FR2526562A1 - PHOTO-OPTICAL DOOR SWITCH - Google Patents

Abstract

THE INVENTION RELATES TO A POKER MACHINE HAVING A BOX CONTAINING A CONTROL UNIT PRODUCING A VARIABLE SIGNAL OVER TIME, AND HAVING A DOOR WHICH CAN BE LOCKED IN THE CLOSED POSITION, THE BOX AND THE DOOR INCLUDING A MEANS OF TRANSMISSION OF THE SIGNAL PRODUCED BY THE CONTROL UNIT AND A MEANS OF RECEIVING THE TRANSMITTED SIGNAL, TO GENERATE AN OUTPUT SIGNAL IN RESPONSE. ACCORDING TO THE INVENTION, WHEN THE DOOR IS IN THE CLOSED POSITION, THE SIGNAL OF THE TRANSMISSION MEANS 2 IS RECEIVED BY THE RECEPTION MEANS 3 AND WHEN THE DOOR IS NOT IN THE CLOSED POSITION, THE SIGNAL TRANSMITTED IS NOT RECEIVED BY THE MEANS OF RECEPTION, THE EXIT SIGNAL BEING APPLIED TO THE CONTROL UNIT 4 OR IT IS COMPARED TO THE SIGNAL VARIING IN TIME TO DETECT THE OPENING AND CLOSING OF THE DOOR. THE INVENTION APPLIES IN PARTICULAR TO SLOT MACHINES.

Description

PHOTO-OPTICAL DOOR SWITCH

  The present invention relates to poker machines (also known as token machines or slit machines) in general, and in particular to a poker machine having better security by virtue of a

improved breaker of the door.

  The mechanism of a poker machine is typically housed in a cabinet that is provided with a door to allow access to the mechanism. This door is normally locked to prevent unauthorized tampering of the mechanism. It is advantageous for owners of poker machines to be able to monitor the openings of the door of

  Such machines Such surveillance is not only important

  aunt for the prevention of unauthorized removal of

  money from poker machines, but also gives an indication of

  frequency of maintenance and repairs.

  In the past, it was common to adapt, on the

  poker machines, microswitches actuated by the door.

  These microswitches are used to advance a counter step by step in the poker machine, or a remote meter, and can also be used to initiate an alarm signal and signal to a system

  automated monitoring and recording.

  The success of such systems depends on the integrity of the door switch, and this is the weak point in the system, because the switch or its connecting wires can be inhibited to allow the door to be opened

without emitting the appropriate signal.

  The proposed invention reduces these problems with a transmitter on the cabinet and a receiver on the door (or vice versa) sending a coded continuous message to the transmitter and

  monitoring the message that is returned by the receiver.

  While the door is closed, these two messages correspond to

  tooth, however when the door is open, there is no

correspondence of the two signals.

  Although it is possible for a competent person to remove the receiver and its wiring from the door and

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  relocate in the cabinet near the transmitter, this is physically difficult and such an arrangement can not be

  made permanent because it can be expected that the openings

  The door handles fit for other people servicing the machine.

  In order to prevent the use of a general device

  signals to deceive the signal monitor, it is proposed to use a time-varying

  not allowing to synchronize such a generator device.

  In particular, the signal varying over time would be

pseudo-statistical nature.

  The present invention relates to a poker machine having a cabinet containing a control unit arranged to produce a time-varying signal, said cabinet comprising a door that can be locked in position

  closed, the cabinet and the door including means for transmitting

  mission adapted to transmit the signal produced by said control unit by radiating means, and receiving means adapted to receive said transmitted signal and to produce an output signal in response thereto, the transmitting and receiving means being characterized in that when the door is in the closed position, the transmitted signal is received by the receiving means and when the door is not in the closed position, the transmitted signal is not received by the receiving means, the output signal being applied to the control unit and compared to said signal

  varying in time to detect the opening and closing

the door.

  The transmission means and the receiving means

  can be of any suitable type, such as inductive types

  or optics, but in a preferred form of

  the invention, these devices will be of the photo-optical type.

  The transmitted signals may be in analogue form

  or in any digital form such as binary, tertiary and others, but they will preferably have the form of a

  pseudo-statistical binary sequence.

  In a preferred form of the invention, one of the transmission or reception means is mounted on the door and the other transmission or reception means is mounted on the cabinet so that when the door is at the door closed position, the transmission and reception means are aligned very close to one another, and that there is a signal path between them, and when the door is not

  in the closed position, the transmission and reception means

  are not aligned and this signal path does not exist. In another form of the invention, the transmission means and the receiving means are mounted together on the cabinet, the transmitted signal being reflected back to the receiving means by a surface on the door when the door is closed A similar arrangement can also be

  product in which the transmission and reception means

  are mounted on the door and the reflective surface

is on the box.

  In various forms of the present invention, the control unit will not recognize the closing of the gate until a predetermined number of continuous bits of the bit sequence are correctly received in a form of

  the invention, the predetermined number is 10.

  Other features and advantages of the invention

  will emerge more clearly from reading the description

  which follows of an exemplary embodiment, given for information but not limited to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates a typical poker machine with its closed door; FIG. 2 illustrates the poker machine of FIG. 1 with the door open, revealing one of the possible mounting positions for the transmitter and the receiver of a door switch according to the invention; Figure 3 illustrates the relative positions of the transmitter and receiver of Figure 2 for the door in the closed position and the open position; Figure 4 illustrates the signal path when the door is closed; and Figure 5 illustrates the signal path when the

door is open.

  The poker machine of Figure 1 is illustrated with its door closed and the same machine is illustrated in Figure 2 with its door open, revealing the mechanism of the poker machine The poker machine is provided with a door lock 1 , a signal transmitter 2 of a door switch placed on the inner edge of the door and a cooperating signal receiver 3 mounted on the box so that the transmitter and the receiver are adjacent when the door

is closed.

  A light emitting diode (L E D) is used as

  transmitter element and this L E D is driven under the

  In the same way, a photocell is used as a cooperating receiving element 3 and the signals received by the cell.

  photoelectric devices are monitored by the control unit 4.

  FIG. 3 illustrates the relative positions of the transmitter 2a and the receiver 3 when the door is closed (solid line) and when the door is open (emitter 2b in dotted lines). By this diagram, it can be seen that with the With the door closed, the light 5a of the LED is projected directly onto the photocell and consequently a strong signal path is obtained, whereas when the door is open, the light 5b of the LED is not projected. to the photocell and thus the path of any resulting signal is low. An appropriate discriminator in the receiver circuit can then reject this weaker signal while still receiving the stronger signal received when the gate is closed. Such discriminators are well known in the art. the electronics industry and therefore

  will not give here a detailed description The operation

  of the door switch (2, 3) is improved when using photo-optical devices with lenses producing narrow beam angles and narrow reception angles, as these devices can produce a strong reduction in the transmission of the beam. signal while

  the door was placed from the closed position.

  FIGS. 4 and 5 show signal flow paths for the following cases: 1 gate of the closed poker machine, and

  2 door of the open poker machine.

  When the door is closed, a pseudostatistic bit sequence signal 6, produced by a code generator routine 7 in the control unit 4 based on

  microprocessor is transmitted by the transmitter 2 to the interrup-

  The signal 6 of the code generator 7 is then compared to the signal 8 of the receiver 3 in a signal comparator 9, which can be implemented in hardware or software. , and the program signal or variable 13 resulting from this comparison is monitored by a real-time executive routine occurring in the microprocessor of the control unit 4 which can then respond by causing such actions as an increase not to no counter 11 or a beginning of an alarm 12 if there is a lack of correspondence With the door closed (see Figure 4), there can be no lack of correspondence because the received signal 8

  is identical to the signal 6 produced by the code generator.

  The flow of signals of Figure 5 is similar to that of Figure 4 except that when the door is

  open, the light emitted 5 does not fall on the photocell.

  3 and therefore the comparator 9 indicates a lack of correspondence This lack of correspondence indicates

  to the microprocessor, that the door is open.

  In particular embodiments of the invention,

  In addition, the functions of comparator and code generator can be provided in hardware or software, however it is preferable to incorporate these functions into software because this reduces the complexity of the electronic circuit and this

  increases the flexibility of the control unit.

  The microprocessor program of the control unit enters a real-time execution routine every 20 milliseconds. This routine then produces the next bit of a pseudostatic bit sequence that is transmitted by the transmitter of the door switch. and compared to a

  signal received by a receiver of the door switch.

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  To determine the current state of the poker machine door, the real-time executive calls a door interrogation routine that includes the following steps: (a) Start the door interrogation routine.

  (b) Test the value of the 8-bit word or "seed"

  stored in a temporary memory (TEMP), and if one has TEMP y 0, proceed to step d, otherwise continue with step c;

  (c) To obtain the new value of the "seed" of the genera-

  seed and return to step b; (d) Shift the rightmost TEMP bit to the door switch transmitter and shift all the TEMP bits one position to the right; (e) read the bit value at the receiver of the door switch; (f) comparing the transmitted bit and the received bit and whether they correspond to advance to step h, otherwise continue through step g; (g) Set the Open Door Indicator signal and clear the Closed Door Indicator signal and proceed to Step 1; (h) If the Open Door Indicator signal is established, proceed to the next step, otherwise proceed to step 1; (i) Increase the Closed Door Indicator signal; (j) If the Closed Door Indicator signal is less than

  , go to step 1, otherwise continue with the next step

  boasts; (k) Establish the Closed Door Indicator signal and clear the Open Door Indicator signal; (1) The interrogation of the door switch is complete and the execution routine can interpret the door status by examining the Open Door Indicator signal. The Open Door Indicator signal is set if the door is open.

  open and is cleared if the door is closed.

  Step b of this sequence assumes that TEMP already contains a seed value. This is a valid assumption as there will normally be a seed value left to the previous call of this routine In the case of a first call of

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  the routine, TEMP will have been initialized to an appropriate value which may be either statistic (using the seed generator, for example) or zero in which case a new value will be obtained in step b during the first call of the routine. Step c of the sequence consists in obtaining a seed of a seed generator. The seed generator comprises an 8-bit word which is continuously increased every 825 microseconds.

  reading the description that precedes that the binary sequence

  pseudo-statistic is produced by taking a non-zero seed value and performing a shift to the right on the seed while at the same time shifting the rightmost bit to the transmitter of the gate switch. is shifted to the right once for each call to the door interrogation routine until the seed content is zero, at which time the

  seed is rejected and new seed is obtained.

  In the meantime, if no match has been obtained for a transmitted bit, the Open Gate Indicator signal is set, whereas if there are 10 consecutive bit correspondences

  were obtained, the Open Door Indicator signal is cleared.

  When the gate interrogation routine has been completed, the execution routine interprets the Open Door Indicator signal and performs all functions required such as increasing counters, initiating alarms, or transmitting information to a monitoring system.

control.

Claims (8)

  A poker machine having a cabinet containing a control unit arranged to produce a time-varying signal, said cabinet comprising a door that can be locked in the closed position, the cabinet and the door including a transmission means adapted to transmit the signal produced by said control unit by radiation means, and receiving means adapted to receive said transmitted signal and to produce an output signal in response,   said transmission and reception means being characterized   in that, when the door is in the closed position, said transmitted signal is received by said receiving means (3) and when the door is not in the closed position, said transmitted signal is not received by said receiving means; receiving, said output signal being applied and compared in the control unit (4) to said time varying signal to detect   the opening and closing of the door.   Poker machine according to claim 1, characterized   in that the transmission means (2) and the receiver   (3) include photo-optical devices.   3 poker machine according to any one of the   1 or 2, characterized in that the closing of the aforementioned door is not detected until the transmitted signal has been received by the aforementioned receiving means   continuously for a predetermined time.   4 Poker machine according to any one of the   1 or 2, characterized in that the transmitted signal is a digital signal.   Poker machine according to claim 4, characterized in that the closure of the aforementioned door is not detected until a predetermined number of contiguous bits of the transmitted signal have been received by the receiving means.   Poker machine according to claim 5, characterized   in that the predetermined number is ten.   7 Poker machine according to any one of the   4, 5 or 6, characterized in that the numerical data   include a pseudo-statistical binary sequence. 9 2526562   8 A poker machine according to any one of the   prior art, characterized in that one of the transmitting and receiving means is mounted on the door and the other of the transmitting and receiving means is mounted on the cabinet so that when the door is in the closed position, the transmission and reception means are aligned with each other and there is a signal path between them, and when the door is not in the closed position, the transmission and reception means are not not aligned and no direct signal path exists between them.