Step By Step Guide to Portrait Calibration

The following is a step by step guide on how to configure the built-in ticket printing software for portrait printing.

All tickets are laid out differently with different numbers of boards, some have bonus balls some not and so on. But using this guide you will soon be able to configure your game files easily.

Figure 1

Step 1 - Select Game

In this example, we will calibrate the Mega Money playslip for the Florida lottery. The same method can be used for any playslip for any game.

You must first run the lottery program and select the Mega Money game as shown below.

Step 2 - Select Ball Set for Calibration

First we will calibrate the Main Ball Set (1 to 44), so we need to make sure that the Extra ball calibration is set to No as follows. If the game does not have an extra ball set, then the Extra option will not be available.

Step 3 - Setup Number Of Boards

In the above example there are 5 boards (Panel A through Panel E). So select 5 from the drop down options.

Step 4 - Select Board for Calibration

The first board we will calibrate is Board A (or in this case it is called Panel A). Panel = Board or whatever the lottery organisation has called it. Note that only Boards A to E are shown (five boards which was defined at Step 3).

Step 5 - Select Orientation

We are configuring the main ball set so select Orientation then Main and then either Vertical or Horizontal as follows. Note that if no extra ball set is used, the extra option will not be available.

To determine whether to use Vertical or Horizontal setting,  look at the shape of the playslip boxes containing the numbers with the ticket viewed in the portrait orientation.

In this example the instructions on the reverse of the ticket sate "place a vertical mark in each chosen number box" so select vertical as the orientation.

Step 6 - Select Line Attributes

Select Line > Line Width > Recommended (you can always change the width of the printed line later if it is too thin or thick).

Select Line > Line Length > Medium (you can always change the length of the printed line later if it is too long or short). Note that changing the line length after configuration may require repeating Step 8. For Florida as th boxes are almost square a short line is required so Line > Line Length > Short is selected.

Step 7 - Taking the Measurements

Click Save to save your game settings so far.

Now we take to take the measurements to Main ball number 1 on Board (Panel) A. All measurements for X for the first board are taken from the right hand edge of the playslip as we look at it. All measurements for Y for the first board are taken from the bottom edge of the playslip as shown in Figure 1 at the top of this page.

Taking the X measurement in mm to Ball 1 on Board A. It doesn't matter which point of the print box you measure to, but always use the same method. In the example below the X measurement is taken to the left side edge of the number 1 Box and the measurement in mm is 66 mm. You will note from the way the boxes are laid out on the ticket that the X values for the numbers 2, 3 and 4 will also be 66 mm. (In fact the X measurements on all Boards for the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be 66 mm but we will consider this later when calibrating those boards).

So in our coordinate area we can enter the following:

Note that the first coordinate are is always for the X value.

We now need to take the Y value for ball 1 as shown below:

Getting All the Y Values

You can measure the Y distance in mm to Number 1 on Board A as shown above, but instead measure to the top of the print area for Number 5 and number 11. These values come to 38 mm for number 5 and 66 mm for number 11. There are 7 numbers in this Y direction ( 5,6,7,8,9,10,11) which means the Y values for each of these can be calculated ( measuring 2 distant points and then calculating is usually more accurate than trying to measure to each number but you can do this if you want to,)

So; 5 = 38mm and 11 = 66mm. From 5 to 11 there are 6 distance hops 5-6, 6-7, 7-8, 8-9, 9-10 and 10-11.

So 66-38 = 28

28 divided by 6 = 4.67 (approx)

So:

Distance to ball 5 = 38mm
Distance to ball 6 = 38 + 4.67 = 42.67mm
Distance to ball 7 = 42.67 + 4.67 = 47.34mm
Distance to ball 8 = 47.34 + 4.67 = 52.01mm
Distance to ball 9 = 52.01 + 4.67 = 56.68mm
Distance to ball 10 = 56.68 + 4.67 = 61.35mm
Distance to ball 11 = 66mm

These values give all the Y values need for each number on Board A As the playslip shows:

5=12=19=26=33=40 = (38mm)
6=13=20=27=34=41 = (42.67mm)
7=14=21=28=35=42 =(47.34mm)
8=1=15=22=29=36=43 = (52.01mm)
9=2=16=23=30=37=44 =(56.68mm)
10=3=17=24=31=38 =(61.35mm)
11=4=18=25=32=39 = (66mm)

Getting All the X Values

We can use this identical method to get all the X values for each ball on Board A

We have already done the X Distance to Ball 1 that is 66mm, the X distance to number 43 is 38.5mm. From 1 to 43 there are 6 distance hops 1 to 8, 8 to15, 15 to 22, 22 to 29, 29 to 36 and 36 to 43.

So 66-38.5=27.5

27.5 divided by 6 = 4.58

Distance to ball 1 = 66mm
Distance to ball 8 = 66 - 4.58 = 61.42mm
Distance to ball 15 = 61.42 - 4.58 = 56.84mm
Distance to ball 22 = 56.84 - 4.58 = 52.26mm
Distance to ball 29 = 52.26 - 4.58 = 47.68mm
Distance to ball 36 = 47.68 - 4.58 = 43.1mm
Distance to ball 43 = 38.5mm

These values give all the X values need for each number on Board A As the playslip shows:

1=2=3=4= (66mm)
5=6=7=8=9=10=11= (61.42mm)
12=13=14=15=16=17=18= (56.84mm)
19=20=21=22=23=24=25= (52.26mm)
26=27=28=29=30=31=32=(47.68mm)
33=34=35=36=37=38=39=(43.10mm)
40=41=42=43=44=(38.5)

Entering these values in the coordinate grid gives the following:

Save the values by clicking on Save

Load a few playslips into the printer and select Print > Current

Step 8 - Result of Print

In this example the print comes out as follows:

You can see that the pattern is OK, but the marks are not in the correct place. They are too high and too far to the left. Using the ruler you can see it is too high by 5mm and too far to the left by 5mm. Select Adjust to display the following screen:

As the print is too high by 5mm select Down and enter 5mm. As the print is too far to the left by 5mm select Right and enter 5 as shown above. Click Adjust to perform the adjustment (this will modify each of the 44 number x and y coordinates for Board A main balls only - no other board coordinates or extra ball coordinates will be affected).

Click Save to Save the adjustments and then reprint the Board A main balls by selecting Print > Current

Repeat Step 8 as often as required so that the line for Ball 1 is exactly correct.

You should then examine the positions of the other lines and make any adjustment necessary so that those lines are printed correctly. Use the coordinate area as shown in Step 7 to do this - increasing or reducing the values accordingly for each ball coordinate. Do not use the adjust to do this for the other balls as the adjust moves the whole pattern about so if you get it right for Ball 1 and then try and use the Adjust for ball 20 it will move Ball 1 as well.

In this example the Y values on the rows 1,2,3 and 4 were printing a little high - by about 0.5 mm. So using the coordinate area screen, subtract 0.5 from the Y value for ball 1 and then copy this value into the Y values for 8, 15, 22, 29, 36 and 43. Do the same with the Y value for 2 - that is subtract 0.5 from the current value and copy this value to the Y values for 9, 16, 23 etc. Repeat for the Y values for the 3 row and 4 row.

We now have a grid with these values that prints exactly into all of the main ball numbers on Board A.

Don't forget to Save the values.

Step 9 - Configuring the Remaining Main Ball Boards

We now need to transfer the main ball pattern we created for Board A to Boards B, C, D and E

Since we have an exact placing on Board A we need to do measurements from number 1 on Board A to number 1 on Board B. Do not measure from the edges of the playslip - measure from Ball 1 on Board A to Ball 1 on Board B.

Note that the X value for Number 1 on Board A is the same as the values for number 1 on Boards B, C, D and E. In  fact, for every number on Board A the X value of that number is the same as the X value of the same number on all the other boards. The only thing that changes is the Y value for board.

Using the same averaging method as we used above - take the measurement from number 1 on Board A to number 1 on Board E. This is 126.5 mm. There are 4 hops: A to B, B to C, C to D and D to E. So the averaging the the distance from number 1 on Board A to number 1 on Board B is 126.5 divided by 4 = 31.62 mm (approx). So to get the Y value of number 1 on Board B we just need to add 31.62 to the value currently configured as the Y value for number 1 on Board A which is 46.51 = 78.13

We can now instantly get all the values for the main balls on Board A by selecting Board B as follows:

This will clear all the numbers for Board B as you have none saved at this point.

In the X value for ball 1 enter 61 and for the Y value enter 78.13 (the number we calculated above) and then click Suggest.

All the main ball number coordinated for for Board B will now be displayed. Put some playslips into the printer and select print Current. All the main ball numbers for Board B will now be printed.

Repeat the process saving each board once populated with the coordinates:

• For Board C this gives: Ball 1 X Coordinate = 61, Ball 1 Y Coordinate = 46.51 + 31.62 + 31.62 = 109.7

• For Board D this gives: Ball 1 X Coordinate = 61, Ball 1 Y Coordinate = 46.51 + 31.62 + 31.62 + 31.62 = 141.3

• For Board E this gives: Ball 1 X Coordinate = 61, Ball 1 Y Coordinate = 46.51 + 31.62 + 31.62 + 31.62 + 31.62 = 172.9

All the Main ball coordinates are now completed. If your game does not use an extra ball set, the configuration is completed and you can use the main lottery program to print tickets.

Step - 10 Configuring Extra ball Set

If you notice from the looking at the playslip, we already have the necessary Y coordinates. Look at Board A you can see that the Y coordinate for Extra Ball 1 is the same as the Y coordinate for main Ball 1 - in fact this is true for all 22 extra balls. We do not need therefore to measure or calculate any extra ball Y coordinates as we have then already for each of the Boards.

The only thing we need to do is to calculate the X coordinates for the Extra balls on Board A.

Measure the distance from main Ball 1 to extra ball 1 on Board A. This is 36.5 mm so we already have the Y coordinate = 46.51 and the x coordinate for main ball 1 is 61, so the x and y coordinates for extra ball 1 are:

 61 minus 36.5 = 24.5 and 46.51

That is:  X= 24.5 Y = 46.51

Select Extra > Configure Extra > Yes and select Board > Board A

Enter 24.5 and 46.51 for ball 1

Home