StatFreak's Machine Upgrades and other Ramblings..

[StatFreak]

Well, I guess I'll restart my thread by uploading some avatars for embeded images that are now broken.




EDIT: The last two pictures DO work, but they are being automatically reduced by the forum software. If one clicks on them they will animate correctly.

[StatFreak]

CaptainHappy  ,

I fixed your signature so you now have your 6 boats again.

SF 

[StatFreak]

A friend of mine just sent this to me via email.

If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95, with HBOS, earlier last week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50,  £1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5, but if you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214. So based on the above statistics the best current investment adviceis to drink heavily and re-cycle.

 

[StatFreak]

From iGoogle's Jokes of the Day, Classified section:

Nice parachute. Never opened. Used once. Slightly stained.

 

[StatFreak]

Hey everybody, I'm now the proud owner of a Bally 13" V7000 Gamemaker. I finally broke down and got a video slot!

It's fairly beat up and could use some TLC and restoration, but everything works.

The previous owner was using it in demo mode and didn't know much about it, so I couldn't test the dbv and could only run the hopper motor manually to check its function. I did note that it had a dbv200 head programmed through the color $50, so that was one upgrade I wouldn't need.

Well, it turned out that the seller's father had two S+ machines in need of repair, so we went over there after I loaded up the GM. Most of the problems with his father's machines were due to damaged and worn out parts, so between the two of them I was able to leave his father with one running and about 90% fixed and a parts list for the second. I strongly suggested that he join NLG, but he wasn't really as interested in working on the machines as in having them available for the grandkids, which I found odd since he works on his pinball machines and has an extensive model train setup.

So at the end of the day I got this machine for a net cost of $250.

I've been playing with it all morning after getting not nearly enough sleep! LOL. I took the machine out of demo mode and went through all of the setup screens and diagnostics. The dbv works perfectly and takes all of the bills I tested in every direction. I don't care about the color $10s because I have six other dbv200's that are supposed to take them, and not one does.  The machine is a nickel denomination and the hopper pays out correctly with no issues. I changed some of the screen colors and play settings, and added my own "casino" name to the attract mode, and have already lost over $100 to this sucker. The mechanical counters came to life as soon as I was out of demo mode.


The monitor has quite a bit of burn in and the cabinet has a bit of rust, mostly near the door, and the inside of the door has more. However, whatever moisture the machine was subjected to didn't seem to damage much else. The wiring looks okay, although I noticed a cut wire on one harness right at the backplane board connector. I haven't tried to pull the monitor yet so I can't see in there very well, but so far everything seems to work. Worse case, I'll replace the harness.

The only real issue is that the monitor is scratched slightly near the top center, and this plays havoc with the touch screen in that area (due to diffraction? I need to learn more about how these things work. ) Fortunately, it only really affects keno, and only for certain numbers. I recalibrated the screen and it's improved a bit.

Pictures are coming. (ADD - but I really need some more sleep first! )

[tjkeller]

Sounds like one heck of a find there Stat. Good Job!    Lots of fun coming your way methinks! 

[stayouttadabunker]

Congrats on the new machine Stat!
 Fun to play with new machines (toys) huh? ......no sleep, ...takes over all aspects of your life,etc!!!

[StatFreak]

Congrats on the new machine Stat!
 Fun to play with new machines (toys) huh? ......no sleep, ...takes over all aspects of your life,etc!!!

Uh, sleep?  Oh, yeah. I was supposed to sleep after the last post but somehow I forgot...


Here are pictures of the machine before and after I did my first cleaning of the outside. The before picture shows the oxidation on the chrome and the burn in on the monitor.

[StatFreak]

Here is the menu after I changed the background to purple.   Hey, I like purple. The dbv is active and working fine.

[StatFreak]

Pics of a couple of the games.

[StatFreak]

Now I need to get the Willem GQ-4X to get make backups. I won't trust the Dual Power burner that I have not to damage the chips during the read.

[Ron (r273)]

Now I need to get the Willem GQ-4X to get make backups. I won't trust the Dual Power burner that I have not to damage the chips during the read.

Good price and a good find. I know you will enjoy it.

As far as the Dual Power, this is what I do. This was copied from another user on the forum.

"Also whenever I use the EPROM burner for the first burn, I always read a chip that I have that is blown (it's stuck in all zeros) and monitor the red led next to the printer port.  When reading, it should not ever blink red.  If it does, I reread the chip until it goes through a complete cycle without blinking red.  Then I program and/or read chips.  I've killed a few EPROMS before I noticed this behaviors.  The blinking red led doesn't always happen in the first read, but I now do it as part of my work flow"

Ron

[jay]

$250.00 You stole it...... 

From now on your going to do all of my shopping for me....... 

I will be looking forward to your blog on the restoration process...

[StatFreak]

Now I need to get the Willem GQ-4X to get make backups. I won't trust the Dual Power burner that I have not to damage the chips during the read.

Good price and a good find. I know you will enjoy it.

As far as the Dual Power, this is what I do. This was copied from another user on the forum.

"Also whenever I use the EPROM burner for the first burn, I always read a chip that I have that is blown (it's stuck in all zeros) and monitor the red led next to the printer port.  When reading, it should not ever blink red.  If it does, I reread the chip until it goes through a complete cycle without blinking red.  Then I program and/or read chips.  I've killed a few EPROMS before I noticed this behaviors.  The blinking red led doesn't always happen in the first read, but I now do it as part of my work flow"

Ron

Thanks Ron 

RickHunter figured that one out, and I do use that technique, but I still don't trust the thing. I only use it sparingly and grudgingly, and that's not why I bought a burner. I'd rather have a reliable tool that I will pick up in a heartbeat and use. I've still never finished backing up all of my chips because of this issue, so the GQ-4X is looking tempting at only $120. Finding a good burner with good software at a good price was the only reason that I didn't replace the dual power a year ago.

Hee hee, it's fun bringing home a new toy! The only thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to enable the progressives. I enabled several of my games for progressive jackpots (that screen works), but when I go into any of the others, I get a message that Progressive changes are disabled. More reading to do...

[StatFreak]

$250.00 You stole it...... 

From now on your going to do all of my shopping for me....... 

I will be looking forward to your blog on the restoration process...

Well, the son got $300 from me, but the father gave me $50 for saving him a haul to Vegas to get his machines fixed. Now the fun begins.

I'm going to get some prices to see what's worth replacing and what isn't. I need a coin tray to replace the plate that's there now, because the machine paid into a bowl in the stand, and I couldn't fit the stand in my car.    It came free with the machine, but there was no way to bring it home. Ideally, I'd like a new door (rust issues) -- maybe one with a double bet deck??, a new monitor -- either same or LCD , and a new MPU board (some small issues there). New games shouldn't be a problem.

[StatFreak]

Oh, btw, I've discovered the joy of having a multi-denom machine with a nickel hopper and coin value. 

I ended up setting the jackpot lockup to 24,000 ($1,200), the credit limit to 100,000 ($2,000), and the hopper limit to 100 ($5)
The Gamemaker isn't sophisticated enough to have different lockup limits at different denominations.

<ADD> The mechanical counters get a real workout when I play dollar or five dollar games. At $25 a play that's 500 mechanical coins in every hand. The counter never stops.

At $5 x 10 in blackjack, or $5 x 5 in VP, the $400 I put into the dbv went really fast. Glad I have the key!

[ricker]

Now I need to get the Willem GQ-4X to get make backups. I won't trust the Dual Power burner that I have not to damage the chips during the read.

I have used the duel powered willem and never a chip damage. I always use the power adapter and never usb.

[uniman]

Jay's right, you stole it! Don't think I've ever seen a GameMaker go that cheap!
Nice find! 

[tjkeller]

Very nice job on the cleanup work Stat!   
Tell me that's not a plant rack or lamp table that's sitting on...is it?      

[a69mopar]

Good to hear you got it Stat, I'll check my coin tray when I get home, I seem to think that one from a S5500 will fit/is the same, which if it does, should be easy and cheap to find.

Thanks,
Wayne

[StatFreak]

Very nice job on the cleanup work Stat!   
Tell me that's not a plant rack or lamp table that's sitting on...is it?      

Worse. It's one of my dining room chairs, and with about 1 inch of magazines under the front so that it tilts backwards slightly to stabilize it.  ...I know   It's all I had available; I didn't want to spend the next several days sitting on the floor.

PS: I weigh more than the machine so I'm not worried about that aspect of things. These are sturdy solid wood chairs.

<ADD> Hmmm, it's been over 20 minutes since I stopped playing the machine, and the coin in counter is still ticking... Hey, I can take it if the counter can. (it can -- they go to 10 million and probably have already cycled several times.

<ADD2> Now it's been an hour and the coin-in counter is STILL COUNTING. Dayum!  It's counting 400/min (slow) so that's 24,000 ($1,200) and still counting. Makes sense.

[tacman]

Glad to hear the trip was worth it. I'm sure all the Gamemaker folks let you know it was a deal as long as there wasn't anything major wrong. Again, I do not think you will regret it.

 

Dan (tacman)

[StatFreak]

Thanks Dan.

I'm sure that I won't regret it. I've already got new games on the way and I'm setting up some progressive amounts, thanks to Ricker's help.   I know that I'll have to re-enter them if I change games, but it's fun to set up. It was nice to see that I could test the dbv from the menus without having to rack up credits and remove the bills O & O. I was able to test all of my bills in all 4 directions very quickly. And I'm loving all of the extended statistical information in the accounting menus.

[stayouttadabunker]

The statistical info...does it all pop up on the screen? with menus?
I like that...

[StatFreak]

The statistical info...does it all pop up on the screen? with menus?
I like that...

It's actually readable in table format and everything. Of course, life wouldn't be worth living if I couldn't wade through all of the cryptic menus of the reel slots.
All of the figures would still need to be written down and copied to a database or spreadsheet for tracking, unless you want to tackle the communications protocol. The machines has specific commands in the menus to transmit its data.