Need help with a bit of detective work...
As some of you know, I've been looking into some of the technical side of pachinko machines over the last few months, but I'm stuck with one of them and could do with some help from some of you to take a look round the back of your machine and read a few numbers off the chips on the circuit boards.
One of the things I really want to understand is the interface to the card reader unit, I've already mapped out most of the connections, but I'm stuck with the four control lines that the card reader uses to signal the pachinko machine to payout the required number of balls. I've had a PC connected up to the D25 connector on the back of the machine for a couple of months, continuously making guesses at the communication protocol between the machines, but it's drawn a blank.
Next step would normally be to read the control program out of the microprocessor and disassemble it to see how it works. Trouble is that most modern machines have this information in a secure processor which makes it pretty difficult to read out.
I have a hunch that some of the earliest Card Reader capable machines, may have used normal processors where this information is more easily accessed, but I don't own any machines pre 2003 so I can't follow up on this hunch.
So could those of you that have older card reader machines (ie machines that need a dongle plugged into the D25 connector on the back of the machine, and have the ball loan (玉貸 or 球貸) and card return(返却) buttons on the front of the machine), take a look at the back of the machine and do a bit of detective work for me? I'm expecting that the best ones to look at are the ones made between 1995 and 2000.
What I need you to do is look at the circuit board the dongle plugs into (the payout control board), and look for a chip that is in a socket rather than being directly soldered to the board, and will most probably have a sticker on it with some writing in Japanese (there should be only one and it should be about half an inch wide and between an inch and two inches long). If you can make out the chip number then copy it down and post it to this thread (along with the game name it came from). A photo of the chip/board would also be very useful (but probably best to send this to me either by PM or by email to pinballdave@gmail.com).
On some machines the D25 connector circuit board is seperate from the the payout control board with this chip on it, if you follow the cables from the D25 board, one will go round to the front tray of the machine the other will go to the payout control board. If you are still not sure where to look, email me a picture of the back of the machine, and I can tell you where it should be.
I'm not really interested in games after 2003 or ones that have LEA280-PA, LEB280-PA or PSC-7011MP on the chips, as these are the newer ones I can't read out, but let me know which pre 2003 machines you see them on.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me on this.
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Re: Need help with a bit of detective work...
Originally Posted by toibs
