Inside Slot Tech Magazine October, 2002slot-tech.com/members/magazine/lores/october02.pdf · clear chips in ¾Message CH P and CL P will appear, and then all lights flashing. Clearing

Inside Slot Tech MagazineInside Slot Tech Magazine

October, 2002October, 2002October, 2002October, 2002October, 2002

Page 2 - Editorial

Page 4 - Understanding the Clear/Set Procedures

Page 8 - Repairing Power Supplies

Page 14 - TechFest 3 Report

Page 16 - Global Gaming Expo Show Report

Page 18 - Starpoint at G2E

Page 19 - One Million Bill Validators for JCM

Page 20 - TransAct Announces Thermal Printer With Extended Memory 128K Memory Gives Casinos More Promotional Power

Page 22 - More G2E Snapshots

Page 24 - C-C-Cold Cathode Lights The Way To Brighter Slots

Page 26 - Plumber's Guide to Fruit Machines - Part 7

Page 29 - International View

Page 30 - Introduction to Digital Electronics - Part 2

Page 32 - Phil the Filter CapacitorThe Story of an Electrolytic Gone Bad

Page 35 - TechFest 4 Scheduled for Minnesota

Page 36 - Subscriptions and Back Issues Order form

Slot Tech Editorial

Randy Fromm's

Slot Tech Magazine

EditorRandy Fromm

Technical WritersDion Anderson

Bart HoldenOlson JakeKen Locke

Gordon LoweKevin Noble

Herschel W. Peeler

Advertising ManagerDennis Sable

Slot Tech Magazine ispublished monthly bySlot Tech Magazine1944 Falmouth Dr.El Cajon, CA 92020-2827tel.619.593.6131fax.619.593.6132e-mail

[email protected] the website at

slot-techs.comSUBSCRIPTIONS

Domestic (USA) 1 year - $60.00 2 years - $120.00International 1 year - $120.00 2 years - $240.00

copyright 2002 under the Uni-versal Copyright Convention.All rights reserved.

Randy Fromm

Page 2 Slot Tech Magazine October, 2002

It is the policy of Slot TechMagazine to correct any andall errors. In this case, it wasnot an error in anything thatwas misstated, omitted, orcontrary to the facts butrather an error in judgment(my judgment) in publishinga story about some of theemployees of Tulalip Casinoin Marysville, Washington.

The article appeared in theFebruary 2002 issue of SlotTech Magazine and is en-titled “Reel Women.” No, I donot regret publishing an ar-ticle about these female slottechs. I have met them andthey deserve public recogni-tion for their skills and dedi-cation. However, I deeply re-gret publishing the interviewportion of the article.

The interview was conductedby a contributing writer thatwas so impressed by theirabilities and their positionswithin the casino that he feltthey would be good subjectsfor an article. He felt comfort-able with them as friends aswell and, according to one ofthe interviewees, the feelingwas mutual. Subsequent tothe publication of the article,I have come to learn that dur-ing the interview, parts of theconversation that the ladiesfelt was supposed to havebeen casual banter betweenfriends, was, in fact, tran-scribed and published as theinterview proper.

One does not expect one’scasual conversation to appearin print. Colloquialisms andcasual speech are not thestuff of professionalism. Theyare part and parcel of the sideof us that we reserve forthose we know, love and

trust. And, while such com-ments might have been ap-ropos as direct quotes inTime or Newsweek, I shouldhave edited them out of thisstory. I apologize profoundlyto those whose words werepublished, to the casinomanagement and to thereaders of Slot Tech Maga-zine.

I feel just awful that what wassupposed to have been a funexperience for everyone in-volved, has caused such dis-tress. The women feel be-trayed, the casino manage-ment is upset and I havedone a grave disservice you,the readers. You have mypledge that I will be diligentin making certain that thisdoes not happen again in thepages of Slot Tech Magazine.

Randy FrommPublisher – Slot Tech Magazine

An Open Apology to Tulalip Casino


Slot Tech Feature Article

With new manufac-turers beginning toenter into the mar-

ket, or when the casinobrings these games onto thefloor, I have been on theinternet asking for help toprepare myself about certainmanufacturer’s clear /setprocedures. This also appliesto existing manufacturersupgrading their software,and even when new techni-cians are starting out on thejob.

As Slot Tech Magazine car-ries some articles that aretechnically advanced, I stilllike to keep things simplewith the new guys in mindjust starting out. I was thereonce, and wished one daythat it was that simple.

As time goes by, and theclears and sets are done rou-tinely, thru EPROM up-grades, theme and denomi-nation conversions, and re-pair you understand thesteps involved for eachmanufacturer’s clear and set-up process. This becomeseasier, the more times it isdone.

The afternoon shift rarely

gets a chance to do these setand clears because of theavailability of our ElectronicGaming Officers. Currentlyat our site, we do not haveevery manufacturer, everyreel or video game, butenough to give the custom-ers a different variety suchas IGT, BALLY, WILLIAMS,SIGMA, KONAMI, ANCHOR,and MIKOHN.

THE REELS

BALLY 6000

ü First there are 3 levelsof SafeRam clears usedfor both the 6000 and5500

Completeü erases and reformats

the SafeRamü game options are re-

stored to factory de-fault

ü all soft meters reset to“0” including SafeRamcounter

ü SafeRam counter iserased

ü power up with clearchips in and holdpseudo and test buttons down

ü message CH C andthen CL C will appear,and then all lightflashing

Fullü SafeRam counter is

not erasedü Game options are re-

stored to factory de-fault

ü All soft meters reset to“0”

ü Power up with clearchips in and holdpseudo button down

ü Message CH F and CLF will appear, and thenall lights flashing

Partialü SafeRam counter is

not erasedü Game options remain

the sameü All soft meters reset to

“0”ü Power up with just the

clear chips inü Message CH P and CL

P will appear, and thenall lights flashing.

Clearing Procedure (usingMikohn SAS)

1. power machineoff and removeMPU

2. r e m o v eEPROMS U28and U43

3. install clear chipU28 and U43 inthere correct lo-cations

4. turn power on(depending onwhat clear pro-cedure isneeded)

5. power down andremove clear

Understanding theClear/Set Procedures

By Kevin Noble

chips6. reinstall origi-

nal EPROMS,and power up

7. Reels will reset,when they startto spin, closedoor beforethey stop

8. hit change but-ton, insert coinand BV lightshould come on

9. set options

BALLY 5500

ü There are also thesame three levels ofSafeRam clears usedhere instead of remov-ing the U28 and U43;we simply jump thepins at JW 10.

Clearing Procedure1. power machine

off, pull out MPU2. move JW 10 into

the next position3. turn power on

(again depend-ing what clear isneeded)

4. after the clear isperformed, re-turn JW 10 tonormal position

5. power up, reelswill reset, set op-tions

WILLIAMS

Clearing Procedure1. Power down game2. Remove CPU from tray

and remove XU33. Install clear chip with

correct denomination4. power machine up

(correct denominationwill appear)

5. power game down and

remove clear chip6. Install your XU3 back

in the socket7. Message “clr” appears8. If a game change is

needed “6annE” ap-pears first

9. push diagnostic but-ton twice for gamechange

10. push diagnosticbutton once , gamereboots

11. “clr” appearsagain, press diagnosticbutton again

12. reset all options

SIGMA

Clearing Procedure1. Turn off machine2. Turn and leave reset in

“on” position3. Depress and hold test

button and turn ongame


4. Message “ALL DATAW/O SETTING WILLBE CLEARED”

5. after message is dis-played release resetand test button

6. power game off and on7. calibrate SIB board

and set options

IGT / ANCHOR

Clearing Procedure UsingMikohn (SAS)

1. remove game “SP” chip2. insert desired clear

chip3. power up, “0” appears

in cp window4. Remove clear chip and

install desired “SP”chip

5. 61 code appears, pressself test for three sec-onds

6. 61-1 appears, closedoor and turn resetkey one time

7. 65-3 appears, turn re-set key one time

8. 65-1 appears, opendoor and press self testfor three seconds

9. wait for reels to spin, Iusually set machineoption now

10. Power down, in-stall desired set chip(0091 for example)

11. 0091 appears incredit window, pressself test button

12. A “0” appears,set this to 2 (SAS) us-ing reset key

13. press self testagain and set machineaddress to 1

14. Continue thisuntil all options areset to your configura-tions (BV enable, de-

nomination, progres-sive)

15. Power down re-move set chip, rein-stall desired “SP” chip

16. Power up, 61code appears, closedoor and turn reset toclear

17. Verify all op-tions are set correctly.

Wheel of Fortune andPrize display

ü The Wheel ofFortune pro-gressive displayuses the sameclear and setprocedure asthe IGT exceptfor a couple ofadded steps.

ü To set the dis-play follow steps1 to 14

ü After settingthe denomina-tion (#6), andpressing theself test buttonagain #9 ap-pears in thecoins playedwindow and #1in the winnerspaid.

Setting the Progressive Display Op-tion (not used as a stand-a-alone, butdisplay only)

14. Press self testand #9 appears and #1

15. For a quartergame, (start value inthe thousands col-umn) turn the restkey four times until$5,000.00 appears.(progressive resetamount)

16. For a dollargame, (start value inthe ten thousands col-umn) turn the resetkey five times until$10,000.00 appears.

17. press self testagain #9 – 2 appears,set your maximumprogressive amount

18. press self testagain #9 – 3 appears,set yourincrementation rate

19. press self testagain #9 – 4 appears,set your current pro-gressive amount

20. power down, re-move set chip, reinstalldesired “SP” chip

21. power up, 61code appears, closedoor and turn resetkey to clear

22. Verify all optionsare set correctly.

Overview

There are still many moremanufacturers out there,other procedures, older ver-sions that I have not beenexposed to, and many othersthat I have just plain forgot-ten. If anybody has any othermanufacturer proceduresthat we could add at a laterdate to help new technicians,please drop me a line. If wecan come up with enoughmaterial to make another list,I can pass it along to others.In another issue I hope topass along the current videomachines clears and setsused on our floor.

-Kevin [email protected]


Slot Tech Feature Article

Power supplies are basicallysimple creatures. Theychange the AC coming out ofthe wall into various DC volt-ages the game requires. Well,that sounds simple. Some-times they go about that indifficult ways. Let’s cover thetwo basic types we find in thegaming industry. Cover theeasiest one quickly, andspend more time on the not-so-easy. While we’re at it,we’ll cover typical failures andeasy checks. Many of the fea-tures found in the more com-plex designs are easier tounderstand using the sim-pler designs first.

Linear (Analog) Supplies

These are a simple design. A

transformer drops the linevoltage down to close to thedesired value. A rectifierchanges the AC coming outof the transformer to pulsat-ing DC. A filter capacitorsmoothes out the pulsatingDC to unregulated DC. Aregulator drops the voltagedown to the desired voltage,and limits the current to apredictable safe value. Notmuch to go wrong with thisdesign. The transformerdoesn’t transform. The Rec-tifier doesn’t rectify. The fil-ter doesn’t filter. Or theRegulator doesn’t regulate.Simple ohmmeter checks(make sure power is off) willtell you what went bad.When in doubt, comparereadings with a known goodunit.

Advantages: Low parts count.Easy to manufacture. Stillquite acceptable for low cur-rent designs (less than oneamp).

Disadvantages: Not very effi-cient. They can waste aboutas much energy as they sup-ply. Any power not supplied

at the output must be dissi-pated across the regulator aswasted heat. 60 to 75% effi-ciency is considered an ac-ceptable design. Huge ex-pensive power transformer.

Switching Power Supplies,Simplest

This we’ll spend a little moretime on. All the same com-ponents can be found in aswitching power supply. Thecircuit is just a little morecomplicated. In many de-signs, the incoming line volt-age is first changed to a DClevel. 150 VDC is quite com-mon here. Be careful. Thispart of the circuit can be fa-tal.

In this design (known as a"buck" regulator a powertransistor is used to chop thishigh DC level into pulsatingDC. Controlling this powertransistor is our regulator.

There are a few differentmethods. We’ll discuss thePulse Width Modulation(PWM) method, just becauseit’s easy to understand. The

Repairing Power Supplies

By Herschel Peeler

width of the pulses that turnthe power transistor on canbe varied. The circuit is de-signed such that at somenominal pulse width, a de-sired output voltage is at-tained after the pulses getfiltered by a filter capacitor.The wider the pulses, thehigher the charge on the fil-ter capacitor, the higher theoutput voltage.

Some system of feedbackcomponents sense the volt-age level at the filter capaci-tor and inform the regulatorif the voltage is higher orlower than it should be. Theregulator changes the pulsewidth appropriately to bringthe output voltage intoproper range.

Advantages: No huge powertransformer. Fairly efficient.

Disadvantages: No isolationis provided. The output volt-age is referenced to the sameground as the AC line in.This presents a shock haz-ard. In the Linear design, inaddition to changing the volt-age level, the transformeralso isolates the ground onthe input circuit (Primary)from the ground on the out-put circuit (secondary).

This design is acceptable forone output voltage of me-dium current levels (2 or 3amps) but we do not use itin the gaming industry.Slot Tech Magazine

Slot Tech Magazine

Switching Power Supplies,(More Common Designs)

In most power supplies usedin gaming devices, multiplepower supplies (multiplevoltages) must be providedand at higher currents thanthose already mentioned.The process is similar, andthe parts are familiar. Pleaserefer to the power supplyschematic on the followingpage.

Our incoming AC is rectifiedand filtered and still goes tothe power transistor but thistime it must pass throughthe primary winding of atransformer first. It is stillchopped as before. Varioussecondary windings can beadded to the transformer toget different voltages out.One of these voltages mustprovide our feedback to theregulator. But we have aproblem. The secondary sys-tem is on a different groundthan the primary. In mostcurrent designs an opto-cou-pler is used to provide feed-back between the secondaryand primary.

An opto-coupler is a simplecreature. It is made up of alight emitting diode and aphototransistor. Light carriesthe signal across. Both cir-cuits may work at differentground voltages. The morecurrent that is passedthrough the LED, thebrighter the light, the morethe phototransistor turns on.

The secondaries of the trans-former are rectified and fil-tered to provide the neces-sary voltages at the outputs.

Advantages: No large trans-


former is required. Switchingpower supplies switch atmuch higher frequenciesthan linear supplies. Theswitching speed may be inthe tens of thousands ofHertz, or even hundreds ofthousands of Hertz. Thehigher the switching speed,the more inductance can behad with a smaller trans-former. A transformer thatprovides five amps can nowbe golf ball size instead ofbaseball or softball size. Thesupply is smaller, lighter,and more efficient (typically90% or more). This designcan even be cheaper consid-ering the cost of the trans-former for a typical system.

Disadvantages: Complexity.The more parts it has, themore stuff we have to gowrong.

Editor’s note: Hey, Herschel. . . It’s called “Job Security.”- ed

What Goes Wrong

The transformer doesn’ttransform. The Rectifierdoesn’t rectify. The filterdoesn’t filter. Or the Regu-lator doesn’t regulate.Simple ohmmeter checks(make sure power is off) willtell you what went bad.When in doubt, comparereadings with a known goodunit.

Electrolytic filter caps oftendry out and open up, orshort. “Just a little off” usu-ally doesn’t kill operation.Power transistors short, oropen. Again, “just a little off”isn’t what you are looking for.

Bad solder joints are alwaysa potential problem in cir-

cuits that get hot (Powertransistors, rectifier diodes,fuses, transformers).

Don’t let the fact that youdon’t have a schematic scareyou away from attemptingrepairs. Most of the time theproblem can be found with acalm confident mind and anohmmeter. When in doubt,compare readings with agood unit.

Suggestions

Start with a close visual once-over. Are there any signs ofexcessive heat or damage?Bad solder joints? Burned orcracked components?

If you are going to applypower to a power supply youare testing; all power sup-plies, especially switchingtypes, should be poweredthrough an isolation trans-former, and from a fusedsource (not a wall outlet). Ifyou plug an unknown powersupply straight into a wallsocket, fused at 15 or 20amps at the breaker, you candissipate 2400 watts (120 Vx 20 Amps) before the circuitbreaker blows. We’re talkingpyrotechnics and smoke gen-erators here, folks. Forsafety’s sake, use a currentlimited source and isolatedgrounds.

If you draw excessive current,the typical problems are few.Shorted power transistors,shorted filter capacitors, thatsort of thing. Again you arelooking for something that isdrastically wrong, not “just alittle off”.

If it doesn’t draw excessivecurrent, but doesn’t output

a voltage, look for an opencircuit. Look for an openpower transistor, open trans-former, open trace on theboard, and I’m sorry I haveto mention it, open fuse. Notall fuses are tubes of glass.Get yourself an Allied cata-log and look at what shapesand sizes fuses come inthese days. That’s not a plugfor Allied. They are justreadily available. Integratedcircuits are often high pointsof failure. The actual transis-tor inside an IC may be mi-cron size. It doesn’t takemuch for an IC to go bad.(Not so with discrete compo-nents.)

If it just “works weird” youmay be in for some serioustroubleshooting. The outputmay measure close to itsproper DC voltage, but whatdoes it look like if you putthe meter on AC volts? Ex-cessive ripple can be causedby open (dried out) filter ca-pacitors.

Key questions for suchtroubleshooting can narrowyour search. What specifi-cally is wrong? What parts dothat function? Is the switch-ing regulator oscillating?(Bad IC) Is the regulator get-ting its reference voltage andpower? The regulator IC mustget power from the primaryside of the supply for the cir-cuit to start up. Is the IC get-ting power?

Once you find the bad partyou have to ask yourself thenext question. Is this theproblem or just the result ofanother problem? Capacitorsfail spontaneously. Semicon-ductors may not. If you’veever sat through one of my

semiconductor classes, youhave seen how much stressa diode or transistor can takebeyond their rated valuesbefore giving up and dying.Most designers give them-selves a lot of room for stressbefore failure.

Working Without a Sche-matic

Sit down with a good unitand a cup of coffee, andmake note of what voltagesare normal on a good unitand/or what resistances toground are normal. Takingreadings with your meter setto “diode test” are also use-ful when looking for badsemiconductors.

When in doubt, change it.For the most part, compo-nents are cheaper thansending the unit out for re-pair, or just buying a new

one (some people don’t evenwant to repair their units anymore).

Know when to stop trouble-shooting. If the value of theassembly is less than $100,it doesn’t take long beforeyour time exceeds the costof repairs. There are excep-tions here. If you are in LasVegas, call the factory andhave them put a unit in ataxi and deliver it to you. Ifyou are in An Jung ni, SouthKorea, (or Porterville, Califor-nia) you may want to spendmore time troubleshooting.

If you have a box full of thesesuckers, scrap the trouble-makers for parts to fix oth-ers. You get rid of your head-aches and save the companymoney on repair parts.

Keep a book of symptomsand solutions. In this indus-

try, there are no such thingsas unique problems. If youencounter a problem, I canalmost guarantee that youwill see it again, or at leastsomebody has. Go to“www.delphiforums.com” andlook for “slot techs”. You willfind others in the same worldin which you live. You are notalone.

Don’t be afraid to call themanufacturer. Call the gamemanufacturer, as well as themanufacturer of the unit it-self. See if they have a website.

Above all, don’t forget the“float test”. Take it out to thelake and throw it in the deepend. If it floats it was a badone, and you don’t need togo get it.

Herschel [email protected]


Slot Tech Event

Slot techs from across thecontinental United Statesjoined the gaming industry’stop engineers, technicians,technical writers and in-structors for three days oftechnical seminars and pre-sentations at TechFest 3. Theevent was held at the Board-walk Hotel & Casino in LasVegas, Nevada.

TechFest 3 featured presen-tations from:

Asahi Seiko Coin Mechanisms, Inc. Seiko (printers) MEI 3M Touchsystems Sencore Ceronix

TechFest 4 is planned forGrand Casino, Mille Lacs inMinnesota. The dates areOctober 22nd - 24th, 2002.

TechFest attendees included: BryanHunter, Bob Coleman, CarterYarborough, Paul Swank, SycuanCasino, Bobby Mansion, DonaldKnight, LA Slot Machine Co., Inc.,Danny Thompson, Ray Jones, Ar-gosy Casino, Dion Anderson, Circus,Circus, Reno, Ram Nand, Seth Noble,Chinook Winds Casino, ArdenAlpers, Little Six Casino, ChrisWilkes, Motor City Casino, RayRomero, Jason Hartman, KerryMorrison, Lucky Eagle Casino PaulL. Martin, Slot World Casino

Raymond Rivera, Jackpot JunctionCasino, Darryl Cameron, KenJahnke, Bay Mills Resort & Casino,Charlie Hart, Casino Sault Ste. Marie,Dennis Timothy, Nelson Ashkewe,Ben Ferdinand, Casino Rama, Ja-son Halstead, Kenneth Kipp, EliasMoses, Clearwater River Casino, JayEllenberger, Vikki Howell, YakamaNation Legends Casino, RobertDownes, Ron Blank, Desert DiamondCasino, Shannon Covert, AdrianAndrews, Spirit Mountain Casino,Wilbur Thomas, The Gillmann

TechFest 3Held in Las Vegas

How Much Did They Learn in 3 Days?

Group, Edwin Green, Terry Kratz,Sac and Fox Casino, Robert Clay,Larry Mason, Bonanza Casino, PaulHaws, John Green, Fort McDowellCasino, Jesse Medina, Trump Ca-sino Hotel, Monti Marrufo, GerardoMoreno, Tim McKenny, Gila RiverCasino, Madilenia Baker, Sky UteCasino, Shane Johnston, MarquetteOjibwa Casino, Lawrence Budreau,Ojibwa Casino Resort, RubenRubalcava, Charles Carver,Robinson Rancheria Bingo & Ca-sino.

George Hoehne, product man-ager for Coin Mechanisms, Inc.,demonstrates the use of theirdiagnostic software .

Advanced Electronic Systems’ JackieWallenburg shows off MEI’s newCashFlow SC66 at TechFest 3. Attend-ees were treated to a sneak-peak at thenew device. AESI was the sponsor ofTechFest 3 and represents MEI as wellas Kortek monitors, Seiko printers,Starpoint (reels, buttons andothercontrols) and a host of other prod-ucts. Visit their website atgamingstuff.com.

Ceronix engineer RamiroLimon presents a vast arrayof troubleshooting tricksfor Ceronix monitors. Thisseminar was worth itsweight in gold (what doesa seminar weigh, anyway?).

MEI's Steve Marsh provides attendeeswith an in-depth look at the ZT1200 billvalidator. A closed-circuit video cameraprovided close-ups of the details whileSteve discussed maintenence and re-pair.

Slot Tech Magazine salutes AdvancedElectronic Systems, Inc. and thanks themfor their sponsorship of TechFest 3

Page 15Slot Tech Magazine October, 2002


Slot Tech Event

Editors note: Slot TechMagazine's special focusis not on the games

themselves but rather on thetechnology that goes into mak-ing them the sophisticated,state-of-the-art machines thatthey are today. In that regard,you will not see reviews of thehundreds of new games dis-played at the Global GamingExpo. I'll leave that up to themy fellow trade journalists atmagazines like InterGaming,Global Gaming Business,Gaming Products & Services,Indian Gaming Magazine andthe flock of publications fromGem Communications. Theseare all fine magazines and Iencourage you all to subscribeto them. Here, then, is a quicksnapshot of what I found at theshow that makes things tick.- ed

With 616 exhib-iting companiesand 8,183 at-tendees visitingthe Las VegasConvention Cen-ter on its first of-ficial day, GlobalGaming Expo(G2E) show man-agers reported asuccessful grandopening for theleading tradeevent for theworldwide gam-ing community.Organized by the AmericanGaming Association (AGA) andReed Exhibitions, G2E hostedthe dynamic gaming industryduring its exhibition held Sep-tember 17-19, 2002.

In just two years since theevent’s inception, the G2E ex-hibition floor has expandedfrom 375 companies compris-ing 133,330 square feet lastyear to 616 exhibits encom-passing 190,400 square feet.Preliminary figures indicateday one attendance at 8,183,compared to 5,996 on openingday at the event’s launch inOctober 2001. As the doors tothe exhibit hall opened, thou-sands of gaming industry buy-ers from commercial casinos,Native American casinos andother gaming venues fromaround the world converged onthe booths of hundreds of sup-pliers including all leadinggaming manufacturers.

“G2E’s aisles were completelypacked, and crowds fillednearly all of today’s conference

Global Gaming Expo

Christopher Shol and Marlene Schadeof Durel Corporation show off theirgiant electroluminescent panel, free-standing sign.

Sencore's Don Multerer proudly shows someof their test equipment to Black Hawk Casino'sslot floor supervisor, Jason Czito.

New Event Sees Tremendous Growth In Just Two Years

One company in all the world standsout with the most experience inthe field of providing PCB systemsfor slot machines. A fixture at theLondon show for donkey's years,Heber's Derek Russan and RichardPlacito demonstrated some of theirremarkable systems.

The most gregarious couple inthe gaming industry, monitormavin Don Whitaker and his wifeKay are caught in the act of crack-ing up at the Ceronix booth.

Wells-Gardner's Vice President of Sales (and mylongtime buddy) Marty Glazman poses next totheir latest digital monitor with sales administratorKimberly Slowik

sessions,” said Frank J.Fahrenkopf, Jr., president andCEO, American Gaming Asso-ciation. “As gaming continuesits expansion as a leading formof entertainment, so does theneed for a premier venue thatsupports buying and selling ac-tivity for the industry. Judg-

ing by the number of partici-pants here today on both buyand supply sides, an event likeG2E is critical for all gamingprofessionals.”

Show managers also note thatpreliminary pre-registrationreports prior to the show indi-

cated that 16% of pre-regis-trants are internationals,while 45% of the remaining84% of the domestic pre-reg-istrants reside in regions fromoutside the greater Nevadaarea.

Every slot machine needs a base. Sky Ute slottechnician Madilenia Baker pauses at the GreatAmerican Base Company with el jeffe, slot technicalmanager Jim Blosser. On the left is marketing direc-tor William Knoll. That's designer Jason Radziszewskion the right.

Slot Tech Magazine October, 2002Page 18

Leading the way at theStarpoint stand at thisyear’s G2E were the

12RMS reel mechanism andthe SEC (Starpoint ElectronicCounter) - two very differentproducts with the shared aimof improving slot machinesecurity. Completely new for2002 were the additions tothe Series 2 and LED pushbutton ranges.

12RMS reel mechanism

Based on well-proven tech-nology, the Starpoint 12RMSreel mechanism has beendesigned to protect slot ma-chines against tamperingand attempts to defraud. Itincludes a printed band thatutilizes fine position sensingtechnology to quickly detectany movement of the reel byexternal forces.

Starpoint Electronic Counter

Also offering improved secu-rity for the slot floor is theStarpoint Electronic Counter(SEC) which links directlyinto the machine electronicsto give tamperproof recordsof coin-in and coin-out func-tions. The SEC is able to pro-vide read-outs from up to 31memory areas with indi-vidual counters stored inEPROM, so a single SEC unitcan replace multiple me-chanical meters. Text mes-sages and numerical dataare displayed via the unit’sseven digit LCD, with fullprogrammability from thehost machine.

A unique finger print codeallows the machine to detectany meter changes and toprevent operation if themeter is not present. TheSEC has a clock serial inter-face designed to work on ex-isting meter ports for ease ofintegration in both new ma-chines and for retrofit. By uti-lizing the latest solid-statetechnology, the SEC avoidsthe reliability problems andservice call-outs which canbe experienced with me-chanical counting devices.

NEW!

Fast-fit connector for pushbuttons New to the Series 2push button range is theOne Piece Connector (devel-oped in conjunction with

AGI) - a “fast-fix” option inwhich all spade terminalsare housed in a singlemolded connector head. Thismakes fitting of the pushbutton a one-fix operationand, as the number of con-nections is 75% less than fora traditional push button,the assembly times for themachine can be reduced sig-nificantly. In addition, asthere is only one way ofmaking the connection, theassembly will be “right firsttime” without the risk of re-work in the factory or inac-curate refitting when themachine is in operation.

This brings the number ofpush button connector op-tions to three: traditionalspade connector, Starpoint’s

Starpoint at G2ESlot Tech Company Feature

Starpointmanufactures a unique line of controls, reels and othermechanisms. Starpoint's Colin Crossman and production managerKarl Roberts were on hand to answer questions about the units.

AT Connector or the new OnePiece Connector. As the frontbezel dimensions of the Se-ries 2 push button remainexactly the same, the OnePiece Connector can be usedfor both new builds and forretrofitting within existingcabinets (subject to the ap-propriate loom design andswitch/lampholder).

LED Starpoint also exhibitedits range of LED (light emit-ting diode) push buttons. Anewly-launched push buttonvariant is the larger rectan-gular push button developed

JCM Toasts 1,000,000th Bill Validator

in response to demand fromdesigners of casino-stylemachines. Since theirlaunch in 2000, LED illumi-nated push buttons have be-come a popular option withmachine designers andmanufacturers due to theiralmost infinite reliability. Theuse of solid-state technologyeliminates the need tochange bulbs once the ma-chine is in operation, remov-ing the costs of service andmaintenance, as well as ex-tending the push button’suseful life.

Always firm favorites on thecasino slot floor, Starpoint’srange of game devices werealso on show, including theinternationally recognizedtumbling dice products anddisc range.

Starpoint exhibited along-side PAL, the distributor ofthe Starpoint range in theUSA. More information fromColin Crossman at Starpoint:Tel: (44) 208 391 7700Fax: (44) 208 391 7760Email:[email protected]

JCM sponsored the new products show-case at G2E, where showgoers could browsea selection of new products from variousmanufacturers.

Slot Tech Magazine October, 2002 Page 19

In the 1990’s JCM introduced theside-mount bill acceptors into thegaming industry. Years later, theyintroduced the gaming industry tothe embedded bill acceptor.

“In our own way, we believe that we havehelped revolutionize the slot industry and haverevolutionized slot play,” said JCM spokesmanTom Nugent. “In fact, with the introduction ofa bill validator into the gaming device, manyproperties have increased their drop by overeighty percent.”

“We are pleased to announce this week thatJCM has shipped over a million bill validatorsinto the North American gaming environment,”continued Nugent.

JCM calculates that the value of the currencythat has passed through their bill validatorsnow exceeds 150 trillion dollars.

“JCM is just getting started,” concludedNugent.


TransAct TechnologiesIncorporated an-nounced the industry’s

first casino thermal printerwith extended memory at therecently held Global GamingExpo in Las Vegas. With itsnew memory option,TransAct’s Ithaca® brandModel 850 printer will fea-ture 128K in storage space,which will allow casinos tohave up to ten full ticket-sized coupons embedded inthe memory of the printer.More than ten coupons canbe stored by using smallerimages. The Ithaca Model850 thermal printer designedfor cashless gaming, was in-troduced in 2001.

Bart C. Shuldman, Chair-man, CEO and President ofTransAct Technologies, said,“Our Ithaca Model 850 casinothermal printer with the newextended memory feature isa very compelling offering forany casino operator. By le-veraging the use of the printerin the slot machine, the casi-nos can offer coupons andpromotional tickets to rewardfrequent slot players and toattract new ones. The ex-tended memory will providecasinos, slot machine manu-facturers and slot systemsproviders with capacity for tendifferent types of coupon/pro-motional offers for storage in

the printer, giving them theincreased flexibility theyneed to provide more effec-tive targeted offers.”

The new printer provides theadvantage of downloadingand storing promotional im-ages to the printer’s non-vola-tile memory. Once supportedby the host system, imagesstored in this way can quicklyand easily be up-dated and re-freshed to keepcurrent withchanging resortevents and promo-tions. The ex-tended memoryoption will be avail-able for units pro-duced beginningin January 2003.

“Coinless slot ma-chines are the waveof the future ingaming. When de-signing the Series800, we addressedall of the industry’sdemands, includ-ing ticket jam-ming, regulatorycompliance, accu-racy and down-time,” said Shuldman.“The Ithaca Model850 configuredwith the extendedmemory affords ca-

sinos the extra flexibility tocustomize and deliver a widerange of personalized mes-sages,” he continued.

Tickets taken prematurely isa leading cause of ticket er-rors in casinos. The IthacaModel 850, as well as theother models in the 800 se-ries, print so quickly - 5ips -that players literally do not

128K Memory Gives CasinosMore Promotional Power

Slot Tech Product Feature TransAct Announces Industry's First CasinoThermal Printer With Extended Memory

On the show floor at the Global Gaming Expoare Andrew J.Reason, vice president, EMEAsales (UK), Dennis Salmela, senior technicalsupport technician, and Jim Stetson, execu-tive vice president, sales & marketing. I had achance to work with Dennis at a sort of "Mini-TechFest" in Billings, Montana recently,where he gave a nice presentation on printerrepair. The Ithaca printer is popular in thatpart of the country.

have time to take the ticketbefore it is printed. Theseprinters deliver high quality,sharp vertical and horizontalthermal printing of text, bar-codes, graphics and lines, andprints onto “dollar bill” sizedtickets, which are compatiblewith bill acceptors.

The Series 800 printers fea-ture a conveniently designedpull-up release, which pro-vides casino operators witheasy access to the printheadand the straight, open paperpath. This improves reliabil-ity and eliminates downtime.The compact design of theprinters allows them to fitinto every style and size slotmachine.

For further information, visitTransAct’s web site located atwww.transact-tech.com.

Slot Tech Magazine October, 2002

MEI's Neil Young demonstrates their new CashflowSC66 technology to the competition, Tom Stroyek,regional general manager for rival bill validator com-pany, Global Payment Technologies.

Page 22

Entropy manufactures a variety of pe-ripheral devices. At G2E they were spe-cializing in LCD flat panel displays. That'sFred Kesselman on the left, SeraPeconio, and Entropy president, Jeff Blair.

Happ Controls is always a "Happ"ening placeat trade shows like G2E. Their wide-openbooth gave technicians and engineers a chanceto get all "touchy-feely" with hundreds of prod-ucts and replacement components.

Richard Farrah's Vegas-Based team at electroniccomponent supplier Kiesub Electronics.

WICO

Slot Tech Event

Snaps from G2E

Phil Cochran of Brown Manufacturing shows offtheir slot base, featuring replaceable panels


Arthur Wu of Neo Tec monitors

A familiar name in monitors that maybe new to many in gaming, Pentranic'sVP John Cierpik stops for a quick snap-shot with Technical Manager HarryClarke.

Noritake's Sadanobu "Tommy" Hisatomi andMotohisa "Moto" Isaka showed their interestingline of display products.

Advanced Electronic Systems, Inc. hosted thisswank affair at the top of the Mandalay Bay Resortand Casino in cooperation with Seiko, MEI andKortek.

Kobetron


Slot Tech Feature C-C-Cold Cathode LightsThe Way To Brighter Slots

Miniature cold cath-ode fluorescentlamps (CCFL) are

the preferred solution for il-luminating large display ar-eas, backlighting liquid crys-tal displays, or satisfying ex-tremely long life expectancyrequirements. They are vi-bration and shock resistant,offer variable levels of bright-ness, and are very energy ef-ficient with low power con-sumption. The relative new-ness of miniature fluorescentlamps has resulted in a lackof industry standard sizesand electrical specifications.The careful designer mustobtain complete performancespecifications on both thelamp and inverter to cor-rectly determine critical fac-tors affecting brightness,heat, light uniformity, spec-tral output and the batterylife of the host device.

Cold cathode lamps enjoythe broadest applicationrange among the variousminiature fluorescent lamp

types and con-figurations of-fered by JKL,and are avail-able in thegreatest varietyof diameters andlengths.

Measuring from just 1/8”(3mm) in diameter, inlengths ranging from 1”to15” (25mm to 360mm), theseversatile lamps have a typi-cal life expectancy of 20,000hours at design currentdrive. A very low heat gen-eration of only 10 to 15 de-grees C above ambient, com-bined with very stable elec-trical and optical character-istics, makes miniature fluo-rescent lamps an idealchoice for a variety of appli-cations. These range fromsolar powered exterior light-ing and backlighting vendingmachine product displays touniform illumination oflaptop computer screens.

How They Work

All cold cathode fluorescentlamps operate on AC. Theyare low-pressure dischargelamps, filled with a noble gas(typically argon) and a smallamount of mercury in aphosphorous-coated tube.By changing the phosphorcoating inside the lamp, abroad range of colors, as wellas true ultraviolet, can beproduced.

It is important to note thatsome environmental pro-grams prohibit use of com-ponents containing mercury,which could affect usingCCFL lamps.

These lamps often operate athigh voltages. Because theyare often used in applica-tions that are DC dominant,they must be equipped witha DC to AC inverter, commer-cially available in 6, 12 and24 Volts DC and often cost-ing as much or more than thelight source itself. In highvolume applications, invert-ers should be incorporateddirectly into the PC board,reducing cost and permittingthe energizing of multiplelamps.

Design Trade-Offs

Operating a CCFL lamp onDC current causes the mer-cury to begin depositing onto an electrode within thebulb, creating a loss of avail-able mercury vapor, a dark-ening at the lamp ends andan overall reduction inbrightness.

Teeny-weenie inverters powersmall, cold cathode lamps


Most inverters which powerthese lamps operate at veryhigh frequencies to assureuniform light output over theentire length of the lamp.This may cause problemswith other electronic circuitsin close proximity. Electro-magnetic interference cre-ated by inverters can be eas-ily solved with appropriateEMI shielding.

Equally important, correctlymatching of lamp and in-verter is critical in achievingmaximum efficiency. Not us-ing the correct inverter dras-tically reduces lamp life, af-fects start-up and impairs thesteady output of light. Thiscan also affect battery endur-ance and the useful operat-ing time of portable electron-ics and computers.

Understanding Lamp Life

The lifetime rating for a min-iature fluorescent lamp isdefined as “the point atwhich a lamp’s initial emit-ted brightness or uniformityis reduced by 50%.” Bright-ness can be enhanced by in-creasing (over-driving) lampcurrent, butwill result in re-duced lamp lifeand increasedoperating tem-p e r a t u r e .O v e r d r i v i n gseldom resultsin catastrophiclamp failure,but does causenoticeable deg-radation inoutput.

CCFL lampstypically oper-ate from 300 to800VAC, de-

pending on lamp length. Thisis much higher than otherlight sources, but overallpower consumption is muchlower.

Lamp Operating Temperatures

The optimum ambient tem-perature range for CCFL ef-ficiency and brightness is 25to 40?C. Operating tempera-ture is extremely important.The colder the temperature,the lower the brightness andthe greater the voltage re-quirement to turn on thelamp.

These lamps can operate attemperatures from 5 to 50degrees C, but performanceis drastically affected at bothends of this range. Heatersmay be used in extremelycold applications, but re-member that light output istemperature dependant andCCFL lamps are more suit-able for moderate operatingenvironments.

Page 25

Customer Service Manager Donald Sonntag of JKL (Pacoima, CA)demonstrated a variety of interesting new lamp products, includingsome remarkable cold cathode mineature lamps and teeny-tiny, itty-bitty inverters.

Cold cathode lamps were also shown by CI Innova-tions, Inc. (Yorba Linda, CA) Harry Iverson is shownholding their nifty replacement tube for reel slotillumination, replacing the old, hot cathodeflourescents. That's Jacob Cole on the right.

Page 26Page 28

Section 4a.Power Supplies

There are few, if any, com-parisons between different AWP manufacturers’

power supplies. In fact, largedifferences will be foundwithin the range of any onemanufacturer as power re-quirements have increasedover the years with morelamps or features, moresound effects, more reels andso on. Because of the exten-sive range that will be found,I will cover only those that aremost common, showing thetypes of problems that ariseand help identify the cause.

Section 4b. Voltages Found.

Before proceeding, it wantsstating that not all the follow-ing voltages will be found onall power supplies. Variationsabound dependant upon therequirements of a particularmachine.

+5 volt: Required by nearlyall microprocessor boards tosupply the logic circuitry thatis the heart of the machine.Without this, nothing willoperate.

+12 volt: Again, used by theMPU circuitry. Also commonlythe validator supply, reel step-per motor supply and soundamplification. It is sometimesused as a source for the +5volt where the +12 volt isdropped and regulated on theMPU and there is no +5 voltdirect from the power supply.

50 volt AC or DC: Main supplyfor the operation of payoutsolenoids

34 - 48 volt: Used to drive themultiplexed lamps. Note thatthis is not the voltage that theactual bulbs operate at (thisis usually 12 volt) but due tothe configuration (a lamp“matrix” is used to drive alarge number of bulbs) this isthe initial supply voltage.

-5 or -12 volt: commonly usedfor dataport connection.

Other voltages and slight vari-ances other than those quotedare commonplace and theseare intended only as a guide.Closer examination of tech-nical manuals supplied witha specific machine will showexact requirements.

Fuse protection of individualcircuits will be found in allcases. The importance of us-ing the correct fuse cannot beover emphasised, particularlythe use of ‘Fast Blow’ and‘Anti-Surge’ fuses where rec-ommended. For example, the

50 volt AC circuit will oftenfound to be protected by a 5amp anti-surge fuse. Using afast blow as a substitutionwill usually result in the fusecontinually blowing withoutany apparent reason.

AC is “alternating current” -the same as found arriving atthe 13amp mains socketsused to supply all our elec-tricity requirements. For elec-tronic circuitry, this must beconverted by the use of di-odes to DC or “direct cur-rent.” Both types of currentare usually required in AWPs,the AC being used for fluo-rescent lighting, solenoidsand the main supply for thePSU. DC is used for all theelectronics and is the resultof what is known as “rectifica-tion.”

Use of a digital multimeter isa necessity when attemptingto repair these units. Thereare many inexpensive metersavailable complete with in-structions, the only criteriabeing that you know how tocheck voltages. A meter thathas a “diode test” facility isvery important.What follows is a more de-tailed description along withcommon faults of individualpower supplies that you maycome across.

Section 4c. Barcrest MPU4

Probably the most straight

Slot Tech Feature Article A Plumber's Guideto Fruit Machines - Part 7

By Gordon Lowe


forward of PSU (abbreviationfor power supply unit) The 50volt AC is obtained direct fromthe transformer, a 7.5 ampanti-surge fuse protects theTx (another abbreviationfound on circuit diagrams,meaning transformer) noproblems here.

12 volt DC is obtained via abridge rectifier identified asDB2. This component willoccasionally fail, going shortcircuit internally. It will showup as the fuse on this circuitblowing immediately on con-nection of the mains supply,even without the PSU beingconnected up to the hostmachine.

The output from this goes toa smoothing capacitor, C2.This is the most common de-vice to fail on this unit, result-ing in the machine failing toreset among other faults.Easily identified as requiringreplacement by examiningthe plastic wrapping encas-ing it. If it has shrunk back orthe plastic on the end hasbubbled up, replace it.

The 34 volt lamp supply is fedfrom DB1 and capacitor C1,with exactly the same compo-nent failure comments asmade for the 12 volt apply.Faults will show up on thelamps display in this case.

Section 4d. Project procon(r)& procon plus(r) Similar indesign to the Barcrest PSUwith component failure fol-lowing the same lines, al-though capacitor failure isnot so obvious. One peculiar-ity I have found with this par-ticular power supply, a faultycapacitor C3 can result in thehost machine robbing coins,

Slot Tech Magazine


that is to say it will accept thecoins but will not give anycredit.

Section 4e. JPM MPS1 &MPS2

Found on a wide range ofolder AWPs, this unit wasproduced with variationsknown as red label, blue la-bel, orange label and yellowlabel. Differing in internaldesign, these are all compat-ible with one exception: theearliest version (red label) isunsuitable for later machines.

Probably the most commonfailure will be the 5 volt sup-ply. First of all, try shortingout the trimmer. A short pieceof linking wire will do. Thissimple trick will cure 90% offaults on the 5 volt line. Youcan replace the trimmer ifyou feel so inclined, but it isnot necessary. If this does notcure the fault, try changingthe LM723 voltage regulator,IC1.

All comments made about the5 volt supply on this unit alsoapply with the 12 volt line,the voltage regulator in thiscase being IC2, again a LM723device.

A note worth making, on theyellow & orange versions, donot forget to check the inter-nal fuses that will not be seenuntil the unit is dismantledfor repair.

Section 4f. Maygay (older ver-sions)

The older versions were notreally up to the job whenmachine conversions wereinvolved. This can be improvedby adding a second power

supply (one of the universalswitched mode type readilyavailable) and wiring the 5volt output from this in paral-lel with the existing 5 volt onthe Maygay.

A common fault, capacitor C7(value 33,000uf 16 volt) cancause reel bounce, wherebythe reels do not stop in theircorrect position cleanly.Other reel problems can alsoquite often be blamed on thiscapacitor being faulty.

Section 4g. Electrocoin

The “Switched Mode” powersupply found fitted internallyis the most likely part to fail,resulting in the machine re-setting or erratic operation.The subject of SMPS repairwas covered in the Februaryand March, 2002 issues ofSlot Tech Magazine. Note: itwill be found on some unitsthat when fitting one of theswitched modes obtainedfrom one of the named sup-pliers, that the minus 12 voltis absent. Unless the hostmachine is operating with a‘Data Retrieval Unit’ (whichrequires this voltage) then theloss of this supply will in noway affect the machine’s op-eration.

Section 4h. Ace - SystemSP.ACE

Although it is what I wouldconsider to be a reliable unit,failure of the voltage regula-tors and transistors does oc-cur. This can easily be veri-fied by the use of the multim-eter. The right hand connec-tion should be a stable volt-age. For example, a 7812device should meter at 12

volt, a 7805 at 5 volt, and a7912 at minus 12 volt.

Should this not be the case,then verify the input voltageto the device. This should behigher than the requiredoutput. For example, a 7812would require a voltage ofbetween 15 and 24 volts onthe input. If the input is cor-rect and the output is not,change it.

Summary All the power sup-plies listed above are from theless recent of machines, andare the ones most likely to failfor the reasons stated. It is tothe manufacturers’ credit thatequipment now leaving theproduction lines have a muchhigher degree of reliability inthis area.

A faulty power supply can bethe direct cause of faultsthroughout a machine, fromreels to lighting, from coinacceptance to coin payout. Ifin doubt try a known workingPSU in the faulty machine.Do not fit a suspect PSU intogood machine. If the PSU isgiving out an excessive volt-age for some reason, damagecan be caused to the micro-processor unit, not so easilyrepaired.

It is not within the scope ofthis article to detail everypower supply available, butfrom the information I havegiven above, it is hoped aninsight into the basic opera-tion and repair of these unitshas been given. Once again Iwould reiterate, if in doubt,give the manufacturer aphone call and ask for techni-cal advise.

- Gordon Lowe [email protected]

Page 28Slot Tech Magazine October, 2002

Slot Tech World BeatInternational ViewBy Martin Dempsey

Red Hits OutWith Its Best Shot

Red Gaming is delighted toannounce the launch of itslatest £25 AWP - Big Shot.Designed for arcades, LBOsand single sites, Big Shot isthe latest concept from RedGaming, designed with a fair-ground flavour which incor-porates new and exciting fea-tures, such as Cashpot, hid-den bonuses and other at-tractions.

Steve Wooding, Director ofSales at Red Gaming com-ments: “Our in-house devel-opment team has worked hardto create a game full of in-trigue and with the ability tohold players’ fascination. BigShot has received positivefeedback during testing andwe are confident it will be aBIG success!”

Big Shot is presented in theaubergine New Genesis cabi-net and will be shown at Pre-view by Red Gaming on theCrown and Deith stands. Forfurther information pleasecontact Clare McMillan / SamDrakeford @ MediaWorks.Tel: + 44 (0)113 234 5600.Fax: + 44 (0)113 234 5601.Email:[email protected]

Comar Purchases100% IGT For Spain

The Spanish casino operator,Comar, has reinforced itscommitment to purchase100% IGT machines with arecent order for machines tobe installed throughoutSpain.

Six of Comar’s operations -Casino Atlántico, CasinoSardinero, Casino deSalamanca, Casino Bahía deCádiz, Casino León, and Ca-sino Zaragoza - have installedrecently approved iGame-Plus’ game themes LittleGreen Men, Double Dia-mond 2000 andLeopard Spots.

Spain’s large videopoker playing pub-lic will enjoy moreof their favouriteTriple Play DrawPoker machines,as a full 50% of theorder was devotedto satisfying thismarket segment.The popular multi-hand, multi-gamemachine featuresthree poker hands per gameand a wide selection of thegames poker players demand.

Comar, already the largestcasino group in Spain with

10 licenses, started out in thelate ’70s as an AWP operator,then moved on to open itsfirst casino in 1987. But bigthings were in Comar’s fu-ture, and this year alone, itopened Casino Zaragoza,Casino de Leon and Casinode Salamanca.

For further information con-tact Karen Thompson. Phone+31 23 568 7100.Email

[email protected]

Maygay Clued-Up WithInteractive Voice Game

Maygay is shortly due tounveil its first interac-tive voice SWP game, ina tie-up with games gi-ant Hasbro and speechrecognition specialistsEckoh Technologies.This initial product isbased upon the classicmurder mystery board

game, Cluedo, and featuresthe distinctive voice of ‘Doc-tor Who’ actor Tom Baker.

Eckoh Technologies, whoseclients include Centrica, Car-toon Network and Virgin


Here’s a troubleshooting tip that can be areal timesaver. In

general, the output of oneintegrated circuit will be con-nected to the inputs of anumber of other ICs. Thiscommon connection betweencircuits is called a “node.”One of the most common ICfailures is a shorted input oroutput. The input or outputshorts almost directly toground, bringing anythingconnected to it down to alogic low or, in some cases,dragging logic levels downinto the gray area. Theshorted input or output pre-vents that node from everachieving a logic high.

It’s generally pretty easy tofind the shorted node. It willbe stuck low or you will see

it attempt to toggle from lowto high but it never achievesa full “high.” Instead, ittoggles from a low to the grayarea or from a low to a levelthat doesn’t even exceed .8volt, the upper threshold fora legitimate “low” logic level.

But how can you tell whichIC is actually bad? All of theIC pins connected to the badnode will have identical sig-nals on them when exam-ined with an oscilloscope orlogic probe. Likewise, if youtry to use an ohmmeter tofind the short, all pins onthat node will show the ex-act same short circuit.

Many technicians use a tech-nique called “clip & lift” topinpoint the cause of theshorted node. First, the out-

put pin is cut or unsoldered(in the case of a surface-mount device or SMD) andlifted slightly off the surfaceof the printed circuit board.This isolates the output ICfrom all the inputs that it’sdriving. If the output pin nowtests good (goes to a logichigh when it’s supposed to)the problem lies in one of theother ICs on the shortednode. Each input pin on thenode is then isolated one ata time until the shorted in-put is located. The short canbe verified, power-off, with adigital multimeter. Once thebad IC has been replaced,the lifted pins are pushedback down and soldered tothe PCB.

Even if you’re armed with aschematic diagram, locating

Slot Tech Electronics 101 Introduction toDigital Electronics

Part3

Mobile, has developed andwill host the game which isentitled “Cluedo On thePhone”. Eckoh is also respon-sible for placing the productwith both mobile and fixedline telecom operators.Maygay has provided ques-tion formulation services, sta-tistical software support andgame testing, and income isderived through revenuesharing with the other part-ners. In keeping with tradi-tional SWP games, “Cluedo

On thePhone” willoperate on30% payout,

with players enjoying a one-in-eight chance of an instantwin.

This is the first step for us ina series of games, and thefuture really is bright, andthe future really is pay-to-play prize games across mul-tiple platforms.” For furtherinformation, please contactNICK HARDY. Direct Tel: +441902 792 320.E-mail:[email protected]

Support your slot techsby subscribing to SlotTech Magazine

visit the website atslot-techs.com


and isolating all the pins ona node can be a time-con-suming process. Without aschematic, it can be veryfrustrating as well, followingtraces all over the board inan effort to track down theshorted chip. In a multi-layerPCB, it’s damned-near im-possible to do without spendhuge amounts of time on theproject.

I discovered this trick by ac-cident as I was trying to de-velop a fast way to find asingle shorted IC on a com-mon node, without having tohave a detailed knowledge ofdigital electronics. My origi-nal idea was to inject a DCvoltage into the shorted nodeat one end of the PCB anduse a digital multimeter tomeasure tiny differences involtage at each pin on thenode. I was going to usesomething known as “IRDrop” to locate the short. IRDrop is a part of Ohm’s Lawthat states that the voltagedrop in a circuit is equal tothe current, multiplied bythe resistance. I was going todepend on the printed cir-cuit traces themselves to pro-vide the resistance, and theenormous current (due tothe shorted node) to providea decent voltage drop. Thelowest voltage was to have in-dicated the location of theshorted pin.

I used a 6-volt battery as myDC source. To limit the cur-rent, I used a 10-ohm, 5-wattresistor in series with thebattery. I prefer to use a bat-tery for this test because it

has a limited output currentand it’s a completely isolatedsource. However, I have nodoubt that the +5 volt out-put of a power supply wouldwork fine as well.

I found the bad IC all right,but not by measuring thevoltage as planned. I foundthe bad IC because thedamned thing nearly burnedmy hand when I touched it.It was hot, Hot, HOT! Sincecurrent will only flowthrough the short and notthrough any other connec-tion on the node, the otherintegrated circuits will re-main cold. Only the bad chipwill get hot.

Connect the battery asshown in the illustration.

Radio Shack has some clipleads that will enable you toconnect directly to one of thepins on the shorted node.Since we’re not really goingto measure the IR Drop, itdoes not matter to which pinyou connect. Any pin on theshorted node will do nicely.Remember, only the shortedpin will actually draw currentand get hot.

It’s a pretty cool trick thatyou may not have to use of-ten but when you need tofind a single shorted node,it can be a real timesaver.

- Slot Tech Magazine

To locate the bad integrated circuit, connect the six-volt battery asshown. Connect the negative terminal of the battery to any convenientground (such as a ground test point) and connect the positive terminalof the battery through a 10 ΩΩΩΩΩ, 5 watt resistor to one of the IC pins on theshorted node. Use your finger to feel each chip that shares the common,shorted node (or all the chips on the PCB, for that matter). The IC withthe shorted node will get hot to the touch while the others remain cool.


Slot Tech Monitor Repair

Some capacitors cancause really weirdsymptoms when they

fail in a video slot monitor.This is the story of one suchcapacitor; the story of Philthe Filter Capacitor.

Life’s not easy for Phil. Helives in Monitorville, in oneof the apartments at the Ras-ter Scan housing complex.All of the structures at Ras-ter Scan are pretty much thesame, although each wasbuilt by a different manufac-turer. Ceronix House sitsnext to the Wells-GardnerApartments. Just down thestreet, stands PentranicPlace. The KortekKondominiums share a blockwith Neo-Tec Village and theTatung Towers.

At one time or another, Philhas lived in each of theseplaces only to find himselfstuck living next door to thenoisiest neighbor inMonitorville: Spike, thedrummer for a heavy metalband called the HorizontalOutput Transistor.

Poor Phil! When the Horizon-tal Output Transistor plays,Spike pounds out a steadybeat, thousands of timeseach second. Some call itmusic but to Phil, it’s justnoise. In a song called “Su-per-VGA” the beat goes on atover 35kHz!

The noise generatedby the HorizontalOutput Transistorwhacks against poorPhil and, becausehis feet are solderedto the floor of hisapartment, he’sforced to absorb it.Eventually, Phil theFilter Capacitor goesdeaf and loses hisability to absorb thenoise. Without Phil,the noise thenspreads to the restof Monitorville andthe entire complexis affected.

Voltage Spikes

Okay, here’s the real deal.The main power supply in amonitor is around +77 to+136 volts DC (depending onthe manufacturer andmodel). The really hip andcool technicians refer to thisas the B+. The noise gener-ated by the horizontal out-put transistor (and the restof the horizontal output cir-cuit in a monitor) takes theform of huge voltage spikesthat can easily reach +160volts or more. Since the hori-zontal output stage of amonitor is directly poweredby the B+, these voltagespikes will travel along withthe B+ to other circuits andcan really mess up the moni-tor!

This is where Phil the FilterCapacitor comes in. Phil’s jobis to filter out the voltagespikes to prevent them fromaffecting the rest of the moni-tor circuits. A filter capacitordoes this by absorbing thespikes, passing them toground. A capacitor with thisfunction is also known as abypass capacitor.

Phil the Filter CapacitorThe Story of an Electrolytic Gone Bad

One symptom of this capacitor going badcan be black or dark areas on the screen.These generally take the form of ragged,unstable vertical bars (jail bars) that willusually appear at the left edge of thescreen. They often will appear most pro-nounced at the far left edge of the screenand will fade to invisibility toward the rightedge of the screen where the picture willappear perfectly normal.


When this capacitor fails, thevoltage spikes are delivered,full force, to the rest of themonitor circuits, includingthe video circuits. The symp-toms will vary between moni-tors but there are some com-mon things to look for.

One symptom of this capaci-tor going bad can be blackor dark areas on the screen.These generally take theform of ragged, unstable ver-tical bars (jail bars) that willusually appear at the leftedge of the screen. They of-ten will appear most pro-nounced at the far left edgeof the screen and will fade toinvisibility toward the rightedge of the screen where thepicture will appear perfectlynormal.

Another symptom may be animage that looks dim, as ifthe CRT is beginning to wearout or needs rejuvenation. Inother cases, the monitor willshut down completely. Inthis case, the huge voltagespike actually trips themonitor’s x-ray protector cir-cuit. When the x-ray protec-tor circuit activates, it shutsdown the horizontal oscilla-tor circuit which, in turn,kills the horizontal outputand, of course, the high volt-age.

Phil can be identified on theschematic diagram prettyeasily once you know what tolook for. Find the horizontaloutput transistor on the sche-matic diagram. The collectorof the transistor will be con-nected to one end of a wind-

ing (the primary winding) onthe flyback transformer. Theother end of the winding (thefar end, NOT the tap in themiddle of the winding) is con-nected to the B+. Trace thisB+ wire back toward the powersupply. The first electrolyticcapacitor connected to thiswire will be Phil the FilterCapacitor. The value will beprobably be 47uf @ 160 VDCbut it may be in the range of22 – 100 uf. It is not necessaryto use the exact same value asa replacement. Any capacitorin this role can be replacedwith a 47uf or 100uf capaci-tor with a voltage rating of160 volts or higher.

As a kind of a bonus, thiscapacitor often looks visuallybad when it fails. The top ofthe capacitor may “dome” orthe plastic shrink-wrap thatcovers the body of the capaci-tor may have shrunken back,exposing the entire top of thecapacitor. In some cases, therubber plug in the bottom ofthe capacitor may be bulg-ing out. This, of course, isoften difficult to see unlessyou unsolder and remove thecapacitor. At that point, it willbecome obvious. This capaci-tor is often, though not al-ways, located near theflyback transformer.

This capacitor should be re-placed with a high quality,high temperature (105 de-gree) low-ESR capacitor forlongest life expectancy. Ifyou’re lookin’ for job security,use a cheap, 85-degree ca-pacitor as a replacement andit’ll be back on the benchagain in six months.

- Slot Tech MagazineIn this example taken from a Kortek monitor, Philthe Filter Capacitor is C408. When this capacitorfails, it can cause a dim picture or no picture at all

BE A BETTER SLOT TECHBE A BETTER SLOT TECHBE A BETTER SLOT TECHBE A BETTER SLOT TECHBE A BETTER SLOT TECHCome and spend 3 daysat TechFest. With engi-neering and technicalrepresentatives on handfrom the gamingindustry’s leading sup-pliers of touchscreens,bill validators, coincomparitors, hoppers

Visit the website at slot-techs.comfor more information Space is limited

Register today!

TTTTTechFechFechFechFechFest 4 - Mille Lest 4 - Mille Lest 4 - Mille Lest 4 - Mille Lest 4 - Mille Lacs, MN - October 22, 23, 24 2002acs, MN - October 22, 23, 24 2002acs, MN - October 22, 23, 24 2002acs, MN - October 22, 23, 24 2002acs, MN - October 22, 23, 24 2002Slot Tech Magazine’sSlot Tech Magazine’sSlot Tech Magazine’sSlot Tech Magazine’sSlot Tech Magazine’s

Make plans today to join the gaming industry’s top engineers, technicians, technical writers and instructorsfor 3 days of technical seminars and presentations that will enhance your performance as a technician anddramatically increase your value to your employer.

TechFest 4 will be held October 22 -24, 2002 at the GrandCasino Mille Lacs in Onamia, Minnesota. Registration fee is$390.00 per person and includes lunch each day.

This is a technical presentation. The TechFest is geared forworking slot techs and technical managers who are looking fora way to make a dramatic improvement in their understandingof video slot monitors, touchscreens, bill validators, hoppersand more with no-nonsense technical presentations from:

Asahi Seiko - Coin Hoppers Coin Mechanisms, Inc. - Coin Comparitors Mars - Bill Validators 3M Touchsystems - Touchscreens Sencore - Test Equipment JCM Bill Validators

- PLUS - A special instructional series on video slotmonitor repair presented by Randy Fromm

and monitors, YOU havea chance to ask aboutYOUR problems. Youhave a chance to getREAL answers to yourquestions, face-to-facewith some of the mostqualified technical ex-perts in the industry.

TechFest is for slottechs of all skill levels,from novice techs whowant to learn the basicsof BV and hopper main-tenance to advancedtechs that need to brushup on monitor repair.

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2002

9:00 am - 12:00pmHow Monitors Work - Part 1Theory of Operation - Beginning level

1:15pm - 3:15pmAsahi Seiko - Hopper troubleshoot-ing and repair

3:30pm - 5:30pm3M Touchsystems - TouchscreenTechnology

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2002

9:00 am - 12:00pmHow Monitors Work - Part 2Narrow Down the Problem - Inter-mediate Level

1:15pm - 3:15pmMars Electronics, Inc. - BV trouble-shooting and repair

3:30pm - 5:30pmCoin Mechanisms, Inc. - CoinComparitor technology and repair

Thursday, October 24th, 2002

9:00 am - 12:00pmHow Monitors Work - Part 3Circuit Analysis and Component Level Trouble-shooting - Advanced Level

1:15pm - 3:15pmSencore - Monitor Troubleshooting and Re-pair - Using sophisticated test equipment tospeed through monitor repairs

3:30pm - 5:30pmJCM Bill Validator Troubleshootingand Repair

Schedule of EventsSchedule of EventsSchedule of EventsSchedule of EventsSchedule of Events

Subscriptions & Back IssuesWhy back issues of Slot Tech Magazine areimportant to own . . .

Slot Tech Magazine is strictly technical. As such, themagazine's contents are not time critical. The repairinformation and technical data contained in past issues isjust as valid today as it was the day it was published.

Additionally, current and future articles more-or-less as-sume that readers are already familiar with what has beencovered in past issues. This editorial policy assures that SlotTech Magazine's contributing writers are not limited to "writing down" to the level of anovice technician but are free to continue to produce the most comprehensive technicalarticles in the gaming industry.

Randy Fromm's

Slot Tech Magazine ispublished monthly by:Slot Tech Magazine1944 Falmouth Dr.El Cajon, CA 92020-2827tel.619.593.6131fax.619.593.6132e-mail [email protected]

Subscription rates:

Domestic (USA) 1 year - $60.00 2 years - $120.00

International 1 year - $120.00 2 years - $240.00

Company Name ______________________________________________________

Contact _____________________________________________________________

Address ____________________________________________________________

Address ____________________________________________________________

City _________________________ State/Prov. ___________________________

Country ______________________ Zip/Postal Code _______________________

Telephone ____________________ Fax __________________________________

E-mail ________________________

[ ] 1 year subscription, domestic[ ] 1 year subscription, foreign[ ] 2 year subscription, domestic[ ] 2 year subscription, foreign

Type of card: [ ] American Express [ ] Discover [ ] MasterCard [ ] VisaAccount Number: ________________________

Expiration Date: ________________________

Back IssuesAll single issues of SlotTech Magazine are $10.00/ea.For further details on thecontents of each issue,please refer to the websiteat slot-techs.com

c May, 2001c June, 2001c July, 2001c August, 2001c September, 2001c October, 2001c November, 2001c December, 2001

c January, 2002c February, 2002c March, 2002c April, 2002c May, 2002c June, 2002c July, 2002c August, 2002c September, 2002

Documents

Inside Slot Tech Magazine October, 2002slot-tech.com/members/magazine/lores/october02.pdf · clear chips in ¾Message CH P and CL P will appear, and then all lights flashing. Clearing