Tech help with slot vending project

[pinball2000]

Hello,
            I have an s2000 that Im modifying to dispense product instead of coin.  I have a little issue that is causing me some grief. I have a relay hooked up to the Hopper motor. When a player wins The relay closes and energizes a vend motor which I want to dispense a prize.  The problem is I only want the relay to energize for lets say 3 seconds tops to vend a prize regardless of win. I have this scenerio working fine at this time for any win 15 coins or less. It will pulse the motor enough to dispense one prize. The prize motor has a cam switch so it just needs a quick pulse to get started. the cam switch does the rest to feed power to the motor until the turn is completed  and the motor shuts off when the cam sw opens. BTW the hopper has an optical wheel simulating coin payouts.
     The problem I have is on larger wins 50+ the hopper runs for a longer time and my dispenser unit gives away too many prizes. We would like the machine to vend only once on all wins. Ive tried slowing the vend motor down to no avail. Is their a easy way to make the relay pulse the same regardless of win?  Any help greatly appreciated. Thansk alot in advance Guys! Im pretty good at pinball repair electronics but this one has me stumped . I must be trying too hard:) JR

[stayouttadabunker]

If the relay is getting closed by using the cutouts on a slotted pinwheel, then I'd limit the
pinwheel to turn no more than 15 "credits" per win.
One way you can simulate this is to limit the hopper payout.
Please use this link ( http://www.newlifegames.net/spset/SPSS.htm ) to tell me what SP chip
you're using and I will tell you how to limit the hopper payout to 15 coins.

What we are trying to do is tell the hopper to click out
15 credits (or pinwheel slots) whenever you win 15 credits or more.
You can do this by setting an option in hand payout mode.
However, you will have to stick a reset key in and flip off the remaining credits.
It does limit any win over 15 credits to one single prize though...that's what you want right?

Isn't there a way for your prize dispenser motor be "geared down" so the relay
can remain energized longer so a player only wins a prize when winning say 100 credits?
The reason why I ask is because the limit is so low at 15 credits, you will be
standing by the machine all day long flipping the reset key and handing out prizes...LOL

I'm thinking maybe you could cut a pinwheel with 25% less notches/slots so a
player would need at least 60 credits for a prize?
How many optical notches are presently cut out on your pinwheel?

[TZtech]

Hi There

What you need is some kind of timer circuit that will detect the hopper motor output energizing and then switch your vend signal on for 15 seconds. do you have the tools and knowledge to build a small circuit from scratch ? Do a Google search for 555 Timer projects. Alternatively I can modify the code for a little project I am working on (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=7238.msg71522#msg71522). Whats nice about this is that it elliminates the hopper and can also elliminate the coin in and if at any stage you only want vend to work if customers has accumulated a certain amount of credits you can do this by simply changing the program.

Ian

[knagl]

Mark (Bunker)-

I was looking back at this old post and thinking that maybe something you did a while back can help pinball2000.  You had hooked up a printer that would print a ticket value once the hopper stopped spinning.  Whether it was one coin out or 500 coins out, the printer would not activate until after the hopper had finished "paying."  That's exactly what's needed here -- an output that doesn't activate until after the hopper has finished spinning, and then the output activates once.

How does the printer know when the hopper is done paying?  ...and how can that knowledge be used to help pinball2000 with his project?

[stayouttadabunker]

That's a good question...
However, I have no clue how that particular printer (It was an ICT GP58 CR Ticket Printer)
knows when to start printing.
 
I think it took the consistent pulses or rather the
steady on/off open/ closed circuit of a simple lever micro-switch.
This micro-switch had a metal tang which I bent to slip in between the
slotted optic notches I made for a hopper pin-wheel
which was made out of plastic material that has 24 evenly spaced slots.

When the opening/closing of the switch stopped for a certain amount of time -
the printer tallied up the number of open/closes and started printing.
Again, I believe it must be some type of timer chip programmed/built into
the printer board that understood this.

The top picture shows ya the angle in which I bent the metal tang to slip in and out of the slots.
The bottom picture shows ya what it looks like from the front of the pinwheel.
Click on any pictures to enlarge it to see how I either soldered or
epoxied the micro-switches , also hopper optics and their positions in order for them to work properly>>>

[knagl]

Again, I believe it must be some type of timer chip programmed/built into the printer board that understood this.

Hmm, because that's exactly what pinball2000 needs -- something that senses when the hopper stops moving, and then causes an action once the hopper has stopped.

Granted, his customers would have to wait until the machine finished its "payout" in order to get the item vended to them.

The best thing would be to get the machine to pay only 1 coin for every winning combination, but that'd require hacking the SS chip -- something far beyond my knowledge.

Edit: Err, I see he's using an S-2000.  I don't know how the software works on there.

[pinball2000]

Hello, Thankls for the help everyone. I think I found the solution. Seems to work so far on the bench. I tried using a digital timer. It has 120 v going in and can be set 1-10 seconds of on time (120v out) when energized. I set for 3 seconds and it seems to be running good even on large payouts. In theory it should only vend 1 prize for huge payouts and thats what i need. Before 100+ credits would clear out the prizes.

BTW: I really like this group. Doesn't seem like alot of Flaming or BS going on here like other groups. Take care! JR

[knagl]

BTW: I really like this group. Doesn't seem like alot of Flaming or BS going on here like other groups.

We have a really good crew here.  Glad you found a solution that is going to work for you.

[stayouttadabunker]

You got it working? Great job!!!