WO1986002187A1

WO1986002187A1 - Credit key, slot machine, especially parking meter adapted to be operated by the credit key, acceptor and parking meter casing

Info

Publication number: WO1986002187A1
Application number: PCT/NL1985/000039
Authority: WO
Inventors: Aarnoud Willem Eversdijk; Hendrik Van Walraven
Original assignee: Aarnoud Willem Eversdijk
Priority date: 1984-10-03
Filing date: 1985-10-03
Publication date: 1986-04-10
Also published as: JPS62500329A; AU4959385A; NL8403015A; EP0197980A1

Abstract

For providing a rechargeable credit key secured against illegal attempts to recharge such a key without the necessity to supervise fraud such credit key according to the invention has destructing means. This credit key can be used for all kinds of slot machines, and particularly for parking meters. The invention also provides a parking meter casing that can be manufactured by simple means.

Description

Credit key, slot machine, especially parking meter adapted to be operated by the credit key, acceptor and parking meter casing.

This invention relates to a credit key for a slot ma¬ chine adapted to debiting credit from said credit key, com¬ prising a retaining element provided with a electrical cir¬ cuit adapted to be coupled to said slot machine, said circuit including a non volatile part of a memory containing a code, not accessible by said slot machine, a non volatile part of said memory bookkeeping said credit and securing means inclu¬ ding a comparator, said securing means securing against trying to get access to said memory with an incorrect code other than said code and said comparator comparing said code to a code supplied to said credit key.

Such a credit device is known from FR-A-2503423 wherein the slot machine is being disabled by securing means after an incorrect code has been supplied thereto. Such a credit de- vice is not rechargable with credit.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a rechargable credit key secured against illegal attempts to recharge such a key without the necessity to supervise fraud, e.g. by electronics specialists or hobbyists. This object is reached because of the credit key accor¬ ding to the invention being characterized by destructing means included in said securing means for mutilating informa¬ tion contained in said memory, including destructing said code. By the credit key of the present invention the need of stockkeeping pocket money will terminate in the long run.

The credit key according to the present invention can be used for all kinds of slot machines, like for instance telephones, for vending slot machines supplying food, siga- rettes, petrol and other liquids, for playing machines, for gaz and electricity meters, entrance gates, copy machines, for the cinema, for public transport and for music and washing machines. To operate this slot machines with a key different from the present credit key all the specifications and data sheets of this key must be available to a frandulous o erator. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention the credit key sends a return code back to the slot machine, ma¬ king it even more difficult to operate the slot machine with a key different from the present credit key, being characte- rized in that said key supplies a return code to said slot machine after said comparator confirming that said code sup¬ plied to said key is correct, said return code being diffe¬ rent from said first code and known to said slot machine.

Further this invention provides and relates to a slot machine, designed to be operated by the present credit key. These slot machines will no longer be destroyed to steal money, because when using the key according to the invention, the presence of money^' inside the machine is not a problem any more. Moreover, the machine contains almost no moving parts. Also a parking meter adapted to be operated by the cre¬ dit key according to the present invention is provided. Par¬ king meters are very difficult to safequard against capture because of the number therof on various places.

Furthermore the invention provides and relates to an acceptor to debit the credit key according to the present in¬ vention, characterized in that at least one moving protective screen element is movable against resilience, with respect to the retaining body of the retaining element, from a positon protecting electrical connections into a position uncovering said terminals.

At last the invention also provides a parking meter casing that can be manufactured by simple means, is easily adjusted to excisting parking meter posts and/or which makes it possible to repair the parking meter in a simple way with- out much loss of time. The characteristics of this parking meter casing have been noted in conclusions 20-28. The use of such a casing has been possible, because of this casing con¬ taining no money because of using the credit key according to the present invention. The afore mentioned and other characteristics of this invention will be explained in the following description with respect to a drawing, in which are showing: fig.1 a perspective view partly broken away of a parking meter according to the invention, fig.2 on a large scale a perspective view exploded and partly broken away of detail II of fig.l, fig.3 a combination of a credit key and an acceptor ac¬ cording to the invention in a perspective view partly broken away, fig.4 a top view partly broken away of an other combination of another credit key and another acceptor according to the invention, fig.5 a circuit diagram of the functional elements of the parking meter, fig.6, 7 and 8 perspective views of other slot machines according to the invention, fig.9 another circuit diagram for the slot machines of fig. 6, 7 or 8, fig.10 the schematical operation in more detail of the credit key and the slot machine of fig.l and 3, and fig.11 a preferred schematical operation of fig. 10. The parking meter 1 of fig.l an 2 has a parking meter casing 2 of thermoplastic material, preferably polycarbonade, having a shaft 3 surrounding a parking post 4. The parking post 4 is a conventional round metal tube anchored in a con- crete socle 5. The parking meter casing 2 is devided with respect to an erect deviding plane 7 in longitudinal direction of the shaft 3 into two casting pieces 5 and 6 easily formable and provided with ribs 8 transverse with respect to the deviding plane 7. Between ribs 8 and outer walls 9 there is retained an armour strip 10 of spring steel extending at least to below a lock 17 mentioned hereafter, after which the casting pieces 5 and 6 are welded together. The shaft 3 has a ton round, preferably square section. So there is provided a solid, capture proof shaft 3 connected as a whole solidly to the head of the parking meter casing 2 and extending almost to the ground.

In the parking post groove holes 12 have been milled crosswise to retain locking elements 13 to be projected straight through the parking post 4 and seizing in inner longitudinal grooves 14 of the shaft 3. From the highest locking element 15, behind which a turnable eccentric 16 of a lock 17 is seized, a case 19 of the lock is projecting in a recess bored into the shaft 3 and into the parking post 4 and locked against rotation by means of its projections 18.

The parking meter casing 2 has a detachable and ex- changable cover 20 to which all functional elements 21 of the parking meter are attached, such that after exchange the par¬ king meter 1 immediately being operative again, while the functional elements 21 are being repaired in a mending place. The cover 20 of synthetic material has four metal legs 22 attached thereto and are to be projected in groove holes 23. Opposite the cover 20 there is a stub 24 to retain a lock 25 of which the case 26 is secured against rotation on the same way as the case 19 by means of projections 27 and can be locked by means of a rotable eccentric 29.

The lock 25 is provided with a square end part 30 con- tacting in a square wrench hole 31 to lock various, for in¬ stance four bolts 33 movable in various directions 34. The manipulation device 32 is provided with pins 35 enclosing an angle 37 having a tangential direction. At rotating of the manipulation device 32 the bolts 33 are driven outwards on the same time, gripping in respectively recesses 38 of the legs 22. Locking end 39 has inclined edges 40 extending upwardly , pulling therewith the legs 22 and the cover 20 therewith solidly against an elastic scaling strip 41.

The wrench hole serving to retain a torque wrench with big levers, is covered in its closed position by the lock 25. Thus the lock 25 also serves to safequard against rota¬ tion of the manipulation device 32 of traffic vibrations.

The credit key 50 provided with a carrier eye 49 for a key ring of fig.3 comprises a retaining element 51 retaining an integrated circuit 52 to be described hereafter. Terminals 53 thereof are connected to contacts 55 by electrical con- ducts 54. The integrated circuit 52 and the conducts 54 are retained in a retaining body 57 formed as a case. Around the retaining body 57 there is provided slidable a tube shaped shielding element 56. Between the shielding element 56 and the retaining body 57 there is disposed a spring 58. Onto the retaining body 57 there is formed a stop 59 contacting in a slit 60 of the shielding element 56. Thus the shielding element 56 is movable against resilience of spring 58 from a position protecting electrical terminals 55 into a position uncovering electrical terminals 55. The shielding element 56 has an asymmetric profile, by having two inclined edges 61 at one side, corresponding with edges 62 repectively formed of an acceptor 63 to be build in an adapted slot machine, espe¬ cially the parking meter 1 by means of mounting elements 71, to retain this credit key 50. Behind entrance 64 adapted to the shielding element 56 there is a shielding element 65 ha¬ ving a inclined face 66 extending upwardly and being movable downwardly against resilience of springs 67 from a position shielding electrical contacts 68 into a position uncovering electrical contacts 68.

The retaining body 57 has on.both sides recceses 69, in which leaf springs 70 are retained to hold this retaining bo¬ dy 57 in the position in which contacts 68 and terminal 55 connect rightly to each other. The credit key of fig.4 having a different form from the credit key 50, but operating principally the same, is de¬ signed to cooperate with an acceptor 74 having two shielding elements 75, being slidable against resilience of springs 77 from a position showed in fig.4 and shielding the electrical terminals 76 into a position uncovering those terminals 76.

The retaining body 78 with its thin wings 89 can attach to ribs 80 of the shielding elements and push these away sidewardly, the shielding element 56 contacting stoplips 98 of the acceptor 74 meanwhile wings 89 can pass slits 88 of the stoplips 86.

The circuit of the functional elements 21 of the par¬ king meter is showed in fig.5. A power supply source 90 is connected to earth on one side and through a supply control and an auxiliary circuit 92 to a microcomputer 93 and through the supply control 91 to the acceptor 63. The supply control 91 swithes off the supply voltage, if a shortcircuit is caused for instance by a screw¬ driver at contacts 68 of the acceptor 63. The auxiliary cir¬ cuit 92 switches on an auxiliary supply power source 94, if the supply voltage lowers under a preselected value, for in¬ stance a COP 321C of National Semiconductor, comprising:

- a 1 K x 8 memory of the ROM type

- a 64 x 4 memory of the RAM type

- a 4 bits microprocessor.

Further the COP 321C operates in a temperature range of -40°C to 85°C and with a supply voltage between 2.4 and 5.5 Volt. The power supply source 90 is connected through resis¬ tor 95, 96 to push buttons.97 and 98 respectively, connected to earth at the other side and furthermore through a resistor 99 to the microcomputer 93 and the acceptor 63. The microcom¬ puter 93 is provided with a clock 100 consisting of a crystal oscillator 101, a resistor 102 and condensators 103, 104 and a reset circuit consisting of a diode 106, a resistor 108 and a capacitor 109. The microcomputer 93 is connected through a communication conduct and further through a 3-bit-bus 110 to a control unit 111 controlling display units 112, 113 through 32 bit buses 114, 115 respectively.

On the retaining element 51 of the credit key 50 there is retained an integrated circuit 52. The retaining element is provided with six connected terminals 55, respectively providing supply voltage, earth connection, serial data in¬ put, serial data output, a clock signal and a select signal to the integrated circuit 52 at projecting the credit key 50 into the acceptor 63. A programme is stored in the memory of the ROM type. E.a. there is stored in the memory of the RAM type a code, a number associated with earth parking meter 1, parking time previous debitted from credit keys by this parking meter and the amount that should be debitted from the credit keys per time unit, i.e. per pushing a pushbutton 97, 98. The setting of the parking meter 1 of the amount of money that should be debitted per time unit, the code and the parking meter number takes place by means of a special set¬ ting key (not shown) that should be inserted by an authorized person. The reading out of the summed parking time debitted by the parking meter 1 takes place by means of a read out key (not shown), also setting this parking time again to zero.

A credit key is purchased for a predetermined amount of money, for instance $50. After all the credit of the credit key has been debitted, another credit key can be used at se- lecting of a parking period. The used credit keys 50 can be collected against return of deposit money and can be central¬ ly recharged with credit by means of a recharging device (not shown) .

The integrated circuit 52 of the retaining element 51 of the credit key 50 contains for instance 14 memory adresses each containing 16 bits of information, of the EEPROM type and two not accessible addresses of 16 bit in which a code is stored. Further there is provided a comparator and destruc¬ ting means. With inserting a key or another fitting device, for instance with fraudulent intention, into the acceptor 63 the microprocessor of the parking meter 1 reads a code from two addresses of the EEPROM - if present - to recognize cre¬ dit, set or read out key. If not a correct key is recognized, i.e. a fraudulent manipulation is recognized, the programme is turned off and waits 10 seconds till a new instruction will be carried out. If a credit key is recognized a code set by the set key is fed by the microprocessor of the parking meter 1 to a comparator in the credit key, the comparator comparing the non accessible code in the credit key to the code fed by the microprocessor. If the codes are different, the content of the memory including the address containing the code, are destructed by destructing means, for instance by an erase instruction and writing all zero's or one's in the memory locations. Further it is possible to provide a counter counting the number of times the key is supplied with a code other than the code contained in the memory and acti- vating the destructing means after a predetermined number of times an incorrect code is supplied. For instance herewith it is possible to change the code in the credit key and parking meter 1, because of the possibility of trying a number of codes and thus possible to provide credit keys with different codes without mutilating the credit key 50. In the memory part not used for the code, credit is stored, which credit can be read out by the parking meter after comparison and decrease. At the parking meter there is disposed one acceptor 63 and two push buttons 97, 98 to reserve parking time for par¬ king places 83, 84 respectively at the left and at the right of the parking meter 1 (fig.l).

At arrival of a vehicle at a parking placed with a par- king meter according to this invention, the driver inserts his credit key 50 connected to his key ring into the acceptor 63 disposed on the parking meter. On both display units 112, 113 there immediately appears key sign 116, 119 respectively (fig.5) as well as the maximum parking time which can be de- bitted from the credit key for these parking places. The par¬ king amount per unit is set by setting the parking meter 1 with an set key. Then, car signs will appear and by pushing push-buttons 97 the parking time units for the left side of the parking meter 1, to which push-button 97 belongs, are re- served while simultaneously the number of corresponding cre¬ dit units is debitted and the parking time reserved appears on the display unit corresponding to push-button 97. By pushing push-button 97 a number of times, just as many par¬ king units can be reserved up to the maximum of the parking meter 1. Then, a "max sign" appears on display unit 113 after which neither the in display unit 113 displayed time, nor the credit of credit key 50 is changed when push-button 97 is pushed again.

The programme of the parking meter reduces the dis¬ played parking time on reflection unit 113 after the parking time has been set. When the parking time elapses, the reflec¬ tion unit marks the amount of time overstepped by means of a negative sign. So, display unit 113 shows besides the three symbols 119, 120, 121 a positive or negative sign and two times two figures which are divided by a dot. The figures be- fore the dot indicate the hours, the ones after the dot indi¬ cated the minutes.

An acceptor 63, according to the invention, can also be used for a telephone 123 (figure 6). The circuit 145 built in the telephone 123 is schematically shown in figure 8. When inserting credit key 50, the possibility for making a phone call is offered for instance through a signal at 140. The credit of credit key 50 appears on the display unit 112 and by means of a switch (preferably an electronic switch) 141, which is served through a clock pulse from the telephone 123, the credit of the credit key 50 is debitted which will also be shown o the display unit 112. It goes without saying that the microcomputer 93 has another programme than used for the parking meter.

In a similar way an acceptor 63 and a credit key 50, according to the invention can be used for a vending slot machine 124 for food trays 125 and for an entrance gate 126 in for instance an amusement park (figures 7, 8). Both exam¬ ples can be provided with the circuit diagram 145 of figure 9. When inserting the credit key 50 in the acceptor 63 a signal in 140 (figure 9) opens the lock of the movable part 121 of the entrance gate 142 through an amplifier 129 and a excitation circuit 128, and the credit of the credit key is debitted through a switch 141 (figure 9) . The credit of the credit key appears on a display unit 112 before and after the entrance gate rotates. One can continue one's way through the entry gate 126 after having pulled out the credit key 50. The vending slot machine (figure 7) operates in the same way. The credit appears on a display unit 112 when the credit key 50 is inserted in the acceptor 63 and the hatch 127 can be opened to take out a tray 125. Then the new credit appears on the display unit 112. The circuit diagram 145 of figure 9 can also be built in the vending slot machine 124. It goes without saying that each application needs an adjus¬ ted programme.

In more detail the securing means of the credit key 50 operate as follows (fig.10):

A code is supplied by the parking meter 1 at 210 to the comparator 203. The code is compared to a code stored in a WRITE ONLY memory part 201 of the key 50. If the code has the same value a TRUE signal T is obtained from the compara- tor operating a memory access signal MA for the memory 205 and for the parking meter 1, after which the parking meter can read R and write W into the credit booked in other parts of the memory 205. If the .signals are different a FALSE sig¬ nal F is supplied to an counter 207 which after for instance two FALSE signals gives an erase instruction ER to the memory 205, thus erasing tlie credit and the code. It will be impos¬ sible for someone to find the code by just trying some codes, and so he/she will not be able to write credit into his/hers used credit key. In a preferred embodiment of the credit key 50 it is even practically impossible to obtain parking time from the parking meter 1 with a fraudulent device in stead of a credit key 50 (fig.11). The parking meter generates three signals for the credit key, viz. an address AD, a rotate instruction ROT and a¹code COD, being generated as follows:

The microprocessor of the parking meter has two modulo counters, one counting through the number of addresses of the usable EEPROM addresses and one counting through the number of bits on one address. The memory of the parking meter has a memory part which is completely consistent with a code part 221 of the memory 225 of the key. After insertion of the key the pointer of both counters is stopped and points to for instance an adddress n and a ro¬ tate m instruction, respectively. The code associated with n is read out of the memory and rotated over m bit positions thus obtaining the COD information consisting of a part of this rotated information to be send to the key 50. In the credit key signal AD addresses n, reads out the content of n, which is rotated in an register 230 by instruction ROT over m bit positions and partly compared by comparator 224 to the COD information. If this comparison gives a take signal F fed to a counter 227, the memory 225 can again be erased at ER. The true signal T of the comparison is supplied to a gate 231 to which is fed as well the credit automatically after inser¬ ting the key read out and decreased with one parking unit from memory part 222 into register 232, which information I is fed to the meter 1. If the decreased credit is higher than zero, the meter generates a write signal WR to write back the decreased credit through a gate 233 which is also controlled by the true signal T. In the end the remaining not compared code part REM is fed back to the meter 1, which code part is compared with the not transmitted code part in the parking meter 1 after which the parking meter confirms on the display unit that parking time has been debitted from the credit key displaying parking time on the display unit. In the above mentioned it has been become impossible to get access to the credit key or parking meter in any way and it will be under¬ stood that it will be very difficult to obtain the informa¬ tion stored in the EEPROM, which will be necessary to read/ write into circuit 52.

Claims

1. A credit key (50,73) for a slot machine (1,123,124,- 126) adapted to debiting credit from said credit key (50,73), comprising a retaining element (51) provided with a electri¬ cal circuit (52) adapted to be coupled to said slot machine (1,123,124,126), said circuit (52) including a non volatile part (201,221) of a memory (205,225) containing a code not accessible by said slot machine (1,123,124,126), a non vola¬ tile part (202,222) of said memory bookkeeping said credit and securing means (204,224) including a comparator (203,223), said securing means (204,224) securing against trying to get access to said memory (205,225) with an incorrect code and said comparator (203,223) comparing said code to a code supplied to said credit key (50,73) characterized by destructing means (206,226) included in said securing means (204,224) for mutilating information contained in said memory (205,225), including destructing said code.

2. A credit key (50,73) of claim 1, characterized in that the electrical circuit (52) is ah integrated circuit (52) substantially of the EEPROM type.

3. A credit key (50,73) of claim 1 of 2, characterized in that the destructing means (204,224) include a counter (207,227) counting the number of times said key (50,73) is supplied with a code other than said code contained in said memory part (201,221) and activating said information utila- tion after a "predetermined number of times said key (50,73) has been supplied with an incorrect code.

4. A credit key (50,73) of claim 1, 2 or 3, characte¬ rized in that said key (50,73) supplies a return code to said slot machine (1,123,124,126) after said comparator confirming that said code supplied to said key (50,73) is correct, said return code being different from said first code and known to said slot machine (1,123,124,126).

5. A credit key (50,73) of claim 4, characterized in that said code with an associated address for said memory is generated in said slot machine (1,123,124,126) by a modulo-n- counter, n being the number of addresses being available for said code in said memory (205,225) and said location in said memory (205,225) containing said code and said return code.

6. A credit key (50,73) of claim 5, characterized in that a part of said memory location containing said code and a part of said memory location containing said return code are determined after a rotate m instruction generated by the slot machine (1,123,124,126) for rotating the contents of a register (233) associated with said memory (225) over m bit positions.

7. A credit key (50,73) according of any one of the preceeding claims, characterized in that said retaining ele¬ ment (51) is provided with a carrier eye (49) adapted to fit on a key ring.

8. A credit key (50,73) according to one of the claims 1-7, characterized in that at least one moving protective shielding element (56) is movable against resilience, with respect to the retaining body (57) of the retaining element (51), from a position protecting electrical terminals (55) into a position uncovering said terminals (55).

9. A credit key (50,73) characterized by an asymmetric profile of the retaining element (51), adjusted to a comple¬ mentary assymetric profile of an acceptor (63) of the slot machine (1,123,124,126).

10. A slot machine (1,123,124,126) adapted to be opera¬ ted by a credit key (50,73) according to one of the conclu¬ sions 1-6.

11. A slot machine (1,123,124,126) according to claim 10, characterized by a programme stored in said slot machine (1,123,124,126) generating successively addresses and codes associated therewith including return codes and "rotate"-in¬ structions, to be able to debit the credit key of claim 5 or 6.

12. A parking meter (1) adapted to be operated by a credit key (50,73) according to one of the conclusions 1-4.

13. A parking meter (1) according to claim 12, charac¬ terized by at least one memory location containing a code corresponding with^' the code of the credit key (50,73) accor¬ ding to one of the conclusions 1-6.

14. A parking meter (1) of claim 12 or 13, characte¬ rized by: 5 - a control unit (97) to debit credit of the credit key (50,73) of any one of the claims 1-9;

- a display unit (112) of the LCD type;

- a circuit (93) comprising a memory and a microprocessor;

- a clock (100) to supply a clock signal;

10 - a control unit (111) to control the display unit;

- an electric power supply source (90);

- an acceptor to accept said credit key (50,73); and

- a computer programme to operate said key (50,73) according to any one of the claims 1-4.

15 15. A parking meter (1) according to claim (14) charac¬ terized by a computer programme stored in said memory, comprising a. modulo-n-counter and a rotate instruction to operate said key (50,73) according to claim 5 or 6.

16. A parking meter (1,123,124,126) according to claim 20 14 or 15, characterized in that the circuit is an integrated micro computer (93) .

17. A parking meter (1) according to one of the claims 12-16, characterized by one acceptor (63) and two control units (97,98) to debit the parking time for the parking pla-

25 ces (83,84) at both sides of the parking meter (1).

18. A parking meter (1) according to one of the claims 12-17, characterized by at least one memory location in which credit debitted by said parking meter (1) from credit keys

(50), is kept.

30 19. An acceptor (63) to accept crdit keys (50) of one of the claims 1-13, characterized in that at least one protective shielding element (65) is adjusted with respect to the acceptor body of the acceptor (63), movable against resilience from a position protecting electric terminals to a

35 position releasing said terminals.

20. A parking meter casing (2) according to claim 20 or 21, characterized in that it is manufactured of synthetic material.

21. A parking meter casing (2) of claim 20, characterized in that the steel armour (10) , preferably of spring steel, is embodied inside said parking meter casing (2).

22. A parking meter casing (2), according to claim 20 or 21, characterized in that said parking meter casing (2) is devided relative to an erect deviding plane (7) in two cas¬ tings (5,6) which are firmly attached to each other and that each of the castings (5,6) has ribs (8) diagonally provided said plane (17).

23. A parking meter casing (2) according to claim 22, characterized in that at least one armour strip (10) is pro¬ vided in such way that it extends into both castings (5,6).

24. A parking meter casing (2) according to one of the claims 20-23, characterized by a shaft (3) covering a round parking post (4) and locking means (17) to lock this shaft (3) to the parking post (4).

25. A parking meter casing (2) according to claim 24, characterized in that the locking means (17) contain a lock (17).

26. A parking meter casing according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that said locking means (17) contain at least one anchoring element to be placed straight across through the parking post (4), clipping into at least one internal length groove (14) of a shaft (3) of the parking meter casing (2).

27. A parking meter casing (2) according to one of the claims 20-26, characterized by a cover (20) which can be loosened and to which all the functional elements (21) of said parking meter (1) are attached.

28. A parking meter casing (2) according to claim 27, characterized in that said cover (20) is locked by means of a number of bolts (33) movable in various directions through a central manipulation unit to said parking meter casing (2).