Would you buy an 'enhanced' card reader connector dongle?

[daverob]

As some of you may remember, I've been playing around with the card reader connector on the back of my pachinkos to make use of the 'ball loan' and 'card return' buttons and LED credit display on the front of the machine, and also trying to decode the communications protocol between the pachinko and the card unit that controls the paying out of 'loan balls'.

Well my efforts have finally paid off, and with the aid of a custom built interface and software running on a PC, I have now written a card reader emulator that pays out 25 balls every time the ball loan button on the front of the pachinko is pressed, and deducts one from the 'credit remaining' display next to the buttons.

I've found that using this makes a nice change to all the manual ball handling, especially when used along with a cabinet with a large ball feed reserviour, or with a ball lifter unit. I think the improvement is good enough to justify making a self contained 'super dongle' version, but I'd like to know if there is a market for one, before I spend any more time and money on this.

So this is a simple poll, would you be interested in purchasing a small plug-and-play unit that will plug into the 25 pin 'D' socket instead of your current dongle (and doesn't require any modifications to the pachinko machine itself), which would give you the following additional features...

* Freeplay. Balls are always dispensed when ball loan button is pressed. Display is not used.

* Freeplay with ball loan counter. Three digit display counts the number of balls dispensed in multiples of 100 balls. Return button resets the counter.

* Card unit emulation. Return button sets the credit display to a user set value. which counts down as balls are dispensed. Balls can only be dispensed if there is credit on the display.

* Cash unit emulation. Return button increases credit display by user set increments. Credit display counts down as balls are dispensed. Balls can only be dispensed if there is credit on the display.

* External switch connector. When an external switch is connected the front panel return button is disabled and the functions are available on the external switch instead. This could be a hidden switch or a key switch. This allows you control over adding credit, or resetting the counters (useful for parents?). A coin/token acceptor could be connected to the external switch input, which would allow you to use the machine on pay-for-play.

Target price (for Pachitalk customers!) will be $50 (around £25 or 40 Euros), and for the first three months they will be exclusively sold through the auctions on this site.

Also if you can think of anything that would be a good idea to add to the unit, reply to this post with your ideas.

[METZ]

sounds cool but me being a noob on the pachinkos
what machine would this be for just ones with the CR?
with enuff balls would u even need this?

[slotter]

Wow, sounds fantastic! So, we would finally be able to make use of those buttons and the LEDs?

[Chris]

Oh yes - I think I could be interested in that

[slothappy144]

holy hard core Batman thats cool! this combined with a ball feeder would be a nice combo.

[DaStooge]

Is this a trick question?

[arbycoffee]

S u p e r C o o l s t e r !



I will givew you my first born son

[rodtrotter]

yes i would be interested

[daverob]

sounds cool but me being a noob on the pachinkos
what machine would this be for just ones with the CR?

Correct. This would only work on the machines which have the two buttons on the front, one for ball loan (玉貸 or sometimes marked 球貸) and card return (返却), and need to have a 'dongle' plugged into the 25 pin D type connector on the back of the machine for the ball shooter to work. They'll also have a three digit 7-segment LED display near the buttons, but on some machines this is hard to see where it is when it's not lit up.

with enuff balls would u even need this?

To be honest, probably not. But it will still help cut down on manual ball handling, with this you'll only need to move the spent balls from the back of the machine to the top tray, and with a ball lift unit you won't even need to do that.

There are a few other situations that I can think of where something like this would be useful, as the counter display could also be used to keep track of how many balls you've 'purchased', and if you also have a battle counter to keep track of the number of wins, you can work out how profitable the machine is.

There's also the parental control aspect. If you use it with a seperate 'credit' switch that's not easily accessable, you can set it to allow a certain number of balls to be played, and then it will stop dispensing balls when the 'credit' has run out.

quote=slotter;186398]So, we would finally be able to make use of those buttons and the LEDs? [/quote]

I'm hoping to include a couple of operation modes that will be very close to the way these buttons are used in the parlours (for those purists among us:13. You should be able to insert a virtual pre-paid card using either the front panel return button or the seperate external 'credit' switch. The machine will then indicate the value of the card in the LED display (there will be settings to allow different value virtual cards to be used). In use the credit display will be decreased each time the ball loan button is used to dispense balls, and when it reaches zero, you will need to press the card return button to eject the virtual card and 'insert' a new one.

I'm hoping that this is correct to how the card readers are used in the parlours, but having not had the chance to visit Japan (yet!), I've only got the blogs of those that have to go on!


I'm quite excited about this, it's been a while since I've had a good technical project to get my teeth into. But it's still in the early stages yet, and there's a few challenges to overcome (like how to get the 30+ components needed onto a PCB that's only 1 1/2 square inches big). So the finished product is at least a few months away, possably longer seeing as software product deadlines always seem to move further away, the longer you've been working on a project .

[arbycoffee]

very good luck!!

[deano]

palot aslo has a dongle
would it work with this as well
it has the cr on it also
(if u need a pic of the inside of the dongle just ask )

[drcrippen324]

i would have to go for the free play unit with ball counter facilitys so as to know balls played - real starts on my battel counter = balls lost

[METZ]

"battle counter" I need this!!!

[slotter]

This is exciting, daverob! Many of us are wishing you the very best of luck on this project!

[compirate]

I am for sure in for at least one (gotta justify the three card readers I've already purchased!). It doesn't necessarily have to fit on a circuit board as small as the dongle hood. Could be a separate circuit board with a cable to the 25DB.

[chmer01]

This would be great! I only own one modern machine but I would get one in a heart beat.

Eric C.

[Lddrizzt]

True, a small box with the circuit board inside with a cable to a 25db connector.
The box could be velcroed to the back of the machine on one of the other circuit board boxes that they all have.

[logicprobe]

Will it be independent or tied to a PC?
If to a PC, can they be addressed? (sort of daisy-chained or "networked")

This sounds like a great opportunity. Congrats on "cracking that code".

[compirate]

As far as I know, it will be an independant unit, all inclusive in the dongle and hood. Multiple connections via computer would be interesting!

[daverob]

palot aslo has a dongle
would it work with this as well

It should work in exactly the same way on a palot as it does on a pachinko. The only thing that might be a slight annoyance is that it will always dispense 25 balls per press of the ball loan button (this is set by the pachinko/palot itself) and I think that palots usually use 15 balls per spin, so you'll probably have to set the unit up to give credits in multiples of 75 balls, so as to not have any balls left over.

It doesn't necessarily have to fit on a circuit board as small as the dongle hood. Could be a separate circuit board with a cable to the 25DB.

True, but I'll probably end up making it fit inside a regular D-25 cover. Firstly because I like the challenge and secondly because it will work out more expensive using a larger circuit board, a box rather than a D-25 cover and the additional cable needed. Also the surface mount components that have to be used to make it that small are actually cheaper than the regular large sized components.

I will also be making up a few short extension ribbon cables for people who have games in cabinets that are are a tight fit, and currently need to have a 'bare' dongle as there's not enough room for a cased one. For example on Cutie Honey the dongle sticks straight out the back, and would need two inches of clearance to the back of the case.

Will it be independent or tied to a PC?
If to a PC, can they be addressed? (sort of daisy-chained or "networked")

At the moment the plan is to have a completely independent self contained unit. There are two I/O pins available on the in-circuit-programming header (which is needed to put the control software inside the surface mounted microcontroller chip). The intention is to use one of these inputs for the external 'credit' switch, and the other for a jumper to select between normal and setup modes.

There's nothing to stop you connecting the credit switch input to a PC interface. But I'm not really the best person to do this as this would require software on the PC, and I'm no good at writing software for MS Windows systems (and don't even ask about Macs ).

If this would be a popular feature (and someone would be willing to help with the PC side) then I could look at adding some kind of PC connection, but at the moment I'm not sure what you'd want to use the PC for.