Ticket issue on cold boot

[Yoeddy1]

Guys, here’s a weird one.  So lately, if I power up my machine (first time of the day) with my NXT3.2 with Wonka installed, it boots up fine, with no errors.  However, if I try to insert a ticket, my WBA 13 will never accept a ticket.  I can drop tokens in all day long.  Rebooting the machine, reinstalling the WBA 13, resetting the TITO...nothing will get it to take tickets. 


Now if I reformat the drive, load up the game, and configure TITO again, that will bring it to life and it works great.  But when I shut the game down for the night and come back the next day, I power it on, and it boots up error free.  I put a ticket in, and it gets rejected.  Reformatting will bring it to life.


So is something in the cmos getting corrupted?  I’m going to put new batteries in the MPU.  Is there a checksum or diagnostic that can be run against the WBA 13?  What should the battery voltage be?


Any help would be appreciated.  I’m going to put my NXT2 in to see if that’s doing the same thing.


Jason

[rickhunter]

If you are using Bettor Tito, are you powering using the USB port on the MPU, or an a/c usb adapter?  The reason I ask it's because I've had all kinds of issues doing that, so now I just power it up using the little ac plug/usb the bettor tito ships with.

Also if you power down with credits, and power up, can you cash out with a ticket or does it do handpay?  If you go to handpay at cashout, then the TITO board is not booting up or not communicating with the host. 

[iramack]

Jason,

It may just be the "cold" part you mentioned.  On my BB1/NXT3 cabinet, the BV always rejects tickets until it warms up a bit.  I think the belts on the transport have stretched or something???

I can usually override this cold behavior by gently pushing the ticket along as the BV grabs it.................it needs a steady speed to read properly.  Also, after too many "rejects" the BV will stop working anyway, and will need a power cycle, which I do by pulling the head out just a bit and re-seating it.  I know I know not best practices but WTH.................

Give that a try...........

SM

[rickhunter]

Steve, if they are WBA's have you tried replacing the rubber "washers" on the rollers that take the bill?  They tend to dry over time.  I've replaced them on most of my validators and I hardly have validators misreads now.

[Yoeddy1]

I’m testing Rick’s theory.  I had the usb cable plugged into the MPU.  Going direct to another power source.  What’s strange is that a reformat brings everything back to life.


I’ll report back tonight.


Jason

[qbert]

Reformat probably works because the TITO is already powered up and ready. Whereas it's just powering up on the cold boot

[Yoeddy1]

So in theory, if the problem happened with an NXT2 MPU...issue with the WBA?  That would rule out that the WBA and TITO are working. 


If the issue doesn’t happen with an NXT2? 


Thoughts?  Could the problem be battery voltage?


Jason

[Yoeddy1]

Also, my WBA never rejects a single ticket after the machine’s been reformatted.  So the transport seems to be fine.  Seems like logic somewhere.


Jason

[Yoeddy1]

Rick was right.  There must be a bandwidth issue having a dongle, Emotive controller, OLED control panel, and TITO, all plugged into the MPU USB ports.  Taking out the TITO and putting it in it’s own path resolved the problem.  Ticket was accepted fine on a cold boot. 


Jason

[qbert]

I believe the reason is the nx3 box does not turn the usb port on instantly when turned on so the TITO is essentially late because the rest of the machine has booted before the TITO has a chance to power up. I don't think it's bandwidth.
Rich

[rickhunter]

The issue is probably current related.  The OS sometimes do not provide full power to the usb ports.  Some OS' will not provide full current on the USB port unless a data line is present on the device.  Since the Bettor Tito only uses USB for power and not data, it is likely that once the OS has saved the configuration after setup, that on next boot, it knows not to send full power to that port since it doesn't have a data line. That is usually at least the way USB ports are  deployed in Linux.  Also the NXT mpu's were not really meant to power anything, they are just data entry points for the misc devices (Printer, OLED panel, Emotive, etc) which are all typically powered by the cabinet, so the USB ports do not have the 1 amp ports most modern laptops/PC's have nowadays (some even have 2 amp ports).  The standard USB Spec for 2.0 ports is .5 amps or 2.5 watts. 

[Yoeddy1]

Yeah, the strange thing is that it had worked that way for a while now.  Location of where USB cables are plugged in shouldn’t matter.  Anyway, glad it’s working now.


Thanks for everyone’s input!


Jason

[BettorSlots]

Excerpt sent in the email with the BB Tito manual:


****

Manual attached and below are some important notes and video links for the BB machine.

>  Unless your machines has a power strip in it you may need to run a household power extension cord from outside your machine in to plug the TITO power cord into.  This desirable anyway...read next item below...

>  Once the TITO is installed successfully it is best that it remains powered on at all times even though the machine is turned off. 

[Yoeddy1]

Thanks Jim!  Yep, still running great with the cold boot.


Jason