In Part 1 of our Understanding Ticket Dispensers series, we introduced you to the many powerful features associated with the Intelli-Series CPU. In Part 2, we described the sensor array and wiring. In Part 3, we covered easy ticket dispenser field maintenance. In today's Benchmark Blast Service Update, let's get familiar with Benchmark's use of RS485 communications in our machines...
Some of Benchmark's new games like Wheel Deal X-treme and Monster Drop control the ticket dispenser with a system new to ticket dispensers, called RS485 COMMUNICATIONS. This system does not use the run and notch signals.
The main board uses a two-wire system to send and receive commands to and from all the systems in the game. Benchmark uses blue and gray wires for this system. On the games that use the 485 system you will see a small black connector with a gray wire and a blue wire that plugs into the side of the circuit board on the bottom of the ticket dispenser.
When using 485, each system in the game has an address number. It is like your phone number. This is how the main board knows what device it is talking to. When the main board wants to dispense tickets it will send a command out over the 485 system to the address of one of the ticket dispensers. The command from the main board contains the number of tickets owed. The tickets owed information is stored in a memory on the ticket dispenser. If the power goes off for any reason and then back on again while the tickets are being paid out, the dispenser will continue to pay out the remaining tickets owed. If the dispenser is moved to a different location and a different address it will start paying out tickets owed from the old address until tickets owed are cleared over the 485 and the address is changed to the new location.
The RS485 system is a balanced serial two-wire system. The wires are changed back and forth from plus to minus as the bits are being sent and received. Because the wires are balanced, this helps to prevent problems from noise being picked up by the wiring. This is a very robust system that can operate at high rates of speed.
This frees up parts of the main board to be used for other things. This is important on games like Wheel Deal X-treme and Monster Drop where there are many things going on at the same time that require a lot of CPU hardware to keep track of everything.
This wraps up our 4-part series on ticket dispensers. We hope this information will help you understand our ticket dispensers, why you should be buying them for all your redemption games, as well as how to solve common problems out in the field.
Send comments to mrenz@benchmarkgames.com
Thanks, and we'll see you again for next month's Benchmark Blast Service Update.
Want to have more in-depth training on your Tickets to Prizes merchandiser?
If so, please join us for our Tickets to Prizes Webinar, Part 2. This isn't going to be a Tickets-to-Prizes 101, but instead an in-depth training on maintaining and servicing your Tickets to Prizes.
Topic: Advanced Ticket to Prizes
Date: Thursday, September 8, 2011
Time: 10:30 am, Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00)
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR
