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September 2009Slot Tech Magazine

Randy Fromm's

Slot Tech Magazine

EditorRandy Fromm

Technical WritersVic Fortenbach, Kevin

Noble, Herschel Peeler, PatPorath, James Borg

Slot Tech Magazine is publishedmonthly bySlot Tech Magazine1944 Falmouth Dr.El Cajon, CA 92020-2827tel.619.593.6131 fax.619.593.6132e-mail [email protected] the website at slot-techs.com

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Copyright 2009 under the UniversalCopyright Convention. All rights re-served.

Slot Tech Maga-zine

September 2009

Inside Slot Tech Magazine

Page 4-EditorialPage 6-A Hole in OnePage 17-Kingbright Announces 3.5 x 3.5mm 0.5W SMD LEDsPage 18-Quick & Simple Repairs #53Page 24-EZ Pay Made EZPage 26-Slot Tech Training Advertisement

Slot Tech Magazine is anofficial publication of

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Printed back issues are available for only one year from the date ofpublication. All single issues of Slot Tech Magazine are $10.00/ea.For further details on the contents of each issue, please refer to thewebsite at slot-techs.com. To order, fax a PO or e-mail a note listingthe issues you need.Complete archive (2001 to present) available online. Visitslot-techs.com for details.

Dear Friends of Slot Tech Magazine,

I am sorry to have to report a great loss to the gaming industry’stechnical community. No, he’s not dead (yet) but Ted Befus hasmoved to the Saskatchewan telephone company. I had always lookedforward to reading Ted’s articles and I have learned a lot from read-ing about his experiences. Thanks, brother. Good luck to you.

On a happier note, congratulations to Kiesub Electronics havingbeen awarded the prestigious 2009 Green Award by the Las VegasBusiness Press in the category of“Best Green Product Practices”for their LED replacement panelsfor slot machines. These panelswere designed by Kiesub toreplace the incandescent andfluorescent bulbs in slot ma-chines with energy-efficientLEDs. Casinos are saving thou-sands of dollars each year inenergy costs by installing theseboards in their machines,reducing power consumption up to 80%. Way to go, Kiesub.

Malta’s James Borg has another interesting monitor repair for us.This time, it’s a marathon as he and his mate Mario, tackle a digitalmonitor with a cratered PCB and a host of other “issues.” This is agood example for those of you without a lot of monitor repair experi-ence, that sometimes you must be patient in your repairs. Theremay be numerous issues in the monitor AND/OR not all monitorscan be repaired simply by replacing bad electrolytic capacitors.

Finally, I have planned a five-day, regional Slot Tech training classfor the week of October 12-16 2009 at Mole Lake Casino in northernWisconsin. I have 13 spaces available for the class, first-come, first-served. See the website at slot-techs.com for details and an enroll-ment form or give me a call at 619.593.6131.

Slot Tech MagazineSeptember 2009


Slot Tech Feature Article

A Hole in OneBy James Borg

It was quite a long weekand the last thing youwant on a Friday, just

hours before you call it, isto be presented with amonitor which, by the looksof things, seems to haveeither caught fire or was onthe verge of doing so. It canbe pretty awkward workingyour way around crematedor carbonized parts andtracing the remains is noeasy task by far.

Fortunately enough, I had asimilar monitor at hand, aWells Gardner PD189300.That would at least assistme greatly to find outwhere the tracks were. Bythe looks of it, I think Imight be in need of someprayers to tackle this baby.

The area around the cre-mated section pointed toQ318 (IRF640) which wasright next to ZD301 (Z18B).Both of these componentswere destroyed.

A peek at the servicemanual gave me the follow-ing information about thispart of the circuit. Thecomponents involved arerelated to changes in the

resolution of the monitor.They are the “S-Correctioncapacitor switches.”

Editor’s note: The operationof this circuit was alsocovered in Slot TechMagazine’s eight-part series“Introduction to DigitalMonitors – Part 7” Septem-ber 2005.

Q316 is off when horizontalfrequency is 35KHz.Q316, Q317 are off whenhorizontal frequency is37KHz.Q316, Q318 are off whenhorizontal frequency is43KHz ~ 52KHz.

Q317, Q318 are off whenhorizontal frequency is53KHz ~ 61KHz.Q316, Q317, Q318 are offwhen horizontal frequencyis 62KHz ~ 70KHz.

Fig. 1 Cremated Tracks

Fig. 2 Top View of Q318 (about todrop off)


It’s not often I’m faced witha fault in this part of thiscircuitry, so I was lookingforward to tracing this withsome excitement (I wonderhow many others get theirexcitement like that). Vari-ety is, after all, the spice oflife and there are variousways to interpret that.

Having found the damagedarea on the schematic, itwas high time to pull outthe offending articles fromthe printed circuit board.That was going to be easiersaid that done, reasonbeing that the board, alongwith the component legsand the solder, had allbeen cooked nicely and thesolder would not flowenough to be sucked off thetracks. I’ll rephrase that,what’s remained of thetracks.

It was pretty awkward andpainful working on it so mymate, Mario, stepped in.Due to their state, Icouldn’t get the compo-nents out of the board buthe has ways of doingthings. Armed with a drilland with loads of patience,he’s considered a great ally.He’s also brilliant to discussfaults with when faced witha brick wall and no optionsleft to go for.

One of the problems thatcrops up when a printedcircuit board is carbonizedis that the carbon has to beremoved, the reason beingthat it’s conductive. It’squite a nuisance when thishappens to be in themiddle of a high voltagecircuit and I’ve experiencedmany strange faults arisingfrom such situations. Theeffect can be more appreci-

ated if the monitor isswitched on in a dark room.The smell isn’t all thatpleasant either.

With that nice gaping holepresent where before tracksused to be, was going toprove somewhat difficult toinsert the new IRF640. Theonly way to do it was to fitthe component somewheresafe, and have wires leadingto where it should havebeen on the print.

I have to admit that I don’tusually enjoy doing thissort of work but desperatesituations call for drasticactions and this was one ofthem.

It was time to do the deed.Will it go up in smokeagain? Will the whole thingexplode? Will we be wit-nesses to another hole

Fig 3. Q318 and ZD301 Circuit


being born? Will nothing happen? Willwe get the champagne out? So manyquestions…but the best way to answer allthose in one go would be to apply juice toit and hope for the best. Seconds alwaysseem like hours in such a situation butthank the stars that the high tensioncrackling built up nicely and the picturewas as it was hoped for. That was goodnews indeed as a burn on a printed circuitboard isn’t something healthy at all. Attimes it can be so bad that the wholeboard needs to be scrapped. This time,the board was lucky and so was I.

Everything was looking good, if not bril-liant so it was time to celebrate with adrink of iced tea and a smoke since wewere out of champagne. It’s great when ajob works out wonderfully and without waytoo much hassle. The best thing to do nowwas to leave the unit working happilyalone and carry on with something else,just in case it decides to fail (Shock. Hor-ror.).

My mate, Mario, on passing by after a fewminutes said “Hey, the picture’s gonewide. Did you touch it?”

I thought he was having me on so I didn’ttake a great deal of notice initially as I was‘busy’ watching “Back to the Future” andstill feeling good that the monitor wasrepaired but on going round to have alook…SHOCK HORROR! He wasn’t tellingporkies, the picture had indeed becomewide, too wide for comfort. I decided toturn it off for a few moments to see if it isheat related and take it from there.

A few moments later, the juice was appliedto it again and the picture was fine butonly for a couple of minutes at the most. Itstarted getting wider, slowly but surely.Crap! I turned it off again and let it cooldown one more time. On turning it backon, the same thing happened. It startedoff with a properly sized picture but after awhile, it started to get wider. No fear as Istill had nearly a full can of freezer spray

Disappearing Tracks

Mario in Action

Removing the Carbon

A better photo of Mario!

A Hole is Born


handy. Spraying here and there aroundthe high tension circuitry didn’t seem tomake much difference. Then all of a sud-den, the picture jittered, and shrank to itsproper size while the brightness increased,as if the G2 was adjusted by a couple ofdegrees. Every so often, it jittered slightlyand there was also a difference in bright-ness but it remained constant, at least fora few minutes. The last couple of areasthat were cooled down were the littledaughter board (D/F board) mounted on aheatsink right on top of the vertical driverchip and a diode D316 (S3L60) which wasnext to the vertical driver chip.

The funny thing about it was that severalattempts afterwards to simulate the samething didn’t have any effect at all. Weirdbut true. The cooling of the D/F boardand the diode D316 must have beenflukes. At that rate, I was going to finishoff the freezer spray in a jiffy (or perhapstwo jiffies) so the freezer issue was putaside.

What could be causing the symptom? Itdid seem like some factor related to acomponent heating up but it certainlywasn’t making much sense the way thingswere going, that’s for sure. I decided totime out and watch some more of “Back tothe Future” for some inspiration. As soonas the Flux Capacitor was mentioned, myleft eyebrow was raised. What if a capacitorwas causing this problem? It’s a possibil-ity not worth discarding at this stage,especially since I had nothing else going.

I still wasn’t totally convinced as the hotand cold approach would normally catchthe offending component but in this line ofwork, anything’s possible. Visually, therewere a couple of capacitors which wereslightly, just slightly inflated. However,these were C202 and C206, both 2200uF/16v. The only snag about these was thatthese were filtering the positive and nega-tive 12v on the frame chip. They were stillpulled out once the board was out of place,which was just as well as it will save me

Top View of Hole

Using Flying Leads as Track Replacements

IRF 640 Mounted

future hassle with a fault on the verticalsection. Along the testing and rooting outprocedure, two more capacitors, namelyC331 and C370 (both 220uF/200v) werereplaced. They were 98% there, but still


replaced them just to make sure, sincetheir location in the circuit was somewhatcrucial. They are on the 55v supply rail,and they could easily have an effect on thepicture size and even the brightness. Iwas basically clutching at straws but I myoptions were slowly running out with eachcomponent that I changed. I wasn’t con-vinced about them at all but they were stillworth changing. During the course of thisoperation, I noticed that there was glue,which had turned brown, all over the hightension and power supply circuits. Frompast experience, I had found that thisoffending article becomes slightly conduc-tive and can create very weird side-effects.I didn’t want to take any chances, so anyglue found here wasremoved. It was plastered on quite a fewcomponents so it was a long and awkwardprocess, but eventually, there wasn’t asign of the stuff anywhere else on thatsection of the board.

It was time to plug everything in and takeit from there. Holding my breath andthinking what else it could be if the faultwas still there. Once the board was inplace, I was a bit hesitant to apply juice to

it, so I decided to have a coffee and asmoke before doing the deed. If all thatdidn’t work, I did have another optionopen, and that was to start working on thevoltages. Problem was, that the way theboard is fitted in the monitor’s chassis, itwasn’t going to be an easy task.

Juice was eventually applied, the fewseconds before the high tension cracklingwas heard seemed like hours and then ithappened. The crackling was heard. Thepicture was as steady as a rock and all waslooking great. It was just a question of

DF (Dynamic Focus) Board


leaving it on for a few hoursand then sending it back toits rightful location. I haveto admit that I breathed asigh of relief as working onthis chassis, the way it’sdesigned, wasn’t my cup oftea, or hot chocolate, cometo that. It’s a good boardmind you, but it’s some-what difficult to gain accessto certain areas and takevoltage readings.

Usually I leave the unit,especially one that hadsuch a hammering, undertest for quite a few hoursbut since it was getting latein the afternoon, it wasdecided to send it back sothat the machine won’t beleft turned off during thewhole of the weekend.Besides, the fault was

cleared as the width prob-lem vanished so it was safeenough. It was time toeventually call it and thenleave for home to relax andunwind.

I don’t usually like Mondaymornings, but that follow-

ing Monday was going to beworse than others. I foundthe monitor back in theworkshop with its fuseblown to smithereens.Aaaaaaarrrrrggghhhhhhh!!!!!What on Earth could havehappened? The story wasthat when the board was


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plugged in, the fuse flashedimmediately. That was nota good thing, not a goodthing at all. Apparently itdidn’t even work for even asecond. I ended up goingthrough everything with afine tooth comb to tracewhat could have caused thefuse to flash.

The fuse was replaced withanother 3.15A but therewas no way that the juicewas going to be appliedbefore I checked the powersupply properly. Therewas also some more of thedreaded glue around themains section which ifremoved, would be a posi-tive thing. A good place tostart would be across thebridge rectifier BD101(D3SBA60). As it wouldhave it, there was a shortcircuit across the positiveand the negative terminals.That was a good start. I waspraying that a couple ofdiodes within the bridgedidn’t feel like workinganymore so the bridge waspulled out. I felt a coldshiver going up and downmy spine as the bridge wasfine and the short re-mained on the printedcircuit board. Help! Ichecked IC101 (KA5S1265)and there was a nice juicyshort between pins 1 and 2.

From the internal blockdiagram, the chopper tran-sistor was shorted toground. Ouch! I suddenlydidn’t feel very good anymore and had to time outand calm down a bit. Ashort there isn’t pleasant,

especially if it spreads outto the components aroundit. The monitor would be asgood as dead or heavilywounded. However, theonly thing that I foundshorted (at least it seemedto be shorted) was diodeD116 (RLS4148) which wasconnected to the chip onpin 5 via C111 (1uF/63v).I thought it was strangethat this diode should blowsince it was aptly protected,unless C111 was shortedout. Come to think of it,

even if C111 was to goshort, there aren’t any highvoltages present there aspin 5 of the chip was onlyits Soft Start & Sync. On acloser physical inspectionof the diode, I wasn’t quitesure what its function wasas both the anode and thecathode were on the sametrack. Hardly surprising itwas giving me a short cir-cuit so I left it as it was.Just to make absolutelysure, I had a similar work-ing board which had the


same thing. I didn’t feellike wrecking my brains onsomething like that, so Iput the questions aside andcarried on digging.

A new KA5S1265 was fittedin after the bridge rectifierand it was time to do thedeed. Fingers crossed ontheir own weren’t enoughin this case as the mysteryof the flashing fuse and theblown power switching chipstill hovered above myhead.

Juice in, a couple of sec-onds hovering about in no-man’s land and the verybeautiful high tensioncrackling could be heard.Phew! That was good. Thatwas very good. I didn’twant to take any chancesso I left it on next to me forhours, occasionally switch-ing it off and back on again.It worked every time. Thereason why it blew hauntedme.

Looking at it and filling theroom with smoke from mylast ciggie, something sortof hit home. On the board,just about an inch awayfrom each other, were twoidentical connectors. Onewas designated as W101,which was right next to thedegaussing relay RL101,and the other one wasdesignated as P101, whichwas right next to the powerswitching chip.W101 feeds the degaussingcoil whilst P101 was a tap-ping from the high tensiontransformer for synchroni-zation. Could it be…just

could it be that these wereinterchanged during theprocess of the installation?That was certainly a possi-bility. It could have alsobeen related to the infa-mous glue which was onthe circuitry. Actually Iblame the glue more as itcan have some really effectson a monitor, especiallywith elevated suppliesthere.

The monitor, happy again,was left on next to me un-der observation. Every nowand again, switching it offand then back on againjust for the kick of it. I’msure my heart missed abeat when it suddenly,totally out of theblues…and when leastexpected, the picture wentbad. It went wide again!This can’t be happening.It’s all a horrible nightmarewhich I’ll wake up from andthat would be that. How-ever, it wasn’t so and thescreen was nice and wide,and looking at me. It was

probably sniggering at thesame time for giving mesuch a hard time on it.

It looks like I was back tosquare one and lost, totallyand utterly lost. I really getupset when this sort ofthing happens. It’s finehaving one fault. Twowould be stretching it a bit.But three is way out of line,and stops being a joke. Ihad to concentrate on theoriginal issue, where thecooked parts were. It justhad to be something re-lated to that…it just had tobe. Going round the com-ponents in the area,namely around Q318,showed me some light atthe end of the tunnel. Itwas about time too.

CS1, CS2 and CS3 were allat the correct levels asdictated by the manual forany particular mode se-lected. (Ref to Fig. 3)However, the collector onQ306 wasn’t at the voltagelevel expected when com-


pared to the collectors of Q314 and Q315. A resis-tance check on this transistor made things a bitclearer. It was leaky! It was upsetting the mode selec-tion process. It also upset me substantially. I’m notsure what made what go first. It could have been thisleaky component which damaged Q318 and ZD301causing their total destruction. It could have been adry joint on Q318 itself. It could have been quite a fewother factors which resulted in the board nearly catch-ing fire. I guess I’ll never know for sure. One thing Iknow however, is that the monitor is working fine andit’s been like that for a few weeks now so I can safelyadd another notch to my rifle butt and wait for thatmonitor to make me meet my Waterloo. Until then,bring them on.

- James [email protected]

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From the Mail Bag

My buddy Chris, atech at a casino inthe Midwest, sent

me an email with somequestions regarding Senti-nel IIIs and Promo Cash. Tostart off with, I will touch onthe Sentinel III. Out ofnearly 1400 games that wehave at the casino I work at,around 20 games have theSentinel III installed. Theyare based on the SentinelII but are more advanced.

One of the features is anLCD display that has atouchscreen and keypadbuilt in. The display is alsocapable of producing in-house advertising with theuse of CF cards. One card isthe version and the othercan be loaded with picturesof the casino’s restaurant,clubs or anything else. Wecurrently aren’t using it butthe Sentinel III even hasaudio capability! As FIG-URE A shows, you can seethat all of the connectionsare clearly marked. Noticethe audio connection?

FIGURE B shows what thedisplay looks like when afloor card is inserted. Noticethe touchscreen keypad?When we first installedthese, I asked an Oasis techhow durable these were. Hestated that they were verydurable and stood up well.Thus far we haven’t hadany problems with ours andwe have had some installedfor about a year.

FIGURE C is a picture ofthe back of the Sentinel IIIdisplay. There is only onecable that connects thedisplay to the Sentinel III.Also pictured in the middlearea are two speakers thatare part of the Sentinel III.

Figure D is a picture ofadvertising for our ClubFour One, which has livemusic Wednesday - Satur-day and comedy night onSundays. It is actually aphotograph of the Club,transferred to a CF cardand inserted into the Senti-nel III. FIGURE E is a pic-ture of what the displaylooks like when a floor cardis inserted and the slotdoor is open.

As for Chris’s question onPromo Cash, well, heregoes. Promo Cash, as wecall it at the casino where Iwork, is credits that can bedownloaded from a player’scard to the credit meter ofthe game. An example

Quick & Simple Repairs #53By Pat Porath


would be, a customerspends the night in a hotelroom and receives $20.00in Promo Cash. The cus-tomer would walk up to agame that has a green“Promo Cash accepted”sticker on it and inserttheir card.

Next, they key-in their PINnumber, followed by thenumber 2 for promo, thenthe number 1 for the creditto go to the game. Next,they enter the amount thatthey would like to down-load, say $10.00. The cus-tomer would press thenumbers 1 then 0 followedby the ENTER key. Presto!The game now has $10.00worth of credits in thecredit meter.

If there is a problem duringthe download process, anerror or error code willoccur. Once Promo Cash isdownloaded onto the gameit CANNOT be cashed out.On some games it will show“promotional credits, un-able to cashout.” Of course,the customer can cash outwhat they won from thepromo money. Some ofcustomers cash out everytime they win anythingjust to keep track what isleft of promotional cash onthe game. Other customersperiodically cash out whenplaying promo to see whatthey have remaining.When it is introduced toyour gaming floor be pre-pared to have employeesready to assist customerswith downloading. We haveinstruction cards that canbe passed out but somecustomers still need help.

FIGURE B shows what the display looks like when a floorcard is inserted. Notice the touchscreen keypad?


What about the Sentineland slot machine end of it?Darn near everything hasto be perfect. By that Imean ALL of the doors haveto be showing CLOSED onthe Oasis end. Slot door,drop door and the logicdoor. If not, an error codewill be displayed. Thegame, Sentinel, and Pollerhave to have good commu-nication also. The game hasto be at a total “idle” statetoo. The paper can’t be lownor a bet made. A gamecannot be in progress.

Sometimes there are otherproblems that arise. Oasishas certain S and G errorcodes, S meaning that itmay be a SYSTEM problemand G meaning it may be aGAME problem. The codesand descriptions are shownin the table to the right.

If the Oasis display shows“Account Locked,” thismeans that a customerentered their PIN numberincorrectly three times ormore and they need to goto the Players Club to havetheir PIN number reset.

Konami-No Main Power

While making a round on

the floor, I noticed aKonami slant top game wasshut down. Well, whatappeared to be shut down.One of the first things that Isaw was the Oasis displaywasn’t lit up which meantthat there was a possibilitythat the Sentinel didn’thave any power. When thegame was opened up therewasn’t a sign of any poweranywhere; the game wastotally dead. Since it ap-peared to be a main power

problem, I thought to startwith the main incomingpower area. The 120VACpower cord was pluggedinto the game which meantthere was a good chance Ihad power up to the end ofthe cord. What about themain 10 amp fuse? It wasmarked with a red stickerthat even stated “mainpower fuse 10A.” I took thefuse out and right away Icould tell it was blown. Ithad black marks inside of

“G” CodesG-2 door openG-3 transfer limit too highG-4 transfer limit too lowG-5 SAS problemG-6 credit switchG-7 tilt conditionG-8 SAS problemG-9 game in progressG-10 & 11 SAS problemG12 disabled by SASG-13 out of serviceG-14 busy SAS problemG-16 AFT locked, game in progress or door open, etc.G-99 AFT not locked COM lost during transferG-22 time out, (reboot the Sentinel)G-23 “Bart” problem (accounting)“S” codesS-22 SAS timeoutS-23 denomination mismatchS-24 COM lost between SentinelS-32 invalid transaction ID, poller and Sentinel versions aren’t compatibleS-33 game COM downS-34 dollar amount out of limitS-35 AFT mismatch, machine and Sentinel IDs don’t match

OASIS Error Codes

Figure D is a picture of advertising for our ClubFour One, which has live music Wednesday -Saturday and comedy night on Sundays. It isactually a photograph of the Club, transferred toa CF card and inserted into the Sentinel III.

FIGURE E is a picture of what the display lookslike when a floor card is inserted and the slotdoor is open.


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it, meaning it was blownviolently.

Now the question remains,why did the game blow thefuse? Upon further inspec-tion of the fuse, it wasstamped 2A. This can’t beright, so I checked it again.Sure enough, it was a 2amp fuse that was in a 10amp socket. At least thisindicated a reason why itmay have blown the fuse; 8amps under-rated! I askeda co-worker to watch thegame for me while I went tograb TWO replacements.Why two you may ask? Oneto put in the game and theother just in case the firstone blows (this sometimessaves an extra trip to theshop). As soon as the re-placement fuse was in-stalled the Oasis display litup. Next, the power to thegame was turned on. Itstarted booting up beauti-fully and everything lookedto be OK. The main doorwas closed and I made surethat the bill accepter wasworking. With the properlyrated fuse replaced, thegame was back online.

Editor’s Note: Errors likethis can be costly. In thiscase, an under rated fusesimply left the game non-functional (and WHY wasthe fuse replaced originallyand WHO installed theincorrect fuse? This is whywe fill out the MEAL card!).However, things can beworse if an OVER ratedfuse is installed. I haveseen on a couple of occa-sions where the accidentalinstallation of an over ratedfuse has caused additionaldamage. In one case, a 2.5

amp fuse was replacedwith a 25 amp fuse (missedthe decimal point, I suppose)following the original, inter-mittent failure that openedthe fuse. When the momen-tary short reoccurred, thehigh current (now availablewithout over-current protec-tion) spot welded thepinched power bus wire toground, changing the natureof the short from intermittentto permanent and destroy-ing half the wire harness ina smoky, molten mess ofmelted plastic insulation.

The moral of the story? Beobservant when replacing

fuses. If you cannot clearlyread the fuse value, use amagnifying glass to becertain. In fact, to be certainof the correct fuse value, itis really much better to readthe label that is displayednext to the fuse holderrather than look at the fuseitself as it may have beenreplaced incorrectly in thepast, perhaps because theproper replacement fusewas unavailable at thetime. Naturally, if you don’thave the proper fuse instock, you will be forced toinstall a fuse of a highercurrent rating. This is a badpractice. You should al-


ways have a good stock ofreplacement fuses on hand.

Oasis COM Down

The first indication thatthere was a communicationproblem with part of a bankof games was one of themlocked up for a small pay-out. It was a nickel gameand the payout was for$30.00. The way most ofour games are optioned (westill have a few coin games)they only lock up for$1200.00 or more. It caughtmy attention for a moment,why did it lock up? I mis-takenly brushed it off aspaper being out and not agame or system communi-cation problem, which nodoubt was a mistake on mypart. Not long after, whilewalking past the cashiercage, a cashier called meover and said that therewere a few tickets that“wouldn’t go through”meaning that there, morethan likely, there was acommunication problemwith a bank of games. Themachine numbers werewritten down from thetickets. I looked up theirlocation and sure enough,it was the same bank ofgames that had the smallpayout. I went to the gamesand part of them were inlower case letters. Lowercase letters on the Oasisdisplay indicates that com-munication has been lost.Only half of the games werelower case letters so I foundthe two games that hadupper and lower case nextto each other. The top glasswas removed from the gamethat had communicationand I saw the problem right

away. On the Sentinel, theCOM out cable was almostcompletely off. There was agood chance, when the lastperson was in the gameand put paper in it, (theprinter being up top) oncethe Oasis bracket was putback in place, it pushed offthe COM out connector. Toput it another way, whenpaper was filled, the cardreader on the Oasis bracketpushed the connectornearly off because theSentinel was too close tothe bracket assembly. Assoon as the COM out con-nector was properly seated,the communication on therest of the games workedgreat. It was simply a looseconnection. I verified byinserting my floor card andit did show a data portnumber. If the DPU num-ber was zero, then therestill would be a problem,but everything was fine.

Aristocrat Viridian-NoGame Graphics

I was called to an AristocratViridian game. The cus-tomer stated that he hadhit a bonus when both ofthe LCDs suddenly wentblack. The game buttonswere lit up but there wasn’tanything on the screens. Areboot of the game wasdone and it started to bootup fine; the game had to“boot text” like it was sup-posed to. Then, when thegame graphics were sup-posed to appear, both LCDswent black. If it was in factan LCD problem, usuallythey will come on for asecond then go black but inthis case, both did so Isuspected a software prob-

lem and not a hardwareproblem. I turned to gameoff and on once again andthe same thing happened.

So, where should I starttroubleshooting? One ofthe first things that wasdone was the main proces-sor board was removed tosee if anything was out ofkilter. Everything lookedOK, so I removed the “smartcard” and reseated it andalso made sure the gameCF card was seated prop-erly. Next, I put the proces-sor board back in the gameand turned it back on. Thegame started to load onceagain and this time thegame graphics came up andthe game was back in play.As for the $178.00 in cred-its that appeared, a slotattendant and floor supervi-sor previously did a payoutfor the customer. I verifiedthe credits earlier with my“tech card” (aka mechaniccard), so a payout could bepreformed so the customerdidn’t have to wait while Iworked on the game. A floorsupervisor cashed out thecredits and brought theticket to the cage so nowthe game was ready for thenext customer. For theremainder of my shift Ididn’t hear of a complaintabout the game so it wasgood to go.

JCM UBA-Frame Problem

First of all, what do I meanby “frame?” It is the metalstructure that the UBArests on and the stackerbox sits in. Once the UBAand stacker box is removed,the frame is the part that isleft in the game. With the


WBAs, we replace the framewhen the gears located inthe back part of the assem-bly get worn or have a toothmissing on a gear. Theframe is removed and thegears are replaced. Also,the stacker box tabs areinspected to see if they arebent. If they are, they arestraightened so that thebox fits nice and snug(there is a special tool forthis, available from JCM).With the UBA in a few ofour IGT AVP games and acouple of our WMS Blue-bird 2 games, a tech wouldhave to reseat the stackerbox numerous times until itwould sit perfectly in theframe so the bill accepterwould function properly.The bill accepter bezel lightwould be lit up but once abill or ticket was inserted, itwouldn’t even grab it. AUBA motor would spin for afew seconds, then the gamewould go into a bill acceptertilt. A temporary fix is torepeatedly reseat the boxuntil the unit cycles prop-erly and the bezel lightsup. THE UBA HAS TO BETESTED AFTERWARD. Weuse a blank ticket from thegame to test it. If it isn’tworking properly, the UBAwon’t even grab the ticketand tilt. If it is workingproperly, the game will grabit and kick it back outagain. Sometimes gentlypushing upward on thestacker box once it isseated will get it workingagain and sometimes re-placing the stacker will getthe bill accepter working.Reseating the bill validatoritself may get it workingtoo. I suppose you can tryto replace the UBA frame.

So far there is not a perfectcure for the problem that Iam aware of.

Editor’s note: It’s alwaysnice to be able to go right tothe source of all that’s holyat JCM. Here are commentsfrom JCM’s bodhisattva ofbill validators, Jack Geller:There are a couple of thingsthat could cause this. Theauthor mentions the tabs inthe bottom of the frame unit.These must be at the correctangle or the gears can skipcausing the unit to error out.For the adjustment proce-dure refer to the August2008 tech bulletin http://tinyurl.com/jcm200808.

The other cause may be animproperly seated UBA unit.If the unit isn't fully seated,with the lock tabs down, theflag in the rear of the frame

that signals the pusher plateis moving will also cause afault and the validator willshut down. With ID-024software, the unit may notcycle after the cash box isreplaced. The first time thevalidator checks this move-ment is when a bill is in-serted.

If you see this problem, firstcheck the tabs in the bottomof the frame. These take alot of abuse from the dropteams. If they seem OK,check to see the release tabat the front of the validatoris fully locked down andthe validator is seated prop-erly. - JG

- Pat Porath- [email protected]


The OLG (Ontario Lottery andGaming) has set a goal ofbecoming a leader in the gaming

industry by introducing continuouslearning programs such as CustomerService, Communication & Teamwork,and purpose, vision, and valuestraining. These are just a few of manyprograms of useful trainingapplications to help each individualattain their full potential. When newmachine manufacturers and platformsare introduced to the OLG, theyschedule training classes at thecentrally located warehouse. Themanufacturer’s representatives train uson their new technology. Since theintroduction to EZ pay (TITO) a couple ofyears ago, David Thomson has beengathering information. Once asked tobecome one of the project leads for EZpay, he created a CD (containing allkinds of useful information) and trainingmanual. The information provided byDavid was distributed to everytechnician, slot shift manager and slotsupervisor that attended the trainingsession. I was fortunate to attend thistraining session and thought there wasa lot of information, information thatneeded to be shared, especially fornew technicians just starting out andmaybe some information others neverknew about. Here are some of mynotes. Basic Information

· The EZ Pay system wasdesigned to decrease thedowntime of hopper fills

· IGT games will boost the fibersignal in the loop. Try andhave some on each CVT.

· The TPE_RPT (TransactionProcessor Engine) that Icontinuously write about herein Slot Tech Magazine is a setof programs that monitor andgather information on the EZPay system.

· The TPE_RTP displays allinformation and errors at sitelevel. The program allows fora back up of 30 days, fortracking purposes.

· TPE_RPT, this report runs frommidnight to midnight daily.

· Also there is a TPE_PROCLOG that allows you to checkthings at the server levelissues. An example would bethe site being off line. Thisreport also gives you valuableticket information, which willallow you to know if your CVTdaughter board is good. Thisinformation becomesvaluable when having tochange out a CVT,

· 50 slot machines are allottedper CVT (35 is recommendedfor load balance purposes) &16 CVTs per Digi (or SerialConcentrator)

· The CVT will send continuousmessages through the fiberloop and expects themessage to be received back.

· The TPE_LOG can help youdetermine if the issue ismachine, CVT or systembased.

The CVT (Clerk Validation Terminal)

The CVT is the responsible for themachine seed/validation numbers. TheCVT sends the VGM a seed number,when a patron cashed out the gameflips it to an 18 digit validation number.Once the VGM has issued thisvalidation number it in turn replies backto the CVT that it has been used andanother is required. The game thenholds this seed/validation number untilthe next cash out.

The CVT itself can be used as adiagnostic tool. On the front of the CVTthere is a panel of LED lights thatallows you to start your troubleshooting.The modem “A” transmits and receivedLed’s shows the communicationbetween the CVT and Cross ValidationUnit or server. The Fiber “P0”(Standardized ports throughout theOLG), shows communication betweenthe CVT and the gaming machines outon the floor. With both scenariosremember that we have connections atthe back of the CVT, they also need tobe checked before going to far. Thepower LED will flash green until thepower is full, then it will remainilluminated green. The processor andbattery lights will be off, if illuminatedred you are looking at issues with yourCVT. The CVT/VGM status test allows you todetermine whether or not the games onthe CVT are communicating or

responding. A poor fiber signal coulddisplay or print out “No Data.” Anothertool is the Gross Meter report thatallows you to verify if the game iscommunicating. Another “No Data”display means the machines are notcommunicating with the CVT. The fiber loop test allows you to test theloop for any errors, kinks, ordisconnections in the line. There aretwo counters displayed on the CVT: Theprimary counter shows the packets ofdata being sent by the CVT, through theloop while the secondary counter is thenumber of error packets received. Inthis test, if the error count keepsincreasing there is a possibledisruption in the loop. The idealsituation would be for the error count tonot increment. An intermittent increasein the secondary counter could mean afaulty fiber board, COMM boardproblem, power supply or a connectorproblem. Make sure there are not toomany extra connectors on the line. If thesecondary counter increments at thesame rate there is a possibleincomplete loop, the signal is unable tocomplete a full circuit. The possibleproblems could be a disconnected line,looped in incorrectly, crossed lines, or abreak in the fiber. The fiber loop test canalso be used to prove that your CVT isrunning properly and the fault is with aloop or game. Try keeping a piece offiber close to your CVT cabinets for justthis check. TPE Logs The TPE (Transaction ProcessorEngine) report log and the TPE Processlog are a set of programs that monitorand gather information on the EZ Paysystem. The TPE log displays allinformation and errors at the site level.This is very useful to determine whattime it started and what was happeningwhen went down. Here is an example ofmachine events that are logged anddisplayed for us to troubleshoot. 009-03-17 04:00:25 FE: 001 CC: 18Mach: 10 MachID: xxxxx EVENT: 82 Nomachine ID/asset number reportedfrom machine 2009-03-17 04:00:26 FE: 001 CC: 7Mach: 21 MachID: xxxxx EVENT: 58 VGM notresponding 2009-03-17 04:00:27 FE: 001 CC: 3Mach: 10 MachID: xxxxx EVENT: 82 Nomachine ID/asset number reportedfrom machine


EZ PAY Made EZBy Kevin Noble


The other program that is useful is theTPE PROCESS log that displaysinformation and errors at the systemlevel. This is an example of a CVT thatwas just force downloaded. 2009-03-17 09:20:19: (Thread: 6536)FE: 001, Port: 11 reported error (5),CTS Timeout2009-03-17 09:20:19: (Thread: 6536) 1OFFLINE CCs notified on FE: 001, port:112009-03-17 09:20:30: (Thread: 6536)FE: 001, Port: 11 reported (1), Normal2009-03-17 09:20:46: (TPE_XVU) Txn:169, Seq: 34 from DB_XVU, CC: 11,download complete for 0 ticketsrcvd The Forced Download

This force download is mentioned quiteoften in my articles but it is used at alast resort in troubleshooting machineproblems. During the training westarted to keep track of issues beingcalled in to IT and there has been agreat decline. Also during the trainingsessions while reviewing the reportstogether from various sites we haveseen a reduction in the amounts offorced downloads being completed.The EZ pay system has made it easierto troubleshoot using the reportsavailable. Most of the time they will leadyou to a game issue. A forced downloadmay be necessary when RAM clearingany Atronic games on our floor thatwould not come online. We usually getvalidation not enrolled errors on thescreen. Duplicate address numbers isalso another occasion when a forcedownload may be required. Common Machine ProblemsEncounteredPrinters

· Lost programming· Out of paper· Dirty – printing half a ticket,

smudged or smeared ticket· Paper placed in backwards –

prints out three or four ticketsat a time.

· GEN 1 – head tension screwtoo tight and brass alignmentbracket bent

· Game not programmedcorrectly or optioned right

· UGM BOARDS – falling asleepand needs rebooting

· BALLY S6000– GEN 1 – printerbracket either loose ormisaligned

· Refer to BALLY Field AdvisoryFA-04005 for recalled GEN 1printers

· IGT SLANT TOP – printerassembly not pushed back inhome position

· GEN 1 PRINTER – backboardin printer housing bad, dipswitch incorrect

· 38/36 codes on the BallyS6000 – opening and closingthe door sometimes clearsthis message

· Printing blank or duplicatetickets (see below)

· Tickets are found rolled up inthe head

· Customers are pulling thetickets before it is finishedprinting the complete ticketcausing a ticket jam

· Printer tilts stack up rapidly onIGT S2000s, open and closethe main door until all tilts arecleared.

CVT· Force download· Log on to the CVT to clear the

error codes· Refer to IGT CN 3594 to clear

and set software and followprocedures

· Soft RAM clear may berequired after a batterychange

· Expansion memory cardcommonly fails

Manual Jackpots· Game off line· Player tracking cards stuck in

printer· Duplicate addresses may be

assigned to games on thesame CVT.

· Powering down the game onsome manufacturers breaksthe fiber loop

· Fiber loop test is beingperformed

Information

Duplicate Tickets During periods of intermittent or lostconnectivity, it is possible for a duplicateticket to be issued by the slot machine.This is not a system issue but almostalways due to connectivity problems atthe machine level. When this occurs, this indicates that themachine lost communication with theCVT and was unable to communicatethe successful printing of the ticket orthe use of that specific validation codeback to the CVT and subsequently backto the system. When the machine comes back on linethe ticket information that was stored isthen placed onto the next ticket that isissued by that machine. Duplicate Machine Address

Most common problems are when amachine move happens and the polladdress is not changed after the fiberline is disconnected. This also happenwhen we receive new games from thewarehouse and they are tested with pollnumbers assigned at the shop. We aretrying to get in the habit of eitherchanging the poll numbers before wetake them off the base for an internalmachine move and before we hook upthe fiber when we receive new gamesfrom the warehouse. We alsoexperience this problem when themachines were re-enrolled and everygame on the bank had a duplicateaddress on the CVT that had to becleared.

Chirping

This is an indication that the machinewith the “Chirping” message and/or themachine before cannot communicateback to the CVT. The machine started toreestablish communication with theCVT by sending additional information.Check to make sure the connectionsare not crossed or one of the fiber linesis not broken. Fiber Loop Up/ Fiber Loop Down

This message indicates there is someform of a break or kink in the line. Otherpossibilities are disconnected fiber,faulty COMM boards, fiber boards, badfiber board power supplies, SPC IIboards and bad connectors or crimps. VGM Responding

This message indicates a problem witha weak signal within the loop or amachine and/or show when a machinere-establishes communication with theCVT. No Machine Number / asset numberreported by machine

This message indicates the packets ofinformation were lost between the CVTand the machine. This message is alsodisplayed when the machine comesback on line. Security Event Buffer Full

This message indicates the memory ofinformation being stored in the bufferhave exceeded its capacity to record allthe errors generated. This can result incommunication issues. Invalid Voucher Sequence

This message is due to corrupt databeing sent to the machine from theCVT. The machine will assign thecorrupt number to the next ticket that willbe printed This then leads tounmatched information the CVT islooking for when a customer redeemsthe voucher. Faulty or limitedcommunication between the two isusually the problem with this problemand the errors created will cease oncenormal communication is established. Unverified Tickets

Unverified ticket generally means thatthere was limited or no communicationat the time of the ticket being issuedand some of the data were lost. As notall the information was available(missing sequence number, impropervalidation sequence, incorrect sitecode, incorrect $ amount etc.) thesystem basically flags the ticket asunverified. Sometimes it is just that theinformation did not get back to thedatabase and needs a few minutes tocatch up.

- Kevin [email protected]

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