New Life Games LLC
Homebrew Player Tracking and EFT Systems => NLG Homebrew Player Tracking and EFT Systems => Topic started by: Amechanic on November 13, 2017, 02:46:07 PM
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I was wonder what is needed to change the scrolling message on a Mastercom 250? I have two of these, and the message that scrolls is very generic.
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Ebay seller JJslots can do them for you. Just send him the chips, or entire unit and he can program. Did some for me, turned out great.
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I was wonder what is needed to change the scrolling message on a Mastercom 250? I have two of these, and the message that scrolls is very generic.
If you have a programmer you can pull the eprom, look for the message that it currently displays, change it to what you want, write this back to the eprom and you should be good to go.
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FYI you may not see the current message if you read eeprom, they like to encrypt it.
There are a few on here that can reprogram them, I normally can as well but being a Over road trucker,
make it hard for me to do these days
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What program do you need to write the message? Is it anything special?
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What ever your programmer uses.
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What ever your programmer uses.
I know I would use my programmer. My question is since I'm not loading a game file, but a message. I can't just type a message. Don't you need a separate program to use to write the massage in.
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just an idea,,,,,
To make the changes you use the same software that came with your eprom programmer to burn an eprom. It should have the ability to show you the eprom data and let you change it.
A lot of eprom programmers come with a software program that you install onto your computer to operate the eprom programmer. When you put the Mastercom eprom into the programmer and "Read" it the contents of the eprom are loaded into what they call a "Buffer", which is just some memory on your computer that the eprom data loads into. Then you can save that data to a computer .bin file so you can make a duplicate at a later time. But while the data is in the buffer most eprom programmer software will let you look thru the buffer to see the data, hopefully to see messages written in english. If you find the message in the data you can then edit it to say something else, within the space limits of how many characters they allow in the eprom. So you can change it to some other message that is the same length or a shorter length. The eprom data will be displayed in hex on one side of the screen and translated on the right side to ascii characters.
Anyway, that's the way I've seen it done. You may have to learn how your eprom programmer software works to see how it does edits. Once you edit the data in the buffer you can then "burn" it into a blank eprom of the same part number as the original eprom and see if it works. Be careful to not change anything except the message, you can easily get a corrupted file. As long as you save the original eprom and don't erase it you can always go back to where you started. If you don't have another blank eprom you could save the original eprom data to a computer file, then erase the original eprom and load your edited data to the erased eprom and try it. If you can't get it to work you should be able to load the original eprom data into the programmer and burn it back into the eprom, and get back to where you started.
On the GQ-4X you can use the computer keyboard arrows to move around in the buffer display and change the data and make your edits. You will need to get familiar with what hex numbers represent alphabet characters but that is easy. As you enter the new hex numbers you will see the ascii characters over on the right display change to what you are entering. Here is a screenshot of how it looks with the GQ-4X eprom programmer software. To get you started, enter a hex "20" for a blank space, hex "41" for "A", hex "42" for "B", etc. You can google a chart that shows hex-to-ascii conversion. The numeric digits 0-9 can also be entered, every character on your keyboard has an ascii code number.
NOTE: if the scrolling message is encrypted inside the eprom then you won't be able to find it this way because it won't show up as readable english in the buffer ascii display. Also, when you change the contents of an eprom then its checksum will change. If the Mastercom unit checks the checksum of the eprom on its powerup test it may halt and give a fail. Sometimes the checksum is stored in the first or the last couple of bytes of the eprom, you can change them to the new checksum and that may let it pass the power-up test (if there is one). A lot of equipment does not do this kind of integrity test, I don't know if the Mastercom does.
(click image to enlarge)
(https://s33.postimg.org/tm7n9dhdr/GQ4_X_buffer.jpg)
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90% of the mastercom chips are encrypted and you will not be able to see or change the message. I use an earlier version that is not encrypted but you are subject to a specific number of total characters and you can not deviate from that. It's kinda a pain in the ass to do.
Rich
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Depending on the cost and how much you want to do this, the suggestion mvco gave about sending the eprom to jjslots to have him program your message may be a good option. You could have one eprom done, then duplicate it for any other Mastercom units you have.
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As long as the message you want is the same. Copying the chip after you have one made will work.
For my machines I like to customize them based on the theme of each machine. PM me if interested.
Rich
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I would be willing to do this for you for $5 per chip plus shipping. PM me if interested.
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Any of you programmers know how customize the LEDs on the card reader? Mine are all orange when idle. When you stick a card in, they’ll flash red for a few seconds and then go back to orange. If somebody knew how to get them to go green with a card inserted, THAT would be cool.
Jason
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I would be willing to do this for you for $5 per chip plus shipping. PM me if interested.
That's a good deal. I got a message from jjslots, if you send them the eprom they charge $10 to reprogram it, plus return shipping cost, which isn't a bad price either.