Game King Video Slot to PC (SAS RS232)

[knagl]

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.   

[Yoeddy1]

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.   

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

Jason

[stayouttadabunker]

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.

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

[brichter]

I'm in for that! 

[StatFreak]

I'm in vicariously.       

 

[Foster]

Count me in as well

[AndyP]

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.

[StatFreak]

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.

[AndyP]

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.

[stayouttadabunker]

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... 

[AndyP]

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.

[stayouttadabunker]

rapid dog has it I think>>

MODERATOR: Link removed. SF

[TZtech]

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

[AndyP]

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

[AndyP]

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.

[stayouttadabunker]

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

[Magicslots]

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   

[stayouttadabunker]

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

[StatFreak]

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

[AndyP]

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

IGT AVP running latest US version of 100 pandas

[Forrhouse]

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~

[AndyP]

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

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)

[DanielR87]

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.

[AndyP]

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.

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.

[AndyP]

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.