Mars BV fail on BB1

[teamclark4]

Spent many many hours on this.. Looking to you guys for any input.   


I have 7 Bluebird 1 videos. They all have Mars MEI Bill Validators Sc-6607 rs-232.  I have 2 different types of MEI interface boards (this is the pcb board that the yellow Mars BV head slides into). One type has the extra "easitrax" board on the bottom of the interface board (the one on the right in the pic) and the others ones don't (left in the pic).


If i take 1 machine and put in one of the interface boards that has the easitrax mini-board on it, the BV comes up fine and take money. If i take the other 6 Yellow heads and plug it into the same BB1 they all work. So i know that all the heads are good.


If i take the same machine that the mars BV works, and replace the interface board with the "non-easitrax" version, and reboot it, and use any one of the 7 "good" Yellow heads; i don't get a BV communication error but the BV head has solid "green-yellow-red" which per the manual means it needs to be reprogrammed.  I have 10 of these non-easitrax interface boards; none work, i know all 10 aren't bad.


It is my understanding that the only difference between the "easitrax" version of the interface board and non-easitrax is that the easitrax board allows a usb connection if you are using that. I am not using any usb connections to the bV. Just the standard rs-232 harness.


The back-board jumpers on the BB1 is set to J1 = 2+3  J2 = 2+3  J3 = 2+3 .. I have even changed J2 to "1+2" which fixed a problem in the past i had with a JCM/WBA bV. Didn't make a difference.


I tried doing a complete clear and reset while the non-easitrax board was in. No difference.


I also have printed the mars config-card where you use the #2 pencil and tell it what denominations to use. That kept coming back bad when i tried to feed that into the BV also.

Any ideas ?  other then get more interface cards with the easi-trax board attached ?


Thanks for any feedback.

[Blueridgeslots]

Take laptop with STS program and turn off Easitrax option then re-upload WMS bin to head.

The one Interface you have that has the Easitrax RF board on it is working that is why the heads work, they are all programmed for Easitrak.

No you can't just use a banana to reprogram, the unit needs the Easitax turned off with the STS

Also those Interface boards are a weak link and should be handled with static protection, have seen them go bad just sitting in games

You are lucky, they left one of the RF cards on the interface, we had 28 BB-2's all removed last year and had to buy the STS to get working or put UBA/WBA in

[teamclark4]

Jim,

Thanks for the response.. Makes sense.. That points me in the right direction.


 


Brad