can only be a few reasons for this
Problem in the physical hardware of the host or EGM, cable cut or disconnected.
Host power failure, Something on the host crashes.
The Host software not polling often enough.  That is not likely to happen with the computer hardware available today.

if you can tell me how to disable parity checking in C# please do.

Remember, I am doing this for commercial reasons, so I need my code to be very reliable, and I have to cater for all circumstances, including what you describe. I could get a chirp and decode it as a door open for example, and report it to the survellance team who then send security to investigate. Has to be rock solid.

Not sure how to disable parity checks in .net, but maybe you can try set parityreplace with a null?? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.ports.serialport.parityreplace.aspx

 If not, the only way would be to write a wrapper around the native API, which would require a fair amount of work. Given the early version of the .net framework had no serial port class, I would be surprised if some code did not already exist that wraps up the win api. There should be some examples of how to interface to the native API here http://zachsaw.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/net-serialport-woes.html which contains some code to work around a known bug in the .net serial port class.

[zarobhr]

i wrote my own serial interface, i can detect the parity error on my general polls i just dont do anything with it yet since i am not polling multiple machines on a single port (YET), just multiple machines on different ports.

i do not use vb.net serial port class as it was too much issue and didnt want to report parity error without do a replace on it. and i could control timing on it to well

i do calls to winapi32 using writefile and readfile

[all3bar]

        No_activity = 0x00,
        Slot_door_was_opened = 0x11,
        Slot_door_was_closed = 0x12,
        Drop_door_was_opened = 0x13,
        Drop_door_was_closed = 0x14,
        Card_cage_was_opened = 0x15,
        Card_cage_was_closed = 0x16,
        AC_power_was_applied_to_gaming_machine = 0x17,
        AC_power_was_lost_from_gaming_machine = 0x18,
        Cashbox_door_was_opened = 0x19,
        Cashbox_door_was_closed = 0x1A,
        Cashbox_was_removed = 0x1B,
        Cashbox_was_installed = 0x1C,
        Belly_door_was_opened = 0x1D,
        Belly_door_was_closed = 0x1E,
        No_activity_and_waiting_for_player_input = 0x1F,
        General_tilt = 0x20,
        Coin_in_tilt = 0x21,
        Coin_out_tilt = 0x22,
        Hopper_empty_detected = 0x23,
        Extra_coin_paid = 0x24,
        Diverter_malfunction = 0x25,
        Cashbox_full_detected = 0x27,
        Bill_jam = 0x28,
        Bill_acceptor_hardware_failure = 0x29,
        Reverse_bill_detected = 0x2A,
        Bill_rejected = 0x2B,
        Counterfeit_bill_detected = 0x2C,
        Reverse_coin_in_detected = 0x2D,
        Cashbox_near_full_detected = 0x2E,
        CMOS_RAM_error_data_recovered_from_EEPROM = 0x31,
        CMOS_RAM_error_no_data_recovered_from_EEPROM = 0x32,
        CMOS_RAM_error_bad_device = 0x33,
        EEPROM_error_data_error = 0x34,
        EEPROM_error_bad_device = 0x35,
        EPROM_error_different_checksum_version_changed = 0x36,
        EPROM_error_bad_checksum_compare = 0x37,
        Partitioned_EPROM_error_csum_version_changed = 0x38,
        Partitioned_EPROM_error_bad_checksum_compare = 0x39,
        Memory_error_reset = 0x3A,
        Low_backup_battery_detected = 0x3B,
        Operator_changed_options = 0x3C,
        A_cash_out_ticket_has_been_printed = 0x3D,
        A_handpay_has_been_validated = 0x3E,
        Validation_ID_not_configured = 0x3F,
        Reel_Tilt = 0x40,
        Reel_1_tilt = 0x41,
        Reel_2_tilt = 0x42,
        Reel_3_tilt = 0x43,
        Reel_4_tilt = 0x44,
        Reel_5_tilt = 0x45,
        Reel_mechanism_disconnected = 0x46,
        One_dollar_bill_accepted = 0x47,
        Five_dollar_bill_accepted = 0x48,
        Ten_dollar_bill_accepted = 0x49,
        Twenty_bill_accepted = 0x4A,
        Fifty_dollar_bill_accepted = 0x4B,
        Hundred_dollar_bill_accepted = 0x4C,
        Two_dollar_bill_accepted = 0x4D,
        Five_hundred_dollar_bill_accepted = 0x4E,
        Bill_accepted = 0x4F,
        Two_hundred_dollar_bill_accepted = 0x50,
        Handpay_is_pending = 0x51,
        Handpay_was_reset = 0x52,
        No_progressive_info_received_for_5_seconds = 0x53,
        Progressive_win = 0x54,
        Player_has_cancelled_the_handpay_request = 0x55,
        SAS_progressive_level_hit = 0x56,
        System_validation_request = 0x57,
        Printer_communication_error = 0x60,
        Printer_paper_out_error = 0x61,
        Cash_out_button_pressed = 0x66,
        Ticket_has_been_inserted = 0x67,
        Ticket_transfer_complete = 0x68,
        AFT_transfer_complete = 0x69,
        AFT_request_for_host_cashout = 0x6A,
        AFT_request_for_host_to_cash_out_win = 0x6B,
        AFT_request_to_register = 0x6C,
        AFT_registration_acknowledged = 0x6D,
        AFT_registration_cancelled = 0x6E,
        Game_locked = 0x6F,
        Exception_buffer_overflow = 0x70,
        Change_lamp_on = 0x71,
        Change_lamp_off = 0x72,
        Printer_paper_low = 0x74,
        Printer_power_off = 0x75,
        Printer_power_on = 0x76,
        Replace_printer_ribbon = 0x77,
        Printer_carriage_jammed = 0x78,
        Coin_in_lockout_malfunction = 0x79,
        Gaming_machine_soft_meters_reset_to_zero = 0x7A,
        Bill_validator_totals_reset_by_an_attendant = 0x7B,
        A_legacy_bonus_pay_and_or_multiplied_jackpot = 0x7C,
        Game_has_started = 0x7E,
        Game_has_ended = 0x7F,
        Hopper_full_detected = 0x80,
        Hopper_level_low_detected = 0x81,
        Display_meters_or_attendant_menu_entered = 0x82,
        Display_meters_or_attendant_menu_exited = 0x83,
        Self_test_or_operator_menu_has_been_entered = 0x84,
        Self_test_or_operator_menu_has_been_exited = 0x85,
        Gaming_machine_is_out_of_service = 0x86,
        Player_has_requested_draw_cards = 0x87,
        Reel_N_has_stopped = 0x88,
        Coin_credit_wagered = 0x89,
        Game_recall_entry_has_been_displayed = 0x8A,
        Card_held_not_held = 0x8B,
        Game_selected = 0x8C,
        Component_list_changed = 0x8E,
        Authentication_complete = 0x8F,
        Power_off_card_cage_access = 0x98,
        Power_off_slot_door_access = 0x99,
        Power_off_cashbox_door_access = 0x9A,
        Power_off_drop_door_access = 0x9B,