Author Topic: TITO on an Aristocrat MK6 machine? (Read 6788 times)

bogan · « **Reply #20 on:** December 20, 2019, 10:14:45 PM »

FWIW, I have another thread running here: http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?topic=26524.msg139360#msg139360 with details of what I am doing.

techtoons · « **Reply #21 on:** December 21, 2019, 01:55:00 PM »

I understand. no problem.

bogan · « **Reply #22 on:** December 21, 2019, 06:06:06 PM »

I found a US romset so I am going to try it. Just need to figure out what system roms it requires. Hopefully it is a SAS based game and works in the cabinet I have. Fingers crossed.

bogan · « **Reply #23 on:** December 22, 2019, 05:20:59 PM »

I am struggling to get the MK6 working with US SAS software. I dont fully understand the jurisdictional stuff you folk in the US have got going on. I am fairly certain I have some working SAS protocol machines in the test lab, so I will have a poke around in the new year. I might also chase up Ari and see if I can get some local software for the MK6 if they have any.

I also looked at the ASP stuff I have, its ASP1000, and looks like most of what is used around the world is ASP5000. I am not sure how different the 2 are either, as I really have not had much to do with ASP other than a brief on a job that never happened.

TedG · « **Reply #24 on:** December 23, 2019, 12:04:41 PM »

You can use the SAS tester to do any type of TITO. And writing a program is not all that hard.

bogan · « **Reply #25 on:** December 23, 2019, 03:13:46 PM »

Quote from: TedG on December 23, 2019, 12:04:41 PM

You can use the SAS tester to do any type of TITO. And writing a program is not all that hard.

Since its so easy, Can you write a program that does Tito on an Ari MK6 running SAS and ASP and interface it to the Bettor TITO system then.

bogan · « **Reply #26 on:** December 23, 2019, 05:40:38 PM »

I have ported most of my SAS code over to my new device now. My previous code was designed to run on microsoft platform, so its going to need some serious testing and tweaking!

In the new year I will head into the test lab and see if I can find a spare SAS machine to test it all on.

bogan · « **Reply #27 on:** December 23, 2019, 10:08:06 PM »

EDIT: Looks like the forum keeps eating my posts. Not sure what the deal is with the size tags. Most post is mostly lost. I'll try edit what I wrote.

Ok, so its finally dawned on me what I think the actual problem is, the US game I set up uses the Gamma/GamPro protocol. I thought that most US games used SAS because that has been my experience with machines imported from the US (20+ years in the industry).

I have never heard of Gamma/Gampro, but it looks like a predecessor of G2S

The easiest solution would be to use the SPC converter, but where is the fun in that? I want to learn GamPro protocol. My plan was sniff off the serial port to see if there was any data, but its a polled protocol like most others, so I need something to talk to the machine so I can sniff the raw data.

I am curious now, so if anyone has any info on GamPro I would be interested in hearing from you. The next option is to buy an SPC2 converter, but they are a bit expensive in Aus. IF anyone has one that they dont wont, let me know.

iwalker · « **Reply #28 on:** December 24, 2019, 08:01:51 AM »

On our side of the planet there has been very little traction on G2S.
Most of my machines talks SAS and Aristocrats ASP or SAS via protocol converters. Mk7 onwards do talk Gamma but have never seen that on a MK6 here.

I do have the G2S protocol docs from the time they were truly open source. Membership fees to get to current protocols specs are stupid expensive.

You may also want to have a look as these guys who make their test software for G2S freely available - [size=78%]https://www.radblue.com/[/size]

There are some online training modules for G2S standards here - [/size][size=78%]https://igacademy.com/courses/?course_tag=gsa[/size]

TedG · « **Reply #29 on:** December 24, 2019, 11:27:06 AM »

Quote from: bogan on December 23, 2019, 03:13:46 PM

Quote from: TedG on December 23, 2019, 12:04:41 PM
You can use the SAS tester to do any type of TITO. And writing a program is not all that hard.

Since its so easy, Can you write a program that does Tito on an Ari MK6 running SAS and ASP and interface it to the Bettor TITO system then.

Actually I most likely would be able to. I'm new here and am not familiar with the Bettor system. Although I do have a bit of experience with SAS and TITO. I wrote one for using a Keil MCB11U10. And I wrote IGT's SAS tester. Oh yeah, I invented many of the TITO functions in SAS.

bogan · « **Reply #30 on:** December 24, 2019, 04:06:09 PM »

Quote from: iwalker on December 24, 2019, 08:01:51 AM

On our side of the planet there has been very little traction on G2S.
Most of my machines talks SAS and Aristocrats ASP or SAS via protocol converters. Mk7 onwards do talk Gamma but have never seen that on a MK6 here.

I do have the G2S protocol docs from the time they were truly open source. Membership fees to get to current protocols specs are stupid expensive.

You may also want to have a look as these guys who make their test software for G2S freely available - [size=78%]https://www.radblue.com/[/size]

There are some online training modules for G2S standards here - [size=78%]https://igacademy.com/courses/?course_tag=gsa[/size]

G2S uptake has been slow (non-existent) here too. The only mob I know that use it is Intralot, and they have a SMIB which converts all the other protocols to g2s.

so when you talk about the Ari machines running protocol converters, I think you will find that the protocol between the EGM and the converter board will be Gamma.

techtoons · « **Reply #31 on:** December 24, 2019, 08:31:59 PM »

Thanks on the tip for the Audit menu. Only issue now is that both my Aristocrat machines came though with door keys but no audit keys. :/

I need one of those first

-Jay

bogan · « **Reply #32 on:** January 20, 2020, 10:36:57 PM »

As stated in the ARi thread, I cam across an SPC2.5. So over the next few weeks I will set up a machine with US Chips and the SPC and see if I can make sense of all of this.

Looking at doco for the SPC, it seems to me that its EGM -> GAMMA -> SPC -> SAS -> HOST SYSTEM. There is one GAMMA port on the SPC, and 2 SAS ports, which is pretty standard.

So the SAS part is no issue for me, worked with SAS before. But I am going to throw a comms sniffer on the GAMMA part and take a peek at what is going on.

techtoons · « **Reply #33 on:** January 25, 2020, 12:07:31 PM »

Somehow I missed parts of this thread earlier (holidays?).

TedG, writing a program sounds like a good challenge. I'm digging in with SAStest today to see what I get.

Thanks for the info.

techtoons · « **Reply #34 on:** February 11, 2020, 06:21:33 PM »

Update: I've installed an SPC 2.0 and an SPC 2.5 II board in my two machines. Using SASTest and Slots@Home, I've been intermittently able to either add credits (with slots@home), or validate a ticket to a specific value (Set in SASTest).

I'm looking to look over the transactions via a terminal program (Termie currently) to see if I can figure a few things out. My goal would be to have a screen my wife could just push a button and add credits.

On Termie, when I initialize the program, it gives a continuous stream of bytes. Depending on the port settings, it comes through either

? or two Hex bytes (can't recall exactly what, it was a couple of days ago.

I'm using baud rate of 19,200, 8bits data, parity bit (mark/space), and one stop bit. Two questions. Is this correct and what might the non-stop stream be? There is no machine activity (such as game start or finish).

--Jay

bogan · « **Reply #35 on:** February 11, 2020, 07:13:21 PM »

SAS Comms require a start bit. The way most people do that is by using MARK/SPACE parity, then set the parity bit on for the first byte, then off for subsequent bytes.

It is notoriously unreliable in windows version after windows 95 because you cannot be sure of when the first byte of data is shifted out of the Transmit register.

Can you post up some of the data that is being streamed? Its been a while since I have worked with SAS, but it can be configured to send data unsolicited such as meter(s), however I am fairly sure you still have to poll it for that data.

SAS Protocol is pretty easy to find now if you search around on google.

techtoons · « **Reply #36 on:** February 13, 2020, 10:44:08 AM »

Quote from: bogan on February 11, 2020, 07:13:21 PM

SAS Comms require a start bit. The way most people do that is by using MARK/SPACE parity, then set the parity bit on for the first byte, then off for subsequent bytes.

It is notoriously unreliable in windows version after windows 95 because you cannot be sure of when the first byte of data is shifted out of the Transmit register.

Can you post up some of the data that is being streamed? Its been a while since I have worked with SAS, but it can be configured to send data unsolicited such as meter(s), however I am fairly sure you still have to poll it for that data.

That seems to be the issue (start bit). Windows has been a pain in the butt since the beginning, with Microsoft's "we'll insulate you from the metal." Fine for game apps, but doing any serious inter-hardware communications.

In my early programming days I wrote a dll that let me talk to ports via assembly language from 16bit VB... then flat memory model happened and I gave up

The terminal program is a C# one from source forge. It takes in the stream until the buffer fills and it locks up. It just does 01 3F repeatedly. Here's what I see:

bogan · « **Reply #37 on:** February 15, 2020, 03:24:49 AM »

01 3F looks like a long poll. 01 being the poll address of the machine, and 3F being the function code. 3f seems to be a poll for a bill meter, its an odd one. Not sure why sastest would be sending that.

The whole microsoft model with hardware is actually very good, even though it is a pain in the ass. The idea was to abstract drivers away to prevent system instability. Its still possible to talk directly to hardware, you just need to write a driver though. The biggest hurdle now is microsoft driver signing; they want to make sure your driver does not crash their OS.

I am going to set up a machine next week with the SPC card, and I will probably first connect it to SASTest to refresh my memory on the protocol. I might also have a play with doing the more advanced EFT stuff (cant remember what its called in SAS) and see if we can integrate it into the Bettor system.

techtoons · « **Reply #38 on:** February 16, 2020, 09:26:26 AM »

Bogan,

I'd like to understand how Bettor works a bit better myself, as I've got a Bettor deluxe I earmarked for the MK6 gathering dust. I haven't been able to send an EFT value from SASTest to the machine, only validating tickets with a set value. I did send a credits from Slots@Home to the machine, but it then stopped working. I'm not sure what I changed that screwed that up, as I was experimenting with some different settings. There isn't a setup doc for Slots@Home that outlines the settings on the MK6 machine. I need to keep better (or any) logs of changes and see how things are working along the way. A doc for SASTest that outlines all the settings, tabs, and messages would also be good to have, though I haven't heard one exists.

bogan · « **Reply #39 on:** February 23, 2020, 06:40:31 PM »

I am about to set up my SPC2.5, just wondering what ports you used on the backplane techtoons? I think you mentioned your machine was a mk6?

The doco I have says p19 and p23 on the machine, but p19 on teh aussie cabinets is the SPI port, whereas the P14,P15 and p17 are the rs232 type serial ports (actually configurable via the CCB).

I am going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that its p15 because that is the port that is configured as RS232 by the comms config board.

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Author Topic: TITO on an Aristocrat MK6 machine? (Read 6788 times)