Installed some counters

[compirate]

I got these counters from Ebay a long time ago and was going to use them for some way to count pachinko balls. Only have 4 though there are 5 things to count (missing CT Bonus). The Outlaw is a Max Bet machine (always 3) so you have to divide the token in by that to figure number of plays. I only went through one bonus but each round is counted I guess. I play really badly so far-was at least 50% behind (set on 6) for about 1000 in then hit two bonuses in just a few rounds and ended up about 200 ahead---which I played right back in of course!


http://compirate.home.mindspring.com...s/P5060005.JPG
http://compirate.home.mindspring.com...s/P5060007.JPG
http://compirate.home.mindspring.com...s/P5060008.JPG
http://compirate.home.mindspring.com...s/P5060009.JPG


If we have any programers out there I know there is a way to have 8 lines of I/O through the parallel port of your computer. Should be easy to be able to monitor say the in and out of 4 separate machines. The start of the Personal Home Pachi Parlor Monitoring System!

[monaghj]

The programming to read the parallel port is rather easy. You would simply get a byte of data (0-255) with each bit representing a token in or out.

The problem however is that a PC is not a good tool for monitoring realtime events. I can't quite remember my ring order but I believe that the OS is given 1 cyle in about every 8. Windows has its own process priority order, so during your 1 cycle Windows then determines what it is going to do within that cycle. With a 1ghz machine, You will be lucky to get one poll every 200ms which is about 5 times in a second.

If the Pashilo was able to hold down the event for longer than 200ms then you would have a high probablility of catching it but I really believe the event is probably less than even 5ms.

In the world of Process control PLC (Programable Logic Controllers) are used to manage realtime events.

What you really want to do is create a count circuit (there are chips designed for this). When you drop in the coin it shifts a bit. You then use your computer to poll the state of the chip.

[compirate]

How about this:

http://www.phidgetsusa.com/cat/viewp...=1100&SKU=1012

Digital input refresh is 125hz

[monaghj]

This would be ideal. All you need is something that buffers the realtime event. I am sure they provide the software too.