Enhanced Card Reader Emulator Dongle - Progress Report

[arbycoffee]

And I must say that my beta-testing experience confirmed what all of you already know: there is no more professional, trustworthy manufacturer of anything that I am aware of. It was truly a pleasure!

The experience of having the display and buttons work for the first time with the dongle is very cool! By using the buttons exclusively (and feeding only the top back tray) you always know how much you've "invested" when you play...which makes for a true parlor-like experience...without the considerable cost in yen!

It has added considerably to my appreciation of the profitability of Pachinko in Japan, and has vividly clarified how we can get these machines at the prices we do.

So go ahead, you know you want one...or two...or four...or...

Better than sez ?

[Lddrizzt]

Better than sez ?

Yep, and no cuddling afterward.

[dattia]

What the heck is SO wrong with cuddling?....

[slotter]

Cuddling? Wrong with? Nothing. Nothing at all....

[Tulsa]

What the heck is SO wrong with cuddling?....

It eats into valuable PachiTalk time!

[compirate]

What the heck is SO wrong with cuddling?....

Man-Man

Man-Woman

Woman-Woman

[daverob]

Well, it's taken a little longer than I'd planned, but the smartcard option boards are now finished, and there's only a few 'housekeeping' tasks left to be completed before they get put on sale.

As you can see from the pictures below, the card reader option will be supplied as an uncased circuit board. This was mainly due to the costs involved in producing a case for the unit, and the fact that what I think might look good next to my machines, might not be appropriate for everyone else. The board will be supplied with plastic spacers fitted to it and a couple of mounting screws so it can be fixed to the wooden frame of the pachinko machine.

The way it works is that, using the setup mode on the dongle, you set the operation mode to mode o-8 or o-9. You then remove the dongle, connect the ribbon cable from the smartcard option board to the dongle, and replace the dongle in the machine.

Without a smartcard in the card slot, the credit display on the pachinko will read '---' and the buttons on the front of the pachinko will not work. Insert a smartcard, and the display will indicate the credit stored on the smartcard. If the card contains credit, then the ball loan button can be pressed to dispense balls and deduct one credit from the balance on the card.

If the dongle is set to operation mode o-9, then you can use the return button as normal to load credit onto the display (and the smartcard), if you're using mode o-8, then the button on the pachinko machine is disabled and only the external switch input can be used to add credit onto the smartcard. There is a four pin connector on the smartcard option board to allow you to still connect up an external switch (or use the setup mode jumper) while the expansion connector on the dongle is used for the smartcard option.

Cards can be inserted or removed at any time. Even while they are being written to, as there is a backup copy of the credit amount stored on the card, just in case the primary credit balance is corrupted by card removal during a write operation!

The smartcards can be customised with your own full colour artwork, or if you let me know which machines you plan to use it with, then I can see if I can find suitable artwork for you.

I'm slowly building up a library of artwork for some of the more common games by going through a few pachinko manufacturers sites and downloading desktop wallpaper images and character art. But I need more good quality high resolution images (printer resolution is 1008x624 pixels). If anyone's got any good links to artwork on manufacturers sites (or any other sites for licensed themes), then let me know. If there are any artists among us who would like to design some generic card designs that would be most welcome too.

The last steps before they are put on sale is to finish up writing the operation instructions and get a few copies printed out, and to sort out some suitable packaging to send the boards out in. While the dongles themselves are fairly robust and appear to be perfectly safe in a padded envelope, I'm not certain that it's wise to send out the bare circuit boards of the smartcard readers without something a bit more substantial protecting them. I might try some destructive tests over the weekend with a few different packaging options, just to see how much effort it would take to inflict some damage on one and whether a small box will offer any more protection than a padded envelope.

[arbycoffee]

Sweet !

[Tulsa]

It just keeps getting better!

[dattia]

WOW!

[chmer01]

Way to go!

[slotter]

Excellent!

[sailorpatp]

All Right!
I got to get me some of them.

[Chris]

.....

[sailorpatp]

I am beginning to think that there isn't anything that Dave can't do!
I had an issue with one of my Pachinkos(Sanyo New Sea Story) not wanting to shoot with the new Dongle.I sent him an PM last night at 10PM and this morning when I got up he diagnosed the problem and sent me detailed instruction with pictures. With all his help, It was a 5 minute job to get this older machine working as well as the newer machines.That from thousands of miles and 5hrs time difference and having to take the pictures edit them with circles and arrows.
Thanks again Dave

[rubberratt]

I am gonna buy one now !!!

w00t

Are they still available?

[daverob]

I am gonna buy one now !!!

w00t

Are they still available?

Thanks for your enthusiasm. They are definitely still available, I've got about 70 dongles in stock, 30 smartcard option packs and I've just recieved an order of 500 blank smartcards, so I shouldn't run out for a while yet (but I'd be happy to be proved wrong:lol8.

If you'd like to purchase one, then they're listed on the auction site under pachinko->accessories.

[Tulsa]

This add-on is whole heartedly recommended by PachiTalk.

Fantastic modification from a terrific inventor!

[arbycoffee]

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