inside slot tech magazine march 2004slot-tech.com/members/magazine/lores/march04.pdf · inside slot...

Inside Slot Tech MagazineInside Slot Tech Magazine

March 2004March 2004March 2004March 2004March 2004Page 2 - Editorial

Page 4 - My Visit to IDX or How I Spent My Christmas Vacation in the USA

2 - Bally S6000 Part 3

Page 16 - PAR Excellance Part 2

Page 22 - New Location Gives ICE 2004 Extra Edge!

Page 27 - Presentation Of Award To Be Highlight Of Ireland’s 25th Coin-Op Expo

Page 29 - Loaded to Death

Page 35 - TechFest 8 - Clinton, Iowa TechFest 9 - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Page 36 - Subscriptions and Back Issues Order form

On the cover: Texas, 1947. Uvalde. Lunch wagon.

Henri Cartier-BressonFrench, b.1908

Born in Chanteloup, Cartier-Bressonstarted painting in 1923 and began to photo-graph in 1931, met Tériade, the editor of Vervemagazine and frequented members of theFrench surrealist movement. After a trip to theIvory Coast he discovered the Leica, since thenhis camera of choice.

He pursued his photographic career inEastern Europe and Mexico, later on makingfilms with Jean Renoir, Jacques Becker andAndré Zvoboda and a documentary on Republi-

can Spain (1937).A war prisoner, he escaped in 1940 and made portraits of artists: Matisse, Rouault, Braque,

Bonnard. In 1945 he photographed and covered the liberation of Paris with a group of professional journal-ists before filming the 1946 documentary “Le Retour” (The Return) and spending a year in the US tocomplete a “posthumous” exhibition initiated by New York’s Museum of Modern Art out of a belief that hewas dead.

In 1947 he founded Magnum Photos with Bill Vandivert, Robert Capa, George Rodger and DavidSeymour “Chim”, then spent three years in India, Burma, Pakistan, Indonesia and China (during the lastsix months of the Kuomintang and the first six months of the People’s Republic of China). In 1952 hereturned to Europe and in 1954 was the first foreign photographer admitted into the USSR.

Slot Tech Editorial

Randy Fromm's

Slot Tech Magazine

EditorRandy Fromm

Technical Writers

Martin DempseyKevin Noble

Herschel W. PeelerJohn Wilson

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 2004 under the Uni-versal Copyright Convention.All rights reserved.

Slot Tech Magazine March 2004

Randy Fromm - Publisher

Randy Fromm

This month, we are go-ing to carry on where

we left off in February.Kevin Noble completeshis article about his USAvisit to IDX. Sounds likehe had a good time in Ar-kansas. Kevin’s articlebegins on page four.Herschel Peeler’s look atBally’s S6000 wraps upas well. You’ll find him

on page 12.

Slot Tech Magazine’sresident mathematicsguru, John Wilson, alsocontinues his look atPAR sheets and odds onpage 16. For those of youwho are planning to at-tend TechFest 9, I hopeto have John there togive a presentation onthe subject. I’ll post anannouncement on theslot-tech.com websitewhen it happens.

And speaking of thingson the ‘net, a number ofyou have e-mailed to in-quire about difficultieslogging in to the SlotTech Magazine ftpserver. The short answeris that I have no idea whyyou’re having trouble.Dozens of folks log in anddownload stuff everyday so obviously the ftpserver is working prop-erly.

That having been said, Ihave established an ftpmirror site on awebserver so that it’s“point and click” using

just a webbrowser. Seepage 28 for details.

This month’s “Electron-ics 101” column carriessome important trouble-shooting techniques formonitor repair. Read“Loaded to Death” begin-ning on page 29.

And finally, this month’scover art makes thistruly a collectible issueof Slot Tech Magazine(aren’t they all, though).The cover photographwas taken by HenriCartier-Bresson at alunch wagon in Texas.

That’s all for this month.See you at the casino.


Slot Tech Feature Article

By Kevin Noble

My Visit to IDXor How I Spent

My Christmas Vacation in the USA

Founded in 1987, IDXstarted its businesswith many products de-

veloped for the car wash in-dustry to prevent counter-feiting and unwanted cross-play of nearby establish-ments. In 1996, IDX venturedinto the gaming industry withthe very same concept, thusdeveloping the X-10 Xeptorand the X-Mark token. In1997, this concept was finallya reality and the X-10- Xeptorwas born to validate X-Markand Smart Mark tokens.Needing now to produce thecoin, IDX selected OsborneCoinage as a partner to mintand market this new X-Marktoken technology. Havingmuch success in the gamingindustry, these same compa-nies teamed up again to in-stall the X-10 Xeptor into thecarwash establishments auto-tellers. These new coin ac-ceptors are now used both inthe gaming and carwash in-dustry for high performance,multi-coin acceptance andsite security acceptance.

Review

This was the main focus inmy article two years ago.X-Mark coin acceptorswere developed with an X-Mark minted directly intothe surface of the token.The many distinguishingX-Mark types go alongwith the different diametersand metal alloys to providemuch greater security andprevent unwanted cross play.The X-Mark product line in-cludes the X-10, X-50, X-60,and the X-70 Xeptors as wellas the X-Mark coded tokens.

The X-20 series has a differ-ent concept for your coin ac-cepting needs. The X-20 se-ries are metal sensing Xeptorsdesigned to read the edgeand center alloys of bi-metalgovernment issued coins and

distinctive readings for theclad and plated alloy layeredcoin used in the gaming in-dustry.The H-60 hologram Xeptormay be used to read the X-Mark token but most impor-tantly, the new hologramencoded token. Developedwith a unique holographicencoded signature which cannot be replicated in metal butonly be read by the opticalsensors of the H-60 Xeptor.Also mentioned in my previ-ous article were the person-

The staff at IDX


ality plugs that allow you touse the Xeptors in any ma-chines without rewiring anyof the games. The X-Key al-lows you to lock out unwantedpersonnel from changing anyvalues programmed into theIDX Xeptor.

My Trip

After leaving Osborne Coin-age in Cincinnati, Ohio, I mademy way to IDX, INC. in ElDorado. Arkansas. Mr. Halseydrove the 2 hours north topick me up at the airport andproceeded to make the exactsame drive back south. Wehad a great conversation allabout the gaming industry,products, Gaming Commis-sions and manufacturers. Iwas also impressed with howhighly James spoke abouthis staff that included bothmanagement and productionstaff. At my arrival to the IDXplant, there were many peoplewith whom I had had conver-sations that I wanted to meet.Tina Rogers was one of thepeople that help bring accu-rate information about theIDX products mentioned inmy previous article. I also re-ceived some refresher train-ing, some new training, tookpart in a demonstration ofthe Coin Selector and wasable to observe the assemblyof an IDX from start to finish.I really wanted to assemble aunit from start to finish all bymyself but did not haveenough time to do so. Maybenext time (wink, wink).

The Shop

After taking the once around

tour of the plant and beingintroduced to many of thesupporting cast that makeup IDX, I was able to observenot only the manufacturingand assembly of the productbut also all the products usedfor the car wash side of thebusiness. Before I arrived, Ihad thought of IDX as a bigplant with automated assem-bly lines assembling all theelectronic components withvery few people. To my sur-prise, it was a multi-level,multi-room building withwall-to-wall workstations.There were many workersassembling the products byhand; at times capable of pro-ducing thousands everymonth to keep up with de-mands of the gaming mar-ket. There were many workstations that were set up forquality control and testing.Every IDX was tested, ensur-ing that any IDX that wasshipped out was working. Ifthe IDX failed in the plant, itwas repaired and retested.

There were some small littlethings that caught my eye:The first one was a slant tophopper feeding coins into theIDX on a continuous loop. Iwas told that they have

burned out two hopper mo-tors and still not have put adent into the IDX case. Theother was the workstationwhere every single IDX wastested on a computer for ac-ceptance before it getsshipped out.

The Selector

The October 2003 issue ofSlot Tech Magazine carriedan introduction to the new X-20 coin Selector. I was in-formed, in greater detail, onthe operation of and the mo-tive behind this product by agreat innovator and the brainsbehind all these products,Scott Juds. Ron Troeger (IDXtrainer/sales of Colorado andsurrounding areas) and I spentsome time with Scott discuss-ing this neat tool. Scott alsowas willing to listen to ourpoint of view on how to makethis product even better andmore “technician friendly.”The great thing about thisSelector was how accurateand fast this item is capable ofcoin programming. This is avery easy tool to use but thegreatest thing about it is thatit is “idiot proof.” You cannotalter in any way, shape orform, any of the values in the

The burn-in bench


Selector, thus making it easyto reprogram to the correctdenomination and codes ev-ery time. This tool has anumber of different down-load and upload abilities thatmake it great for the techni-cian while providing the se-curity needed for all GamingCommissions.

The Xaminer

The Xaminer is another use-ful tool for the technician.Without pushing a cart with alaptop on it or lugging aroundthe laptop itself, this handyhandheld computer providesa graphical interface to helpdiagnose and configure yourXeptor. Using the Xaminer,you are able to examine op-erational parameters, view allself-diagnostic informationand the proper operation ofthe most important parts thesensors.

Hologram or H-mark tokens

Other products that are indifferent stages of productionand marketing are the newH-Mark hologram tokens withmany unique designs. Youcan have any design manu-factured into the H-Mark in-cluding your company logos,faces, animals, sights of yourcity, landmarks and promo-tional events. I was so im-pressed by these hologramtokens that I scheduled ameeting with my GeneralManager to introduce andshow off the sample tokensthat I had received on my trip.There are many possibilitiesfor using these tokens formarketing. You can read all

about all theseproducts atwww.idxinc.comand/or consultany IDX rep likemy new friendRon.

A d d i t i o n a lTraining

Having a fullplate in my normal job as atechnician, most times I donot have as much time as Iwould like to actually trouble-shoot and test these accep-tors on a bench or in a game.This time however, I was ableto spend some quality timewith Ed Dixon who took thetime to show me stuff that Ialready knew and stuff aboutwhich I did not have a clue.Most importantly, he ex-plained in detail what thefigures reported by the Xeptormeant and how to interpretthe readings for troubleshoot-ing. Ed covered the theory onthe IDX’s acceptance, differ-ent angles, codes, values, anda lot of dos and don’ts whenremoving parts and reassem-bling them. One thingthat I now know is how tointerpret what all the let-ters and numbers meanwhen testing and trouble-shooting the IDX. On theIDX, I have always had aproblem reinstalling theribbon cable on the back.When I first arrived, Iasked to be taken to thatspecific workstation. Iwanted to see exactly howthis was done to see if itwas a problem, or justme. Well to make a longstory short, the young

lady had no problems, butthen again she has done thesethousands of times.

Off Topic

There was more to this storythan just going down southto visit IDX, INC. and report-ing about a small companythat is making an impact inthe casino industry. I wasalso invited to the IDX annualChristmas party for all theemployees and vendors. Theunique thing about this wasnot just that the employeeswere able to have a great tur-key meal presented by thecompany but they partici-pated in the festivities thathappened afterward. After

Scott Juds is presenting James Halseywith one of the latest patents (framed)to be hung in the boardroom for every-one to see

Happy IDX staff members at the ChristmasGathering

the meal, the managementteam all suited up and be-came dealers in some funand games. Every employeewas handed $40,000 in playmoney and was given thechance to build their moneyup to outbid other employeesfor gifts. I can honestly saythat no employee went homeempty handed and manyneeded a pickup truck tobring merchandise backhome. I was lucky enough toboth deal and bid on someitems that I donated back tothe employees.

I must mention Frances. Iwas told that the day afterChristmas, she begins theChristmas shopping for thenext year’s party. What isamazing is that she usuallybegins at 3:00 in the morningthe day after Christmas whenthe sale signs go up.

Sales/Training

During my four-day road trip,I met many of the IDX (so Ithought) sales team mem-bers. Later I found out thatthey not only they sell andpromote IDX and its prod-ucts, they are also selling andpromoting Osborne’s tokens.

Ed Dixon (Production Manager/Technical Support) with RonTroeger (Manager of the RockyMountain Territory for training andsales)


Two separate companies,employing the same person.What a great idea. Now thesame person has been trainedon how all acceptors functionand also has been trained onhow tokens are minted. Thiseliminates a customer ask-ing about a problem with theacceptor and having the sales-men blame it on the tokenmanufacturer. This conceptputs the customer in contactwith an individual that un-derstands the technologyused in both the acceptorand token manufacturingprocess. Now the person canguide the customer on whatneeds to be done to completethe transaction. Why not? Thetwo products go hand andhand.

To The Management of IDX,INC. - Thanks

I could mention every em-ployee that worked at IDX forthe kindness and hospitalityto make my stay feel likehome. I would like to thankJames Halsey for the ridefrom the airport and the trip.I was trusted to roam thefacilities without any restric-tions, taking pictures andchatting with employeesabout different aspects oftheir jobs. I was often askedabout my opinion and in-cluded in many discussionsthat I felt any other companywould of just blown me offand hidden me in anotherroom while things took place.I was also privileged to tons ofinformation and things thatmaybe I should not know butout of respect I will not re-peat. I was treated like upper

level management but best ofall, a human being, a brother,a son and an employee.

I cannot go without mention-ing Scott and Ron. We got tohang out for a couple of daysand had a great time doing it.I think we were all amazedthat the three of us clicked.Scott was another that re-spected me for myself and didnot talk down to me. Scott isa very knowledgeable personwho discussed things at mylevel so I could understandmany products and the op-eration of those products.Ron, what can I say abouthim (Colorado vs. Detroit andwe got along)? A former slottechnician turned salesmanfor IDX; he was basically withme the entire time I was downgetting training. Ron alsodrove me back to the airportfor my flight and sat aroundthe four hours until his flightwas ready to leave after mine.Lastly, I have to mention bothTina Rogers and BritanyTempleton (standing in frontof the building). These twoindividuals helped me greatlywhen working to put this ar-ticle together. I have to admitthat Tina is one of the hardestworkers that I have met. Shewas on top of everything andknew everything that wasgoing on. One of the mostthoughtful people that I havemeet, she went out the nextday and bought me an Ar-kansas Razorbacks baseballhat, wrapped it and gave it tome the day of the ChristmasParty because I had seen oneon somebody else. This is justthe tip of the iceberg of manyof the wonderful people that

I have met and the storiesthat were told to me.

Overview

During my short time at IDX,I wanted to experience manydifferent processes in thebuilding, testing and repair-ing of the product that I could.I also knew that IDX was alsoin the car wash market butdid not know the extent of theproducts produced at theplant. I was caught off guardwith the displays, timers, andother numerous productsthat were produced, and evenmore surprised that the IDX’scoin acceptors were also in-stalled in car washes righthere in Windsor, Ontario.Knowing myself and my curi-osity, I would have done thisfor JCM, IGT, Ceronix, or VCSlots. I was a bit disappointedthat I wasn’t able to spendany time in the repairingworkstation. This is where mytroubleshooting senses weremost aroused. I also wantedto build from scratch my ownIDX. Again, this is anotherthing that makes my brainclick to satisfy my curiosity.The trip was just the surfaceof what other things I couldhave experienced with thelimited amount of productiontime that was available to me.It was an honor being an in-vited and a pleasure being aguest.

- Kevin Noble - [email protected]



By Herschel Peeler

Bally S6000 Part 3

Our look at Bally'sS6000 concludeswith a look at the pe-

ripheral boards.

Reel Driver Boards

The Reel Driver board ismounted on the reel mecha-nism itself. It accepts logic

level signals (ground or +5 V)and converts the signals tohigh current drivers designedto drive Stepper Motors inthe Reel Mechanisms. Thismoves these high current,high temperature, high fail-ure rate devices off of theMPU board; minimizing MPUboard failures and giving thegame better flexibility of de-sign.

Coin-In Board

The Coin-In Optic Board hasits own microprocessor (aPIC16C54). This is a one-board design. Where Will-

iams and IGT (and most oth-ers) use two boards, Ballyjust needs one. On mostmanufacturers, one board hasthe LEDs and thePhototransistors are lined upopposite the LEDs on anotherboard. On the Bally board,both the LEDs andPhototransistors are on thesame board. The LEDs shinethrough the Coin In path, hita prism and bounce back tothe Phototransistors.

Unrelated to the Coin-In func-tion, a transistor on this board(Q3) controls power to theCoin Comparator.

Deluxe Sound Board

The Deluxe Sound Board alsohas its own microprocessor, aZ80. This is one of the verypopular 8-bit microproces-sors of an era before the IBMPC XT. Anybody rememberCPM, Osborne, or the RadioShack’s first computer (TRS-80)? This is an option andmay not be present on allgames.

XS-1200 Hopper

Last but certainly not least,we come to Bally’s hopper ofchoice, The XS-1200. This isprobably one of the best hop-pers on the market (okay, inmy opinion). The mechanism

was originally an Asahi-Seikodesign, but it is Bally’s Hop-per Control Board that reallymade it magical. The hoppercontrol board is also micro-processor based. This boardhas been redesigned a num-ber of times, sometimes us-ing a PIC16C84, sometimes aMotorola MC68HC05. The mo-tor driver circuit may have anumber of variations, but op-eration has always been aboutthe same. There is a circuitthat monitors motor current.When the hopper jams dur-ing a payout, the micropro-cessor senses the increase inmotor current (caused by thestalled motor) stops the mo-tor and puts the motor inreverse in an attempt to

unjam itself. It will repeatthis forward and reversedance a number of times be-fore admitting it is reallyjammed. Most of the time, itwill successfully unjam itself.

The Tech Manual for thisgame is stuffed with partsbreakdowns and part num-bers for most of the modifica-tions we run in to. The excep-tion might be parts unique toWide Area Progressives. It listsmost of the Standard Optionsfor Coin Comparators (3 pagesfull). There are three trans-formers for operation in vari-ous countries. Various towerdesigns are shown for variousjurisdictions. Parts break-down for the various Bill Ac-


ceptors available for use areshown. In general, Bally justmakes a darn good techmanual.

The manual is separated upinto sections. Each sectionmay be purchased separatelyif you wish, at about $20 asection (last time I looked).The Glass and Decals sectionis the thickest. This is a verywell documented listing ofglass, decals and overlays formost of the games the S6xxxfamily can be made into. A bigthing to point out here: If youthrow away a piece of glass,note the part number andremove decals and stickers.Having the part number suremakes ordering another oneeasier and the new glass willnot come with decals andstickers.

One of the smallest sectionsof the manual is “PeriodicMaintenance.” This containsa suggested list of preventivemaintenance procedures thatshould be followed. Yes, weshould. No, we don’t.

There is also a Glossary thatdefines terms used in thegaming industry as Bally usesthem. Very good. An educa-tion in itself!

In Conclusion

Once you have learned a fewof the major manufacturer’sboards at the electronics level,you will realize that mostother games are similar toIGT, Bally, or Williams. If youknow these games well, mostother games will be easier tolearn. The older Williams

games (550 and before) arevery much like an IBM PC XT.The Williams lamp circuitdesign is a holdover from theirpinball days. Older Ballygames are more like aMacintosh. The 8032 seriesof IGT games are all builtaround the MCS-51 family,the 8031 / 8051 and its fam-ily members are popular inmany industries. To makethings even more standard,most of the newer games com-ing out are IBM PCs on theinside (William’s Bluebird,IGT and Bally new games). Ifyou get comfortable with anIBM PC Pentium II or III youwill be in familiar water withmost of the new games.

Where most of the oldergames are too small for it,most of the new games are

built around familiar operat-ing systems (DOS, Windowsor UNIX-like operating sys-tems). In short, there is little

original or creative in thegames. The more familiar youget with them the easier newones are to learn.

- Herschel [email protected]



PAR Excellance Part 2

By John Wilson

In our continued examina-tion of PAR sheets, we’regoing to create our own

slot game. We will workthrough all of the details con-

tained in its correspondingPAR sheet. Various manufac-turers create their PAR sheetsin different formats but theyall contain the same basicinformation. While onemanufacturer may includemore or less information thananother (such as projectedgame play and revenue,graphs and charts) the com-mon information required bygaming commissions and ca-sino management is includedin each one.

A module of VC Slots will beused in order to create a cus-tom slot machine game for

this article. We’ll generateour own PAR sheet and dis-cuss the most common itemsthat you’ll find in the sheetsat your casino. While wejourney through the tables,columns and formulas, we’llinclude some definitions sothat you know exactly whatthe terms used represent.

Design a Game

Let’s make a simple 3-coinmultiplier game. Calling ourgame Blazin’ 7’s will createsome red-hot player action.

The first thing we have to do

Figure 1 - The Payglass

Figure 2

Slot Tech Magazine

is determine what symbolswe want to use, how we wantthem placed on each of ourthree reels, and how they willbe distributed on the reels -both physically and virtually.It can be quite a bit of work tocreate a working game butfortunately, just like the cook-ing shows on TV, I have one inthe oven that’s just about fin-ished. It uses three barsymbols and single anddouble red 7s. Figure 1 showsthe payglass that has beencreated for this game.

Reviewing last month’s ar-ticle we’ll examine the basicinformation and determinethe game type. We discussedthe formulas for coin-in, coin-out, hit frequency and pay-out percentage so we won’texplain them again thismonth.

Overview

Figure 2 shows our PAR sheetoverview for Blazin’ 7s. Itcontains all of the game sum-mary information, thepayglass and belly glassgraphics, the three reel stripslisting and some projectionson casino income.

Some of the most importantinformation provided isshown below:

3-coin multiplier, 3 reels, 64-stops per reel. Cycle =262,144 (64x64x64) Coin in= 262,144 combinations x 3coins max = 786,432 Coinsout = 727,215 (from tableshown later on) Payout per-cent = 727,215 / 786,432 =92.47016% Winning gamesper cycle = 44,100 (explainedlater on) Hit Frequency =44,100 / 262,144 = 16.82%

This game is your basic 3-coin multiplier with a bonus

paid for the 3rd coin. Wewould expect each coin tohave the same hit frequencyand the 1st and 2nd coinpayout percentage to be thesame. With 500 credits forthe 1st coin jackpot & 1000for the 2nd coin, the 3rd coinjackpot should pay 1500coins. We pay 2000, giving anextra 500 coin bonus. The3rd coin payout percentagewill therefore be slightly

higher than the 1st and 2nd.The first and second coinpayout is 85.6% and the 3rdcoin payout is 92.47%. Theextra 500 coin payout raisesthe payout percentage by6.87%. Since the increase ismore than a couple of per-cent, there must be a num-ber of primary jackpots - inthis case there are 12 jack-pots per cycle. If we divide thenumber of jackpots by the


Figure 2

cycle, we get the averagenumber of games betweenjackpots (or the odds to jack-pot). 262144 / 12 = 21,845games.

In the past, most games havehad the same number of stopson each reel. With increasingjackpot amounts and extralarge bonus multipliers,many new games have vary-ing stops on each reel. Youmay find a 4-reel game fea-turing extra bonus multipli-ers and awards on the 4threel. This would have 64 stopson each reel with the 4th reelhaving 1000 stops. One re-cently introduced 3-reel gamehas 230 stops on the 1st reel,288 on the 2nd and 1024 onthe 3rd reel, for a cycle of67,829,760 games. With in-

creasingly complex games, be-ing able to read and under-stand a PAR sheet becomesvery important!

Our hit frequency is 16.8%(44,100 winning games /262,144) which is quite rea-sonable. As the value is thesame for each coin, this con-firms that this is a multiplier.If our game had a hit fre-quency of only 2%, it wouldbe too low to keep the players’interest very long.

Symbols and Reels

On your PAR sheets you willfind a basic symbol distribu-tion listing showing you whatthe reel strips look like. Theymay be graphical, in the caseof Figure 3, or text-based.You’ll also find a chart show-ing you the virtual reel striplayout (see Slot Tech Maga-zine, Jan. 2004) and the num-ber of stops for each reel.Figure 4 shows you our sum-

mary symbol table. The totaloccurrence for each symbolis listed as well as the percentfor each symbol. For example,there are nine double-barsymbols on the second reel,accounting for 9/64 = 14.1%of the total symbols. Glanc-ing at this information, youget a general feel for whichwinning combinations willoccur more frequently andhow often a jackpot will hap-pen. Blanks are found onless than 1/2 of each reel sothere should be a fairly gen-erous hit frequency on thisgame. With at least two jack-pot symbols on each reel, jack-pots will occur frequently aswell.

Figure 5 shows the same in-formation that Figures 3 & 4contain, but it provides a littlebit more detail. Here you cansee the actual virtual striplayout. This is the most mean-ingful method to me, but somemanufacturers may use a


Figure 3

Figure 4


slightly different format, suchas shown in Figure 6.

Volatility Index

We have created a VolatilityIndex for our game as shownin Figure 7. Our game has avolatility index of 23.127. Thismeans that the payout will

vary widely, most likely dueto the frequent low-payingmixed symbols and the fairlyfrequent jackpot hits.

We can test this assumptionby changing the basic play ofthe game. Let’s reduce thejackpots per cycle to 1 (from12). There are less blanks on

the reels than symbols. If wechange the smallest payoutof 2 coins for mixed symbolsto 2 coins for three blanks,we’ll reduce the frequency ofthis payout. These changesreduce our Volatility Index to10.805, confirming our as-sumption.

Figure 5


Remember that the VolatilityIndex tells us how varied thepayout level is going to be overtime. By limiting the range ofpayout (lowering the highpayouts and raising the lowpayouts) we will reduce thevolatility of the machine.

Removing the mixed symbolpayout altogether (and notreplacing it with a payout forblanks), our VI is reduced by0.003. This is hardly notice-able.

Reducing the number of jack-pots by 1/2 (down to 6) andleaving the mixed symbolpayout the same reduces theVI value by 6.327. This issignificant, proving that thefrequent jackpot hits are ob-viously a major factor in thedesign of this game.

The Heart of the PAR Sheet

The rest of the details arefound by analyzing each ofthe possible paying combina-tions for the complete cycle.Non-winning games aren’tshown in order to save spaceand winning combinationsare grouped together. Forexample, if there are 300 com-binations of single barpayouts, this payout will belisted only once but identi-fied as occurring 300 times.

Depending upon the manu-facturer, you’ll find a sectionlisting various details of eachpaying combination. Thebasic information you will findis the total number of hits,percentage of hits for thiscombination and the totalcoins out for each particularhit. You may also see thepercent of the winning spinsand the percent of the creditsthis payment makes up. Moredetailed listings will show youthe spins between wins (alsocalled Plays per Hit and Playsper Hit/Higher). You may (inthe case of our example) seea few graphs illustrating theinformation in a visual senseas well. A few manufacturerswill provide you with esti-mated revenue projectionsbased upon the payout per-centage of this game and es-tablished play levels.

We will go into this sectionand more in detail nextmonth. We’ll even have achance to compare our PARsheet with some actual gameplay to see just how close ourprojections were. Now thatwe’ve created a game with areasonable hit frequency andpayout, we can continue withour investigation.

- John [email protected]

Figure 6

Figure 7


The total number of ICE-registered visitors at ICE2004 was 7,322 - 14.6

per cent higher than the pre-vious year’s figure of 6,388 -setting a new record-high forthe London casino show. Inaddition, a further 10,453ATEI-registered buyers (over70 per cent of the total ATEIattendance) crossed over intoICE, giving the InternationalCasino Exhibition a total at-tendance of 17,775, an 18.7per cent increase on the pre-vious year’s figure of 14,970.

ICE 2004 was the most inter-national in the show’s his-tory, with visitors travellingfrom 101 territories (98 in2003) six of which - Bermuda,Ivory Coast, Macau, MalagasyRepublic, Mozambique andthe US Virgin Islands - wererepresented at ICE for thevery first time. ICE also wel-comed back its first visitorsfrom Mongolia and Tunisiasince 1999 and its first visi-tors from Jamaica andLiechtenstein since 2000.The total number of territo-ries represented by ICE visi-tors over the last decade (since1995) now stands at 151.

International

The number of internationalvisitors, who accounted for62 per cent of the total ICE-registered attendance, roseby 9.1 per cent to 4,322. Afurther 3,690 internationalvisitors crossed over fromATEI, giving ICE a total over-seas attendance of 8,012.Constituting more than halfof the total attendance, ICE-registered visitors from conti-nental Europe numbered3,433 - up 6.2 per cent on theprevious year.

There were no fewer than 889intercontinental casino buy-ers, up 21.9 per cent on theprevious year’s figure of 729.

Significant increases in visi-tor numbers were recordedfrom North America (up 33.8%to 475), South & CentralAmerica (up 20.8% to 116),Australasia & Pacific (up37.5% to 77), Southern &Central Africa (up 44.9% to71) and Asia (up 166.7% to24). The number of ICE-reg-istered UK visitors rose 26.5per cent to 2,920, a figurewhich rises to 9,683 if includ-ing ATEI-registered visitors toICE.

Individual Nations

34 of the top 50 internationalvisitor territories either in-creased or maintained theirrepresentation at ICE 2004.

Slot Tech Show Report

New Location Gives ICE2004 Extra Edge!

Karen Thompson, IGT, with a selection of their games.

By Martin Dempsey

“On behalf of Table Mountain Casino I just wanted to express our thanksto you and your team. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Brian Rankin - Slot Technical Manager

On-Site Slot Tech TrainingCustomized Classes Available


After the host nation, Spainwas the most representedcountry at ICE 2004 with 386visitors. A year-on-year in-crease of 24.5 per cent helpedSpain move up two places totop slot in the overseas visitorterritory rankings. Last year’stable-toppers, the Nether-lands dropped five places af-ter a 10.5 per cent decreasein the number of Dutch visi-tors (332). Also moving uptwo places were Austria(fourth to second; visitors up21.9% to 356), the USA (fifthto third; visitors up 40.9% to355) and Slovenia (eighth tosixth; visitors up 48.5% to239). A marginal decrease ofGerman visitors (down 6.3%to 343) saw Germany droptwo places in the table, fromsecond to fourth place.

Increases

The remaining top 10 placesin the table were filled byseventh-placed Sweden (197visitors, up 30.5%), eighth-placed Italy (179 visitors, up4.7%), ninth-placed RussianFederation (174 visitors, up32.8%) and tenth-placedFrance (164 visitors, down21.2%). Further significantincreases in visitor numberswere recorded by: Canada(118 visitors, up 14.6%), Swit-zerland (84 visitors, up44.8%), Australia (76 visitors,up 35.7%), South Africa (56visitors, up 86.7%), Latvia (54visitors, up 80.0%), Malta (51visitors, up 45.7%), the Slo-vak Republic (35 visitors, up59.1%), Poland (29 visitors,up 45.0%), Croatia (28 visi-tors, up 86.7%), Romania (23visitors, up 109.1%) and

Gibraltar (23 visitors, up91.7%). The net floor space inthe new Earls Court 2 loca-tion was 10,000 sqm; therewere 166 exhibiting compa-nies; 102 (61.4%) exhibitorsfrom outside the UK and 31nations represented by ex-hibitors. The Best StandAward went to Bourgogne etGrasset; the Merit Award to

XN Entertainment and theBest Press Pack to Novomatic- Austrian Gaming Industries.ICE 2005 will take place atLondon’s Earls Court Exhibi-tion Centre on 25, 26 and 27January 2005.

Quotations

TCS John Huxley - “There

The TCS John Huxley team had a very busy show at ICE 2004.

Sandra Kaiser, Amatic with Pharao.


was no doubt that major ex-citement was drawn by theInternational Casino DealerChampionship - with dealerscompeting for a trip to LasVegas and their place in theworld finals. The dedicatedtournament area consistedof roulette and blackjacktables featuring the ChipperChamp Plus and King shuffler- and was sponsored byNovomatic Group of Compa-nies, Shufflemaster Gaming,Paltronics and Fournier. Thedealer taking first place wasPeter Sweet from GrosvenorGloucester Casino.”

WMS Gaming - “Our ergo-nomically designed Bluebirdcabinet was well received byall who visited our booth.Customers were enthralledby the high-quality graphicsand colours of the new games,as well as by the excellentquality of sound delivered bythe Bose Free Field directedaudio system installed in ev-ery Bluebird cabinet. Theexciting sensory enhance-ments added to WMS’s inno-vative and entertaining gameplay to keep the games andthe booth packed with ex-cited customers for the dura-tion of the show.”

Mikohn Europe - “Fire andIce was our stand theme andwe certainly had the sparksflying during a very busyshow. Our visitors were verypositive about Power Cashand our new Elite Displayseries. MediaLink and ourManagement SystemCasinoLink were also a hit,with orders being signed onthe stand.”

Some Exhibitors

TCS John Huxley had one ofthe busiest stands at the ICE,showing a wide variety ofequipment including roulettetables and the e-FX tablegaming displays. They alsohosted the TCS John HuxleyInternational Dealer Cham-pionship which attractedhuge crowds to their stand.

WMS Gaming presented theirnew Bluebird cabinet and arange of machines includingX Marks The Spot, Toast OfThe Town, Quackers and WildWilderness. They demon-strated their CPU-NXT oper-ating system which providesenhanced graphics. You canalso buy an upgrade CPU-NXT kit to upgrade and con-vert games in the 550 cabi-nets.

IGT tripled the size of theirstand and showed over 200machines including a new

product - IPC, which is aprogramme which hooks upIGT machines on 5c, 10c and20c play. They also showedReel Touch - five reel ma-chine which has a 15" LCDtouchscreen video screen sothe player can play reel andvideo. These machines canalso be changed from 1c to 5cto 10c to 20c play.

Novomatic / Austrian Gam-ing Industries showed theirnew Gaminator state of theart electronic gaming ma-chine with games includingRoller Coaster, Rock The Croc,Marco Polo and Venetian Car-nival.

Amatic showed Pharao, Rou-lette Grand Jeu, FlyingDragon and Ring of Fire.

Franco Gaming presentedMoney Tree, Cashin’ In,Double Platinum 777 andBuried Treasure.

John Murphy, Service Gaming Europe with GeWeTe change machines.


Capital Gaming showed theirmechanical roulette which isinterchangeable to a sixplayer horse racing game anda card game.

R. Franco exhibited theirrange of machines includingLots Of Cash, Hot 7s andOlympic Gold. They alsolaunched Olympic Super Fivefor the Irish market which isa five reel model.

Cammegh showed a selec-tion of their roulette wheelsincluding Classic, Slingshot,Connoisseur and Mercuryranges and their Matrix dis-plays.

Bally Gaming & Systems pre-sented more than 60 excitingnew reel-spinning and videoslots and an expansive casinomanagement system.

Kimble presented their SpeedPCB, Match n Win poker anda wide range of reconditionedslots which they have becomeexperts in supplying. Kimbleare widely regarded as one ofthe biggest and best suppli-ers of high quality recondi-tioned slots worldwide.

And speaking of Kimble . . .

Kimble (Ireland) has an-nounced the launch of theirnew Match and Win poker.Designed to run on their newSPEED games developmentplatform, Match and Winpoker boasts stunning graph-ics and quality stereo sound.

Most well known for the saleof reconditioned slot ma-chines into the casino sector, The Kimble team presented their SPEED games platform at ICE 2004

Kimble has years of experi-ence developing successfulpokers for the Irish and En-glish markets.

The game will come in twoformats, one for the interna-tional market and one for theEnglish AWP market. Bothhost a new and exciting sec-ondary game that allows play-ers to double their money upto five times. The players areshown a screen containingthree rows of cards. The topand middle rows have 5 cardseach and the bottom 3 cards.

The idea of the game is toselect a card from the middlerow. If you match a card from

the top row, you double yourmoney; match a card fromthe bottom row and get apush. This allows you to con-tinue the game without los-ing or winning. Match all fivecards and receive a bonus.

The poker game plays justlike any other jacks-or-betterpoker with a familiar feel thatplayers can easily relate to.

Kimble’s Match and Win pokerwill go on general release atthe end of March.


The presentation of thefirst Mary OpenshawMemorial Award for Ex-

cellence is set to be a high-light of Ireland’s 25th Coin-Op Expo - AmEx 2004, whichwill be held at the LynchGreen Isle Hotel, Dublin on 2& 3 March.

The award, which is spon-sored by Coin-Op News Eu-rope, will be presented eachyear to a person, company,association, publication orexhibition, involved in the in-ternational amusement in-dustry, in memory of the lateMary Openshaw, who workedfor many years as a journalistin the industry.

Ireland’s amusement andgaming industry has beenparticularly busy in recentmonths, ahead of AmEx 2004.The demand for a wide varietyof product has fuelled inter-est in the Irish market andrepresentatives of many Brit-ish based distributors havehad to visit Ireland more fre-quently in order to take careof customer requirements.

On show will be a selection ofamusement, gaming, noveltyand redemption equipment,all of which continue to playan important role in the fastgrowing Irish coin-op mar-ket. Jukeboxes, pool tables,

touchscreen games, pushers,cranes, kiddie rides, pinball,vending machines, currencyhandling equipment, sparesand accessories, will all bepresented by exhibitors.

The new Northern Irelandgaming legislation gives AmEx2004 an added boost and adefinite Northern Ireland as-pect. The legislation will al-

low the use of £25 all cashjackpot machines in arcadesand deal with a number ofother related issues. The on-going deregulation of the UKgaming industry will also havean effect on the trade in North-ern Ireland.

Southern operators havelearned to live with the 1956Gaming & Lotteries Act but

Slot Tech Show Preview

Presentation Of Award To BeHighlight Of Ireland’s 25th Coin-Op Expo


say that the introduction ofmodern legislation wouldboost the industry further,protect existing jobs, createadditional employment andencourage investment. Inspite of many broken prom-ises from successive Govern-ments in relation to updatingthe 1956 Act, the industryhas survived, bringing muchneeded amusement, leisureand entertainment facilitiesto Irish people and visitorsalike.

Visitors from all over Irelandand further afield will be pre-sented with a selection ofequipment to suit their re-quirements. In addition tothe exhibition there will be afull programme of seminars,meetings, business presen-tations and social gatherings,continuing the show’s repu-tation for bringing togetherIrish and internationalmanufacturers, distributorsand operators in a business-like atmosphere.

Seminars on Tuesday 2March will include KiddieRide Technical & Engineer-ing Seminar by SB Machinesfrom 12.30 to 13.30; DigitalAudio & Digital Video Juke-box Technical Seminar bySound Leisure / AutomaticAmusements from 14.00 to15.30 and Golden Tee 2005 -Sharing The Success byElectrocoin / Incredible Tech-nologies from 16.00 to 17.30and on Wednesday 3 Marchthere will be an NSM Chame-leon Product Presentation byNSM / Q Leisure from 11.00to 12.30.

Exhibitors at AmEx 2004 willinclude Almotech, Amuse-ment Machine Services,Amusement Sales & Service,Atari Expo, Brent Sales, Bri-tannia Leisure Services, CashAutomation, Conway Bros,Cromptons Leisure Interna-tional, Crown Direct,Electrocoin Sales, Excel Lei-sure, Franco Gaming / RSL,FX Simulation, Genesis, HappControls Europe, Harry LevyAmusements, ITM, J.H.S.Associates, Jaybee Blake,JCD, Kimble, Maggi & MaggiUK, Master Billiard Supplies,MDM, Mitchells ChildrensRides, Money Point, OasisRetail Services, Olympic SalesBundoran, Pat Gilson, Pre-mier Machine Trading, PoolIreland, Q Leisure, Rowe In-ternational Corporation,Sammy Europe, SB Ma-chines Leisure, Scan Coin,Sound Leisure, Spiros Poker,Star Leisure, Superleague(Ireland), Suzo International(UK), TCS Funtime, The DeithGroup, The Novelty CapsuleCompany, Thomas Automat-ics and Tobyco.

Trade media supporting theshow include Coin-Op News,CoinSlot International,EuroSlot, G3, Gametime In-t e r n a t i o n a l ,H i g h w a y g a m e s . c o m ,InterGame, Slot Tech, TRHZabavy, Vending Times andYour Guide. AmEx isorganised by MD Associatesand sponsored by IAEA - TheIrish Amusement EquipmentAssociation (Member OfEuromat). Opening hoursare from noon to 7pm Tues-day 2 March and 6pmWednesday 3 March.

For schematic diagrams,diagnostic programs, user

guides and more:

Visit theSlot Tech Magazine

FTP server

2.14 GB in 7,989 filesOVER 58 GIGs Served!Point your ftp client to:slot-tech-ftp.serveftp.comUserName = Slot TechPassword = kxkvi8

*NEW! - For the hopelesslylame and/or computer-impared (or for those ofyou behind a firewall and ahopelessly lame IT dude)the ftp site has been mir-rored on a webserver. Youlose the ability to down-load in batches but it's"point and click" using aweb browser.

The actual URL ishttp://slot-tech-

ftp.serveftp.com:8080/slottech magazine ftp mirror

or http://tinyurl.com/3h4u6

orjust follow the link on the

homepage atslot-tech.com


Slot Tech Electronics 101

Loaded to DeathHere’s a look at a real-

world troubleshoot-ing situation that

pops up fairly often and yetcan be more than a little con-fusing for technicians thatare just starting out in theworld of component-leveltroubleshooting in things likepower supplies and monitors.This specific example is takenfrom a monitor repair thatwas performed at a recenttech training class in NorthCarolina. Unfortunately, I wasunable to obtain a copy of theschematic diagram. The il-lustrations used in this ar-ticle are a simplified, com-posite representation of themonitor under discussion.

In this case, the monitor ap-peared completely dead. Thatis to say, there was absolutelyno raster. There was no de-flection of any kind. Therewas no high voltage (EHT).There was no glow in the neckof the CRT. There was noheater voltage.

Well, okay . . . There are anumber of things that mightcause this so let’s gather afew more clues. Is the moni-tor making any sound at all?

Is there a faint ticking or chirp-ing sound? No? Okay, thatpretty much rules out ashorted horizontal output

transistor, one of the morecommon failures that createsthe “dead monitor” symptom.

As the monitor is first ener-gized, is there a momentarysound of “static electricity” asthe high voltage comes on fora brief, scintillating momentand then shuts down? No?Okay, it’s not going into x-rayprotection (A.K.A. high volt-age shutdown).

So, it really is completelydead . . . Or is it?

Time to throw a meter on thepower supply and check theB+ (see June 2001 Slot TechMagazine). Hey! The B+ is toohigh when first measured butafter loading it with a 120volt, 25 watt incandescentlamp, it’s fine. It’s right where

it should be.* The monitor isnot completely dead at all.The heart of the monitor (theSMPS) seems, at first glance,to be perfectly fine. A quickrun down the other SMPSoutputs (+12 VDC for thevideo amplifier, oscillatorsand other integrated circuitsand +26 VDC for the verticaloutput stage) confirms thatthe switched-mode powersupply is completely func-tional. Time to move on andtake a look at where the realproblem must lie, the hori-zontal deflection circuit.

Horizontal DeflectionTroubleshooting

There are a number of differ-ent approaches that can betaken here. At the high end,sophisticated test equipment

Troubleshooting Techniques

*Why did I load the power supply? Remember that thehorizontal deflection circuit draws the vast majority of theB+ current. Clearly, the horizontal deflection circuit is notworking (no static sound, no raster) and so, without theload normally associated with the horizontal outputcircuit, the B+ rises. I do not suspect however, that this risein B+ is the cause of my failure because if it was, I’d haveheard the momentary static sound of the EHT coming onand then shutting down as the x-ray protector kicks in andshuts down the horizontal oscillator (see Slot Tech Maga-zine, February 2003 for more on x-ray protection). Con-necting the lamp between the B+ output of the SMPS andground creates a load on the power supply, allowing meto verify that the B+ is perfect. Wherever my problem lies,it’s not in the B+ power supply.


can be used for signal substi-tution. The August 2002 is-sue of Slot Tech Magazinecarried a feature aboutSencore’s remarkableHA2500 Horizontal Analyzerthat can substitute any of thedrive signals or power sup-plies in the horizontal outputcircuit. Sweet.

At the low end of things, thenovice technician might berelegated to simply testing allof the “testable” parts in thehorizontal deflection circuitwith the power off and replac-ing those (such as the hori-zontal IC) that cannot betested this way. This tech-nique allows novice techni-cians to repair the greatestnumber of failures with theleast amount of knowledge(and it's a great way to begin

learning about electronics re-pair) but it’s barely qualifiedto be called “troubleshoot-ing.”

Somewhere in-between is afairly simple, power-ontroubleshooting techniquethat can pinpoint most “no

horizontal deflection” failuresin just a few minutes, using aDMM to take a few key voltagereadings.

Start by measuring the DCvoltage at the collector of thehorizontal output transistor.WARNING: Never do this if


the horizontal deflection cir-cuit is functional. When thehorizontal deflection circuitis functioning properly, thecollector of the horizontaloutput transistor can have asmuch as 1200 volts on it, all-but-guaranteed to have adetrimental effect on yourmeter. If you draw a big arc asyou touch your meter lead tothe collector, you don’t havea horizontal deflection fail-ure.

What you’re expecting hereis one of two things: Zero volts- meaning you have a brokenconnection or open compo-nent between the B+ powersupply and the primary wind-ing of the flyback transformeror between the primary wind-ing of the flyback transformerand the collector of the hori-zontal output transistor - oryou will measure the sameB+ voltage at the collector ofthe horizontal output tran-sistor as you have coming outof the SMPS - meaning thatall of the above mentionedstuff is okay and you need tomove back toward the begin-ning of the horizontal deflec-tion circuit.

Logically speaking, the nextcheck would most likely be tosee if the horizontal outputtransistor has its base drivebut quite frankly, if it did,you’d most likely have highvoltage. Depending on thetype of meter you’re using,you might read around onevolt AC on the base.

So, assuming the base driveto be missing (or measuring itand finding it so) the next

step is to move back to theprimary side of the horizon-tal drive transformer andmeasure the AC voltage atthe collector of the horizon-tal drive transistor. The powersupply for the horizontal drivecomes from either the B+ orfrom the same +26 VDCpower supply that drives thevertical output IC so the volt-age here might be around50-60 VAC or 10-15 VAC de-pending on the design.

Your big clue here is AC. Ifyou have AC, the circuit’sworking. If you have DC, (ei-ther B+ or +26 VDC) it’s not.If you have zero volts, youhave a broken connectionbetween the +26 VDC powersupply (previously verified,remember?) and the hori-zontal drive primary circuit.Perhaps the resistor that isconnected in series betweenthe power supply and theprimary side of the horizon-tal drive transformer is open.In rare circumstances, theprimary winding might beopen.

In the example under dis-cussion, we had full DC onthe collector with no AC atall. Clearly, the horizontaldrive transistor was not oper-ating. Either the transistoritself is bad (certainly pos-sible but not too likely) or thehorizontal drive transistorisn’t receiving a drive signalfrom the horizontal oscilla-tor IC. A quick check on thebase of the horizontal drivetransistor confirms that thedrive is missing. The base ofthe horizontal drive transis-tor is sitting at zero volts AC

and zero volts DC.

Of course, you can see whatwe’re doing here. We’re start-ing at the output and workingour way back. Since there’snothing coming from the hori-zontal oscillator IC, either theIC itself is bad (WAY not likely)or one or more of the discretesupport components hasfailed (also not likely) OR wehave somehow lost power tothe horizontal oscillator IC,which is a much more likelyscenario. A quick DC voltagemeasurement confirms (inthis case) that the +12 VDCthat powers the horizontaloscillator IC measures at justa few volts DC. No wonder theentire horizontal deflectioncircuit is not working.

But hang on just a dangminute here. The +12 VDCpower supply was tested atthe outset of our troubleshoot-ing and was found to be good.What the heck has happenedto the +12 VDC between theoutput of the power supplyand the Vcc (the power sup-ply) input to the horizontaloscillator IC?

It’s pretty typical to see a lowohm, high wattage resistor inseries with low-voltage powersupplies. This resistor servesto limit inrush current and toact as a sort of protection de-vice in case something on theline shorts to ground. Insteadof dragging the power supplyall the way to ground andcausing the SMPS’s Over-Current Protection (OCP) tokick in (as it does when thehorizontal output transistorshorts) the series resistor will


either dissipate the energyas heat or will simply opencircuit. FYI, this will almostalways be a non-flammable,metal-oxide resistor.

Could this be what’s happen-ing here? Obviously the re-sistor isn’t open as we have afew volts DC. Let’s find thatpesky resistor and see what’sgoing on. A quick peak at theschematic and we find resis-tor R126 in series with the+12 VDC power supply be-tween the SMPS and the Vccinput of the horizontal oscil-lator IC. Even without a sche-matic diagram, this resistorwould have been easy to lo-cate. A wave of the hand abovethe component side of thePCB and you can feel theheat being generated by thisresistor.

So, here we have a resistorwith the full +12 VDC on oneside but only a few volts onthe other and while it’s pos-sible that the resistor mighthave increased in resistance(thus accounting for the se-vere drop in voltage) the factthat the resistor is really hotbelies that theory in favor ofthe REAL problem (and theactual point of this discus-sion) that something hasshorted and is loading downthe +12 VDC power supply.The +12 VDC supply has beenloaded to death. This is easilyverified with a quick power-off resistance check. The re-sistance between the +12 lineand ground is only 10 ohms.It should be thousands.Bingo! We can now do theremainder of the trouble-shooting with the power off.


All we have to do is find theshorted component.

This has now become veryinteresting. We began bytroubleshooting the inopera-tive horizontal deflection cir-cuit but unless the horizontaloscillator IC is the one loadingthe +12 VDC power supply,this may not be a horizontaldeflection failure at all.

Our next step is to look at theschematic in order to seewhere the +12 VDC powersupply goes and try to specu-late which component mighthave failed. This is one of theplaces that a schematic dia-gram is absolutely manda-tory for troubleshootingquickly. We’re looking for com-ponents that are likely to shortcircuit so we can rule outresistors. When resistors fail,they open circuit or rise inresistance. Electrolytic capaci-tors are also low on my list ofpotential failures. Althoughan electrolytic capacitor canshort-circuit, in my personalexperience, it is unlikely.

That having been said, a peekat the print reveals that the+12 VDC power supply snakesaround the monitor to thehorizontal/vertical IC and thesync amplifiers. It also goes tothe neck board where thevideo amplifier circuits live.One of the ways to locate theshort circuit is to “divide andconquer.” You’re looking foreasy ways to disconnect theloaded +12 VDC line in orderto see which part of the circuitis still loaded and which isnot. Since the +12 VDC isconnected to the neck PCB

through a connector, this isa logical place to start in nar-rowing down the location ofthe short. With the connec-tor pulled, the excess load onthe main PCB disappears!We now know that the prob-lem lies on the neck PCB andnot on the main PCB wherewe have been doing all of ourtroubleshooting so far.

Have we been wasting ourtime? Absolutely not! Wehave been following the logi-cal process of troubleshoot-ing. When properly per-formed, good troubleshoot-ing techniques will alwayslead you to the fault. Guess-work works too. Sometimesit’s even faster. It’s never aseducational, fun or interest-ing.

On the neck PCB there isn’t

much that’s connected be-tween the +12 VDC andground. In fact there are onlya couple of capacitors and thevideo amplifier IC itself, inthis case, the ubiquitousLM1203. The caps werepulled and found to not beshorted. That only left theLM1203, which turned out tobe the actual cause of theproblem. Go figure! A short inan IC on the neck board inthe video circuit has causedthe symptom of “loss of hori-zontal deflection” which is atotally different section. Thecommon point here is ofcourse, the +12 VDC powersupply that is common to theboth of them. With theLM1203 replaced, the moni-tor fired-up and worked per-fectly.

- Slot Tech Magazine

BE A BETTER SLOT TECH

Come and spend 3 days at TechFest. With engineering and technical repre-sentatives on hand from the gaming industry’s leading suppliers oftouchscreens, bill validators, coin comparitors, hoppers and monitors, YOUhave a chance to ask about YOUR problems. You have a chance to get REALanswers to your questions, face-to-face with some of the most qualified tech-nical experts in the industry.

TechFest is for slot techs of all skill levels, from novice techs who want tolearn the basics of BV and hopper maintenance to advanced techs that needto brush up on monitor repair.

Visit the website at slot-techs.comfor more information

Space is limited - Register today!

TechFest 8 - Clinton, IA - March 9, 10, 11 2004TechFest 9 - Minneapolis, MN - May 4, 5, 6 2004

Make plans today to join the gaming industry’s top engineers, technicians, technical writersand instructors for 3 days of technical seminars and presentations thatwill enhance your performance as a technician and dra-matically increase your value to your employer.

TechFest 8 will be held March 9-11, 2004 at TheFranciscan University in Clinton, Iowa. TechFest 9will be held May 4-6, 2004 at Mystic Lake CasinoHotel, 2400 Mystic Lake Blvd, Prior Lake MN 55372.Registration fee for TechFest is $450.00 per per-son and includes lunch each day.

This is a technical presentation. The TechFest is gearedfor working slot techs and technical managers who are look-ing for a way to make a dramatic improvement in their un-derstanding of video slot monitors, touchscreens, billvalidators, hoppers and more with no-nonsense techni-cal presentations from:

lllll Coin Mechanisms, Inc. - Coin Comparitorslllll Astrosystems - Coin Validatorslllll MEI - Bill Validatorslllll 3M Touch Systems - Touchscreenslllll Sencore - Test Equipmentlllll FutureLogic (formerly Seiko) - Ticket Printerslllll IDX - Coin Validatorlllll Money Controls - Coin Validator/Coin Hopperslllll JCM - Bill Validatorslllll Ithaca - Ticket Printerslllll WMS Gaming - Slot Machines- PLUS - A special instructional series on video slot monitor repair presented byRandy Fromm

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

Slot Tech Magazine is strictly technical. As such, the magazine's contents are not timecritical. The repair information and technical data contained in past issues is just as validtoday as it was the day it was published.

Additionally, current and future articles more-or-less assume that readers are alreadyfamiliar with what has been covered 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, international[ ] 2 year subscription, domestic[ ] 2 year subscription, international

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

c May 2001c June 2001c July 2001c August 2001c September 2001c October 2001c November 2001c December 2001c January 2002c February 2002c March 2002c April 2002c May 2002c June 2002c July 2002c August 2002c September 2002

c October 2002c November 2002c December 2002c January 2003c February 2003c March 2003c April 2003c May 2003c June 2003c July 2003c August 2003c September 2003c October 2003c November 2003c December 2003c January 2004c February 2004

All single issues of Slot Tech Magazine are $10.00/ea.For further details on the contents of each issue,please refer to the website at slot-techs.com

Back Issues

inside slot tech magazine march 2004slot-tech.com/members/magazine/lores/march04.pdf · inside slot...

Documents