The ccReels Remote cctalk Intelligent reel Controller, product code ACSIRD, is a fully featured AWP reel controller that can be located near the set of reels in an AWP machine. The controller handles all the detailed control of the stepper motors used to drive the reels and provides a "high level" interface to control the reels over the industry standard cctalk serial communications bus.

The Serial Reel Controller product from Aardvark Embedded Solutions Ltd. (AES) is driven via a cctalk communications line, and enables the production of a field replaceable, 4 reel, unit connected by only 4 wires rather than the usual 60.

The controller card carries a powerful, high-speed, RISC microcontroller, connected to a cctalk communications line that shoulders all responsibility for the low-level control of the reel set. AES believe that the industry-standard cctalk protocol is a powerful and simple interface ideally-suited for the control of machinery other than the obvious money peripherals. The AES approach is to remove the need for that high-speed control from the cctalk link and to implement the control locally by means of a sophisticated microcontroller running on the reel controller board itself.

Its compact size allows it to be physically mounted adjacent to (or a part of) the reel assembly. A game manufacturer can then consider the reel assembly as a single field-replaceable unit, attached to the host via a wiring harness of only to 4 wires and driving up to 8 reels. Since (typically) 60 wires would be needed for a 4-reel system or 120 for an 8-reel system, real cost savings and reliability improvements are possible.

The reel controller “understands” high level commands from the host machine such “spin the reels to positions 1,14,7 and 3.” Under entirely local control, the reels would then be spun to those positions without further input from the host machine.

Naturally, the reel controller has all the facilities required to intelligently handle nudging one or more reels, both in the “up” and “down“ directions. Complex, synchronised “nudge” control is achieved via a small set of simple commands.

Full control of the lamps within the reels is provided. The host can illuminate and extinguish bulbs using simple cctalk commands. Bulb “features” are also provided locally by the reel controller. These include fading bulb brightness up and down, as well as running attract or skill sequences on the bulbs.

A brochure describing this is available for download here