NexGen

Bench
Tests
 Slot Tech Magazine Editorial Opinion

Page 4-Editorial
Page 6-Lift For Service
Page 10-The Name of the Game-JCM’s UBA-Part 2 of 2
Page 16-NexGen Testing
Page 22-Subscriptions

For Subscriptions - See the website @ slot-techs.com

D ear Friends of Slot Tech Magazine,

Someone has come up with a device that is a completely obvious but no less awe- Randy Fromm
some solution to an outstanding problem that has plagued the casino business since
the first “press for service” button was installed on a slot machine, the false alarm.
Randy Fromm's
“Can I help you?” You ask, having walked halfway across the casino in response to a Slot Tech Magazine
flashing candle.

“Ummm . . . No? Oh! Oops, sorry I didn’t mean to press that button,” comes the reply. Editor
Randy Fromm
Technical Writers
Now there is an efficient and effective end to unwanted service calls on all slot
James Borg, Vic
machines, forever. One of our own, Jason Newkirk, has invented a device that, once Fortenbach, Chuck
installed (takes only seconds) will put an end to the madness once and for all. You’d Lentine, Craig Nelson,
be mad not to read “Lift for Service” beginning on page six. You would be crazier still Kevin Noble, Pat Porath
not to get one of his clever button covers for every machine on your floor.

In this issue, Robert Sult has graced us with an illustrated guide to bench testing Slot Tech Magazine is published
IGT’s NexGen unit. Combined with the video tutorial from Pacific Illumination on how monthly by
to replace the CCFLs (on YouTube), there is no reason any slot shop cannot work Slot Tech Magazine
1944 Falmouth Dr.
with these units and repair and test them on the bench.
El Cajon, CA 92020-2827
tel.619.838.7111 fax.619.593.6132
e-mail editor@slot-techs.com
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 Slot Tech Feature Article
I
have spent over a de-
cade directing slot de-
partments and much of
that time has been focused
on how our slot depart-
ments, other than the
games we choose and
where we place them, can
make a real and noticeable
difference in overall player
experience.
Customer service is the
name of the game and
survey after survey has told
us that along with smiling
employee faces, player
response times can make
the difference between a
good, bad or great casino
visit.
My story starts with the
first weekend after we in-
stalled a new, state of the
art slot dispatch system. I
was standing behind the
slot dispatcher, amazed
that seemingly, the major-
ity of our slot dispatches
were for service/change
light requests. I walked the
casino floor with my slot
manager and during a busy
night and saw our atten-
dants running around like
proverbial chickens with
their heads cutoff.
Page 6
Lift For Service
As I started my career as a
slot technician and worked
my way through the ranks,
I have a natural connection
with my staff. I have always
believed they are not the
“means to the end” but
they are the end and if I
could find a way to make
their jobs more efficient
and productive, they would
lead the way to improved
customer service, player
satisfaction and, ultimately,
enhanced company profit-
ability.
Little did I know that my
next steps would lead me to
making an impact on those
important issues but more
importantly, to finding a
real BREAKTHROUGH on
significantly improving
customer service, a break-
through that would materi-
ally improve player re-
sponse times, slot service
efficiency, reduce staffing
levels and improve company
profitability.
Back to that fateful
night. Every slot at-
tendant I spoke with
during the evening
stated the same thing,
“We would love the
dispatch system if it
wasn’t for chasing all those
change lights when a cus-
Slot Tech Magazine
By Jason Newkirk
tomer doesn’t even need
any service. If we could
spend our time responding
to jackpots and real service
issues, we would be able to
get to our players faster
and really improve their
experience.”
Of course, they were right.
It really made me think
about how much attendant
time was being spent chas-
ing down false alarms and
accidental button hits —
valuable time that had
taken my staff away from
real customer service issues
and delayed their response
times.
I immediately dove into the
information that the new
dispatch system had pro-
vided. We were responding
to over 5,000 change light
dispatches a week on a
2,000 game floor. How
August 2012
August 2012 Slot Tech Magazine Page 7
many of those service re-
quests were real customer
needs and how many were
false alarms that were tak-
ing my staff away from
providing our players the
best possible service?
My next step was doing
what any responsible slot
department head would do,
I asked for feedback from
our staff and started a log
book of every service re-
quest for the next month.
The results astounded me:
40% No service needed
20% Holding of game to use
ATM / Restroom
15% Cocktail Service
15% Change / BV issue
5% Game question
5% Miscellaneous (need
someone paged, question
about promotion etc.)
Our slot attendants were
responding to over 5,000
service calls a week and
40% of these calls did not
need service. Wow! If I
could find a way to stop the
false service calls, I could
make a dramatic difference
for my customers, staff and
company!
Service Call Tally
40% No service needed
20% Holding of game to use ATM / Restroom
15% Cocktail Service
15% Change / BV issue
5% Game question
5% Miscellaneous (need someone paged,
question about promotion etc.)
Page 8
Quicker response times to The Slot Service Guard is
real player needs, greatly my contribution to dramati-
enhanced customer service, cally and simply improving
reduced FTEs and payroll our customers’ gaming
expense, and in the end, experience while enhanc-
improved company profit- ing company profitability by
ability. cutting slot service calls
almost in half.
And that’s when the idea
hit me—guard the button -Jason Newkirk
with a cover and 40% of our jasonnewkirk@
slot service calls would be slotserviceguard.com
eliminated. If customers
needed to make a con-
scious decision to hit the
call button (by lifting a
cover) inadvertent call but-
ton hits could be elimi-
nated. What a HUGE differ-
ence that would make—a For schematic
40% difference in what was
now wasted slot attendant diagrams, soft-
time! It turned out to be all
about that “button.”
ware, drivers,
service manuals
And that is how I invented
the Slot Service Guard .
and much, much
The SSG is a service call more, visit the
button cover. A simple
cover that is easily applied, Slot Technical
self-adhesive, game-inte- Server at
gral, durable and cost effec-
tive. It makes a true and slot-tech.com.
real difference to slot opera-
tions, customers, employ-
ees and companies. For batch down-
loads, use FTP.
FTP to slot-
tech.com
username=slot
tech
Password=kxkvi8
Slot Tech Magazine August 2012
August 2012 Slot Tech Magazine Page 9
 Slot Tech Feature Article
The Upper Electronics
Board-Continued from
July 2012 issue
O
nce this board has
been detached, the
lenses underneath
it are readily accessible.
These need to be cleaned
out as explained before.
Always using a damp cotton
bud or a soft, lint-free cloth.
All the optics on the elec-
tronics board itself can
easily be wiped clean as
well (see figures 7 & 8).
Obviously, just cleaning the
top part of the acceptor
doesn’t mean the unit has
Fig. 7 Lenses under top board
Page 10
The Name of the Game
Part 2
actually been thoroughly
cleaned, for there is still
the bottom half that might
also need attention. How-
ever, the second part of the
procedure can be quite a
long and precarious job,
and not to be taken lightly,
although a practiced hand
can whiz through it in
under an hour.
For now, let’s just assume
that after having cleaned
the top part, the acceptor
has improved dramatically,
hence saving you the
hassle of having to do the
bottom part as well (espe-
cially if you’ve had a really
crappy shift and all you
want to do is go home and
unwind). Sadly, at times
this isn’t the case and one
Fig. 8 Top board optics
Slot Tech Magazine
By James Borg
has to do the dire deed.
Having said that, done one
step at a time (and with a
sense of logic during the
whole operation) will see
yourself doing a good job of
it, and wonder why you
were so worried in the first
place. But for now, we’ll
miss doing the bottom half
(sighs of relief, and a faint
smile surfaces on your
exhausted face).
As mentioned before, two of
its features are the auto-
matic centering and anti-
stringing technology.
Automatic Centering: As its
name implies, this is just
that, it centers the bills
before they go through to
be read. The mechanism is
August 2012
August 2012 Slot Tech Magazine Page 11
pretty neat and reliable.
The mechanism allows the
unit to read bills between
62 and 85mm wide, without
having to use bill guides.
The function of the Auto-
matic Centering mecha-
nism can be readily
checked out using the
acceptor’s built-in diagnos-
tics. To enter into test
mode, the following steps
need to be carried out:
• Power off, DIP switch
8 has to be set to ‘ON’.
• Power is applied to
the unit. (Both Red and
Green diagnostic indicators
are on)
• Set DIP switches 1
and 5 to the ‘ON’ position.
(This particular combina-
tion activates the Centering
Mechanism)
• DIP switch 8 is set to
‘OFF’ to start the actual
test. (Both the Red and
Green indicators are off)
In the process of carrying
out functional tests, the
Red and Green indicators
might blink out a code,
signaling a problem. To
decipher the fault, one has
to refer to the list of error
codes accordingly.
A part of the mechanism
that works in conjunction
with this automatic center-
ing feature is the tension
solenoid. This is found in
the top part of the acceptor.
Just after a bill is inserted,
the solenoid can be heard
being activated and its two
rollers press down on the
bill, applying pressure on it
(see figure 9).
Page 12
Occasionally, when an
acceptor has been recently
serviced, the bill is just
pulled in an inch or two
and then everything stops;
the bill is left dangling out
of the acceptor.
This is a sure sign that
whomever serviced the
acceptor has forgotten to
plug in the solenoid to the
top board. Just for the
record, I’ve never, ever done
that. If that isn’t the case,
then it could be that the
top board has actually gone
FUBAR and requires re-
placement. Unfortunately,
replacing the top board will
require the acceptor to be
calibrated.
To test the functionality of
the Solenoid, after entering
the Test Mode, DIP switches
2 and 5 have to be set to
the ‘ON’ position. If the
solenoid can be heard
trying to work but doesn’t,
most probably all it would
Slot Tech Magazine
need would be to be taken
to pieces, its slug pulled
out and cleaned, and then
it’s back to business once
more.
Anti-Stringing: If they think
they can get away with it,
people will often try to pull
a fast-one, be it on another
person, or even on a ma-
chine. Before this anti-
stringing technology was
thought of, people used to
pass a bill through an ac-
ceptor, get the credits for it,
and then wickedly pull
back the bill using a piece
of string, fishing line
(mono-filament) or Mylar
tape attached to it. This
obviously didn’t go down
very well with the owners of
the machines, so anti-
stringing device(s) are in-
corporated into the mecha-
nism. In the case of the
UBA, this is at the back of
the unit, just before the bill
actually drops into the
cash-box.
August 2012
August 2012 Slot Tech Magazine Page 13
The same procedure to test
this mechanism applies
just as in the case of the
Centering Mechanism, but
this time, only DIP switch 5
needs to be set on the ‘ON’
position.
In the eventuality that the
acceptance rate isn’t im-
proved after a thorough
cleaning procedure, the
unit might need calibra-
tion. There are basically two
types of calibration that can
be performed. One is the
Auto-calibration (which can
be carried out quickly in
the field) and the other is
the regular calibration,
which is PC supported and
is carried out at mainte-
nance centers or in work-
shops. Adjustment can only
be carried out properly
once the unit has been
cleaned, plugged in and the
face plate removed.
For the adjustment to be
made, a suitable adjust-
ment paper needs to be
used. It’s important that
this paper is handled
carefully, not to be dam-
aged in any way.
Fig. 10 Front Access Door
The procedure for apply-
ing the quick adjustment
is to remove power to the
acceptor and turn DIP
switches 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8
to the ON position.
Once power is applied
back to the unit, insert
(just as you would a
normal bill) the black
side of the calibration
Page 14
paper (KS-069). This paper
will be accepted (and even-
tually rejected) by the unit
once the adjustment is
done. Please note that the
paper might be automati-
cally pulled in and pushed
back out several times
during the calibration pro-
cess.
If the red LED comes on,
then the unit has to be
adjusted again or tested for
malfunction. However, if
the green LED comes on,
then the adjustment has
been done successfully.
The colored diagnostic
LEDs can be a life saver in
that they can save count-
less precious moments
trying to locate the problem
with the acceptor. As a rule,
the GREEN one flashes to
show why the bill has been
rejected while the RED one
Figure 10
Slot Tech Magazine
shows the cause of the
malfunction.
The DIP switches are nor-
mally all set to ‘OFF’ which
means that all the denomi-
nations are accepted. DIP
switch 8 is to enter into
Test mode when it’s ‘ON.’
Normally, it’s left in its
‘OFF’ state.
There’s so much to say
about this little gem, that
this is only the tip of the
iceberg. Personally, I’ve
found them to be very reli-
able and trustworthy. They
can take quite a bit of pun-
ishment, making them a
pleasure to work on.
- James Borg
jborg@slot-techs.com
August 2012
August 2012 Slot Tech Magazine Page 15
 Slot Tech Feature Article

NexGen Testing By Robert Sult

NEXGEN OS

Editor’s Note: I had a request

D uring the NexGen OS download, you are mainly
dealing with the video board. If there is a problem, it
should show up. I had one that would stop the
download process with a serial error. That one I will look at
if and when I get a schematic for it or I’ll just test each
for additional training from a
local casino here in San component.
Diego. I had visited them
previously and we had cov- You can connect the Ethernet capable mezzanine board over
ered the usual mix of power the video board contacts or piggy back on the current mezza-
supply and LCD monitor nine board.
repair but we hadn’t touched
on the units used in player
tracking displays. Specifi-
cally, they were looking for a
way to repair their IGT
NexGen units.
Since I had no familiarity
with the device, I turned to
“America’s Master Slot
Tech,” Robert Sult. Mr. Sult
is well-known to the slot
tech community through his Over the video board contacts
“slot notes” series on the
Interweb and I often turn to
him for practical advice
when I run into something
like this.
From: Randy Fromm
To: Sult, Robert
Subject: NexGen Testing in
the shop?
Piggy back on the current mezzanine board.
Do you test these units in
the shop somehow (without
having a game)? What I want
to know is a procedure for
testing and/or repair of
the unit (other than re-
placing the lamps, which I
know). How does the famous
Robert Sult do it?

His response was to send me

the following, illustrated
guide:
1. Connect the in-machine OL harness from BEII (P2) to NexGen (P4)
Page 16 Slot Tech Magazine August 2012
2. Connect a standard cross over
Ethernet cable from the PCs
Ethernet port to the Ethernet port
on the NexGen mezzanine board
3. Connect serial communications
cable from COM port on the PC to
P7 on the NexGen base board.
4. Start the NKDownload Utility.EXE
August 2012
8. This happens
5. Enter 10.0.0.1 in the network
interface IP and set the COM port
to match the serial cable installed
6. Press the load Image button and 9. Now connect power to the BEII
browse to where the NexGen OS
file NK.bin is located and press the
open button of the browse dialog
7. Press the start button 10. Found device
Slot Tech Magazine Page 17
11. Downloading 16. It will reconnect 17. Then it closes with this message.

Then I will disconnect the power to the BEII – disconnect

everything else and connect next unit.

Testing the Unit

12. Flashing

The most common problems on the NexGen are the connection on the
13. Notice message bottom right mezzanine board and the video board.

14. Flash complete

I often squeeze the contacts together.

15. You will see this unplugged When mounting the mezzanine board to the video board, insure that
message all three screws and nuts are put on tightly.
Page 18 Slot Tech Magazine August 2012
1) Connect the LCD display to the video & mezzanine
board.

2) Connect the BEII to the NexGen and apply power

to the BEII.

3) The NexGen should go into calibration mode –

black out

4) Then return with the following screen.

The Display is working!

5) Pressing the BONUS – will put it into BEII test

mode (see below).

6) If you get into test mode, your touch screen is

working

August 2012 Slot Tech Magazine Page 19

7) Connecting the card reader
There are other tests that you can
do.

Connect the unit to a BEII with a

loop back harness.

Tests
AFKU
CARD
UID
ASSET
DENOM
You are able to test the bezel color also the card reader. This NOT SET
is with card reader attached and card inserted. VER BE
Bezel Flash Green
Bezel Flash Red
Bezel Flash Orange
Casino City’s Bezel Flash OFF
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Key : M ATT: N SVC: N
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parts, supplies –
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gaming floor! push content to the unit.

t
4IPXDBTF
ZPVS
JOWFOUPSZ
UP
- Robert Sult

industry professionals 24/7! rsult@slot-techs.com

t
4BWF
UJNF
BOE
TBWF
NPOFZ
t
4JHO
VQ
UPEBZ
o
JUT
'3&&

8PSMEXJEF(BNJOH&YDIBOHFDPN

Page 20 Slot Tech Magazine August 2012

 Loopback harness by Vic Fortenbach.
August 2012 Slot Tech Magazine Page 21
Subscriptions & Back Issues
Why back issues of Slot Tech Magazine are
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with what has been covered in past issues. This editorial policy assures that Slot Tech
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technician but are free to continue to produce the most comprehensive technical articles in
the gaming industry.

Randy Fromm's
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 “I can help you bring down the
cost of casino electronics repairs”
Randy Fromm

“OK. You asked and I listened. My new tech class eliminates obsolete CRT
monitor repair and the associated monitor repair lab. In just four or five days, your
slot techs can learn to repair Power Supplies, LCD Monitors, Ticket Printers, Bill
Validators and more. It’s easy and it’s fun.“- Randy Fromm

tel.619.838.7111 fax.619.593.6132
Page 24 Slot Tech Magazine August 2012