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I'm trying to figure out the wiring for the optics sensor on the top of an S2000 hopper.  There are six wires and I'd like to know which wires supply the power, ground, and carry the signal to a counter.  I'm Rube Goldberging a contraption that will count coins and not be part of a slot machine.  The goal, if possible, is to hook the coin optics to a counter, again not part of slot machine, to count coins as the hopper runs continuously and coins are ejected.  Any help in identifying the six wires for the hopper optics and recommendations for an independent counter for this gizmo would be most appreciated.

As you can tell I am new to this hopper business.  I apologize if this query is posted in the wrong forum; I'll move it if someone can tell me where it should be. 

The guys over in the Coin Comparitor forum were GREAT with their help and I'm hoping I came to the right place for this S2000 hopper question.

Thanks in advance for your time and any help you can offer.

Bart

My optic sensor only has 4 wires on my S2000
if you are trying to interface to the optics at the hopper connector on a S2000,
There is a interface board between that connector and the optics.
Best thing to do is look at the schematic for the interface board and wiring diagram for the hopper

Here is the plug pin out.











I was looking at the wrong book - Sorry.

I do not think that is the hopper plug for a S2000 due to the fact the hopper does not run off 115VAC.

Hello Bart

I am not familiar with a 6 wire optic either - There is usually a part number printed on these if you enter that into google you should get a datasheet for the relevant optic.
As far as counter go you could use one from a slot machine but you would have to build a small interface to change the 5v pulse level to 12v or whatever your selected counter needs. You can also buy kits like this one http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/elec/ck1612.htm which may work. Your last alternative is to use one of the many microprocessor developement systems on the market and then you can make your contraption do whatever you please ( I have recently started plaing with PicAxe. Arduino and basic stamps from Parallax are also good)

Ian

BIG TIME THANKS  :244- to all that replied!! 

Sharing the schematics and pinouts helped me see what the functions are ( I think) of the six wires that connect to the optical sensor on the top of the hopper.  I'm going to try and determine of I can hook the "sense" wire on a two wire counter to one of the wires, excluding power and ground, on the six wire hopper optical sensor.  Next step is to find a resettable counter.

Again, thank you to everyone that replied.  Your time and effort is REALLY appreciated.

Bart 

Let me give you a heads up on this. I had worked on a project to use a hopper as a coin counter. I found that most of the cheaper resettable counters could not keep up with the rate that the coins were coming out. I ended up writing my own program for a basic atom. Attached is the basic atom code if anyone cares to look at it. It should work with a basic stamp with little modification.

poppo,

Thanks for the heads-up on the cheap resettable counters! 

What was the speed your hopper was running at and were you able to tie the resettable counter into the hopper optics?  My Rube Goldberg contraption only spits out about 200 coins per minute which is fine with me.  I'll increase the speed of the hopper when I get the feed chute fine tuned.  Maybe my gizmo is running slow enough to handle a counter :103-

THANK YOU for sharing the code you wrote.  Sad to say it is Greek to me.  Mighty impressive but I wouldn't even know where to start trying to use it.

I really appreciate you sharing your info.

Thanks again,
Bart

If you figure out how to ground (GND) out the tally button on this cheap little gizmo -
I'm sure the LCD counter can keep up no matter how fast your coins spit out of the hopper.
Ground out the "reset" button every time the hopper starts and
it will start from zero. >>>


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Royal-Blue-Case-LCD-Display-Resettable-Finger-Counter-/260863452747?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cbcac664b (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Royal-Blue-Case-LCD-Display-Resettable-Finger-Counter-/260863452747?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cbcac664b)

Bart - Everyone is curious as to what You are building. We demand photos :96-

Many years ago at the first casino I worked at we had somebody figure out how to create forged high denom tokens for our high roller area. All the machines in there were working with Condor acceptors at the time and these were letting the forged tokens through. You could spot the fakes but it meant emptying all the hoppers and sorting through the coins every day. I ended up building a contraption with a hopper spitting coins into a CC16 which was able to pick up the fakes. Two chutes then diverted the real and fake coins into separate buckets. Of course it wasnt long before someone got busted and the contraption got retired. Since then I have not had much faith in programmable coin acceptors and always go for Coin mechanism comparators If I have a choice

Poppo - K+ for the code. I can see next months hobby budget going towards Basic Micro. Will be interesting to see how these compare against PICAXE. Have you ever tried any of the other systems out there?

bunker,

That is the type of tally counter I had tried. It just could not keep up, and missed coins. I did not try that specific model, but I tried 3 others before I gave up. It also has to be fast enough to detect the short duration pulse you would get from the optics or a switch. The code in my project specifically looks for both the closure and opening of the switch to ensure it does not miss anything. If I only looked for the closure, the program was fast enough to loop around and count the same coin twice.

BCD,

I did not mess with using the optics. My IGT S+ hopper has a anti-tamper 'rocker' on it, which made it easy to just rig up a micro-switch to it. The first picture shows the microswitch in the down position (no coin). The bottom half of that picture shows me moving the rocker like when a coin goes though and it pushes the leaf on the micro-switch up closing the contacts.

The second picture shows the whole unit. The bottom shows a few coins counted and the value.

I've been using Basic Stamps for many years and then moved up to the Basic Atom. They both use almost exactly the same coding and can be ported pretty easily. I have not tried anything else like the PICAXE because I have not found anything I could not do with the Atom. And I already have a pretty good library of routines for just about anything.

And in case anyone was wondering just what the heck I was trying to do, :5-  I just wanted a simple way to see how many coins I had in my hoppers without manually counting them. Plus as many here know, I have too much time on my hands.  :96-

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

And here is one of those tally counters I tried that would not work properly. Of course I was going for the simplest solution, and this would have been it if it would have worked. But maybe it would work for BCD's project. These things are cheap enough to give it a try and they are easy to 'hack'.

How weird and coincidental is this?!?!   :5-
This morning I drive in with this in my tool bag to try
and figure out what drives it!??!  :72-
It came from out of an old player tracking system I believe called>>> act components inc.
I've forgotten you did a whole thread on it last year!
I've got a new winter project to learn!  :91-

 :244-  Good for you stayouttadabunker!!  Now, what the devil are they?!? :103-

He has a 16 x 2 LCD. (16 characters x 2 lines). His has a standard 14 pin interface on a header instead of along the edge.

Note: His is a parallel driven LCD where mine is a serial driven one. I prefer serial LCDs since they only need 3 wires - data, power & ground.

Note 2: Nearly all 16x2 parallel LCDs use a 'standard' interface and protocol.

Yes BCD,
It's just the player tracking LCD display ( front and backside photo shots) - similar as Poppo's display but with a blue lens.
Poppo has the program to drive them...
Now I gotta go find that thread on them!  :91-

ADD: Here it is! >>>

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=13848.30 (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=13848.30)

Good for you stayouttadabunker!  Glad you found the info you were looking for.

I wanted to try my suggestion of using a counter with the hopper optics.
I had a few minutes to fool around with it and the stuff on hand nearby.
I removed the hopper optics and took it apart.

Basically what this does is open and close an electrical circuit.
However, this one is designed for counting coins as they exit an S+ hopper.

It utilizes 3 wires :
1) Green ground wire
2) Red 12VDC power wire
3) Yellow signal wire.

I hooked the green wire into a bench-top power supply ground.
Then I hooked the red wire to the 12VDC power on the bench-top PS. joined
with one side of the electromechanical counter's two wires.
The yellow wire from the optics went into the other counter's wire.
It doesn't matter which side of the counter because an electromechanical counter uses
a solenoid to rotate a set of ratchet driven counter gears.

I turned on the power and ran a screwdriver through the optics....
the counter kept up with the rate of my hand fluctuating through the optical eyes.
I don't think any hopper can throw out coins that fast!?!?  :72-

I submitted some photos of this quick setup on my bench and a short accompanying video clip...
Top photo is the hopper optics torn open.
The bottom photo is the receiver optic...it contains 3 wires...
a red power wire, a green ground wire and the yellow signal wire for the continuity signal...>>>

More pics...
Top one is the emitter optic...
It has two wires...one for power and the other is a ground wire.
The bottom pic is that alien from that spaceship movie...
Click on any photo to enlarge if needed...>>>

see the emitter eye ...uh...emitting? lol ...
unseen with naked eyes...>>>

Anyways, I put the hopper optic back together, set it up with a counter
and applied 12Vdc to the whole shebang... :283-
I don't know why an electronic LCD counter w/ resettable meters and NO MOVING PARTS can't keep up
with the coins exiting a hopper when an electromechanical one is sufficient?   :128-
Watch how fast I fluctuate the screwdriver through the eyes...
the counter goes a million miles per hour!  :301- :273-






I know...my bench is a mess... :72- >>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBri-HFgYA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBri-HFgYA)

Nice video, but I think it is flawed. Without knowing how many times you actually pass the screwdriver through, you won't know if it's counting properly or missing some.

Did you try it with the hopper yet? Don't forget to count the actual coins vice what the counter says.

The cheap electronic tally counters may not work because of the program they are running. The timing is critical and they were not made to pulse quickly. I can even take the one I posted earlier and make it count wrong if I click it too fast. When used for counting coins it would usually be off by 1 or 2 every 50.

The hopper optics in the video were signals to the counter as the screwdriver went down AND up.
Though I don't know how many times I passed the screwdriver through the eyes - I doubt that it's incorrect.
Quarters do not exit out of a hopper anywhere NEAR that speed...

I have an electronic LCD counter which I will hook up to a hopper in a few minutes
and I will take a video clip of it with 50 quarters exiting from it...

To get more technical on why a mechanical counter may work better than an electronic one, here is why.

On a mechanical counter, the solenoid gets pulled in as long as the 'contacts' are closed and then releases when the contacts open. Pretty simple. Being mechanical in nature actually helps as I will further explain.

With an electronic counter, the first problem you have is with what is called switch bounce. This mainly has to do with mechanical switches like on the tally counters. When you press the switch, the contacts actually bounce a few times. The processor can interpet this as multiple presses. So the software needs to put in a delay so it does not count it more than once. If this delay is too long, it can miss a second press since it thinks the switch is still bouncing. Typically 100ms is a long enough delay. But sloppy programming may have this longer. Thus fast pulsing gets counted wrong. Mechnical counters are by nature 'slow', so switch bounce is not an issue. The switch will be done bouncing long before the solenoid is done pulling in.

Next, with an electronic counter you need a delay method before looping back around or it may count again if you have not released the button yet. This may act like the key repeat on your keyboard when you hold it down, and the counter would keep counting if you hold the button down. So what you need to do in software.

1. Check for switch closure
2. Wait a little for switch bounce to settle
3. Now wait until the switch is open otherwise you will loop back and go into auto repeat. You can not just put in a fixed delay or you may miss pulses.
4. When switch is open, now you can do the count and update the display. But you have to do it fast enough so you don't miss the next press.

These cheap electronic tally counters were designed for people just clicking with their finger and this may not be reliable for fast counting. Either the pulses are coming too fast or the pulse duration being too short can cause it to not work. I wish it would have worked, as it would have saved me a lot of time.  

That makes sense to me...
What if you pulled the chip the timer is located on and change the delay setting in the programming?

 :72- :97-

If only it was that easy. These things are made with some 'custom' chip embedded in epoxy.

But you can see how easy it is to just run some wires in parallel with the count switch.

One of these (1st picture) may work. I bought one similar to this, but never tried it because I already had built my other one. Inside there are some wipers that determine what size coin you drop in. You would have to figure out how to hard wire it to only count whatever coin you want.

And this looks promising (2nd picture) for $7.00 shipped. Bunker, didn't you use one of these in one of your projects?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250647441532 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/250647441532)

haha...I've seen those "epoxy chips"...can't do anything with them.
Okay, the counter I was thinking of is much faster than a hand-held model.
They were made for counting the credits for cherrymaster games
and run in parallel with the bill validator...
These run about 8 bucks each and are electronically resettable...they're way
cheaper on fleabay from overseas than the website full of crooks...>>>


http://docs-asia.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/002e/0900766b8002e8ca.pdf (http://docs-asia.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/002e/0900766b8002e8ca.pdf)

LOL. See my ninja edit above.

BTW, I'm still waiting to hear what BCD is actually trying got do.  :89-

lol you're too fast for me...  :288-

Yeah...I have a couple of them but I have to  bring them in in the morning...

Those were the "In and Out" counters...really fast and accurate little shits!  :96- (excuse my lingo...lol)

They were all resettable really but the contacts were hidden under the casing!
I found that out when I took one apart!  :97-
If you buy the resettable ones...they charged like 5 dollars more for the little plastic or rubber button
that goes under the fascia sticker... :25-
The other fascia sticker actually has the "hole" for the button...haha

Anyways, these ones had 4 wires...the extra wire being for the "Out" counter signals.

I had a lot of fun hooking up an resettable 5-13VDC LCD counter I had saved
for a Cherrymaster machine I never finished!
(Another project that got shelved years ago...LOL )
Anyways, I found this really easy to hook up to a hopper.

The LCD counter has 4 wires.
Red for power anywhere between 5 and 13VDC...anywhere! I LIKE that!  :89-
Black for ground which went to the green ground of the hopper optics and power supply's ground.
Yellow which goes to the hopper optics yellow signal wire... a no brainer!

The extra blue wire from the LCD counter is for an optional counter which would
normally count the "OUT" of a Cherrymaster game.
Cherrymasters use both an "IN" and an "OUT" counters which is hooked up
in parallel to bill acceptors and ticket printers...it's not needed here.
If BCD is making a coin counter out of a hopper...this would work.

A couple of problems to work on:
1] The hopper pinwheel sometimes has a difficulty in trying to pick up the last few coins onto it's wheel.
2] Also, he would have to figure out how to "AUTO" start/stop the hopper.
3] and how to reset the counter.

Most commercial coin counters with hoppers use a button panel and everything works by push-buttons on a keypad.
They are way faster & also shut off the hopper motor when the counter isn't sensing any more coins left to count.
Not big problems in my mind...we always figure out a way to get things done...! :72-

Okay, ready? I hooked up 115VAC to the bottom two pins of an S+ hopper and a power strip.
Below is a short video clip of my results...>>>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kM-dP9spAQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kM-dP9spAQ)

Good deal. :3-  Much better and easier solution than the other tally counters.

Thanks Poppo!
That was actually the 2nd video I made...
the 1st video - I didn't have a cup attached at first and 50 coins came out all over the floor!   :25- :208-

 :244- :3- :131-  stayouttadabunker and poppo YOU NAILED IT!!!!!

The quarter video is EXACTLY what I'm looking for :72-.  I want to count a certain number of coins to be bagged.  It doesn't matter how many coins are in the hopper because I can note the beginning number on a non-resettable counter and add the bag amount to come up with my target number or I can just watch for my target amount on a resettable counter that starts counting from 0.  Turning the hopper off is no big deal.

I'm going to read your posts a few more times and watch the videos.  It's been 40 years since I built my last Heathkit project but the videos and explanations look/sound like they should be easy to follow.  Of concern to me is whether to use a mechanical or electrical counter given the question of accuracy.  Trust me, counting 5,000 coins using a plastic tube counter IS NOT FUN.  Of course neither of the counters looks real expensive so if I have an extra I'll have a reason to dream up some use for it.

Interesting to me the suggestions came when they did.  I spent a couple hours prowling the web and came up with schematics for making an infrared object counter and a LDR wired to the ='s button on a common hand held calculator.  Talk about Rube Goldberg creative, I thought the LDR/calculator was great.  Looks like I won't have to go that route if I can adapt stayouttadabunker's solution to my six wire optic on the hopper.  I'll fool around with it, trying his wire colors for connection first.  BTW, in one of Foster's earlier posts was an attached wiring diagram for a six wire hopper optic.  Four of the wires were Collector 1, Collector 2, Cathode 1, and Cathode 2.  Do you think the Collector 1 & 2 wires correspond to Stayouttadabunker's In count and Out count wires?

I can't begin to tell you how much these posts help me.  As I said, It's been a long time since I've tried anything like this and having this kind of help is INVALUABLE!

A thousand "Thanks" for all of your help.
Bart

If I had to guess, I would say they are just using a pair of optics instead of just one. Maybe a security feature like the A, B, C coin in optics. Probably can just use either.

Thanks poppo!

If you have a meter, it should be easy enough to watch the voltage on each line as you slowly rotate a coin through. You want the one that is normally around +5v and drops close to 0v or is normally 0v and goes to +5v when the optics are blocked. The negative lead would go to a common ground.

 :89- Good one poppo!  That's what I'll try.

Good morning all,
Thanks to you I'm making headway on my quest for the coin counter.  You've provided TESTED ideas that work and I've tried things that don't work.  I'll run attempts and questions up the flagpole and you can fire away if you so choose.

1-Bunker - Thought I'd try hooking a 24VDC wall wart to some pins in the main connector (tech talk) of the hopper like you did with your S+ and 115V.  Figured I might be able to use just one power supply to run all of the bells and whistles instead of a wart for each function.  I thought I had the wiring for the connector figured out.  1st attempt yielded nothing.  2nd attempt produced the brightest spark of the day.  Quickly deduced the trial error method could quickly lead to disaster.  Fortunately, nothing on the hopper seems to have gotten fried.  Not wanting to tempt fate, multiple wall warts for the hopper motor, coin comparitor, and optics (when I get a counter) are JUST fine.

2-Bunker & poppo - Are you two in agreement that the $7 (incl. shipping) counter would work for the coin counting process I'm striving for?  If so, I'll fetch a few up on eBay or Bunker, I'd be happy to buy one of your extras to help with your project $$ fund.  The $7 counter listed a count rate of 180 cps, definitely fast enough for my 190 - 350 coins/min operation.

3-Anyone - In a previous post I'd mentioned prowing the web and finding plans for counters using a handheld calculator.  Here's the URL for one such beast.  I thought it might be of interest to someone as this forum is definitely home to souls that think outside the box.  For grins & giggles, I'm tempted to try the calculator trick on the optics of my S2000 hopper.

Again, many thanks to all of you that have shared your thoughts and knowledge.

Hope your weekend is a good one.
Bart

     

Duh, don't get old, there's no future to it!

Here's the URL for the counter using a calculator that should have been in the previous post.

http://www.ldrengineering.org/object-counter-using-ldr/ (http://www.ldrengineering.org/object-counter-using-ldr/)

Yes, I do believe it will work fine. I've actually already ordered a few for myself to play around with. And I e-mailed the seller asking about the reset option that he noted in the ad. He said that by default it will come WITH a reset. You can request one without.

 :3-

YOU da' man poppo!

I'll go for the re-settables.  Did the seller give any break on the shipping for multiple pieces?

The caluclator mod would probaly work. At least you could stab at the = key really fast and see if it will keep up. But it seems like that cheap e-bay counter is the better way to go IMO. Only downside is it will take a while to get it since it's coming form Hong Kong. BTW, extra counters don't cost any more for shipping (1=$4+$3 or 2=$8+$3)

Thanks for the shipping info.

I definitely agree with the cheap eBay counter being the better way.  The calculator contraption would just be something to try as a fun thing; kind of like, "I'll be darned,it DOES work."

I don't any extra Hong Kong $7 counters but it would be the easiest route to take.
Don't worry about shipping...it uses the slow boat from China
but is cheaper than anywhere in United States.

Are you using an S2000 hopper?
I don't know what voltages that motor needs.
All I can say is that the S+ uses 115VAC.

Also, I'm uncertain if the S2000 hopper optics uses the same voltage as mine.
You will have to verify with someone else on that.
Maybe we can dig up some S2000 hopper schematics somewhere...

Here is a schematic for a Vision.

Ron (r273)

Ron (r273) - Thanks for the Vision schematic.  I'll try and compare it to the connections on my S2000.

Bunker - Thanks for checking to see if you had any extra counters.  The S2000 hopper motor is a 24VDC.  In a previous post Foster attached the S2000 schematics.  I can't tell what the optics voltage is.  I THINK the optics voltage is 5VDC BUT, I will see if I can find the source for that guess.

Thanks for all the help AGAIN,
Ba :37-rt

BCD,
You been asked by a few members for
some photos of this counter you're building...
I'd try to grant them their wishes as you've been
receiving quite a bit of help from our members.. :89-

I don't know what type of adapter you're using
to supply a hopper motors' required 24 volts.
I hope it is big enough to supply the amps needed to run the motor's draw
or the adapter will burn out.... :98-

stayouttadabunker,

Yes, I have received quite a bit, correction, a huge amount of help for which I am very thankful.  I wanted to get a counter hooked to the hopper and then post some pictures.  In fact, I was wiring a calculator to attach to a makeshift switch when I saw your post.  I will definitely post some pic's Monday.  I don't want anyone thinking I'm not grateful for all of the help the members have given me.

I am using a 24VDC, 1 amp adapter.  It is either big enough or I am lucky.  I have run the motor for 5-10 minutes at a time with no problem.

Good Monday morning all :88-,

I'm trying to post some pictures of the Rube Goldberg coin sorter but haven't come up with the right combo of keystrokes.  Here's what I've tried:

Logged in,
Copy a .JPG and then paste at the cursor - no good,
Use the "Attach" box just below the text box.  The location address was inserted in the Attach box but the pic didn't show up when I reviewed my post,
Checked NLG Help page,

Tried the Insert Image icon above the Smiley Faces and had http (I think)(http://) inserted in the body of my post.  Do I upload the images themselves to the NLG server and then use that URL between these tags?

ADD..................

ALRIGHT, FORGET ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCEPT THE PICTURE.  I thought the pic would show up when I previewed the post before sending it.  See my next post for additional pic's.

Pic's are ready to post. if someone can lay out the steps I'll show you the gizmo.

Let's try this again...

First off please remember head shaking :60- is allowed but guffawing  :208- is to be kept to a minimum.

Here are a couple more pictures of the coin sorter joint project.  As you can see she ain't no beauty but she was designed to sort coins not win pageants.

And sort coins it does!  When the planets are in proper alignment, and the chute is where it's supposed to be, the hopper will deliver 300-350 coins/min to the comparitor.  I'm REAL happy with this because the Cadillac of sorters, Ryedale, is rated at 300 coins/min and lists at $500.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see I have slightly less than $500 in this thing.

For the umpteenth time, a thousand "Thanks" to all that have helped me.

(http://)
(http://)

When she has a counter I'll post a movie clip of her in motion.

Are you separating copper pennys with that??

Hi zarobhr,

Yes, I'm sorting copper pennies.

After looking at the pictures me thinks it's a good idea to use a tripod in low light situations.

you should try to get one of these it is designed to sort between copper and zinc pennies

http://www.coinmech.com/product_profile.cfm?id=453 (http://www.coinmech.com/product_profile.cfm?id=453)

Hey zarobhr,

That looks like the comparitor CMI brought out for corting copper pennies!  I called CMI about it and decided not to spend $100 on this comparitor until I make sure this contraption works.  I bought used comparitors for about $15 apiece.

If you use the penny comparitor are you happy with it and is it able to discern wheat cents from memorial pennies??


Correction zarobhr; is the CMI penny comparitor able to tell the difference between wheat cents and pre-1982 memorials?

i dont have one but an old friend of mine does. it only sorts between copper and zinc (accepts one rejects other) i believe the wheats were copper also and zinc started in early mid 80's

Thanks zarobhr.  You're exactly right.  I mispoke in my previous post.

Catch up with y'all later; I'm off to drive a fire engine.

I found this article...>>>

I think you mean what's the difference between Lincoln Wheat Cents and Lincoln Memorial Cents. Wheat Cents were made between 1909 and 1958, and they feature a reverse design of two wheat stalks surrounding the phrase "ONE CENT/UNITED STATES OF AMERICA". The Lincoln Memorial Cents have been made from 1959 to present day 2005. Their obverse is the same as the wheat cents, but on the back is the design featuring the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Additionally, most dealers will pay 1 and a half cents per wheat penny, whereas memorial pennies are only worth one cent. Big deal, I know, but since a roll of mixed memorials sells for 50 cents, it's nice to know that a roll of mixed date wheat cents sells for about 90 cents.

Read more: http://www.cointalk.com/t9268/#ixzz1b3FnOKJf

I don't think the coin comparitors can tell the difference but I'm not 100% sure on this.

Bunk your right it cant tell the difference between the wheats and memorials, but it can tell the difference from the pre 82 copper pennies and 82 to current pennies that are zinc.

the only reason someone goes through this much trouble to sort and count pennies is to MAKE MONEY.

pre 1981 pennies are worth .04 cents  of copper value, so a pound of pennies (90% copper) is worth maybe 6.00 USD.

how many pennies make up a pound???


Am I on the right track or did I miss the train???
How many boxes of pennies do you own,  looks like there were several in the photos.

Jim

The CMI compariitor, when "tuned," easily and quickly sorts the 95% coppers from the 5% coppers.  Some of the wheats (1909-1958) are also sortable from the other high % coppers because of less attention to the alloy mixture.  The high % coppers are most anything from Indian Head pennies through 1958.  Other than a few oddball planchets, 1943 is the only year I know of that was not 95% copper.  Due to a wartime shortage of copper the '43's were mostly steel and visibly different than other pennies.  1982 was a transition year for composition %'s.  Early '82's are 95% copper whereas other '82's are the 5% copper variety.  The government figured out the value of copper in each penny was more than one cent. 

Currently, $50 of 95% coppers will fetch 75$-$85 on eBay.  Definitely not a get rich quick proposition now that the price of copper is down.  When copper was higher in the year, $100 was the going price for a bag of high copper pennies.  As a hobby/investment there are some advantages;  I get exposure to people a heck of a lot smarter than I am, gizmos are created, $100 worth of pennies sorted each week will return $625 gross annually, at today's low price, with NO downside, and when the sorter is operating correctly it can run in the background so one can multitask.  Negatives are storage, lugging 75# of pennies around, and bank/CU tellers that are having a bad day.  I would not EVEN want to do this whole shebang by hand.  Right now the drawback I have is counting the high % coppers. 

That's why I'm on this counter perfection kick instead of using the comparitor/counter combo.  Wiring up the count function on the comparitor is the no-brainer.  But, unless you reverse the count process so the rake doesn't activate for each counted coin, the rake solenoid will get a heck of a workout and quite possibly wear out REAL SOON.

Jim - I'm not sure where you're getting the .04 cents.  I read that as 4/100 of a penny worth of copper in a high copper penny.  eBay pricing says it's more like 150/100 (1.5 cents) per penny.  There are 140+/- pennies to the pound.  Right now I only sort 10,000 ($100) pennies a week; usually during a televised college football/basketball game or History/Discovery channel show.

Want a possible no-brainer coin play?  Nickels (except some WWII years) are worth 20% over face given current nickel prices on the metals market.  If the world economies rebound nickel prices should also. BIG plus is now sorting.  Negatives are storage and $$ tied up.  'Course given CD and $$ market rates...

BCD


http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150667287859 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150667287859)


Jim

Exactly Jim. 

$6 divided by $.04 equals 150 pennies to the pound.  Look at it like this, the copper value is four time the face value according to the eBay seller.  His SELLING price is 2.66 cents per penny; still pretty high.  When you add the shipping fee of another 2.66 cents this is mighty expensive!  Also, the seller is not quite accurate on all his facts.  1962-1981 are 95% (not 90%) copper and some 1982's are 95% copper, 5% zinc contrary to assertion. 

I'll be curious to see if this lot sells.

If I can QUICKLY and EFFICIENTLY sort/count pennies, have no more than face value plus REASONABLE eqt. cost, get ZILCH for comaparable liquidity, AND MAKE 50% OVER FACE, darn straight I'll cozy up to Lincolns.

Wanna really get your shorts in a knot?  Check out pre-'65 dimes, quarters, halves, and all silver dollars!

Current pennies weight 2.5g, but according to the following site, the older pennies weighed 3.11g. They also calculated the current value of melted pennies to be about 2.2¢ if you take their word for it.

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1909-1982-Lincoln-Cent-Penny-Value.html (http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1909-1982-Lincoln-Cent-Penny-Value.html)

 :244-  You nailed it StatFreak, that website seems to be the "go-to" for melt values.

I must have missed something.  If your selling the penny's by the pound, what's the big deal of having a counter ??

I like your "If it ain't broke..." motto.

All the talk about weight was background, additional info, whatever you want to call it.  I would be selling by the face amount because it's more precise and reliable counters are not expensive.  Plus, it's one more gizmo to Rube Goldberg! :299-

I doubt anyone has ever built a larger scaled RG machine.. of course, I could be wrong! :5- :30-

Enjoy. :71-

SF :31-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w)

http://www.okgo.net/this-too-shall-pass-rube-goldberg-machine/ (http://www.okgo.net/this-too-shall-pass-rube-goldberg-machine/)

 :299- HOLY MOON BLOOMERS!!!!!  Now THAT is Rubing!

Thanks StatFreak.

What's even more amazing is that the entire video is a single shot with no cuts, and yet several of the major events occur right on the beat of the music as they are supposed to.

IMO, no matter one's opinion of Rubing, the amount of work and coordination that went into that project has to be respected.  The song ain't half bad either!

That was amazing!!!!!  :259- :31- for posting it!

The scary part for me is that they must have made multiple attempts for a perfect performance judging by their already paint stained coveralls. Quite a bit of setup!

CH :95-

Bunker,

I'd like to try wiring up a counter like you did in your video but have a question about voltage to the optics sensor.  I've tried to determine the voltage to the sensor on Foster's S2000 attachment with his earlier post.  There are two voltages shown for the diagram of the J122 clip; 5V and 13V.  I think the four pin J122 is for his optics.  I have not been able to find a schematic with voltage(s) for my six pin optic so I have no idea whether my optics takes 5V, 13V, or what.  In your video you used 12V to power your sensor.  Can you tell from Foster's diagram if the sensor is powered with 5V or 13V?  If it's 13V it seems to me I should be able to use 12V like you did in your video.  If it's 5V I'm afraid I'd damage the sensor  :103-.

Thanks,
Bart

Best to try 5V first.

BCD, considering how much you enjoy experimenting, you should really do yourself a favor and buy a bench power supply. I know Bunker finally broke down and bought one. You'll thank yourself for it. :89-

Stat :31-

Yeah...The adjustable BK Precision Bench top power supply station is a real blast to use
because I can apply zero voltage up to 32 VDC - perfect for what I do around here.
I'd like to pick a VAC bench top in the near future as well.

I would do as Foster suggested and apply 5vdc 1st and see if it counts.
Of course, I showed you how to check the output signal with a cheap china scope.

Optics are basically LED lights in a way....they can withstand a certain threshold of voltage before flaming out...
A couple of volts over specs won't kill anything but the lifespan of the lamps and receiver optic will be shortened somewhat.
Think of it as applying 130 volts to a 100 watt light bulb....it won't burn out right away but it will be
very very bright for a very very limited amount of time....lol

Good advice, 5V it is to start.  In fact I hit my favorite Goodwill today and bought a 5V wall wart for $0.80...HOO-HOO!  Hope the blasted thing works.

I'm gonna look for a BK Precision bench top power supply; 0-32V should give me a wide enough range to really get in trouble.  Wait a minute, on second thought, I'll look for an extension cord with a 20 recep head.  That way I could plug in my increasingly impressive collection of wall warts and hit about every voltage requirement I've come across :299-.

Thanks for the info!  Y'all have a good weekend.

lol...I'll betcha the farm I have more Wallwart's adapters than you have!!!  :72- :97- :208-

                      :182-      :182-           :99-      :99-
                   :208-    :208-    :208-

   :31-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8)

:79-.

 Aw man, now it's getting ugly!  Alright, yours is probably bigger than mine.  BUT, never underestimate the Goodwill Power Shopper.  The gauntlet has been thrown down.  I'm gonna sharpen up my knife so I can roam the electronics aisle amputating wall warts in addition to cleaning out the wart bin.

It grieves me greatly thinking of the dozens of wall warts I scrounged up for firefighter training earlier this year.  They made great entanglements for the blindfolded SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) confidence course.  'Course that was before I became addicted to this all consuming notion of Rube Goldberging a coin sorter from parts & pieces, the majority of which, never intended to end their lives as a coin sorter. 

That said, Bunker, your collection probably is bigger.  BUT, as long as the Goodwill store remains open your perch atop the hill is precarious at best.  At the rate I'm buying warts the local Goodwill will probably be the most profitable in their system and you will be at the bottom looking up  :200-. 

Then there's StatFreak stirring the pot  :79- from the sidelines!  THANKS buddy.  Me thinks he suffers from Wall Wart Envy  :8-.

Just a little info on the wall wart thing. They come in two types, the more common transformer type and the switcher type. The switcher type will always be regulated and whatever voltage it says it is will be pretty accurate. The ones that use transformers will have a voltage that is 'nominal' for a load that is close to the max rating. In simple terms this means that a 9V wall wart that is rated at 500ma will put out close to 9V when the current draw is around 400-500ma. With no load or a light load, the voltage may be as high as 15V. What this means is that it you are using a wall wart to power a voltage sensative component (i.e. a TTL IC chip that wants to see 5V + - .2V, then you really need to use a switcher type. A 5V transformer type will probably be outputting around 9V or so with no load. Thus you stand a good chance of frying the IC even though the wall wart said it was 5V. Best thing is to actually measure the voltage first with no load. Not always, but it's not that hard to tell what type it is just by looking at it.

Note: Technically a switcher power supply also uses a transformer, but it will be much smaller.

BIG TIME THANKS POPPO :244-!!

You answered a question I have but hadn't asked.  I have seen both designations and wondered what the difference was.  I am going to test the warts I have under no load.

Again, THANKS!

Poppo,
You've certainly touched upon a problem I had a few years when working with a Wallwart's for one of my projects.
That may explain why I was burning out a small board I was trying to power up.
I had always wondered why the voltage outputs varied so much...Thanks!

Evening all,

If an adapter has Input of 100-240V AC and Output of +12V, 1.5A BUT DOES NOT STATE WHETHER THE OUTPUT IS AC OR DC what should I assume it is?  I have prowled the web trying to find the answer and can't.

It says it's a switching power supply, so it is DC.

Plus there is this. :209-

GREAT poppo  :3-!

We just got back from a short trip and I jumped into testing wall warts based on your previous post.  I hooked a 12V to my  multimeter and it read 24V!!  GOOD GRIEF!  I then tried the 12V switching adapter and got NOTHING.  I looked at the wall wart again and noticed there was no AC or DC designation for the output.  I thought, "Oh great, I just used the multimeter DC voltage mode to test an AC output...goodbye multimeter.  But, if "switching" means it's DC output then it shouldn't affect the multimeter.  Very strange...

When I tested the 12V adapter that read 24V the multimeter was set on 25DCV so that should have handled 24V...shouldn't it?

Thanks again poppo for the great help.   

You won't hurt a meter by measuring AC on the DC setting or DC on the AC setting. Even having the wrong range normally won't hut it. You just won't get the right readings.

Sometimes those barrel plugs are too small to fit the meter lead into and get a reading. For those I'll stick a paper clip or something in the center and stick the lead on that.

BTW, my resettable meters are still sitting in China.  :47-

Oh no poppo!  Sorry to hear about your counters still in China.  I got an e-note from the seller last week that mine had been shipped but now I wonder where they were shipped to...some intermediate point in China????  Oh well, at the rate everthing else is progressing on  this SIMPE project, I sure the devil won't need the counters anytime soon.  I'm now questioning whether my power supplies are safe.

Thanks for the explanation on what WON'T kill a multimeter.  I tried the multimeter on a wart that has a barrel connector and one I'd cut the connector off.  Neither the barrel connector nor the bare wires brought the multimeter to life.

I'm gonna go make a drink!

As always poppo, thanks for the help.  You saved me a bunch of Googling and swearing time.

Oh, mine were shipped. They just have not made it out of the county yet.

I normally prefer to buy from US sellers, but sometimes you just can't beat the China prices. I'll pay a little more for a US based item, but not 4 or 5 times as much.

AMEN to that one poppo!

My meters finally arrived today. Two weeks, not too bad. Here is a picture of them along side a quarter for scale. They have little plastic mounting brackets and detachable wire harnesses. I'll post when I get a chance to test them out.

Hi poppo,

I was thinking of the counters this morning, wondering if you'd heard/seen anything of yours.  Thanks for posting that yours arrived.  Mine should show up within the week...I hope.

As an aside, I Goldberged a counter using a RadioShack miniswitch and an old cheapy calculator from Goodwill.  Works great as long as I run the hopper on 12V, about 12-13 rpm.  Figured I use it until the high end electronics rolled it.

Again thanks for the note about your counters.

oh...COOL Poppo!
You got the ones with the reset button in between the "A" and "B"... NICE!!
Mine didn't have those manual resettable buttons...
I had to use a momentary switch.

No video like Bunker made since it's pretty much the same thing. First picture shows that it counted 29 coins, which was correct. The second picture just shows it wired up to the hopper plug (S+). Bottom two pins are 115VAC, the middle ones are ground and +5VDC (which are also connected to ground and +V on the meter). and the top left one is the 'A' counter in (yellow) which goes to the coin out of the optics (also yellow).

It should be noted that these meters do retain their memory when power is removed.

Click on pictures to enlarge

The slow boat from China arrived today  :244- and I've been trying to get the counter to count since  :103-.

Poppo, my optics has two collectors, should I be able to connect the positive line of a 5VDC power supply to optics pin 1, ground line from the power supply to optics pin 6, and the yellow wire from the counter to pin 2 or 4 of the optics and have the counter work?  The counter is hooked to a 12VDC power supply and powers up fine.  The optics wiring diagram is attached to an earlier post by Foster. 

Should I do anything with optics pin 3 (cathode 1), optics pin 5 (cathode 2), and the collector pin NOT hooked to the yellow wire of the counter?

Thanks,
Bart 

First make sure the counter will count by grounding either the yellow or blue wire on the counter. Is there some reason you are using 12v for the counter? It works fine off of 5v. Make sure you are using a common ground between the counter and the optics if you do use a seperate power supply. But I ould just power up the optics and meter with the same power supply.

I'm not sue if internally the optics are like this or not, but it looks like you would ground the cathodes and connect the collectors to  the counter.

Good morning poppo,
I'll try grounding the yellow or blue wire of the counter.  When I was changing connections, trying to get the whole shebang to work, the "A" counter did advance.

I tried 12V after trying 5V.  I was powering the optics and counter with the same 5V power supply and couldn't get it to work so I thought I'd try them separately.  I didn't want ANOTHER power supply so I used a 12V that was already powering the coin sorter.

Another person suggested using a 200ohm resistor on the power line to the optics as a precaution against frying the optics.  I tried this, with no luck, and removed the resistor.

Assuming the optics are OK to begin with, I'll use your wiring diagram and suggestions to see if I can get the counter to countin'.

Poppo, I really appreciate your help, knowledge, and PATIENCE.  I know I'll get this rascal to work but only because of your, and everyone else's, help.

Once again, thank you.
Bart

Ok, first, what did not work? The counter did not power up or it just didn't count?

Counter powered up but did not count when I wired it to the optics.  HOWEVER, as I was changing either the power supply from 5V to 12V or I inadvertently crossed a wire(s) the counter did count.  I think it would be a good idea for me to start from square one and wire the counter to the optics following your instructions and diagram then see what happens.

It sounds like at 1st, he had gotten the "A" (in) counter to advance on 5V.
But when he added 12V, it's possible that the emitter optics burned out
                                         or
                          hooked it up backwards?

I'm pretty sure optics do mind which side is the "hot" line.

If the optics are shot, then I'd go with a wire micro-switch in place of the optics's lever -
to ground the yellow "IN" or "A" line of the counter.

I'd be checking first to see if the emitter optic is working at least -
by viewing it through a video camera.

Bunker   My camera will not see a optic. 

The emitter is a LED (diade) so hooking it up backwards should not hurt anything.

Here is how I would wire it

Optic VCC -> 5v
Counter +  -> 5v (red)
Optic ground -> ground
Counter ground -> ground (black)
Optic cathode -> ground
Optic collector -> counter input (yellow or blue)

I've posted several photos of emitter optics lit up with my camera.
Human eyesight AND cameras will NOT "see" a receiver optic.
Maybe there's something wrong with your camera?
Stat may be able help you the camera settings.
It may need to be adjusted?


But why Poppo, is there a resistor placed on the "hot" side
of the optics inside of hopper optics enclosure?
Surely, if you apply the "Hot" from the opposite side of the resistor,
 ( for example: crossing the wires ) it will blow?
Or no?

Hell I bought it from Stat.

Here's a picture Buzz, from this very thread I posted earlier on Page 2...>>>


http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15092.0;attach=39487;image (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15092.0;attach=39487;image)

Current limiting resistor for the emitter. Without it the emitter goes  :98- 

It would not matter which side of the emitter it was on.

Aaarrgghh...my head hurts!

Poppo, here's where I got before the dinner bell rang.  Counter counts just fine by grounding one of the input lines.  I'm now going to wire the optics and counter to the 5V power supply, ground the cathodes, and connect the two counter inputs to the two optics collector lines.

Three questions; does the optics unit have to be attached to the hopper to function?  I didn't think it did but I'm now not sure.  Does it matter what type of item passes between the optics emitter and the sensor?  Can the optics be tested with a meter to determine if it's working?

No
No, as long as it's solid (does not let light through).
Maybe. VCC to ground (ohms setting with nothing connected to the wires) should read higher one directon than the other.

After grounding the counter, optics, optics cathode 1, and optics cathode 2 the counter still doesn't count when I move a solid object between the optics emitter and sensor.  I tried the above with a 200ohm resistor on the hot side of the optics and again without the resistor.

I wired a micro switch to the counter and the counter did its thing just fine.

Me thinks my optics is shot.

Do you mean the VCC wire from the optics is connected to the negative probe of the meter?  If so, does the optics ground have to be connected to something?

Negative probe to ground wire, positive probe to VCC (of the optics with nothing else connected). Then swap the probes. One reading should be very high and the other a lot lower.

If all else fails, you might try the same wiring, but with 12v. I don't know what voltage VCC is supposed to be for that set of optics, but it might be higher than 5v. But only try that if you think they are shot.

It looks like VCC is 5V

One last thing you can try, is connect a 10K resistor between the collector output and 5v . It might need a pull-up resistor. Any value over 5K will suffice. Just a shot in the dark.

The meter reading with the negative to ground/positive to VCC was 4x that with the probes reversed :89-!  Does that tell you the optics are OK?

At least the emitter seems to be ok.

BTW, did you try running a q-tip in there to make sure they are not blocked?

Also, I hope you are not doing this testing under a bright light. That might cause it not to work.

RATS!!!!![/size]

No poppo, I'm not trying under a bright light; I'm trying it under the brightest light I can find   :279-!!  Where does the idiot line form?!?  Thanks for mentioning the obvious.

Time to break out the soldering gun...AGAIN.

Do you mean take the optics case apart and run a q-tip in front of the emitter and sensor?

No, just from the outside, in beween the slot.

No luck...even in the dark.

Grounded the counter, optics, and both cathodes to the power supply ground; wired the hot lines of the counter and optics to the power supply; turned off all but a dim light; passed a solid piece of plastic between the lobes of the optics and NOTHING even when I block the dim light from reaching the optics.  I grounded each of the counter output lines, one at a time, to make sure the counter was working and it was.

I think I've had it for the evening.  Time to take a break and catch some zzz's :294-.  Tomorrow I might try not grounding a cathode, hooking up only one counter output, grounding one counter output, who knows...

Thanks for all of your time tonight.

Y'all have a good weekend.
Bart 

You've passed the emitter test...try your probie test for hi/lo on the receiver optic too?

Morning Bunker, welcome back to the fray :136-! 

You asked the question I was wondering about when I signed off last evening.  I have not tried the optic receiver because I'm not sure of what to connect to who.  Do I connect the negative probe to the ground and the positive probe to one of optics output lines?

I also was wondering if the optics lobes that the coin passes between are partially clear, for lack of a better term, and allow IR light to pass from the emitter to the receiver.

First try between ground and the collector. If you get nothing, try between the collector and cathode. After thinking about you saying that the emitter worked (ground to vcc), I'm now not sure just how that thing is wired inside. If it were me, I would probably have it opened up by now to look for myself.  :209-

LOL :208-!!

poppo, if it were you with this thing it would have been up and running without Lord knows how many posts on this forum by Lord knows how many people.  I'll be more than happy to open 'er up and take a look.  The fun begins with, "Now, what am I looking at?? :103-" 

I was pondering the little ritual of grounding one of the counter inputs to make sure it works and the suggestion of using the spring loaded arm on the optics assembly to trip a miniature switch.  Seems to me that Goldberging a counter input to the arm so that when a coin passes under the arm, and the arm is lifted, the input line contacts the ground and the counter does its thing.  This isn't as high tech or elegant as getting the optics to behave, but, because I seem to have misplaced my 12 lb. sledge, a.k.a. "The Fine Tuner," it might be the second best way to go.

The only thing you need to be careful with when using a mechanical switch, is what I mentioned earlier in the thread. It's call 'contact bounce'. Switches contacts have a tendency to bounce several times. If the counter is too 'fast' it will count these as seperate inputs. The only way to know for sure is to try it and see if it is counting properly. If it's not, it will count more than actually passed through. See this small article.

http://www.elexp.com/t_bounc.htm (http://www.elexp.com/t_bounc.htm)

Trust me poppo, I've been reminded of your comment when fooling around with the switches purchased at Radio Shack.  The concern I have in Goldberging a switch setup is the counter input could be in cotact with the ground for too long a period.

That's not a problem with these counters. If you notice, they don't actually register a count until the contacts open back up (remove the ground). So that tells me they probably have programed them similar to how I did in my program to prevent it from continuting to count if the switch remains closed.

Good one poppo!  Thanks for the info; one less worry about using a switch.

I'm going to see if I can get into the optics enclosure for a look.

Thanks again for the counter info.

Here's the inside of the optics enclosure.  I did not take the board out because it is held in place by two black plastic posts/tabs that don't want to be scraped off.

Just snip them off, or pry it out. You can always glue it back on. :79-   And a non-blurry picture would help. :127-

Or at least see if you can trace out the wires and draw a schematic of it.

I put the meter to the optics collector wires and ground.  With the Neg meter probe to the optics Gnd and the Pos probe to the collector line there was a meter reading.  When I reversed and touched the collector line with the Neg probe and the Gnd with the Pos probe there was no reading.

Sorry 'bout the blurry picture.  I needed one more hand as one was holding the camera with the other hand holding a magnifying glass.  Add low light setting and you get blurry pic.

Hmmm... Then it seems like it would work. But I don't know what those cathode lines are for. Can you tell where they go on the board?

Also  :172-

I can't tell where the cathode lines go on the board.   I also can't get the blasted board out of the optics enclosure :37-!

I just sent you some more info that may help.

For anyone else following this, apparently this is a 'secure hopper' optic assembly and the photo-transistor side uses 3 wires similar to this which is like what is on the SAS RS232 board. Pin 6 is the output and pin 4 is pulled up to +5V with a resistor. So perhaps the collector needs to be pulled up with a resistor and the cathode is the output.  :103-

poppo, this is in the paper you sent me from the slot tech forum:

The phototransistor is a three-terminal type. One side is ground, the opposite side goes to +5 V, and the center terminal is the output. When the light from the LED shines on the phototransistor, the output goes low. Just for a note: I could not determine if the phototransistor assembly was just a resistor pull-up design or actually the output of a logic circuit. I attempted to disassemble the phototransistor to no result. Not finding anything big enough to be a logic chip, I assumed it was a resistor. An ohmmeter measures about 1,800,000 Ohms from output to the +5V side. That seems rather large for a pull-up resistor. There is a 10K pull-up resistor on the Hopper Control board, so whatever is between the Collector and the +5V side is mute.

Notice the mention of a pull-up resistor in that paper.  I don't know if it has anything to do with the optics but I thought it interesting that you suggested the pull-up resistor.

See my ninja edit above.

poppo, Sounds to me like your idea of a pull-up resistor between the power supply and a collector line is worth trying :244-!  I'll try wiring a cathode line to the counter.

After some more thinking and research, I'm going back to what I suggested earlier. Seperate pull-up resistors on collectors. Outputs from collectors to meter, and cathodes grounded. I am really thinking that the lack of a pull-up resistor is the problem.

Also, do not be connecting the collectors together. They need to be kept seperate.

GOT IT!  I'm off to the Shack tomorrow to get some 10k resistors.  I'll wire the rascal up tomorrow evening and post the results.

poppo, thanks again for all of the effort you've put into this project

 
The three wire optics arrived and work GREAT with the counter!

I bought another S2000 hopper and it has the infamous "Secure Optics"...or at least six optics wires.  Not wanting to admit defeat, I am going to fool around with it to see if I can get it to work with the counter.  That's after I set up multiple comparitors to sort each coin twice in one run instead of feeding the high % coppers through the hopper twice.

I also want to fool around with an oscilloscope I borrowed to see how finely I can tune a CMI comparitor.  So many ideas...

Once again, THANK YOU to all who shared their time and expertise, especially poppo and bunker, on this optics go-round.  Without your help it would have taken a lot longer to accomplish what we did.

Forgot to mention that I'm counting 300+/- coins per minute! 

Good deal.  :244-

Maybe the original optics were bad and the new 6 wire one will work.

I remember when you posted the Rube Goldberg question last month.
It was fun to see this progress into something you can use! Great stuff!
I'm glad it's all working and doing the job!  :89-

thanks again!

Good Job!!! It has been fun to watch along the way!  :244- :244- :244-

CaptainHappy :95-

Thanks again to all that helped with my Rube Goldberg coin sorting contraption.  "Our" sorter works great.

I'm now learning about DC circuits with the hope of one being able to power this beast using ONE 24V wall wart instead of three separate voltage warts.  I'm laying in a big supply of resistors!

Again, thanks to all of you that contributed to the success of this project.
Bart