JPH1043408A - Data communication method for pachinko hall - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To save wires, to eliminate the need of setting an address at the time of communication and to prevent communication incapability at the time of disconnection as much as possible. SOLUTION: A host computer 1 and repeaters 2A and 2B installed in an island are individually connected and the terminal equipments 3A-6A and 3B-6B of the respective game stands of respective pachinko game stands are connected in a loop shape by communication lines 9A-10A and 9B-10B. Data divided by a required bit number are transmitted as a series of data groups from the host computer through the repeaters to the terminal equipments. The respective terminal equipments fetch leading data from the data group as their own data. The residual data of the data group are successively transferred to succeeding equipments on a reception side, their own transmission data are added after the data at the end further and they are transmitted. The data are alternately transmitted in a reverse direction from the host computer and the terminal equipment which performs transfer through one communication line starts the communication of the reverse direction to the other when no response is present from the succeeding equipment on the reception side within fixed time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of transmitting data such as a pachinko ball replenishment signal and the number of payout balls between a host computer installed in a main part of a pachinko parlor and a terminal device connected to a pachinko game console in the store. The present invention relates to a data communication method for pachinko parlors that can be exchanged, and in particular, to reduce wiring and facilitate the operation of a communication system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In pachinko parlors that provide pachinko as entertainment, the number of balls played out from all pachinko gaming tables in the store is counted and financial management such as sales is performed. In-store facilities must be operated smoothly, such as supplying pachinko balls to the table.

[0003] For this reason, a host computer that manages them is installed in an office or the like in a store, and the host computer is electrically connected to each pachinko game console to exchange various data.

Conventionally, as such a network form,
Generally, the six configurations shown in FIGS. 5 to 10 have been used.

FIG. 5 shows a system in which a host computer A and a terminal device B connected to a pachinko game console are individually connected, and FIG. 6 shows a system in which the host computer A and the terminal device B are connected in a loop. 7 to 10 show a case where a relay device C is installed on a pachinko island in which a plurality of pachinko game consoles are provided face-to-face, and a host computer A and a terminal device B are connected via the relay device C. FIG. 7 shows a method in which the host computer A and the relay device C and a method in which the relay device C and the terminal device B are individually connected, and FIG. 8 shows a method in which the host computer A and the relay device C are individually connected and the relay device C and FIG. 9 shows a method in which the terminal device B is connected in a loop, FIG. 9 shows a method in which the host computer A and the relay device B are connected in a loop, and the relay device C and the terminal device B are individually connected. This is a system in which the relay device C and the relay device C and the terminal device B are connected in a loop.

According to these communication systems,
With the host computer A, the amount of balls to be played out of each pachinko gaming machine is grasped, and if necessary, the required pachinko gaming machines can be automatically replenished with pachinko balls without delay.

[0007]

However, according to the individual connection method, there is a problem that the amount of wiring is increased.
The method of (1) has a drawback that the amount of wiring is enormous.

[0008] On the other hand, the loop-type connection form has a large wiring saving effect and is easy to perform connection work. However, at the time of communication, it is necessary to add an individual address to the data in order to clarify the transmission destination and storage location of the data. There is a trouble such that the setting work must be performed when the terminal device is replaced. In particular, the reliability of communication is also important, but in the connection forms shown in FIGS. 6, 9 and 10, there is a risk that communication with most terminal devices will be interrupted in the event of disconnection.

As described above, the connection configuration shown in FIG. 8 is optimal in view of the safety at the time of disconnection and the effect of wiring saving, but this connection configuration also requires address setting between the relay device and the terminal device. In addition, there is a risk that communication with several terminal devices will be interrupted when a disconnection occurs between the relay device and the terminal device.

Therefore, the present invention utilizes the connection form shown in FIG. 8 to reduce the number of wires, eliminate the need for address setting at the time of communication, and minimize the possibility of communication failure at the time of disconnection to achieve a pachinko machine. The purpose of the present invention is to facilitate the operation of a communication system in a store.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to achieve the above object, and in particular, the invention of claim 1 makes it unnecessary to set an address at the time of communication.
The host computer that exchanges various data with the pachinko game consoles, and the relay devices installed on the plurality of pachinko islands each including the pachinko game consoles are individually connected, and further to the relay devices and pachinko game consoles on each pachinko island. In a pachinko parlor data communication method in which a plurality of terminal devices to be connected are connected in a loop using a communication line to exchange data between the host computer and each terminal device, Data divided by the required number of bits is transmitted as a series of data groups to each terminal device via the relay device, and each terminal device takes in the first data from the data group as its own data, and The remaining data is sequentially transferred to the subsequent device on the receiving side, and its own transmission data is added after the last data. So that you trust.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a host computer for exchanging various data with a pachinko game console and a plurality of pachinko islands having the pachinko game console are provided to prevent communication failure at the time of disconnection. The relay device is individually connected, and further, the relay device of each pachinko island and a plurality of terminal devices connected to the pachinko game console are connected in a loop using a communication line to connect the host computer and each terminal device. In a data communication method for pachinko parlors, data is exchanged between pachinko parlors, the communication line connecting the relay device and each terminal device is divided into two lines, and the relay device is transmitted from the host computer to each terminal device through the two communication lines. The terminal device that has sent data alternately in the opposite direction via one communication line is sent from the subsequent device on the receiving side. When there is no response received within a constant time,
The communication in the opposite direction is started to the relay device through the other communication line.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an application example of a data communication method for a pachinko parlor according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a communication network between a host computer and a terminal device in a pachinko parlor.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a management host computer installed in an office of a pachinko parlor, etc., 2A, 2
B is a relay device individually installed on a plurality of pachinko islands installed in a pachinko store, 3A to 6A and 3B to 6B are terminal devices respectively connected to a plurality of pachinko game consoles installed on a pachinko island. Host computer 1
And the relay device 2A are a communication line 7 as a main line capable of transmitting and receiving.
A, and a communication line 7B as a main line, which is connected by a communication line 8A as a backup line capable of transmission and reception, and in which the host computer 1 and the relay device 2B can transmit and receive similarly.
They are connected by a communication line 8B as a spare line capable of transmission and reception. Then, the host computer 1 and the relay device 2A,
2B communicates with each other through the communication lines 7A and 7B during normal times, and switches to the communication lines 8A and 8B during disconnection so that they can communicate with each other.

On the other hand, the relay device 2A and the terminal devices 3A to 6A
Are connected in a loop by two parallel communication lines 9A and 10A, and the relay device 2B and the terminal devices 3B to 6B are similarly connected in a loop by two parallel communication lines 9B and 10B. Here, the communication line 7 as a communication medium
A to 10A and 7B to 10B are coaxial cables, optical fiber cables, or the like, and can transmit a huge amount of data in a certain time.

In practice, there are a large number of relay devices corresponding to the number of pachinko islands installed, and the number of terminal devices is not limited to four in each relay device. However, in this example, the form shown in FIG. 1 is used for convenience. In the following description, for convenience, the host computer 1
A communication method between the terminal devices 3A to 6A will be described, but a communication method between the terminal devices 3B to 6B is also the same.

First, the host computer 1 transmits data such as an unusable signal for a pachinko gaming machine and a signal for replenishing pachinko balls to the pachinko gaming machine to the terminal devices 3A to 6A via the relay device 2A. In FIG. 2, S
D1 is data addressed to the terminal device 3A.
2 to SD4 are data addressed to the terminal devices 4A to 6A. As is apparent from FIG.
D4 is transmitted as a block BL including a start code SC and an end code EC as a series of data groups DT divided by a required number of bits. In the block transfer, the relay device 2A and the terminal devices 3A to 6A transmit the data BL. The storage unit for temporarily storing the block BL has a temporary register (not shown) or the like. The start code SC and the end code EC are, for example, 1 byte, that is, 8 bits, and are positioned before and after the data group DT.
4 is divided into 2 bytes, that is, 16 bits, and inserted between the start code SC and the end code EC.

Then, each of the terminal devices 3A to 6A takes in the first data from the data group DT transmitted via the relay device 2A as its own data, and the data group D
The remaining data of T is sequentially transferred to the subsequent device on the receiving side, and the transmission data is added thereto after the last data and transmitted.

For example, upon receiving the start code SC, the terminal device 3A immediately transfers the start code SC to the terminal device 4A, then takes in the data SD1 as its own data, and transfers the subsequent data SD2 to SD4 as residual data to the subsequent device on the receiving side. Is sequentially transferred to the terminal device 4A, and its own transmission data is added after the last data SD4, and then the end code EC is transmitted to the terminal device 4A.

FIG. 3 shows the contents of the block sent to the terminal device 4A. Here, RD1 is transmission data such as the number of jackpots of the accessory and the number of pachinko balls in and out transmitted from the terminal device 3A. The terminal device 3A stores the data S
The end code EC indicates that D4 is the end of the data group DT.
Can be determined by the reception of

Thus, the transmission data transferred to the relay device 2A via the terminal devices 3A to 6A is as shown in FIG. Here, RD2 to RD4 are transmission data added by the terminal devices 4A to 6A, and these transmission data RD1 to RD4 are transmitted.
The relay device 2A that has received the RD4 immediately transfers it to the host computer 1 through the communication line 7A or 8A. Here, the host computer 1 has a start code SC
Is transmitted from the terminal device 3A, and the subsequent transmission data RD2 to RD4 are transmitted from the terminal devices 4A to 4D.
6A. The data SD1 to SD4 transmitted from the host computer 1
The registers for storing the transmission data RD1 to RD4 transmitted from each of the terminal devices 3A to 6A to the host computer 1 may be fixed bytes, or a variable size may use a unique delimiter in the system. .

By the way, the host computer 1 rearranges the data SD1 to SD4 to be transmitted to the terminal devices 3A to 6A for each transmission and transmits the data.
The relay device 2A that has received D1 to SD4 becomes the communication line 9A, 1
The data SD1 to SD4 are alternately transferred in the opposite direction through 0A. That is, when the data SD1 addressed to the terminal device 3A is at the head, the data SD1 to SD4 are sequentially transferred clockwise in FIG.
When the data SD4 addressed to the terminal device 6A is at the head, the data SD4 is turned counterclockwise in FIG.
1 to SD4 are sequentially transferred. At this time, the host computer 1 can determine that the arrangement of the transmission data RD1 to RD4 is reversed each time the data is received. In the clockwise communication, for example, the subsequent device of the relay device 2A is the terminal device 3A, and in the counterclockwise communication, the subsequent device of the terminal device 3A is the relay device 2A.

On the other hand, when the terminal device that has transferred the data through one communication line does not receive a response from the subsequent device on the receiving side within a predetermined time, the terminal device performs reverse communication toward the relay device through the other communication line. I'm trying to get started. That is, the relay device 2A or the terminal devices 3A to 6A return an ACK code to the terminal devices 3A to 6A on the transmitting side every time the start code SC is received, and when the ACK code is not returned within a predetermined time. The communication direction is reversed.

For example, the terminal device 4A is connected to one communication line 9A.
Through the data SD3 to SD4 and the transmission data RD1
RD2 to the subsequent terminal device 5A, the terminal device 5A sends an ACK to the terminal device 4A via the communication line 10A.
If the ACK code is not returned to the terminal device 4A within a predetermined time, the terminal device 4A
Is programmed to determine that there has been a disconnection with the terminal device 5A and to start a reverse communication toward the relay device 2A through the other communication line 10A.

At this time, communication is interrupted between the terminal devices 4A and 5A. However, since the next data is transmitted from the terminal device 6A via the relay device 2A, the communication lines 9A and 10A are not transmitted.
Even if a part of A is disconnected, communication between the host computer 1 and the terminal devices 3A to 6A is not interrupted.

[0026]

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, data divided by a required number of bits is transmitted from a host computer to each terminal device via a relay device as a series of data groups, and each terminal device transmits the data. Since the device takes in the first data from the data group as its own data and sequentially transfers the remaining data of the data group to the succeeding device on the receiving side, the data sent from the host computer to each terminal device is There is no need to add an address, and each terminal device takes in its own data and then adds its own transmission data after the last data of the data group and transmits it. It is not necessary to add an address to the transmission data to be transmitted. This eliminates the need to set addresses for each terminal device when exchanging or adding terminal devices, which saves labor and saves equipment costs by unifying the memory of each terminal device. it can.

Further, since the communication line connecting the relay device and each terminal device is divided into two systems, mutual communication can be performed between the terminal devices, and the host computer can be connected to each terminal device through the two communication lines. When the terminal device that has transmitted data alternately in the opposite direction via the relay device and has transmitted the data through one communication line has not received a response from the subsequent device on the receiving side within a predetermined time, the other communication line , Communication in the opposite direction is started toward the relay device, so that communication between the host computer and the terminal device is not interrupted even if a part of the line is disconnected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a communication network of a pachinko parlor according to the present application.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a form of data transmitted from the host computer to the terminal device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a form of data transferred from a first terminal device to a subsequent terminal device;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a form of transmission data transmitted from the terminal device to the host computer.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional communication network in a pachinko parlor.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional communication network in a pachinko parlor.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional communication network in a pachinko parlor.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional communication network in a pachinko parlor.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional communication network in a pachinko parlor.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional communication network in a pachinko parlor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Host Computer 2A, 2B Relay Device 3A-6A Terminal Device 3B-6B Terminal Device 7A-10A Communication Line 7B-10B Communication Line BL Block SC Start Code SD1-SD4 Data DT Data Group RD1-RD4 Transmission Data EC End Code

Claims (2)

[Claims] A personal computer for exchanging various data with a pachinko game console, and a relay device installed on each of a plurality of pachinko islands having the pachinko game console are individually connected to each other. And a plurality of terminal devices connected to the pachinko gaming table are connected in a loop using a communication line so that data can be exchanged between the host computer and each terminal device. The host computer transmits data divided by a required number of bits to each terminal device via a relay device as a series of data groups, and each terminal device captures the leading data from the data group as its own data. The remaining data of the data group is sequentially transferred to the subsequent device on the receiving side, and after the last data, its own transmission data is transmitted. A data communication method for pachinko parlors, characterized in that the data is transmitted with the data added. 2. A pachinko game machine, which exchanges various data with a host computer, and relay devices installed on a plurality of pachinko islands each including the pachinko game device are individually connected to each other. And a plurality of terminal devices connected to the pachinko gaming table are connected in a loop using a communication line so that data can be exchanged between the host computer and each terminal device. The communication line connecting the relay device and each terminal device is divided into two lines, and data is alternately sent in the opposite direction from the host computer to each terminal device via the relay device through the two communication lines, and the data is transmitted to one of the terminals. When the terminal device that has transferred through the communication line does not receive a response within a predetermined time from the subsequent device on the receiving side, the relay device performs the relay through the other communication line. A data communication method for a pachinko parlor, wherein communication in the reverse direction is started toward the device.