Cardemu + Payout display?

[kapsreiter]

Hallo!

I am thinking how i can realistic handle a pachinko in my gameroom.
In the other thread you can see my vivacity with broken electronic, it was a cool credit system displayed your balls which can be played an all balls you have won are added to the display
So you could call PAYOUT :-)


I am interested in a top new machine but dont know ehat is then the best way to handle it realistic


I have found infos about the Cardreader Emulatorand have some questions:

1.
The card can be programmed on the machine?

2.
I can connect a switch or a coinacceptor to this device ?
When i understand it right
1 credit is 25 balls
how much credits can be booked and will they be saved after power off?

3.
How many balls i have won?
Is there a display solutions (counter) how many balls the player have won or my actual ball credits would be added?


So i can say try start with 200 balls (insert a coin or press sometimes a switch) and then we look what you have total in the balltray after a jackpot or not?

Otherwhise you can only say this tray is your win but you cannot say how much balls are in?

with pachislo it is a little bit easier :-)

thanks

tom

[daverob]

Hallo!
I have found infos about the Cardreader Emulatorand have some questions:

1.
The card can be programmed on the machine?

The modern CR ready machines have two buttons, 'Ball Loan' which you use to pay out balls, and 'Return' which in the Japanese pachinko parlours is used to eject the pre-paid card from the card reader. With the card reader emulator the Return button can be used to add credit to the smartcard and the display. If you are using a coin acceptor you can disable the return button and only add credits using the coin acceptor.

2.
I can connect a switch or a coinacceptor to this device ?
When i understand it right
1 credit is 25 balls
how much credits can be booked and will they be saved after power off?

On the Rev 1.x dongles, 1 credit is always 25 balls. On the Rev 2.0 dongles 1 credit can be 25,50,75,100 balls or more (up to 250 balls per credit) depending on the 'Payout Multiplier' setting.

The maximum credits is always 999, as there's only a three digit display on the pachinko machine.

If you only use the emulator, with no smartcards, then credits are lost when you power down. If you use the optional smartcards, the credit remains on the smartcard and will be saved after power is turned off.

3.
How many balls i have won?
Is there a display solutions (counter) how many balls the player have won or my actual ball credits would be added?

At the moment this is not possible with the card reader emulator system. I am working on a ball counter accessory but it will be several months before this is ready for sale. This counter will either be connected to the (Rev.2) card reader emulator unit and placed under the ball drain hole on the pachinko's shooter tray, where it will count the won balls drained from the shooter tray and add the credit back onto the players card, or the counter unit will be connected to a standalone display/card reader and used to count balls and add credit to the smartcard away from the pachinko machine.

So i can say try start with 200 balls (insert a coin or press sometimes a switch) and then we look what you have total in the balltray after a jackpot or not?

This is how I use the card reader emulators myself. I start with an amount of credit on the card and keep all of my winning balls in parlour trays. When I have finished playing I take the trays to a set of scales and weigh them. These scales have a count function built into them and will display how many balls are in each tray, which they can calculate from the measured weight of the trays.

Hope this helps, and please ask if you have any more questions.

[Drunkenclam]

I have a quick question.
If I put a closed circuit between 3 & 4 on the card reader it will reset the card credit value no matter what the current credit was to the (h)(t)(u) as preset on the dongle.
What will happen if no card is in the card reader when the circuit is closed?
Will it store false credits on the dongle/pachi?

[kapsreiter]

thank you for the detailed infos.

I think when i buy a modern machine this will be a must have for me.
So the payout system will be a addon in the futur
and when i buy the dongle now it is updateable?

And will the system hold the credits after power off?
Or only when you work with a card?


thanks

tom !!! today i will get my indy pachislo :-)

[daverob]

I have a quick question.
If I put a closed circuit between 3 & 4 on the card reader it will reset the card credit value no matter what the current credit was to the (h)(t)(u) as preset on the dongle.
What will happen if no card is in the card reader when the circuit is closed?

Absolutely nothing. When the dongle is used with a card reader, all credits are stored on the card. If there's no card in the reader, then there's nowhere to store the credits and the 'external switch' closure is ignored.

So the payout system will be a addon in the futur and when i buy the dongle now it is updateable?

The Rev.2 dongle is fully updateable, and can have it's internal software updated by inserting a special smartcard into the reader or an 'update key' into the expansion connector. This version dongle will fully support the ball counter with a software update, and will allow you to set the number of prize balls per credit added.

The Rev.1 dongle cannot be easily updated with new software, so will be very limited in it's support for the ball counter.

And will the system hold the credits after power off?
Or only when you work with a card?

Only when you use a smartcard. If you don't want to use a smartcard, but still want to hold the credits after power off, it is possible to wire a serial EEPROM chip to the expansion connector to store credits. But this is quite complicated, so not officially supported.

[Drunkenclam]

Ace. Thanks for that. Be placing another order for Ver 1 dongle, card reader and sard soon.

[MrFixit]

daverob - do you know if cashflow devices work with your dongles?

such as 2181.jpg


Coin Validator, MEI Inc

[daverob]

daverob - do you know if cashflow devices work with your dongles?

Possibly. These ones are available in lots of different configurations, so it depends on the actual model and it's output. Many of these electronic coin mechs have multiple outputs (one for each type of coin it's set to accept), and the dongle has only one input. So these mechs need a 'Credit Board' to convert the individual coin outputs into a series of pulses that add credit to the dongle.

I'm currently looking into this coin acceptor on eBay and have ordered one to try out with the dongle. It seems to have all the features that would make it a perfect match with the dongle, it's relatively cheap, it can be reprogrammed to accept any coin/token without needing a special re-programmer or PC connection, and it has a single output connection that can be set up for a different number of pulses/credits for up to 6 different coins (also available in cheaper versions that only accept 2,3,4,5 types of coins).

I should be getting my sample one in the next week or so, and if it turns out to work well and be a good enough quality, I intend to offer a plug and play connection kit to add it to the dongle.

[MrFixit]

Nice. I can help if you're interested; i have access to USD coin and cash acceptors and could test their functions on your dongles. What's interesting about the MEI cashflow is that it only uses one serial interface that supplies power and data output. The output data for all coin types are transmitted on this one serial port that is the same as your dongles v2.0.

[BigBearSteve]

Daverob, Is it possible to daisychain one card reader to six dongles?

[daverob]

The link to the coin acceptor in my earlier post seems to have been corrupted. It's item number 250782047695 if you need to manually search for it.

Multi Coin Acceptor Selector Mechanism Vending machine - eBay (item 250782047695 end time Mar-31-11 18:17:14 PDT)

The output data for all coin types are transmitted on this one serial port that is the same as your dongles v2.0.

While the connector might be physically the same, the pinout and signalling are quite different and the two would not be compatible without some extra interfacing circuitry in between. If you did try connecting both of them together directly, it is likely to cause permanent damage to the dongle and/or the coin acceptor.

It is possible that I could add support for these coin mechs to an updated version of the software for the Rev.2 dongle. But at first glance it looks like it would be a complicated addition, and would require a lot of development effort to get it working. So seeing as coin mechs with pulse outputs (that are a lot easier to interface with the dongle) are available from many different manufacturers, unless there is significant demand* to support serial output mechs then this addition it is unlikely to happen.

* Significant demand means more than a couple of people who happen to have a spare mech lying around that they'd like to use, as I'd probably make more of a loss on developing the new code and interfaces than it would cost to simply buy them a coin mech that would work with an unmodified dongle.

Daverob, Is it possible to daisychain one card reader to six dongles?

No, this is not possible, and it would be very difficult (if not impossible) to add support for this due to the way the dongles/card readers were originally designed.

If you let me know why this might be necessary or a desirable feature, then perhaps I can think of an alternative way of achieving the same objective.

[BigBearSteve]

The only reason I asked is because I didn't put card readers on the six machines in my gameroom ( and can't fit them in now)

I thought it would be cool to load credits on all the machines at the same time with just one reader.

[MrFixit]

Daverob, does your dongle support any kind of cash acceptor support? I'm thinking about carting a few Pachinkos to ComicCon and charging people for play.

[daverob]

Just got the coin acceptor that I linked to above (still can't figure out why the link gets corrupted and doesn't work). Was about to make up a wiring harness to try it out, but I first tried to put a pound coin in the slot and it wouldn't even go in.

The spec for the coin acceptor on the listing says it's good for coins/tokens up to 3.8mm (and a UK pound coin is only 3.15mm) but it's obvious that the internals of the mech are not big enough for these coins to fit. All the tokens and other UK, US and Euro coins that I have lying around seem to fit OK, but it's not a good start. Have sent the vendor a question via eBay, so I'll wait and see what their customer service is like...

Daverob, does your dongle support any kind of cash acceptor support? I'm thinking about carting a few Pachinkos to ComicCon and charging people for play.

There is support for coin mechs via the external input pin on the expansion connector. The micro-switch on a mechanical mech can be connected directly to this input, and I have a small number of customers who use the dongle like this. Electronic multi-coin acceptors can also be connected, but often require additional interfacing to get them to work. If you need any help in getting it working, then send me the specs of the coin acceptors you intend to use, and I'll let you know what you need to connect them.

There is some information about connecting credit switches and coin acceptors to the dongle on this page on my website.

[compirate]

(still can't figure out why the link gets corrupted and doesn't work)

Fixed!