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  Inside Slot Tech Magazine
           June 2007
Page 4 - Editorial
Page 6 - Acres Bonus Engine II
Page 18 - Acres Tips and Tricks
Page 21 - Bally Announces Major
Game and System Installation
Page 22 - FutureLogic Expands
with New Facilities in Macau,
China
Page 24 - Kingbright Releases New
Catalog - Introduces Warm White
LEDs
Page 26 - Quick Simple Repairs #26
Page 31 - Troubleshooting the
    Mysterious IGT “M” Door
Page 33 - Bottom Heating for PCB
             Rework
 Page 36 - Slot Machine University
          @ TechFest 15
Page 38 - Subscriptions and Order
Form
                Peace
  Slot
  Slot Tech
       Tech Editorial
            Editorial
L   ast month’s TechFest (held May 1-
    3 at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior
Lake, Minnesota) was the usual mix
                                          Touch Systems stopped by to talk
                                          about touchscreen technology and to
                                          show us his newly updated presenta-
of technical presentations and food. Of   tion on touchscreen construction, op-
course, I gave my presentation on CRT     eration and troubleshooting. A copy is
monitor repair (not too much longer, I    available from the technical server at
suspect) and once again, we saw out-      slot-tech.com in the “interesting stuff”
standing presentations from the gam-      sub-dir.
ing industry’s top technical trainers
and engineers.                            Paul also brought with him black, Slot                                  Randy Fromm
                                          Tech T-Shirts, cans of special touch-
Fueled by a four-pak of Red Bull, my      screen aerosol cleaner (branded “Tech-
buddy Dave Oldham (AESI) gave us a        Fest 15.” Cool) little Post-it Note hold-
dynamic presentation on the MEI           ers and really powerful, magnetic chip-
CashFlow SC66 bill validator, followed    clips for everyone at TechFest. Paul        good stuff. Sencore also awarded three
by an equally dynamic look at             also brought with him ONE SPECIAL           digital multimeters worth a couple of
FutureLogic printers. Dave gave a very    DOOR PRIZE: A really nice, 17” touch-       bills each so that was really cool.
complete presentation on both prod-       screen monitor for a PC. One lucky
ucts, including a step-by-step guide on   person went home with it following a        While all of this was going on, Slot
how to use both diagnostic and con-       random draw. You’ll have to read in-        Machine University’s Cris Challander
figuration software.                      side to find out who won.                   and Technical Trainer Ron Parido
                                                                                      were conducting an alternative train-
The following day, Paul Hatin of 3M       Transact Technologies’ Russ Wigé’s          ing session in another meeting room
                                          handout was a bit more prosaic per-         nearby. SMU is a really remarkable,
                                          haps but no less well received: Top of      online training program that is avail-
    Randy Fromm's                         form reset chips for the Ithaca 850         able right now for your casino. We
    Slot Tech Magazine                    printers. Hooray! If you need one, you      covered it a bit in a previous Slot Tech
                                          can contact Russ at their Las Vegas         Magazine. This was a chance for par-
                                          office.                                     ticipants to try it for themselves and
     Editor                                                                           see how they like it. Did they like it?
                 Randy Fromm              The final day brought Ceronix’s ace         They DID! Everyone thought it was
     Technical Writers                    bench technician Troy Nofziger. Troy        really a fun way to learn otherwise
        Ted Befus, Marv Cohen,            commenced a rapid-fire three hours          mundane things like jumper settings
      Jason Czito, Herschel W.            of no-nonsense procedures for ferret-       and configuration issues.
       Peeler, Pat Porath, Ryan           ing out failures in Ceronix monitors.
                         Young                                                        It pays to come to TechFest in so many
                                          This guy really knows his stuff and
                                          he was able to show us a tremendous         ways. Thank you to my hosts at Mys-
     International Contributor
                 Martin Dempsey           amount of stuff in just a short time.       tic Lake Casino.
                                          It’s a good thing that he also handed
  Slot Tech Magazine is published         out a very detailed, step-by-step           TechFest 16 will be in New Mexico in
  monthly by                              troubleshooting guide as well because       October.
  Slot Tech Magazine
  1944 Falmouth Dr.                       it would be impossible to take notes
  El Cajon, CA 92020-2827                 as fast as this stuff was coming at us.     See you at the Casino.
  tel.619.593.6131 fax.619.593.6132       Troy’s handout is also available on the
  e-mail editor@slot-techs.com            Slot Technical Server at slot-tech.com
  Visit the website at slot-techs.com
                                          in the ceronix sub-dir.
            SUBSCRIPTIONS
  Domestic (USA)                          Wrapping things up was Sencore’s
   1 year - $60.00 2 years - $120.00      Don Multerer. Don’s four hour after-
  International
   1 year - $120.00 2 years -             noon presentation on test equipment
  $240.00                                 and LCD repair was really heroic. He
                                                                                                           Randy Fromm
                                          crammed more LCD repair informa-
  Copyright 2007 under the Universal      tion in an afternoon than I thought
  Copyright Convention. All rights re-
  served.                                 was even remotely possible. Really
Page 4                                           Slot Tech Magazine                                             June 2007
  Slot Tech Feature Article
                                                                 Acres Bonus Engine II Board
                                                                                                                         By Herschel Peeler
                                                    Bench Tech forums concern-                         called the OL Line connects
                                                    ing testing and repairing this                     to the Bank Controller. Mul-
                                                    stuff. I recently had a request                    tiple games (multiple BEIIs)
                                                    for a design for an OL line                        can be connected together in
                                                    cable tester. I thought every-                     parallel along the OL Line.
                                                    body had one of these al-                          Usually, a bank of games
                                                    ready. I guess not. So here is                     connects together and a
                                                    a design for such a tester                         Home Run Cable connects
                                                    and… well, read on for more.                       the OL Line to the Bank Con-
                                                                                                       troller. The Bank Controller
T
      esting the Acres                              The BEII usually resides in                        has two channels. Some-
      Bonusing System BEII                          the game and connects the                          where in the bowels of your
      (BE2) board seems to                          game to the Bank Controller.                       casino is a room filled with
be a popular topic. I still get                     It connects to a serial port of                    Bank Controllers. The Bank
an occasional e-mail or see a                       the game and game door                             Controllers connect to digital
topic on the Slot Tech or                           switches. A four-wire cable                        switches (multiplexers). The
            5                                  4                             3                    2                                           1
                                                                                  U9         D3 RED RESET
  D                                                                              HA16103     D3 GRN WDT                                                          D
                 U15                                                                                  D4 RED           U4                P3
      P9                     AUX IN
                TLP620                                              DUART         MPU                                 CNW139
                                       U6
                             P6                    PWR SENSE                                                                            BANK CONTROLLER
                                       TLP620                        U7           U11
                 U6                                                                                   D4 GRN           U2, Q2
      P6                  GAME DOOR                                 16C552        300H                                                   P3
                TLP620                                                                                                CNW139
                                       U5
                             P6                    DROP DOOR
                                       TLP620
                 U5
  C                                                                                                                                                              C
      P6                  BELLY DOOR                                                                                                     P10
                                                                                                                      RAM CLR
                                       U3          D2 RED
                              P6
           SLOT MACHINE                MAX490
                                                       D2 GRN                                         D5 RED
                                                                                                                       U1, Q1            P2
                                       U8
                              P4                                                                                                        EXP COMM
                ACCOUNTING             MAX490                                                                                            LINK
                                                                                                      D5 GRN
                                                                                                                       OPTO2             P2
                                                                                                                       6N137
  B                                                                                                                                                              B
                                                                                                                       OPTO1             P2
                                                                                                                       TLP621            BONUS SWITCH
                                       SENS1
                 DOOR         P7
                 SWITCH                LTH209
  A                                                                                                                                                              A
                                                                                   Title
                                                                                           BEII Block Diagram
                                                                                   Size    Document Number                                                 Rev
                                                                                      A    01042802                                                          1
                                                                                   Date:     Sunday, April 29, 2007             Sheet    1        of   1
            5                                  4                             3                    2                                           1
Page 6                                                          Slot Tech Magazine                                                                     June 2007
switches connect to a com-                               ###.###.###.### number                                       to the Bank Controller.
puter (a server). This server                            structure just the same as                                    Received data flows into the
has various other computer                               your computer has on the                                     BEII on P6 as a differential
terminals connected to it.                               Internet. This number, I sup-                                signal (RS485). This feeds U3
Managers, bean counters, or                              pose, breaks down to a game                                  and gets passed on to the
other important people can                               being number such-and-                                       DUART, U7. From here the
sit at one of these terminals                            such on server yada-yada.                                    Microprocessor reads the
and tell what is going on at                                                                                          data from the DUART. The
any game at any time. The                                In a simpler system, the ac-                                 magic of the microprocessor
Bank Controller collects data                            counting system would con-                                   (HD6413003TF) we will sim-
from the banks of games. The                             nect to the game through a                                   plify by just saying that the
server collects data from the                            serial port. The BEII is posi-                               data is passed through the
bank controllers and orga-                               tioned in between the game                                   MPU and stored in RAM.
nizes it for the users. Each                             and the system. It takes info
bank controller has a dongle                             from the game, adds stuff to                                 The MPU collects other data
on it that gives the bank con-                           it and passes the data on to                                 through the DUART, U7
troller a unique address. Any                            the system. Between the sys-                                 (16C552), from the game
game in the system has a                                 tem (Bank Controller) and                                    switch interface and the Ac-
unique address assigned to                               the Game, received data flows                                counting system (if con-
it in much the same fashion                              from the Bank Controller to                                  nected). All this data is put
as a URL on the internet.                                the BEII and from the BEII                                   together in an organized form
Acres has a TCP/IP structure                             to the Game. Transmitted                                     in RAM and sent out another
just like the internet. Each                             Data flows from the Game to                                  serial port built into the Mi-
game       has    a    unique                            the BEII and from the BEII                                   croprocessor on Port 9. This
              5                                   4                                 3                                      2                                             1
D                                                                                                                                                                                                D
                           VCC                                        VCC
C                                R1                                         R3                                                       R5                    R6                                    C
                                 1K                                         1K                                                       1K                    1K
                                 D1                                         D3                                                        D5                       D6
                                  PIN 2 ACCT_RX_IDLEHI                       PIN 5 ACCT_TX_IDLEHI                                       TxD                    RxD
         P4          VCC                                                                    J4       P3                                                                           J3
              1                                                                         1                    1     BLACK                                                     1
              2                                                                         2                    2     RED                                                       2
              3                                                                         3                    3     GREEN                                                     3
              4                                                                         4                    4     WHITE                                                     4
              5                                                                         5
              6                                                                         6
B
                                                                                                     MTA100                           SW1                R7                       MTA100         B
                                                                                                                                                         1K
                                                                                                                                        TEST TX LINE
         MTA100                            R2               R4                              MTA100
                                           1K               1K
                                                                                                                                                   D7
                                                                                                                                                POWER
                                   D2                        D4
                  PIN 3 ACCT_RX_IDLELO
                                                             PIN 4 ACCT_TX_IDLELO
A                                                                                                                                                                                                A
                                                                                                     Title
                                                                                                                 Accounting system cable tester and Home Run Cable Tester
                                                                                                     Size        Document Number                                                           Rev
                                                                                                        A        07042801                                                                    1
                                                                                                     Date:         Saturday, April 28, 2007            Sheet         1       of        1
              5                                   4                                 3                                      2                                             1
Page 8                                                            Slot Tech Magazine                                                                                         June 2007
data is sent out through U2,       LED indicates power on the          we will discuss.
Q2, and to Plug P3. This feeds     line and should be on all the
the OL line and gets passed        time the system is active. The      Power Section
on to the Bank Controller.         third LED connects across
                                   power on the OL Line. This          Power comes into the board
Data coming in from the            tests continuity of all the         on P1 as 18 to 24 Volts, AC
Bank Controller follows the        lines. The Power LED not            or DC. As DC it can be con-
opposite path, P3 through U4       lighting indicates the white        nected either way. There are
to the microprocessor Port 9       line is open. No LEDs light-        two bridge rectifiers on the
and to RAM, then out of RAM        ing indicates the black line        power input line. BR1 creates
to the DUART, U3, and out          may be open. The TxD or RxD         VIN that powers most of the
J6 to the game. See the            line not lighting indicates a       circuits on the board. BR2
block diagram to follow this.      problem with the red or green       creates VEXT+ and VEXT- to
  On another accompanying          line individually.                  power a few miscellaneous
page is a design for two cable                                         circuits. We will cover those
testers, one for the OL Line       The four LED tester is in-          when we get to them. BR1
with three LEDs and another        tended to test the Account-         should output about 24 V
for the Accounting System          ing System interface. Since         DC. This is applied to pin 1
cable with four LEDs. Data         this is a Differential Interface,   of U14 (LM2576) that gener-
going in or out of the BEII on     each signal has two lines as-       ates the VCC (+5 Volts) to
a serial port has one of these     sociated with it. We have two       power most of the logic on the
two structures. The OL Line        LEDs for each line. There is        board. Pin 2 should have
is a four wire cable with (typi-   a High side of the line and a       about 5 Volts to 5.5 Volts on
cally) Black (pin 1), Red (pin     Low side of the line. If pin 1      it with no ripple. This 5 Volts
2), Green (pin 3) and White        (Power) is open D1 and D3           can be found across D1
(pin 4) wires. The Black wire      will not light. If pin 6            (1N5822). If the board is com-
is Power, supplied from the        (Ground) is open D2 and D4          pletely brain, dead check +5
game interface. The White          will not light. Otherwise, any      Volts and D1 especially.
wire is ground. The Red wire       one LED not lighting indi-
is Receive Data and forms a        cates a problem on that line.       Q3 is the power switch to
current loop with pin 4. The       D1 and D2 lighting indicates        turn power to the micropro-
green wire, Pin 3, is Trans-       an active signal on the Re-         cessor on and off during
mit Data and forms a current       ceive Line. D3 and D4 light-        Standby mode. When not in
loop with pin 1.                   ing indicates an active signal      Standby, you should have 5
                                   on the Transmit Line.               Volts on the Emitter and Col-
The tester has two LEDs that                                           lector of Q3.
monitor the active data lines      BEII Troubleshooting
on pins 2 and 3. Also in-
cluded on this version is a        Most failures on
test switch to make the TxD        the BEII occur in
line go low. The Red LED (D4)      the interface cir-
on the BEII should light when      cuits so we will
the test button is pressed.        spend a bit of time
                                   discussing these
The tester is intended to con-     circuits and the
nect into the OL line at any       power supply sec-
point. Connector adapters          tion. There is not
may have to be made to fit         much else to the
your system. The TxD and           board other than
RxD LEDs should light as the       the microprocessor
system operates. The third         and these circuits
Page 10                                 Slot Tech Magazine                                 June 2007
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Link Interface, P3                1, 2, 7 and 8.                 optoisolator SENS1. This
                                  Machine Power monitor - U6     output is hard wired and
The OL Line connects to P3.       pins 3, 4, 5, and 6.           does not come from other cir-
This is the four-wire line from   AUX1 line - U15 pins 1, 2, 7   cuits. It runs as long as the
the game to the Bank Con-         and 8.                         board is powered up,
troller. Data not leaving the     AUX2 line - U15 pins 3, 4, 5   Standby or not.
BEII is likely to be Q2 or U2.    and 6.
Data not coming into the BEII                                   P5, General Purpose Outputs
may be a problem with U4.       P4, Accounting System Prob-
LED D4 indicates data going     lems on this line are likely to P5 is a 6-pin connector with
in and out of this port. This   be U8, MAX490ECPA.              four open collector outputs
is a dual element LED. It has                                   (OUT_0, OUT_1, OUT_2 and
a red LED and a green LED       P7, Mechanical Door Switch OUT_3). Problems in this
in it. The red LED indicates    Enable                          area are likely to be Q1, a
data coming into the BEII on                                    ULN2003 seven section
the red wire. The green LED     P7 is a two-pin connector that Darlington. The other three
indicates data leaving the      has a ground and an active sections are associated with
BEII out the green wire.        low output signal that goes P2, pin 3; and Q3, Standby.
                                out to the mechanical door The seventh section is not
Expansion Communication switch (an option). If VCC on used.
Link, P2                        the BEII is lost, this signal
                                goes high and registers a U9, HA16103FPJ, System
Structured much like the cir- Door Open to the game. Prob- Reset.
cuitry on P3 we have another lems in this area are likely to
similar interface. Activity be VCC related or the This chip generates a Reset
through P2 is shown on LED
D5 in much the same way:
Red for activity on the red
wire going out of the BEII to
the line, green for activity on
the green wire going into the
BEII from the line. Problems
in this area may be Opto2.
Also on P2 we have three
wires of interest. The blue
wire on pin 1 is where the
Bonus Switch connects. Pin
2 (Brown, VEXT-) and pin 3
(orange, VEXT+) are power
for this switch circuit. Mal-
functions in this area may be
Opto1.
Door Switches
Drop Door Switch - U5 pins
1, 2, 7 and 8.
Belly Door Switch - U5 pins
3, 4, 5 and 6.
Game Door Switch - U6 pins
Page 12                                Slot Tech Magazine                           June 2007
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signal to the microprocessor,     reads this line on Power Up       Problems in U7 can have
Standby signal for Q1 and         but don't quote me on that.       many indications. The hand-
Q3, Power Failure Warning to      If you have an alternate story    shaking lines of the serial
the microprocessor. This chip     I would like to hear it and I     ports are used for many sig-
also has the Watchdog Timer.      will print a correction           nals. Configuration bits,
PRUN is a signal from the         promptly.                         Door Switches and a few
microprocessor that clears                                          other things go through U7.
the WDT and should be             P6
about 40 Hz.                                                        U1, 74HC14
                                  P6 is the big connector that
The circuits around U9 moni-      connects to the game cir-         U1 has six sections that all
tor the power systems on the      cuits. Here is where the door     do different things. This is a
board. It should signal regis-    switches come into the BEII,      simple Inverter. Each section
ter VCC as bad if VCC drops       Game RS485 serial port, the       should have a Low out for a
below 4.7, or Standby (VBB)       DS2224 game UID chip in           High in, or a High out for a
drops below 4.5 Volts.            the harness and Configura-        Low in.
                                  tion bits.
D3 is another dual element                                          Section 1 (pin 1 input; pin 2
LED. It turns Red during Re-      The DS2224 is the Unique ID       output). P3 Link data output.
set and Green during PRUN         (UID) chip that is built into     A high output turns LED D4
being inactive (on means          the harness of the game and       red. Section 2 (pin 3 input;
WDT is active?).                  gives this BEII a unique iden-    pin 4 output). P2 Expansion
                                  tification number in the sys-     Port Data Out. A High out
P10, RAM CLEAR                    tem.                              turns LED D5 red. Section 3
                                                                    (pin 5 input; pin 6 output).
To do a RAM Clear on the          The interface to the serial       Pin 5 should always be Low.
BEII, you short pins 1 and 2      port on the slot machine is a     Pin 6 should always be High.
of P10. This is a software re-    Differential signal that goes     This section can be used as
set signal. It does not pull on   through U3, MAX490ECPA            a confidence check for U1. If
the Reset line of the BEII di-    and is monitored by yet an-       these voltages are wrong U1
rectly. It is a software read-    other dual element LED, D2.       is certainly bad (assuming
able input (Port B, bit 5). In    The red LED indicates activ-      power is okay). Section 4 (pin
order to do this RAM Clear,       ity on the Transmit side (BEII    9 input; pin 8 output). Ac-
the processor has to be alive     to game). The green LED in-       counting System Interrupt
and running. I think it only      dicates activity on the Receive   Request. From U7. Section 5
                                  side (Game to BEII).              (pin 11 input; pin 10 output).
                                                                    Slot machine Interface Inter-
                                  U7, DUART                         rupt Request. From U7. Sec-
                                                                    tion 6 (pin 13 input; pin 12
                                  U7 is a dual UART. Channel        output). VEXT monitor line.
                                  0 is a serial interface to the    Pin 13 should always be
                                  slot machine, through U3.         High. Pin 12 should always
                                  Channel 1 is a serial inter-      be Low. If not check Bridge
                                  face to the Accounting Sys-       Rectifier BR2.
                                  tem, if it is used, through U8.
                                  Also included here is a De-       U11, the microprocessor
                                  bug Port (P8) used by the
                                  manufacturer. We can't do         The overall operation of the
                                  much with this to my knowl-       BEII is simple. It gathers data
                                  edge. I confess I've never        from serial ports, door
                                  tried.                            switches and such, and or-
Page 14                                Slot Tech Magazine                               June 2007
                                                                   tions just to test Address
                                                                   Lines. Don't forget about
                                                                   the Watchdog Timer.
                                                                           Herschel Peeler
                                                                    hpeeler@slot-techs.com
ganizes the data to send it out   go Low and the show should
to the Acres Player Tracking      come to a stop with all Ad-
system through the OL line.
Operations are controlled by
                                  dress and Data lines tri-
                                  stated. You can now check         For schematics, software,
                                  for improper voltages on all
routines written into the
EPROM (U10).                      these pins. Check to see if         service manuals and
                                  anything is getting warm. Af-
Troubleshooting is limited to     ter removing the short across
                                  R62, the board should try to
                                                                    many other things (not all
general approach trouble-
shooting of microprocessors.
Is it a power problem? Check
                                  come alive. Address and Data
                                  lines should show activity.
                                                                     of which begin with the
this for +5 Volts at the Col-
lector of Q3. Is the oscillator
                                  The BEII should attempt
                                  communication on all the
                                                                      letter S) visit the Slot
running? Check this at R37.
You should find a 16 MHz
                                  ports.
                                                                    Tech Magazine ftp server.
System Clock. Is it being         Really Advanced Stuff for
held in Reset? Is LED D3 red?     the Few
Force a REST condition by
faking a NMI (Non-Maskable        Create troubleshooting rou-          ftp to slot-tech.com
Interrupt). You can do this by    tines in EPROM that are spe-
pulling the NMI line low          cific in operation. Do a Loop
                                  Back test on one comm.
                                                                       username=Slot Tech
(short across R62, the 27K).
This will put U9 into a Reset
condition. The Standby, Re-
                                  channel. Do a RAM test. Cre-
                                  ate an EPROM with an end-
                                                                        Password=kxkvi8
set and NMI outputs should        less routine of No Op instruc-
Page 16                                Slot Tech Magazine                             June 2007
  Slot Tech Feature Article
                                         Acres Tips and Tricks
                                                                            By Ryan Young
                                  If a machine is rejecting cus-    soft ram clear on the BEII. To
                                  tomer cards, but not 9s           perform a soft ram clear, un-
I
    GT’s Advantage system is      cards, you will want to check     plug power to the BEII. Next,
    a great tool for the casino   your communications num-          jumper the two pins on con-
    industry. Not only is it a    bers presented on screen          nector P10 near the bottom
reliable slot accounting sys-     when the 9s card is inserted.     of the board. Reconnect
tem, but it can also be a great   This number should be             power and after about ten
marketing tool. The NexGen        around 144.16. When this          seconds, LED D5 should
display is relatively advanced    number drops, it means the        flash red once. After the
compared to the older VFD         BEII is no longer fully able to   flash, disconnect power, re-
systems, and brings a great       communicate with the sys-         move the jumper, and recon-
deal of possibilities to the      tem. When this occurs, you        nect power. The BEII should
casino floor.                     will want to try to perform a     recover, and you should see
 The best way to help under-
stand ABS better is to know
what each of the components
does. The following is written
in regards to ABS on a bank
controller setup, without the
Magic Card system.
The BEII (Bonus Engine 2)
board is the primary commu-
nications piece linking the
machine to the server, as well
as to the NexGen (or VFD).
The NexGen is what stores all
the cool promotional mes-
sages that the customer sees.
The problem is that the BEII
and the NexGen are very
separate entities.         The
NexGen has a much higher
ratio of visible failure, while
the BEII is usually the cause
of the more difficult to track
problems.
Page 18                                Slot Tech Magazine                              June 2007
your communications numbers increase
back to 144.16.
Before you ever replace a BEII, I would rec-
ommend performing a hard ram clear. To
do this, you will need to remove power and
short C33 to ground for about 10 seconds.
This will wipe all information stored on the
BEII and you will have to reprogram it. If
this doesn’t clear up the problem, then I
would recommend a BEII swap.
Any promotional information displayed on
the NexGen is stored within the NexGen. If
a power outage occurs or you need to un-
plug the NexGen, you may lose this infor-
mation. This is usually caused by a battery
failure. This doesn’t mean the NexGen is
bad, simply that it needs to download all its
information again. I would recommend re-
placing the battery on the back to keep it
from doing this at every power outage. An-
other thing to remember is that these are
rechargeable batteries but the NexGen does
not recharge them. You may want to look
into a battery charging system.
When a NexGen displays the “Not Registered”
message, this means there is a conflict in
the system. Either the BEII has no informa-
tion, or the wrong information. If you insert
your employee card, it should give you a
message, such as “NO ASSET” or “DUPLI-
CATE ASSET.” Duplicate means that your
machine and another machine are sharing
the same asset number in the system. If
you get this message after programming a
BEII, you may have entered some informa-
tion incorrectly. If your information is cor-
rect, you may have to start looking for the
other machine.
If you have a “UID MISMATCH” displayed on
the NexGen, you more than likely have prob-
lem with the UID or the system. Resetting
the UID in the Machine Wizard program will
typically clear this up.
A message of “NOT IN USE” will almost al-
ways lead to a problem with the UID har-
ness. The UID harness attaches to the BEII
and has a small DS2224 IC        grounding points. Most of        doing so, write 99999991 to
soldered inline with it. This    the NexGens that pass across     track 2 of the card for a 1’s
little IC stores an imbedded     my bench for non-calibration     card, and 99999992 for a 2’s
32-bit Unique ID, which the      don’t actually have anything     card.
system uses to identify each     wrong with them other than
BEII board. The first step       I have a much better ground      I would strongly recommend
would be to power down the       than when they were in a         a regular floor reset for all
BEII and unplug the UID har-     machine.                         casinos that use bank con-
ness. Next, power the BEII                                        trollers. Reset your control-
back up. Once you have left      Another great tool with ABS      lers once a week or so and
it up for approximately 30       is the number of access cards    you should keep your issues
seconds, power it down and       that do various things. A 9s     to a minimum. If you have
reconnect the UID harness.       card is great for all sorts of   any kind of promotional
If this doesn’t work, I would    diagnostic information, as       credit or playable credit sys-
recommend replacing the          well as resetting the BEII and   tem, I would also recommend
UID harness.                     calibrating the NexGen           a calibration schedule to
                                 screen. A 2s card is simply      keep customer frustrations to
Touch screen Calibration         for calibrating the NexGen,      a minimum.
                                 and a 1s card can reset the
We have had numerous ma-         BEII without accessing the                   - Ryan Young
chines that will not calibrate   machine. You can use a card         ryoung@slot-techs.com
or seem to lose calibration.     writer and some free software
Before you swap out the          from the Internet to make
NexGen, I would recommend        your own test cards. When
trying to relocate your
Page 20                               Slot Tech Magazine                             June 2007
                                                                    Slot Tech Press Release
    BALLY TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES MAJOR GAME AND
    SYSTEM INSTALLATION AT DEJOPE GAMING LAS VEGAS
B    ally Technologies, Inc.has an-
     nounced that it has recently
completed a major installation of
                                         ment of the casino floor, as well as
                                         provides patrons with a single
                                         player’s club card that works
                                                                                at the machine and minimizes
                                                                                player confusion resulting from
                                                                                multiple ticketing/card-based sys-
Bally slot titles and a new back-        across all products. This consoli-     tems.” - Slot Tech Magazine
end casino management system at          dation helps to drive player loyalty
the Ho-Chunk Nation Dejope Gam-
ing located near Madison, Wis.
“During a recent expansion from
340 Class II bingo-style games to
more than 1,100 games, Dejope
selected Bally for approximately
600 games or nearly half of their
slot floor,” noted Alex Dungan, Vice
President, Class II & Central De-
termination Markets. “This marks
a significant increase of Bally slot
titles at this premier gaming facil-
ity.”
According to Dungan, a variety of
popular Bally reel-spinning and
video titles on both the new ALPHA
Elite™ S9E and wide-screen
CineVision™ cabinets are now
available for play at the Dejope
Gaming facility. These include: Hee
Haw™, Lucky Wheel™, Blues
Brothers™, In The Money™, Penny
Frenzy™, Double Blazing 7s™,
Mystic Lamp™ and Fireball
Frenzy™.
Additionally, the Class II gaming
facility recently converted its en-
tire casino floor from a competing
back-end casino management ac-
counting system to the Bally One
System™.
“We are delighted that Dejope se-
lected the Bally One System as
their preferred casino management
application,” stated Dungan. “The
Bally One System is designed to
give Class II/Central Determina-
tion operations such as Dejope the
capability of integrating all of their
diverse casino products from dif-
ferent manufacturers into one
comprehensive back-end manage-
ment system. This creates greater
cost efficiencies in the manage-
 Slot Tech Press Release
       FutureLogic Expands Global Support and Distribution
       Network with New Facilities in Macau, China
                                                            The company       eral Manager of Europe, Africa and
                                                            has      been     Asia and VP of International Sales.
                                                            making an         “His enthusiasm, technical exper-
                                                            impact in the     tise and knowledge of the region
                                                            region with its   have already helped him establish
                                                            casino gam-       FutureLogic as the dominant ther-
                                                            ing printer       mal printer for TITO applications
                                                            products and      in casinos in Macau and across
                                                            services since    Asia."
                                                            inauguarating
                                                            the Macau op-     FutureLogic developed and
                                                            eration in Oc-    launched its first TITO printer in
                                                            tober 2006.       collaboration with IGT designers
                                                            With     more     for the introduction of EZ Pay™ in
                                                            than 900,000      1999, and proudly maintains its
                                                            printers in-      status as default printer supplier
                                                            stalled in ca-    for IGT worldwide. The company
                                                            sinos around      will exhibit their new GEN2
                                                            the world and     UniversalTM printers and the
                                                            offices and       ProMatrixTM coupon solution at
                                                            engineering       G2E Asia (stand 314), to be held
                                                            teams in the      in Macau on June 13-14.
F   utureLogic, Inc., the world’s
    leading manufacturer of ther-
mal ticket printers for cashless
                                      US, Europe and Asia, FutureLogic
                                      dominates the TITO (Ticket-In/
                                      Ticket-Out) market. By combining
                                                                              The GEN2 Universal printer is de-
                                                                              signed to communicate with the
gaming, announced today that it       local service strategies with a glo-    processing unit of an electronic
has expanded its global support       bal suppport infrastructure, the        gaming device and supports all
and distribution network into the     company is able to provide a rapid      current and emerging game types
Asia Pacific market, with the offi-   response to OEM and casino re-          by incorporating three game ports,
cial opening of its new sales, ser-   quests for new product develop-         including RS232, NetPlex and USB
vice and distribution centres in      ment, as well as changes in firm-       2.0. The printer anticipates new
Macau, China.                         ware, ticket design, language,          standards for downloadable games
                                      graphics and other peripheral           and permits in-game firmware and
The launch of FutureLogic Asia was    functionality.                          promotional updates via the USB
celebrated with a customer appre-                                             port.
ciation event on April 19, 2007 at    The Macau operation is headed by
the Macau Tower. Activities offered   Daniel Turner, a 12-year veteran        FutureLogic will also display the
were Sky Walking, Sky Jumping         of system, peripheral and gaming        ProMatrix coupon solution, a flex-
and Bungee Jumping, followed by       industry sales. Dan earned a Phys-      ible promotional couponing and
a reception at the 360 Restaurant     ics Degree from the University of       trigger system that utilizes a sec-
at Macau Tower.                       Manchester Institute of Science         ond port on the GEN2 Universal
                                      and Technology, UK. He spent            printer to deliver colourful coupons
At 233 meters, AJ Hackett’s Macau     eight years with IBM in their Mid       at the game. FutureLogic is actively
Tower Bungee is the highest com-      Market Sales Division, and opened       working with casinos in Asia to trial
mercial Bungee jump in the world,     IBM's direct sales office in Beijing,   the ProMatrix coupon solution to
and guests from MGM Grand             China. In 2004 he joined the gam-       enhance current Player Reward
Macau, IGT and Aristocrat suited      ing industry, initially with Endx,      Programs.
up and participated in the venue’s    now part of Progressive Gaming
thrilling experiences. Peter Johns    and later with Money Controls as        For further information, contact
of MGM Grand Macau remarked,          Sales Manager for Europe, Middle        FutureLogic        Europe       at
“I’ve never seen a company launch     East and Africa.                        +44.1628.760.083 for sales inquir-
taken to such an extreme.                                                     ies, or +44.1628.760.082 for tech-
FutureLogic certainly knows how       “Since joining us in October of last    nical service.
to make an impact.”                   year, Dan has become a key mem-
                                      ber of FutureLogic's International
                                      Team,” said John Edmunds, Gen-
Page 22                                     Slot Tech Magazine                                        June 2007
                                    G 2 E 2 0 0 7
    T H E            E P I C E N T E R O F B R I L L I A N T                                                                I D E A S
         C O M I N G N O V E M B E R 1 3 - 1 5, 2 0 0 7 — L A S V E G A S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R
          N O V E M B E R 1 2, 2 0 0 7 — G 2 E T R A I N I N G & D E V E L O P M E N T I N S T I T U T E
                    N O V E M B E R 1 1 - 1 3, 2 0 0 7—N C R G C O N F E R E N C E O N G A M B L I N G A N D A D D I C T I O N,
                                               PA R I S L A S V E G A S R E S O R T A N D C A S I N O
                                          AN AMERICAN GAMING ASSOCIATION EVENT • ORGANIZED BY REED EXHIBITIONS
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                                                                                                                        G2E GLOBAL
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 Slot Tech Press Release
          Kingbright Releases New Catalog
            Introduces Warm White LEDs
K    ingbright Corporation, a
     TS 16949, ISO 9001, ISO
14001 certified LED manu-
                                   Z & AA3021PR4S/Z/) with
                                   high quality, reliability, and
                                   cost-efficiency. The remark-
                                                                    ing to achieve the ultimate
                                                                    warm-white illumination.
                                                                    This brilliant, intrinsically
facturer has released its          able element illuminates high    innovative light source is
2007-2008 optoelectronics          bright, constant warm-white      ideal for various gaming ap-
catalog featuring diverse          light (CIE: x=0.41 & y=0.39      plications. The low power
range of high brightness and       typ.). Kingbright Warm White     consumption, IR reflow
power efficient LEDs. The          LEDs superior color consis-      solderable, and automation
full-color literature contains     tency genuinely replaces in-     friendly device meets indus-
detailed product descrip-          candescent lamps enabling        trial temperature ratings of -
tions, specifications, and dia-    those design engineers seek-     40°C to +85°C with enhanced
grams for its full line low pro-
file SMD Displays, bi-color
and full color LED Lamps,
and high power white, blue,
red, yellow, green SMD LEDs.
The new catalog offers com-
prehensive solution guide
that genuinely assists design
engineers to meet their ulti-
mate design requirements.
Online catalog version is also
available                    on
www.us.kingbright.com with
easy downloading feature.
With utmost quality, reliabil-
ity,     and       capability,
Kingbright provides 3D speci-
fications through website and
full custom tooling for engi-
neers and designers to en-
hance their solutions to the
next altitude of success.
Kingbright
Warm White LEDs
Kingbright Corporation fur-
ther advances the warm
white innovations in develop-
ment of Warm White LEDs
(part number AA3528PR4S/
Page 24                                 Slot Tech Magazine                             June 2007
feature specially designed for   tion. With the highest qual-
automatic pick-and-place         ity and production capaci-
mounting process to reduce       ties, Kingbright produces
manufacturing cost.              more than 350 million
                                 SMD Lamps, 200 million
Kingbright Corporation is a      Through-hole LED Lamps,
leading component manufac-       and consumes 120 million
turer of RGB Full Color LEDs,    LED dice in manufacturing
High Brightness XPower           Through-hole & SMD Dis-
LEDs, Blue & White LEDs,         plays every month.
LED Lamps, SMD Lamps,
SMD Displays, and other          Kingbright Corporation
LED related products with        225 Brea Canyon Road
various color selections in-     City of Industry, CA 91789
cluding pink and purple.         Tel: 909-468-0500
Kingbright operates four         Fax: 909-468-0505
manufacturing plants in          E-mail:
Shenzhen, China, all accred-     sales6@us.kingbright.com
ited with TS 16949, ISO          website:
9001, ISO 14001 certifica-       www.us.kingbright.com
 Slot Tech Feature Article
                                         Quick & Simple Repairs #26
                                                                                 By Pat Porath
                                   assembly consist of the              noid noise and the clicking
                                   handle bolt, the optic (or mi-       noise are all made only to
                                   cro switch), return spring,          have a flag or a lever go
                                   anti-return spring, gears,           through the optic or press the
                                   and a rubber stopper. Have           micro switch. Not like in the
D
          o we have a "handle"     you ever moved a machine for         old days of slots, when the
          on things?               carpet replacement or to             handle pressed on a lever
                                   move it to a new location and        connected to some springs to
Some people may think that         grabbed the handle and it            another mechanism to make
slot machine handles are "old      was loose? The large handle          it spin. Far, far away from the
school" and are on the way         bolt needs to be very tight. If      electronic games of today.
out. As we know, a lot of          a customer is rough with a
games don't even come with         game, over time, it may              Back to the basic handle as-
one anymore. Such as the           loosen up. In the worst case,        sembly, there is the return
IGT Trimline, the Atronic E-       the assembly will start to fall      spring. Obviously this is to
Motion, and all of the slant-      apart. The assembly also has         bring the handle back to the
top games out there. In my         an optic or a micro switch in        upright position. If a handle
personal opinion, they will be     it. After the first coin or credit   is stuck in the downward
around for a while. While          is accepted, the solenoid re-        position, it may be a broken
walking around the gaming          leases and the handle can be         return spring or something
floor, I still see that some in-   pulled downward. The sole-           may be jammed. A jammed
dividuals like to use the
handle instead of the spin
button. Even in casino com-
mercials on television, they
show players using the
handle. Some new games still
do come with a handle to give
the customer the option of a
"pull" or a press of a spin
button. Some of these games
include the WMS "Can't Lose"
and the IGT S2000.
So what can be done if there
is a problem with a handle
assembly and the customer
doesn't like to press the spin
button? The main parts of an
Page 26                                  Slot Tech Magazine                                 June 2007
assembly can sometimes be
tricky. You have to be very
careful. If your fingers get in
the way of the gears, they will
get hurt. If the situation oc-
curs that the handle won't
pull at all, it may be a bro-
ken anti-return spring. It
may also be a bad solenoid.
Under normal circum-
stances, if the solenoid
doesn't release, the handle
can't be pulled. Once the first
coin or credit is bet on a
game, you should be hear it
click. If not, try pressing the
plunger of the solenoid. The
handle should release. If it
doesn't work electronically
but does manually, the sole-
noid may be bad.
Why would there be a rub-
ber stopper inside of a handle
assembly? It's there in order
to absorb some of the shock
or rapid movement when it
comes to a sudden stop. In-
stead of two pieces of steel
coming together, there is a
piece of rubber (replaceable)
that takes some of the strain
off of the game once the
handle is in the upright po-
sition. Handle gears? Ah yes,
this is to give the noise when
the handle is being pulled. In
conclusion, I personally
think that it's pretty cool that
some of the new stepper slot
machines still come with a
handle on them.
IGT Video "Fort Knox" Door
Open Errors
I recently ran into something
a bit unusual on a "Fort
Knox" video game. There
were three doors that
wouldn't show “closed” on the
game. No matter what I did,      Atronic e-motion "System            STILL won't boot up and "no
the "drop coin" door, "main"     Halted"                             media" is displayed in the
door, and "bill acceptor" door                                       icon before "system halted" is
would still show an “open”        During the boot process on         displayed on the screen, you
state. With the game power       an e-motion game, it was no-        may have a bad CD drive. It
off, I checked the three I/O.    ticed that in the icon in the       is rare but it does happen.
cards (two in the door and       left corner of the screen it dis-   Within the last year, we have
one in the game) and checked     played "no media" when              replaced two of them. The
the main processor board.        checking the Compact Disk.          procedure is similar to re-
They were all in place as they   In some cases, the problem          placing one in your home PC.
should be. Next, with power      is simply a dirty CD. Clean         In a nutshell, open the logic
applied and the game booted      the disk and the game is good       door, then the mother board
up, I tried a few main door      to go. In other situations, a       door. Way in the back (kind
resets, only to have the same    dirty lens in the disk drive is     of hidden) there are two
result. The bill accepter        the culprit. Running a "clean-      screws that need to be re-
stacker door and main door       ing disk" in the drive may          moved. Once they are out,
appeared to close properly, so   cure the issue. A cleaning          there are two connectors, one
what was the problem? I          disk looks like a normal CD         for power and one for data
asked for some advice over       on the top but on the bottom        (the data is the ribbon cable).
the radio and I was told that    there are two small brushes         You also will notice a jumper
the bill accepter stacker door   that wipe the laser lens. They                    placement. It
had to be closed FIRST.          can be purchased at your                                  will be
Hmm, ok why not? With the        local computer store.
main door closed, I opened
up the belly door. Next I un-    If you’ve tried the
locked and re-closed the         cleaning disk and
stacker access door, then        the       freshly
closed the belly door, then      cleaned CD but
opened and closed the main       the game still
slot door. Eureka! The prob-     doesn't work, try
lem went away. All of the slot   swapping CDs with
doors were now showing           a game of the same
closed.                          program. If the game
Page 28                               Slot Tech Magazine                                 June 2007
labeled as either "slave" or     now wasn't working. The            time to do it right the first
"master." Make sure before       original printer was swapped       time but always time to do it
the replacement CD drive is      out for the one that I tried to    over." Also, check to make
installed that the jumper set-   repair and the original was        sure that the printer optics
ting is exactly the same as      put back in its place. I did not   are clear of paper and dust.
the original or it WILL NOT      wait (like I was suppose to
work. Install the replacement    and should have) for the           IGTS2000 Reel Tilt
drive and power up the game      game to fully boot up and
in order to set the CD in the    make sure that it was back         We have a bank of "slot tour-
tray. Reboot the game, and it    in working order. What I           nament" games which are
should be good to go.            didn't do is wait for the game     IGTS2000s. One of them had
                                 to fully boot up, show the         a severe case of #3 reel tilts.
Konami Printer Communi-          printer error, and simply re-      The games are all five reel,
cation Problem                   set it with the jackpot reset      but on this particular one,
                                 switch. The slot attendant         the third reel would only spin
The game was a Konami slant      had already rebooted the           once and then tilt again. Be-
top. The problem was a           game and checked connec-           ing that it is a tournament
"printer com error." Having      tions, and when I arrived a        game, it would not be good if
this particular error on this    simple key reset got it back       it was down for very long. I
particular game made me a        running again. If you are in       checked right away to see if
bit upset. Why you may ask?      a hurry and don't wait for a       we had a spare reel assem-
Because I was in the game        game to fully boot up and          bly in the shop and sure
earlier testing out a printer    walk away, there is a chance       enough, we had three of
that I repaired in the shop,     you will get called back to it.    them. Simply replace the reel
and the original printer,        There is a saying that goes        strip, perform a paytable test
which WAS WORKING FINE,          something like, "There isn't       and all would be good. Well,
June 2007                             Slot Tech Magazine                                   Page 29
as most of us know that's not cessor board was faulty. I          side of the stacker frame) was
how it usually goes. I grabbedwas almost at a loss for            pressed numerous times but
the so-called replacement     words. He explained that on         it still wouldn't reset the er-
reel and headed out for the   a S2000, if the problem isn't       ror. Next, the turret was
game. Before replacing the    obvious (such as something          looked at and it was noticed
reel strip, I thought it wouldrubbing on the reel basket)         that the solenoid wasn't
be best to try the reel with- and a known good reel is in         working as freely as it should
out it, just in case it didn'tplace and the game STILL            have been. Upon further in-
work; and I'm glad I did. The tilts, it’s a bad main proces-      spection, the solenoid linkage
reel appeared to be very simi-sor. This was a news flash to       was slightly bent. The piece
lar. Same stepper motor, the  me. I haven't read or heard         was straightened, and then
same number of pins for con-  of this before at all. So, if all   it was working properly. The
nection, and what appeared    of the so called "normal"           game was closed, the tilt
to be the same mounting. For  things are done (if I may use       cleared, and I haven't heard
some reason or another, the   the term normal) and the reel       a problem from it since. The
replacement wouldn't fit in   tilts won't go away on a            "bonus ball" moved freely in
place. It looks like there areS2000 five reel game, try re-       and out of the turret when
TWO DIFFERENT reel as-        placing the main processor          bonus rounds were hit, and
semblies for S2000 games (I   board. "Normal" things would        the game was back online.
need to verify this). Well, the
                              include (but not limited to)
game needed to be fixed so a  inspecting the reel optic to                     - Pat Porath
simple swap of stepper mo-    make sure it’s clean, inspect-        pporath@slot-techs.com
tors was affected. For one reel
                              ing the reel basket for cracks,
it only takes one E-clip, one checking the connector pins
connecter and four stepper    to make sure they are
motor bolts. In no time, the  straight and in place, observe
swap was made.                if there are any obstructions
                              of the reel such as a wire be-
With power reapplied to the hind the reel or last but not
game, the problem still ex- least, an obstruction on the
isted. Connections were main slot door.
checked on the mother
board, where the reel harness AC Coin "Bingo Nights" Bo-
comes from the reels to the nus Error
board but the connections
were perfect. Nothing was As you most likely know, AC
loose at all. I checked for a Coin uses an IGT platform
loose chip on the main pro- and adds their own theme
cessor but that too looked and top box bonus to it. Ex-
good.                         amples are "Bingo Nights,"
                              "Bank Roll," "Popcorn,"
I wasn't sure what to do next "Hotdogs," and "Slotto." Some
on it. The following morning of these games use a "turret."
a co-worker explained that he It’s similar to a coin hopper
had gotten the game up and but with numbered balls in
running.                      it as well as some optics and
                              a solenoid (basically speak-
"What in the world was the ing). This time, the bonus
cure?" I was very curious.    error would not reset at all.
                              The "bonus reset button" (the
He told me that the main pro- cherry switch attached to the
Page 30                               Slot Tech Magazine                              June 2007
                                                           Slot Tech Feature Article
                                       Troubleshooting the
                                     Mysterious IGT “M” Door
                                                                                     By Vic Fortenbach
P
       icture this. You’re walk-
      ing the floor when you
      come upon an IGT slant
top I game with its tower light
flashing. You check the
monitor to see if any M door
open messages are displayed.
Yes, the message “M DOOR
OPEN” is display in the cor-
ner of the monitor. You think,
I will just open the close the
hood door and that will be the
end of that. So you proceed
to open and close the door
tightly but to your surprise,
the “M DOOR OPEN” mes-
sage remains.
You try the door again, same
message: “M DOOR OPEN.”
You check the top box. It’s
closed. You check the outside       Repair Monitors, Power Supplies, Gameboards?
Acceptor door. It’s tight.         Check any Electrolytic Capacitor In-Circuit with
Maybe it’s the large access
door under the player panel        100% Accuracy in 3 Seconds---GUARANTEED*
causing the problem. You                                            Automatically discharges capacitor
check that but it’s closed as
well. Maybe it’s the drop                                           Checks DCR with alerts for shorts
door. You check that but
                                                                    Measures DCR to 500 ohms
same daunting “M DOOR
OPEN” message persists on                                           Measures ESR from 0.1 to 20 ohms
the monitor. By now, you’re
getting frustrated, you have                                        Checks caps from .47uF to 2200uF
checked all the M doors on
the game, but the message is                                        Beeps one to five beeps for quality
still there, haunting you.
                                                                    Three-color chart for good-fair-bad
Troubleshooting M door                                              *range 0.47uF - 2.2KuF 90-day money-back guarantee
problems in an IGT slant
                                   Portable, Easy to Use, Inexpensive, Highly Recommended by
machine can be a challenge.
All of the M doors are wired       leaders in the industry. CapAnalyzer 88A by EDS, Inc.
                                   at fine distributors like Happ, MCM, Kiesub, etc. or call 561-487-6103
in series, which makes            reel machines. But there is      it close to the detector
trouble shooting a daunting       an easy way to see the light.    mounted on the cabinet. If
task. Some IGT slant ma-          Grab a camera phone and          the problem is a bad emitter,
chines can have up to eight       point it at the emitter. Not     then the M door message on
M door switches: The top box,     sure which optic is the emit-    the monitor will disappear.
main hood (two), acceptor         ter? The emitter wires are       You can also make a detec-
door, coin tray, large access     black and red and it’s           tor extender harness. The
door, and lower right and left    mounted to the hood door         IGT part number for the emit-
drop doors.                       (the detector wires are red      ter is 57506900 and the de-
                                  and white). When you point       tector is 57506800. If your
The main hood door has two        the camera phone at the          IGT slant machine has ticket
switches, one that is not re-     emitter optic, you should see    capabilities, then the coin
ally a switch at all. It’s an     a visible light when you look    tray has been replaced with
emitter and detector optic        at the camera’s display. You     a solid cover. The design of
design. The second is a white     do not have to take a picture.   the cover retains the original
cherry switch that is wired in    No light? You have a bad op-     cherry switch and its M door
series with the optic that is     tic or wiring.                   connections. Don’t overlook
connected to your player                                           this cover as a possible prob-
tracking.                       If you don’t have access to a      lem area. IGT upright ma-
                                camera phone, you can make         chines have the same M door
The best place to start an optic extender harness.                 switch circuit design as a
troubleshooting is to check The harness is just a long             slant top, except on an up-
the doors used most often. (about three feet) wire with an         right machine, there are only
These are the main door emitter optic on one end and               two M door switches: The
switches and the acceptor a two pin connector on the               main door and the belly door.
door switch. Since the accep- other. You just connect the
tor door switch is mini micro extender harness in place of                   - Vic Fortenbach
switch, the pull team has a the original emitter and hold          -vfortenbach@slot-techs.com
habit of destroying it. Poke it
with a small screw driver in
order to actuate the switch.
Listen for the click. If the
switch clicks, 99% of the time
the switch is good. But is the
switch lever being actuated
when the door is closed? Lis-
ten for the click as you close
the door. If you don’t hear the
click, adjust the switch’s le-
ver so closing the door clicks
the switch. Adjusting or re-
placing the acceptor door
micro switch requires access
to the acceptor stacker, so
your gaming authority will be
involved.
If the acceptor door switch
has checked out ok, check
the hood door. Is the emitter
optic emitting light? Since the
light is infrared, you can’t
just look at it and see light.
On IGT machines, the optic
light is pulsed, so you can’t
just shine a flashlight on the
optic like you can on Bally
Page 32                                Slot Tech Magazine                             June 2007
 Slot Tech Feature Article
                                            Bottom Heating for
                                               PCB Rework
                                                                                          By Marv Cohen
                                     The time is determined by the
                                     efficiency of the heating device
                                     and the thermal conduction of
                                     heat to the solder joint. A sol-
                                     dering iron is still the most effi-
                                     cient device because the heat
                                     makes direct contact with the
                                     solder joint. An alternative
                                     method is the use of hot air and
                                     PCB bottom preheat. Hot air
S
       lot technicians are con-      convection does not have as
       stantly faced with the in     good a heat transfer as direct
       troduction of changes in      contact but does offer some ad-       tain amount of time is required
slot machine technology. In or-      vantages for higher volume re-        to bring the temperature of the
der to meet these challenges, we     work and thermal processing.          joint from ambient (room) tem-
must constantly develop new                                                perature to reflow. The safe re-
and better repair methods. Cir-      Thermal Profiling                     work challenge is to apply the
cuit boards in modern, state of                                            controlled heat only on the joint
the art electronic equipment         When soldering a PCB, a cer-          for as little time as possible.
have gone through major
changes. Most new circuit
boards are multilayer PCBs with
an increased density of sur-
rounding components near the
SMDs (surface mount devices).
When soldering components in
these dense areas, there is a
heat sink effect that draws the
required heat away from the
solder pads. The incorrect way
of overcoming this problem is by
increasing the applied solder
iron temperature to a point
where there is an even greater
increase in potential for dam-
age to the PCB board and com-
ponents. When soldering in
these dense areas, bottom side
preheat has many advantages
that will overcome this problem.
Soldering Iron Alternative
There is an alternative choice for
solder/desolder and general re-
work other than the traditional
solder iron. When applying heat
to a solder joint, a certain
amount of time is required to
transfer the applied heat to the
thermal load (the solder joint).
June 2007                                  Slot Tech Magazine                                       Page 33
Longer heating periods will al-      temperature alloy to all the pins.   height. The pre-heater will blow
low damaging heat to be trans-       The removal alloy will easily be-    focused hot air under the PCB.
ferred to undesired areas, caus-     come molten because all the pin
ing lifted pads, board delamina-     pad connections are now pre-         The heater is set at the correct
tion and damage to adjacent          heated to 300° F. The applied        temperature to maintain the
and underside components. As         alloy will melt and fuse into each   bottom of the PCB at a constant
you can see, the control of tem-     individual pin /pad connection       300°F. At this safe low tempera-
perature in a specific location      resulting in a new low tempera-      ture, the risk of thermal dam-
for a controlled amount of time      ture alloy with increased ther-      age has been eliminated, includ-
will determine the quality of the    mal mass. While in this molten       ing the bottom side components
rework and reduce the poten-         state the SMD can easily be re-      directly under the heat. The
tial for inflicted damage. This      moved.                               heat will be transferred through
controlled temperature process                                            the board, to the pin/pads and
is called thermal profiling.         SOLDER PAD CLEAN UP                  to the SMD. This safe tempera-
                                                                          ture is maintained on the board
Bottom Side PCB Pre-Heat             After the SMD is removed, it is      throughout the rework process.
                                     important that all pads be
Bottom heating the PCB under         cleaned thoroughly. While pads       PREPARING FOR THE SOLDER
the site where the rework is to      are still being heated, apply flux   PROCESS Check the pads on
take place will allow the tem-       to the end of a swab and push        the PCB for coplanarity (equal
perature to be gradually raised      all of the excess to an unused       height) and clean tinned pad
to a safe point prior to rework-     section oh the board. Clean and      surfaces with a good cleaning
ing the SMD. This is done by         polish each individual pad.          solvent. Using a syringe apply
placing the PCB in a horizontal      Clean up remaining residue           a thin bead of solder paste 63/
bracket and applying focused         with isopropyl alcohol. You are      37 w/flux along all of the pads.
hot air from a pre-heater directly   now ready to install the new         The amount of paste dispensed
under the site to be reworked.       SMD.                                 will depend on the size of the
The distance below the PCB and                                            nozzle. It will take some prac-
the focused heat must be con-                                             tice to judge just how much
trolled to deliver a safe tempera-                                        paste to apply for different size
ture just below reflow. For tra-     INSTALLING THE NEW SMD               SMDs. Carefully place the SMD
ditional boards, the tempera-        WITH A PREHEATER AND A               directly into the paste on the
ture is 300° F. By focusing hot      HOT AIR PENCIL                       pads. Use magnification to in-
air under the PCB, the heat will                                          sure accurate pin / pad place-
gradually transfer through the       Place the PCB in a horizontal        ment on all sides. Once the SMD
board, to the pads and to the        fixture that allows the pre-         is set in place, be careful not to
SMD component to be re-              heater to be placed under the        move it.
worked. This gradual rising          PCB rework area at the correct
temperature slope of controlled
hot air will prevent damage to
some of the more sensitive com-
ponents. Now whatever rework
that is done on the top side of
the board will be enhanced. Sol-
dering, de-soldering and solder
removal will be safer, faster and
more efficient.
USING CHIP QUIK® WITH
PREHEAT FOR SAFE SMD RE-
MOVAL
Due to the low melting tempera-
ture of Chip Quik® removal al-
loy (136°F.) an SMD can be re-
moved using bottom heat only.
With the PCB bottom heated to
a safe bottom temperature of
300° F, apply flux to all leads of
the SMD. Apply Chip Quik low
Page 34                                    Slot Tech Magazine                                   June 2007
USING A HOT AIR PENCIL AND
BOTTOM HEAT
Apply bottom heat and wait
until solder paste starts to acti-
vate. This will be visible when
the flux in the solder paste
starts to smoke. Now set the air
pencil for low air velocity and a
temperature of 500°F. Using the
solder pencil, slowly move from
pin to pin and apply heat. Watch
each pin/pad solder joint as it
is formed and then move on to
the next. If a solder bridge is
formed, apply more paste flux
and heat again. If this does not
work, use solder braid while
heating with the hot air pencil.
Clean all connections with an
acid brush and flux cleaner.
Check with magnification for
accuracy. Place pre-heater on
cool air and allow rework site to    like a drastic change from tra-     whether certain PCBs can be
slowly go back to room tempera-      ditional solder/desolder meth-      repaired rather than trashed.
ture. This method works quite        ods. This basic method is widely
well with fine pitch components.     used throughout the rework in-                    - Marv Cohen
                                     dustry. You will find that in                CHIPQUIK@aol.com
Rework with the use of preheat       many cases, this new method
and a hot air pencil may seem        will be the determining factor of
June 2007                                 Slot Tech Magazine                                   Page 35
 Slot Tech Event - TechFest 15
      Slot Machine University @ TechFest
 Ron Parido                            David Oldham - AESI
 - Slot Machine University & WMS
                      Don Multerer
                      - Sencore
                                     T   oo much cool stuff at TechFest 15!
                                         Slot Machine University made their
                                     premiere showing with a full-day pro-
 Russ Wigé                           gram, repeated all three days. Thanks
 - Transact Technologies             to Ron Parido and Cris Challender.
                                     In addition to three days of technical
                                     training on BVs, Printers, monitors and
                                     touchscreens, some lucky folks won
                                     some pretty cool door prizes. Dominic
                                     Gehant (top, right) from Mystic Lake
                                     Casino won a $300 kit of replacement
                                     components from Ceronix’s Troy
                                     Nofziger, Donald Yellow (also Mystic
                                     Lake) won a digital multimeter (two
                                     others were also awarded)while
                                     Thurston Scott (Inn of the Mountain
                                     Gods) won a touchscreen computer
                                     monitor from 3M Touch Systems. Con- These two people actually didn’t
                                     gratulations to everyone. It was fun!
                                                                              know each other, believe it or not.
Page 36                                    Slot Tech Magazine                                         June 2007
 “On behalf of Table Mountain Casino I just wanted to express our
 thanks to you and your team. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
 Brian Rankin - Slot Technical Manager
On-Site Slot Tech Training
Customized Classes Available
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