S2000 Hopper optics question

[poppo]

What if you pulled the chip the timer is located on and change the delay setting in the programming?

 

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.

[poppo]

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

SPEED: 180CPS

[stayouttadabunker]

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

[poppo]

LOL. See my ninja edit above.

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

[stayouttadabunker]

lol you're too fast for me... 

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!  (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! 
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...
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.

[stayouttadabunker]

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! 
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...!

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...>>>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/9kM-dP9spAQ&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/9kM-dP9spAQ&rel=0</a>

[poppo]

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

[stayouttadabunker]

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!  

[BCD]

    stayouttadabunker and poppo YOU NAILED IT!!!!!

The quarter video is EXACTLY what I'm looking for .  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

[poppo]

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?

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.

[BCD]

Thanks poppo!

[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.

[BCD]

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

[BCD]

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

     

[BCD]

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/

[poppo]

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.

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.

[BCD]

 

YOU da' man poppo!

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

[poppo]

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)

[BCD]

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."

[stayouttadabunker]

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...

[Ron (r273)]

Here is a schematic for a Vision.

Ron (r273)

[BCD]

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

[stayouttadabunker]

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..

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....

[BCD]

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.

[BCD]

Good Monday morning all ,

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) 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.