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Slot Tech Magazine

EditorRandy Fromm

Technical WritersJames Borg, VicFortenbach, Diana Gruber,Chuck Lentine, CraigNelson, Kevin Noble, PatPorath

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Slot Tech Magazine

-EditorialPage 6-SPIELO IntroductionPage 14-Slot Math-Measuring Slot Machine Volatility bySimulating Virtual PlayersPage 18-Quick & Simple Repairs #89Page 22-Subscriptions

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TechFest 26Detroit, MI

Motor City CasinoNEW DATES!

Nov. 14-16, 2012PublisherPublisherPublisherPublisherPublisherSlot Tech MagazineSlot Tech MagazineSlot Tech MagazineSlot Tech MagazineSlot Tech Magazine

Anyone who has known me for a while knowsthat I just love factories. I love taking thefactory tour. I have toured everything from

power supply factories in Taiwan to pinball factoriesin Chicago and monitor factories from Indiana toItaly. This time, however, it was our Canadian corre-spondent, Kevin Noble’s turn as he brings us alongon his tour of the Spielo slot machine factory. Read“SPIELO Introduction” starting on page six.

The international casino business is full of opportu-nities for advancement. Anyone can work their wayup in this business. But there’s a mess of stuff tolearn about slot math and although we’ve taken abreak for a while (read our archive of articles on slotmath, “Slot Math Can Be Fun?” at http://bit.ly/OY9aHB), slot math is back with a vengeance thismonth with the introduction of Slot Tech Magazine’snew slot math corespondent, Diana Gruber. Read“Measuring Slot Machine Volatility by Simulating VirtualPlayers” beginning on page 14.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Registration for TechFest 26 inDetroit, Michigan is now open. Please note the newdates, Wednesday, November 14th through Friday,November 16th. The event will be held at theMotorCity Casino. Many TechFests are sold-outevents so please register before October 14th andtake advantage of a $100 Earlybird savings. Visit thewebsite at slot-techs.com for a schedule and todownload an enrollment form.

See you at TechFest 26 in Detroit.See you at TechFest 26 in Detroit.See you at TechFest 26 in Detroit.See you at TechFest 26 in Detroit.See you at TechFest 26 in Detroit.

Slot Tech Magazine is anofficial publication of G2E

October 2012Slot Tech Magazine

Slot Tech Feature Article

When I was back inWindsor, I had theluxury of having an

IGT Field Service Techni-cian living right in town. Wegrew to be best of friendsand most times, I couldpick up a phone and callhim to discuss any prob-lems we encountered re-garding any one of IGT’splatforms. Often he was intown and could stop by andlend a hand but a lot oftimes he was out of towncovering one of his manyproperties.

Now that I am in Moncton,New Brunswick, I have thefound that I actually haveone of the manufacturers ofvarious games and equip-ment just a stone’s throwaway in the form of SPIELOInternational. On occasionswhen I’ve had to call forTech Support, in a matterof a couple of minutes theTech Support was in thebuilding helping ustroubleshoot any difficultiesthat we encountered.

This is a first for me toactually have the gamesmanufactured, supportedand designed in my hometown so I wanted to sharewith you SPIELOInternational’s support

services offered not justhere but across NorthAmerica and around theworld. I pitched this ideawhen I first arrived here intown and I was invited on atour of the facilities to seewhat SPIELO Internationalhas brewing for the G2EGaming show in October(there’s a hint on thecover). First I wanted to tellyou what I’ve learned aboutSPIELO International.

Who is SPIELO Interna-Who is SPIELO Interna-Who is SPIELO Interna-Who is SPIELO Interna-Who is SPIELO Interna-tional?tional?tional?tional?tional?

So, just who are they?SPIELO International hadhumble beginnings on theeast coast of Canada whenthey started manufacturinggaming cabinets back in1990. From the start theiremployees offered routinemachine servicing; it was

part of their job to servicetheir customers. The tech-nical services they offerevolved over the yearsbased on market require-ments, technology ad-vances, and customerneeds. Many of you mayrecognize some SPIELOInternational productsunder their former name,Atronic. In 2011, the twocompanies (SPIELO andAtronic) came togetherunder the banner ofSPIELO International.

They don’t just make ma-chines anymore, though.These days, SPIELO Inter-national is a world leader inthe design, manufactureand distribution of games,

SpieloIntroduction

by Kevin Noble

Michelle Martin works on a wiring harness

Slot Tech MagazineOctober 2012


cabinets, central systemsand associated software forlegal gaming marketsaround the world. It offers acomplete range of end-to-end gaming products fordiverse gaming segments,including distributed gov-ernment-sponsored mar-kets, commercial casinomarkets, Amusement withPrize markets and interac-tive and sports bettingmarkets as a result of theirintegration with GTECHG2. And how far out intothe gaming industry dothey reach? Well, SPIELOInternational serves morethan 1,650 customers onfive continents, has shippedmore than 225,000 gamingmachines worldwide andholds more than 300 gam-ing licenses. Of those, it islicensed to sell machines in25 U.S. States (includingNevada) as well as to 142Native American casinos.SPIELO International is 100percent owned byLottomatica Group, a playerin the Italian gaming indus-try, one of the largest Lot-tery operators in the worldbased on total wagers and aleading provider of lotteryand gaming technologysolutions worldwide.SPIELO International isalso an affiliate of GTECH, aleading gaming technologyand services company.

If you’ve worked on any ofthese machines, then you’llbe familiar with SPIELOInternational’s devices:prodiGi Vu®, Vu Slant™,WinWave Vu™, OXYGEN™,and OXYGEN Slant™.These are all built at theirMoncton headquarters,where more than 500 pro-fessionals are dedicated tothe development, deploy-ment and support of Cen-

tral Systems and VLTs fordistributed video lotteryprograms as well as slotmachines for casinos. Theirmanufacturing facility iscertified under Interna-tional Organization forStandardization (ISO) 9001-2008 quality standards.

What services do theyWhat services do theyWhat services do theyWhat services do theyWhat services do theyoffer?offer?offer?offer?offer?

After I learned a bit aboutthe company, what I reallywanted to know is whatservices does SPIELO Inter-national offer for slot techslike you and me? It turnsout to be a lengthy list:machine installs, conver-sions, and removals, servicesupport for both asset andnon-asset machines, soft-ware and hardware up-grades (including gamechanges), phonesupport for tech-nical problems,parts supportand sales, benchrepair of machineperipherals,routine andpreventive main-tenance andtroubleshooting.SPIELO Interna-tional also offerson-site technicaltraining to itscustomers onnew products.And, they don’texclusively ser-vice their ownmachines. Fre-quently they arecontracted tohelp serviceother manufac-turers’ machines,as well.

SPIELO Interna-tional GamingTech Services

(GTS) is a total service solu-tion for gaming customersaround North America.They can help by deployingexperienced, professionalgaming technicians to covermost gaming areasthroughout North America.Their expert field serviceteam can assist withprojects, respond to servicecalls, perform routine pre-ventive maintenance, installand service player trackingsystems, perform benchlevel repairs and more butI’ll tell you more about thatin a future issue.

I was particularly interestedin their bench functions soI asked them for a few moredetails. In select locations,SPIELO International techswill clean and repair ma-chine peripherals like

Tara Nagy performing some sort ofunspecified activity


printers, monitors, LCDsand B/As for their custom-ers, to be used in the ex-change or advance replace-ment process. Logic assem-blies are also serviced andupgraded with new softwareif needed. Most benchlocations also provide tech-nical phone support tocustomers, along with partssales and service. ThroughGTS, their team of expertbench technicians are alsocontracted to provide com-ponent level bench repairsfor other gamingmanufacturer’s peripheralsand gaming equipment.SPIELO International hasinvested in bench functionsbecause performing benchrepairs is a great hands-ontraining process for theirown technicians and ithelps to hone their skillsand knowledge of the pe-ripherals.

Where are these servicesWhere are these servicesWhere are these servicesWhere are these servicesWhere are these servicesavailable?available?available?available?available?

SPIELO International isactive in most North Ameri-can jurisdictions, includingthe majority of Canadianprovinces and Americanstates. They sell to, andservice, all types of gamingmarkets, from small barvenues with a handful ofcabinets up to large com-mercial and government-sponsored operations withthousands of cabinets. AndSPIELO International’semployees believe everycustomer, big or small, isimportant . Accordingly,they have strategically-based service teamsthroughout North Americaso they can rapidly respondto customer calls and helpget gaming equipmentworking and in play asquickly as possible. So it is

not surprising that SPIELOInternational technicianstravel constantly to servicetheir huge customer baseand they clock an averageof 64,000 kilometers(40,000 miles) behind thewheel of their service ve-hicles each year!

How do I contact myHow do I contact myHow do I contact myHow do I contact myHow do I contact mylocal technician?local technician?local technician?local technician?local technician?

The easiest way to contactyour nearest SPIELO Inter-national service team is touse the searchable onlinedirectory found at:www.spielo.com/service/service-teams. Or you cancall SPIELO International’stoll-free Technical Hotlines,which are staffed 24 hoursa day, at 1-800-561-4263(for VLT / Distributed) or 1-800-559-1391 (for CasinoGames).

What doesWhat doesWhat doesWhat doesWhat doesSPIELO Inter-SPIELO Inter-SPIELO Inter-SPIELO Inter-SPIELO Inter-national looknational looknational looknational looknational lookfor in theirfor in theirfor in theirfor in theirfor in theirtechnicians?technicians?technicians?technicians?technicians?

SPIELO Interna-tional takes pridein their techni-cian developmentprogram, whichturns out some ofthe most talentedtechs in the in-dustry. Theybegin by select-ing new hiretechnicians whohave a can-do,customer-focusedattitude coupledwith a basic tech-nical and/orelectronics back-ground. Certifi-cation from atechnical schoolor institute is aplus, as is prior

experience with slot repair.

Techs start as a GamingServices Technician (GST) Ilevel and go through exten-sive training before workingtheir way up in rank. Prod-uct training is provided bytraining specialists out ofMoncton and Las Vegas aswell as Adjunct Trainerslocated throughout NorthAmerica. On-the-job-train-ing, where technicians haveclassroom and hands-oninstruction on the productsthey will service, is an im-portant part of a SPIELOInternational tech’s educa-tion. The real key to theirsuccess is having all juniortechnicians tutored andmentored by senior techni-cians.

SPIELO Internationalstrongly believes in theprofessional development of

Ilene Rosario Installing playertracking equipment


its technicians. More re-cently, there has been asignificant effort made toget technicians the trainingthey need for their jobs, aswell as providing opportuni-ties for professional growth.This includes “Train theTrainer” programs, whichdevelop senior level techni-cians as part-time trainers(Adjunct Trainers) to helppass on skills and knowl-edge.

Techs advance to higherlevels as they gain anddemonstrate their knowl-edge and skill. The typicalprogression for a technicianis: Gaming Services Techni-cian I GSTII GST III Senior/Specialist Technician GSTSupervisor

SPIELO International stillhas some of the originaltechnicians who have beenworking in service for morethan 20 years – now that’sdedication.

What are SPIELO Inter-What are SPIELO Inter-What are SPIELO Inter-What are SPIELO Inter-What are SPIELO Inter-national machines likenational machines likenational machines likenational machines likenational machines liketo work on?to work on?to work on?to work on?to work on?

With this kind of rigoroustraining for their techs, Ican understand whythey’re respected in thefield. But what about themachines? How do theystand up to the wear andtear of daily play, and arethey easy to work on?SPIELO International hasdeployed tens of thousandsof machines and their cabi-nets are among the topperformers in many of thegaming markets where theyare present.

The current cabinets haveevolved with a technicianperspective included in thedesign. When a new prod-

uct is prototyped, servicetechnicians are invited toprovide feedback from aserviceability point of view.This makes SPIELO Inter-national products popularwith techs everywherebecause of their ease ofrepair, and functionality ingeneral.

From what I’ve heard andexperienced, SPIELO Inter-national machines areviewed as very tech friendly:easy to repair, solid, andreliable hardware withgreat service and partssupport. It’s such a solid,mechanically-stable cabinetthat the SPIELO Interna-tional guys who answer thehotline often hear ques-tions that start with “It’sbeen so long since I’ve hadto fix this machine that Ican’t remember what todo.”

Does SPIELO Interna-Does SPIELO Interna-Does SPIELO Interna-Does SPIELO Interna-Does SPIELO Interna-tional want to hear fromtional want to hear fromtional want to hear fromtional want to hear fromtional want to hear fromme?me?me?me?me?

Something thatcame throughloud and clear inmy conversationswith SPIELOInternational washow importantthey considerfeedback fromcustomers. Theyespecially want tohear commentsfrom other techni-cians becausetechs in the fieldunderstand thebusiness and howthe productshould perform.Their technicalexpertise andexperience meansthey find thefeedback easy to

understand. Most impor-tantly, feedback helpsSPIELO International toeliminate any problems andimprove their product, notjust for the benefit of play-ers and operators, but forthe technicians that keeptheir machines running outin the field.

Feedback is always wel-comed and it is passedalong to the cabinet design-ers. Share your thoughtsand questions with yourlocal SPIELO Internationaltechs or call their technicalservices hotline on 1-800-561-4263 or visitwww.spielo.com/service/service-teams for the emailaddress of your nearesttechnician. They want tohear from you so they cankeep making the techni-cian-friendly, bullet-proofmachines they’re knownfor.

- Kevin Noble - Kevin Noble - Kevin Noble - Kevin Noble - Kevin [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]

Jeffrey Noriega working onprecision bench repairs



I’m a mathematician. Iwrite par sheets for aliving. As a hired gun, I

work for many companies,and I’ve analyzed manygames. I am often asked to“match” a popular game. Forexample, consider the game“Queen of the Nile”. That isa popular slot machine thatfor some reason gamingbosses just love. Sometimes Iwill get the assignment,“design a game like Queen ofthe Nile”. Obviously, I can’tsimply clone the game. Thatis, I probably could, but thatisn’t the assignment. Theassignment is to make agame that plays like Queenof the Nile. What is wantedis the essence of the game.The special magic thatattracts people to it.Somehow I am supposed toreproduce that.

Let me start by saying thereis only so much amathematician can do. Ican’t guarantee thepopularity of any game. Evenif I clone a game exactly, itmay not have anywhere nearthe popularity of the original.There may be some element

Measuring Slot Machine Volatility by Simulating Virtual Players

By Diana Gruber

of the original game thatmade it popular that hasnothing to do with the math.It could be the graphics, orthe sounds, or the location,or the speed of the spin, orthe convenience of thetickets. Or it could be agame was the first to marketwith a new idea. In the caseof Queen of the Nile, it couldbe that most people hadnever before seen a gamewith free spins and symbolsthat look like face cards.Even if you release a gamewith exactly the same math(it’s been done) you can’trecapture that feeling of“finally, a game that speaksto me”. There is somethingspecial about the first gamein a new genre that follow-up games can’t quitecapture.

Let’s assume that Queen ofthe Nile has something goingfor it besides marketposition. Let’s assume, as somany bosses do, that it isthe math that makes Queenof the Nile great. How canwe capture that math, andput it in a totally unrelatedgame?

The simple answer is, weneed to match thedistribution.

The DistributionThe DistributionThe DistributionThe DistributionThe Distribution

A distribution can be thoughtof as a graph of the hitfrequencies. Most people arefamiliar with a normaldistribution, which is shapedlike the hump of a camel.Slot machine distributionsare not normal distributions.They are bumpy and oddlyshaped. A slot machinedistribution might look likethe graph in figure 1.

The above distribution refersto a 30 line game. About 20%of the hits are worth 10credits. Another 20% of thehits are worth 30 credits.Only about 2.5% of the hitsare worth 1000 credits ormore.

If this is all the informationyou have, then you can’tmatch the distribution.There isn’t enoughinformation here to tell youwhat is really going on. Whatif you have a similar game,but the awards are slightly

Figure 1


different. What if your gamehas an award of, say, 12credits? That is a perfectlyvalid award, but what do youcompare it to? The chart youdraw will look completelydifferent than the chartabove, and yet the game youdesign might actually “feel”like the game you are tryingto copy. How can you showthat?

One way to do it is to usecalculus. The way to match acurve it to match thederivatives. If you take thefirst, second and thirdderivatives, you will get ameasure of the rate ofchange, the skewness, andthe kurtosis. If you match allthe derivatives, then you willmatch the curve. Is that agood idea? I don’t think so!You can’t explain calculus toa gaming boss. Even if youcould, it still doesn’t give youvery much usefulinformation. Let’s trysomething else.

Simulating PlayersSimulating PlayersSimulating PlayersSimulating PlayersSimulating Players

When I evaluate slotmachine math, I try to drawa picture of how the gamewill perform from theplayer’s point of view. Whatkind of experience will anaverage player have? Will hebuy in, lose consistently, andwalk away with nothing? Orwill he play for a long time,experiencing no highs andlows, winning 9¢ out of every10¢ he puts in, until he getsbored and quits? Or will heget some interesting awards,a few big ones, a few smallones, and a feeling ofpotentially more to come?

In order to give the player ameaningful experience, youneed to be able to measureand adjust the playerexperience. You need to beable to change the reels andthe pay table, and comparethe results to what you hadbefore. There is a very easyway to do that. You can writea program to simulateplayers and graph theresults.

Here is the way I do it. I take10,000 virtual players, andgive each of them a bankrollequal to 20 times their totalbet. So if the bet is 30¢ perspin, I will give each player abankroll of $6.00. I give eachplayer an hour, at 10 spinsper minute, for a total of 600spins. Then I set the reels tospinning. Each player keepsplaying until his bankroll isexhausted, or his time is up.I keep track of certainelements of each player’sexperience. For example, Ikeep track of the averagenumber of games played, thehit frequency, how manyplayers hit a bonus, and thehighest award each playerwins. Then I generate somegraphs to show somehighlights of the averageplayer experience.

Time on DeviceTime on DeviceTime on DeviceTime on DeviceTime on Device

People sometimes ask me ifthere is one single numberthat can describe thevolatility of a slot machine. Ithink they are looking forthe standard deviation. In


my opinion, the standarddeviation is almost useless.Like the calculus solutiondiscussed earlier, it istechnically correct, but itjust doesn’t give you anyuseful information. I don’tthink there is a singlenumber that describes thevolatility of a slot machine. Ithink volatility is describedby a combination of numbers.

If you look past the volatilityand consider time on device,then you have acharacteristic of the maththat can be described by asingle number. This numbercan be very useful.

Time on device is a term weuse to describe how long theaverage player plays a slotmachine before giving up andwalking away. It is sort of anebulous term. Some peoplethink volatility and time ondevice move in oppositedirections. For example, agame with a low time ondevice a has high volatilityand vice versa. In myexperience that isn’t true.More about that in a minute.

Here is how I like tomeasure time on device.Given the simulation above, Imeasure how many games,on average, a player canexpect to play. The resultlooks like figure 2.

In this case, the averageplayer playing 30¢ per spinwould average 155 gamesbefore exhausting his entire$6.00 bankroll. Let’s call thisvalue the AGP (AverageGames Played). I wouldconsider an AGP of 155 to bea high time on device. It ishigh because this is a 30line game, also because Idesigned it to be high. Iwanted this game to appealto a leisure market. I wantedmy players to play for a longtime, in a leisurely way.

AGP usually ranges between90 and 160. I would considera slot machine with a anAGP of 130 to be an excellentgame. Below 90, you arekilling your players off tooquickly, and above 160, youare just boring them. So Iaim for about 130, and thenadjust up or down,depending on the intendedaudience, and the nature ofthe game.

Player Top AwardPlayer Top AwardPlayer Top AwardPlayer Top AwardPlayer Top Award

Another way to look atdistribution is to considerthe chance that a player willget a nice big award. Playersdon’t expect to hit a jackpotevery time they play, butthey do like to feel that ajackpot is possible. So weneed a way to measure therange of top awards a playerwill hit during a typicalplaying experience. Usingthe simulation technique, Ilike to generate a chart thatlooks like this:

This chart tells me that onein five players hit an awardgreater than 1,000 credits,or in other words, a $10 hit

on a 30¢ buy in. I want lotsof players to hit awards likethat. Those medium/highawards are fun for theplayers, and keep a gameinteresting.

This chart measuresvolatility in a way. A morevolatile game will have morehigh awards. As I mentionedbefore, this chart moves withthe time on device chart, notopposite it. The more time ondevice you have, the morelikely you are to hit a bigaward. When you look at it

Figure 3

Figure 2


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that way, it turns out timeon device is the key elementin slot machine design, withvolatility being secondary.

ConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusion

Time on device and volatilityare just two things toconsider when designing aslot machine. When you putthem together with hitfrequency, frequency of thebonus, and overall return,you start to get a pretty goodpicture of how the gameplays. Even then you haven’tfully described the game, butat least you are getting abetter picture. The realusefulness of these chartscomes from comparing themduring development. Supposeyou change the pay table andthe reel strips. Does thatmake the time on devicebetter or worse? Do moreplayers or fewer players hitbig awards? Without thesecharts, you are juststumbling around in thedark. The only way to getthese charts is with virtualplayer simulations. If yourmathematician is not giving

you virtual playersimulations, then show himthis article, and tell him youneed that. Or better yet, give

me a call, and I’ll simulateyour math for you.

-Diana Gruber -Diana Gruber -Diana Gruber -Diana Gruber -Diana [email protected]



Quick & SimpleRepairs #89

By Pat Porath

Atronic e-motion Game,Atronic e-motion Game,Atronic e-motion Game,Atronic e-motion Game,Atronic e-motion Game,Both LCDs Going BlackBoth LCDs Going BlackBoth LCDs Going BlackBoth LCDs Going BlackBoth LCDs Going Black

I was making a round onthe gaming floor, looking at progressive signs

to see if they wereincrementing, looking atgraphics on LCD signs tosee that the image wasn’tfrozen and was scrollingthrough the advertisementlike they should. I was alsolooking out for anythingthat didn’t look quite right,such as an Atronic e-mo-tion game with only theticket printer bezel lit up.Both the upper and lowerLCDs were black. Some-times a reboot of the gamemay bring it back to life,sometimes not. If not, themain game power supplymay need to be replaced.On this game it appearedthe unit had been replacedrecently because it was veryclean, not much dust hadaccumulated on it. A rebootwas done and during theprocess, I started closingthe main slot door. Onceagain both LCDs wentblack. A second reboot was

done. This time, I waiteduntil it booted all the wayup. Once again during doorclosure it happened. As Irecalled (learning the hardway, where I was unable torepair an Atronic a couplemonths back or so) I luckilyremembered to make surethe backplane board wasnice and snug in place.With game power OFF, Islightly pushed on theboard to make sure it wastight. Since power was OFF,both the main processorboard along withthe game commu-nication boardwere reseated.This time after theboot up processthe game workedperfectly and Ihadn’t heard of acomplaint from itsince. Definitelysomething to keepin mind, if anAtronic e-motiongame is “actingweird,” turn offpower and makesure thebackplane boardisn’t a bit loose.

Ithaca 950 Printer Mak-Ithaca 950 Printer Mak-Ithaca 950 Printer Mak-Ithaca 950 Printer Mak-Ithaca 950 Printer Mak-ing Weird Noiseing Weird Noiseing Weird Noiseing Weird Noiseing Weird Noise

While making a round onthe floor, I received a call toan Ithaca 950 printer prob-lem. The attendant stated itwas making a very weirdnoise and the paperwouldn’t feed correctly.Maybe a small piece ofpaper was jammed some-where within the paperpath causing problems? Nosuch luck finding anythingjamming up the path. I


reseated the printer andtried to feed the paper onceagain without success. Thiswas the first time I had everheard an Ithaca 950 printermake such a terrible noise.For some reason it soundedlike gears were grinding.After the printer was re-moved once again for fur-ther inspection, nothingunusual was seen this timetoo. Now I had my flashlightout when attempting tofeed paper. What in theworld was moving aroundthe gear area on the leftside of the printer head? Adarned 7/16ths nut from alock was screwing up thegears! Luckily, after it wasremoved the printer wasOK; none of the teeth onthe gears had gotten dam-aged too badly. Paper fedfine, along with two goodtest prints. How could a nutfrom a lock get into thegears in the first place?Hard to say for sure, maybeit was accidentally droppedwhen installing the lock forthe bill acceptor accessdoor. Who knows?

IGT AVP SBX GameIGT AVP SBX GameIGT AVP SBX GameIGT AVP SBX GameIGT AVP SBX GameShowing OfflineShowing OfflineShowing OfflineShowing OfflineShowing Offline

Almost every work day Icheck our “Island Time”progressive games to see ifthere are any errors on themain computer screen.“General errors” can also beseen on the VFD of one ofthe progressive controllers.The device will actuallydisplay “42 games online, 0errors.” A way to check all42 of our IGT AVP 3.5 SBXgames in more depth is to

first click “Godzilla Firefox.”Next, click “bookmarks”then “IGTSPC.” A screenshould appear with a “ma-chine status” tab. Click thetab for a view of the 42game layout along with thestatus of the games such ascoin-in status, online,offline and so on. If a gameshows offline, only a rebootof the SIB board may beneeded. If not, there maybe another issue. On thisparticular day, two gameswere showing offline. Witha simple click of the “clearerrors” button, nothinghappened, errors remained.One game I did get to clearby rebooting the SIB, theother wasn’t quite so easy.When looking at the “gamecommunication interfaceboard” in which our Oasiscable usually plugs into,the board appeared to be

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Repair Monitors, Power Supplies, Gameboards?

totally dead. Both the redand green lights on theboard were not lit at all.(Note: our Oasis interfacecable plugged into a differ-ent socket located directlyon the game backplaneboard.) Since the “COMboard” was plugged intochannel 2 on the gamemotherboard I checkedgame software settings tosee if channel 2 was evenenabled. Sure enoughchannel 2’s address was setat zero, not to 1 like it wassupposed to be. As soon asthe address was set cor-rectly, the lights on the“COM board” lit up. Thisindicated the board shouldnow be functioning. Back atthe progressive computerthe “clear errors” tab wasclicked again, twice just tomake sure. Now all of thegames were online.


IGT AVP 3.5 Showing All Doors OpenIGT AVP 3.5 Showing All Doors OpenIGT AVP 3.5 Showing All Doors OpenIGT AVP 3.5 Showing All Doors OpenIGT AVP 3.5 Showing All Doors Openon the Screenon the Screenon the Screenon the Screenon the Screen

A complaint was received that an IGT AVP3.5 had all of the doors showing open onthe screen. Door open M, D, T, L and soon. Why the problem all of the sudden?Within a half hour, another game in thesame area had the same errors. What wasdone to the games recently? For one thing,bill acceptor access door locks had recentlybeen replaced. Maybe that had somethingto do with the problem? Checking basicitems on one of the games didn’t resolveany of the “door open issues.” We triedreseating boards and rebooting the game.Once the lock cover was removed from thestacker door area, the problem was obvi-ous. One of the wires to the stacker accessdoor switch was cut in two and other had abare spot in it, possibly shorting on metal.When the cover was put back in place, thewires hadn’t been run though the speci-fied notch, therefore when it was put on, itpinched and/or sliced the wires. After thewires were repaired, the wires were runproperly and the cover in place, the gamewas fine. Only the door open F and Mappeared. Once they were closed, noneshowed open as they should and the billacceptor lit up. Another game online. Asimple wire repair fixed the problem.

WMS Bluebird 2, “CGC ConnectionWMS Bluebird 2, “CGC ConnectionWMS Bluebird 2, “CGC ConnectionWMS Bluebird 2, “CGC ConnectionWMS Bluebird 2, “CGC ConnectionLost” ErrorLost” ErrorLost” ErrorLost” ErrorLost” Error

A “CGC connection lost” error means thegame has lost connection between the“Central Game Controller” and the game,connected by CAT5 cable. One thing thatcould be seen was the progressive area ofthe game didn’t have any numbers in it,only a blank area. Since I knew what CGCstood for, the game being progressive, Iheaded in the direction of the game brainbox (Some call it the “brain box”, CPU,main board, MPU, what ever you want tocall it). While looking at the brain box, aCAT5 cable connector didn’t look quiteright. Only one of the two indicator lightswere blinking. One light is for transmit,

the other for receiving data. Then Ithought, what would happen if the cablewas reseated without powering down thegame? The CAT5 cable that was connectedto the brain box of the game was discon-nected for a few seconds, then seated backinto place. After less than a minute, all ofthe progressive numbers appeared, alongwith both lights blinking on the CAT5connector. It appeared the game was re-paired. As soon as the main door wasclosed all errors cleared and the game wasready for play. Re-seating the cable fixedthe failure.


Bally Alpha Wouldn’tBally Alpha Wouldn’tBally Alpha Wouldn’tBally Alpha Wouldn’tBally Alpha Wouldn’tShow a Door OPEN MShow a Door OPEN MShow a Door OPEN MShow a Door OPEN MShow a Door OPEN M

Why would someone want agame to show a “door openM” in the first place? Well,without it a tech is unableto access detailed diagnos-tics and setup menus. Onlythe attendant menu wouldbe displayed with a turn ofthe reset key. Pressing thediagnostics button wouldn’twork at all. Since the “BallyAlpha” had just been con-verted, could it be a looseconnection somewhere? Ichecked and rechecked allof the connections on thebackplane board, reseatedthe “brain box,” checkedthe jumper pins on theback plane board to makesure they were in the samepositions as the game nextdoor. I even disconnectedevery connector on theback plane board (with theexception of power) to see ifa door open M would ap-pear. Even the ticketprinter and bill acceptorwere disconnected. NothingI did would show a dooropen M. About all that wasleft, in my opinion, was theprocessor board. Eventhough it was replacedduring the conversion,maybe it was faulty. A co-worker walked up as I wasangrily starring at the gameand asked what the dealwas. Told the individualabout all that was left wasthe brain box, so weswapped it. A known goodone from a game of thesame program theme wasswapped. Directly after thegame fully booted up a door

open M appeared. To methis indicated a possiblefaulty brain box. Just forthe heck of it, the originalwas put back into thegame. After that one fullybooted up a door openappeared too. This would beclassified as a major FMrepair. Possible bad board,swapped them, swappedback, now both work fine.Sometimes a repair for aslot machine makes per-fectly logical sense, othertimes not.

- Pat Porath - Pat Porath - Pat Porath - Pat Porath - Pat [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]

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