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Progressive Controllers and Displays => Mikohn Progressive Systems => Topic started by: wangok7 on June 15, 2016, 05:14:08 PM

Title: Need help with configuration and what to buy!
Post by: wangok7 on June 15, 2016, 05:14:08 PM
Hi guys, I am kinda new to this, and need your help with configuring both in-machine and external display for progressive.
The idea is to have both displays, what parts do I need and how do I configure them. We have all IGT pe+ machines.
From what I understand,
I might need CON2i or/and CHAM2+? 1x2 displays for the external, power supply for the display, display controller board, mini display
I was told by my boss to acquire necessary parts for progressive functionality to work, but I have no idea where to start and how to.
Is there a cheaper configuration than CON2i?


Many thanks for the help guys and gals! 
Title: Re: Need help with configuration and what to buy!
Post by: knagl on June 16, 2016, 10:33:39 PM
Are you looking to do individual stand-alone progressives for each machine, or a linked progressive for the Royal Flush (and/or other hands) that is shared by all of the machines?  Also, how many machines will be in the link (if it's a linked progressive you're going for)?
Title: Re: Need help with configuration and what to buy!
Post by: jay on June 17, 2016, 12:38:05 AM
I use a CON1 (cheap) to drive my progressives.
CON1s come in 8, 16, and 32 machine models. You can cascade these to run larger banks.
CON1s connect up to a LED5 with a 12cell in machine meter
CON1s connect up to a LED4 with a large sized external meter.
CON1s connect up to a gateway for integration to a PE+ for on screen progressive.
CON1s - do not do graphics

The LED5 (Link Extension Driver)  also known as a CHAM1 for a 12 cell in-machine sized progressive.
In a S+ there is glass made that takes these 12 cell meters. Its more rare than the glass without it.
In my S+ I hacked up my player tracking panel and reel shelf to make the display fit in this space.
I thought this was better than than buying special glass to accommodate the progressive meter.
I have a PE+ and have never seen an in-machine display used this way. Only on screen.

I have two LED4 units - the first is connected to a 1x2 - this is 1 panel high by 2 wide. The panels are 4" tall x 16" wide each. SO a 1x2 is 32" wide and 4" tall.
The second unit I have is a 2x8. This is double high (8" x 10'8") and I custom made the box. I am using 4 power supplies to drive this.
This unit started off its life as a 1x10 - circular unit. It was too heavy to take home so I took the parts.
The chip on the LED4 - can support up to 16 panels so you could have it deal with a very long sign, to change the length of the sign etc requires modifying the eprom chip. Wes Goodie and I documented what needs changing on the old site.

The gateway device takes the output of the CON1 and feeds a data line into the PE+ which allows for an on display progressive.






Title: Re: Need help with configuration and what to buy!
Post by: wangok7 on June 17, 2016, 11:07:02 AM
Thanks a lot for replying!


I'm looking to do linked progressive for the multi-poker game on IGT pe+ machines(for now, later on may add sigma, bally machines). Machines in the link can vary from 5 all the way up to dozens. But does the number of machines in the link affect the configuration?
I have been doing researches, but this is way above my knowledge. I was told by my boss there are three ways to do it, and the goal is to have both external big display as well as in-machine meters to show progressive amount.

1. CON2i /2. CON1i /3. CHAM2+
Is it possible that you can share some of your experiences on different ways of configuring it, as well as what parts are needed for each configuration and how much they would run for.
This is an important project for our company and your help is truly appreciated!

Most important of all, it comes down to where to get these parts for fair prices. We have been quoted very inflated prices. If you happen to know someone or some place, please refer me! Thanks
Title: Re: Need help with configuration and what to buy!
Post by: jay on June 17, 2016, 08:23:24 PM
Ok lets start at the beginning.
Your three choices for the PE+ are CON1, CHAMII+ or CON2i

ChamII+ is a standalone controller.  Note the +. It is the plus version of this controller that makes it stand alone.
It drives a small 12cell meter and goes in one slot or one PE+
In a PE+ you don't normally use the meter as it talks to the monitor and displays its value in the top award spot on the screen
You might be able to put the meter in a topper or something like that but usually this is not done.
it will not drive an overhead display.

On the PE+ motherboard (small board that the removeable MPU plugs into) has a 4 pin connector.
The pins are Coin in, Data in, unused, GND. I may have the order wrong. This 4 pin connector connects to the ChamII+

When a coin or credit is played on the PE+ a momentary short between Coin in and GND occurs and that tells the progressive controller to increment the progressive amount. When the top award is hit Coin in and GND short for a longer time and that tells the progressive controller that a jackpot has been hit. The Data in is how the controller displays the amount on the screen.

The CON1 is an older progressive - later replaced with the CON2i (the I stands for IGT)
There are several versions of the CON2 - that's why you need the I version. The CON1 is more universal in that it can pretty much talk to any type of slot.
The CON1 can be bought in several models - basically supporting 4,8,16 or 32 slots.

The connection to each slot is basically 2 wires. That is 1 wire from the input bus + a common ground to each slot.
Ie The 16 slot version has a 16pin connector and a ground.

The output has 8 pins - theoretically for 8 displays but you can cascade this to as many as you want.
You connect 1 wire off of the 8pin bus (doesn't matter which one) + ground to the LED5 or LED4 display driver.
The LED5 as per my last post is a 12 cell meter and the LED4 connects to the 4" x 16" panels (up to 16) for an overhead display.

With the PE+ you need to use a gateway controller that takes the display wire & Ground from the CON1 and connects to the Data In pin on the PE+ to display the amount on the screen.

With both the ChamII+ and the CON1 you can display messages intermixed with the progressive amounts.
The CON1 has an idle mode and different messages can be displayed from the messages that would display while the slots are being played.

The CON2i connects to CHAMII (non plus) and these devices either have a 12cell meter or connect to the PE+ without the meter to display the progressive on the screen. No gateway is required here.

The CON2i can also talk to a Supreme. A Supreme is a large overhead display made of panels. There are different versions of the panels - some are 4" x 16" like the ones used with the CON1+LED4 (but they are a different panel with higher density pixels) or they come in a larger format.

All 3 progressives are programmed with a dos based software package called PSP (no not play station). It requires a serial cable from the PC to the controller.
There is a slight modification to the serial cable (one set of pins are shorted) and is well documented in another thread.

The supreme displays also have their own serial interface and is programed by another package called Mikon Downloader. The downloader program configures the display properties. For instance you could have a graphic sequence of coins falling and a packman eating those coins, and you might have a small area on the right side of your screen displaying messages and a small portion on the left displaying the jackpot amount. The jackpot and messages amount comes from the CON2i but where they are displayed on the supreme and what graphics that are going on in the display are all programmed from the downloader program. They use a file format called PDF - and in this case it has nothing in common at all with Adobe PDF and probably predates adobe by about 20years. I think it stands for progressive display format.
As a side bar not a lot of people program their own graphics but there are a lot of graphic sequences floating around that people reuse.

As whom to buy these from. I know the Vegas Surplus dealers will charge a fortune to the casinos. I helped out the ElCortez about a year or so ago. They had a bank of PE+ with a CON1 controller and overhead display that had stopped working and they were in a panic. I walked them through diagnosing a simple cable issue but they had no spares on their test bench. Their regular dealer in Vegas wanted about $1100 for used CON1. When I went down there I brought one that I had picked up as a spare for $40 on ebay.

Most of the vendors on our home page have all sorts of progressive parts in stock. Joey (New Life Games) has a bunch of CON1 and CON2i's in inventory. As a side bar none of the vendors have bought a banner advert. These were all offered to these vendors for treating NLG members (in particular contributing members) fairly.











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