Adding a coin mechanism to a MAME cabinet

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I have a restored arcade cabinet which I've converted to be a MAME machine.
I'm using an I-PAC to link up the controls to the PC within.

One thing that I don't currently have, however, is a working coin mechanism.
I've never been particularly bothered by this, but lately I've been thinking
that it would be a nice thing to have if I could pick one up cheap.

But I'm not sure how I'd go about wiring this into my cabinet. I know
there's a connection on the I-PAC for the coin input, but is it actually
feasible to connect this up to a real coin mechanism? Would the coin
mechanism need to be powered, and if so how would I achieve this?

I don't really know anything about the mechanism at the moment so any advice
or information anyone can provide would be gratefully received.

My thanks in advance,

--

(O)enone
 
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I actually eliminated the coin mechs (since my coin door didn't have
any) and cut a piece of thin plastic tubing in half so the coin could
fall down the "chute" and had the "wire switch" at the end of the chute
flip over the credit via the ipac. It worked great and never had a
problem. It was nice to even use the slot machine tokens for credits.
The kids just kept filling that slot up with money.
 
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Hi,

I could never get the mechanical coin switch to work perfectly, sometimes
the coin would hit it and bounce off creating two credits, sometimes it
would trigger one credit. I ended up designing an optical coin circuit
which is documented here:

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/coinswitch/

Thanks,

SA Dev
 
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SA Development wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I could never get the mechanical coin switch to work perfectly, sometimes
> the coin would hit it and bounce off creating two credits, sometimes it
> would trigger one credit. I ended up designing an optical coin circuit
> which is documented here:
>
> http://www.oscarcontrols.com/coinswitch/
>
> Thanks,
>
> SA Dev

......and that's why they pay /you/ the big bucks.....<G>


--
Thnik about it!
Deadly_Dad
 
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You do realize you could have put a ceramic cap across the switch leads
to eliminate the bounce problem?
 
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Oenone thought about it a bit, then said...
> I have a restored arcade cabinet which I've converted to be a MAME machine.
> I'm using an I-PAC to link up the controls to the PC within.
>
> One thing that I don't currently have, however, is a working coin mechanism.
> I've never been particularly bothered by this, but lately I've been thinking
> that it would be a nice thing to have if I could pick one up cheap.
>
> But I'm not sure how I'd go about wiring this into my cabinet. I know
> there's a connection on the I-PAC for the coin input, but is it actually
> feasible to connect this up to a real coin mechanism? Would the coin
> mechanism need to be powered, and if so how would I achieve this?
>
> I don't really know anything about the mechanism at the moment so any advice
> or information anyone can provide would be gratefully received.
>
> My thanks in advance,

http://www.retroblast.com/articles/token-convert.html

Hope this helps!

--
Kevin Steele
RetroBlast! Retrogaming News and Reviews
www.retroblast.com
 
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Oenone wrote:

> I have a restored arcade cabinet which I've converted to be a MAME machine.
> I'm using an I-PAC to link up the controls to the PC within.

I-PAC is very expensive, nexttime maybe you can choose honni_mame
http://webuser.fh-furtwangen.de/~fritzc/honnii.html

>
> One thing that I don't currently have, however, is a working coin mechanism.
> I've never been particularly bothered by this, but lately I've been thinking
> that it would be a nice thing to have if I could pick one up cheap.

NRI-G40 is a cheap and great device. It gives the information by a parallel
output which can be interpreted by the honni_mame.

regards
 
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Rieker Flaik wrote:
> I-PAC is very expensive, nexttime maybe you can choose honni_mame
> http://webuser.fh-furtwangen.de/~fritzc/honnii.html

Nah, I spent quite some time weighing up the pros and cons of various
interfaces (there are some different types being sold on eBay, too) but the
I-PAC was definitely the one I wanted. The shift function is invaluable --
and doesn't the device you link to only work on Linux? Not much good to me.

Besides, I got the Value Edition anyway (which does all I need) and it only
cost about £20 including delivery, hardly broke the bank.

--

(O) e n o n e
 
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On Thu, 26 May 2005 19:42:29 -0400, Kevin Steele
<net-replyDEL@DELadelphia.net> wrote:

>http://www.retroblast.com/articles/token-convert.html
>
>Hope this helps!

Man! Your site is great, Kev!

Do you have a source for the tokens? And what did they cost, and how
many did you buy, if you don't mind me asking?

Also, where do you get your multiple colored wire from? I seem to be
stuck with red and black simply because that's all I can find
anywhere.

Many thanks!!


--
Rick

I'd like to say "Thank you" on behalf of the group
and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition!
(John Lennon)
 
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Hi Dead Dad,

>> I could never get the mechanical coin switch to work perfectly, sometimes
>> the coin would hit it and bounce off creating two credits, sometimes it
>> would trigger one credit. I ended up designing an optical coin circuit
>> which is documented here:
>> http://www.oscarcontrols.com/coinswitch/
> .....and that's why they pay /you/ the big bucks.....<G>

I wish.....actually I couldn't stand the idea that after working so hard on
my cabinet that something as simple as the coin switch wouldn't work
properly! And I always wanted to design an electrical circuit that DID
something!!

Thanks,

SA Dev
 
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Hi,

> You do realize you could have put a ceramic cap across the switch leads
> to eliminate the bounce problem?

No, actually I never tried that. I tried bending the wire every which way
and no matter what I tried it was never consistent. What would you do in
this case, bend the wire so it would never miss a register even if the coin
bounced off it a couple times? Would the cap have made the couple times
look like one?

Thanks,

SA Dev
 
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Rutger6559 thought about it a bit, then said...
> On Thu, 26 May 2005 19:42:29 -0400, Kevin Steele
> <net-replyDEL@DELadelphia.net> wrote:
>
> >http://www.retroblast.com/articles/token-convert.html
> >
> >Hope this helps!
>
> Man! Your site is great, Kev!
>
> Do you have a source for the tokens? And what did they cost, and how
> many did you buy, if you don't mind me asking?
>
> Also, where do you get your multiple colored wire from? I seem to be
> stuck with red and black simply because that's all I can find
> anywhere.
>
> Many thanks!!

The wire was part of an "wiring kit" I bought from Ultimarc:

http://www.ultimarc.com/JShopServer/section.php?xSec=2

I probably could have found it all somewhere closer, but I'm a lazy
bastard. ;-)

The tokens I got from two sources: eBay and David Santoro's MAME / BYOAC
tokens:

http://www.arcadetokens.com/html/mame_tokens.html

On eBay just search for arcade tokens or .984" tokens (if you get the
..984 mechs). Chuck-e-Cheese tokens are .984", as are Pachislo tokens.
I've gotten bags of 500 tokens for $15. Sometimes you can find an
"assorted lot" of .984" tokens, which is great because you can get a
sampling of tokens from arcades all over the place.

I've got a brass vibrating tumbler I use to polish everything up (gotta
have shiny tokens ;-)

--
Kevin Steele
RetroBlast! Retrogaming News and Reviews
www.retroblast.com
 
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Rutger6559 thought about it a bit, then said...

> Do you have a source for the tokens? And what did they cost, and how
> many did you buy, if you don't mind me asking?

Forgot to mention: since my pinball machines, pachislo machine, and MAME
cab all run on tokens now, I've stocked up. I've got about 4-5,000
tokens roughly. I've got a big fish bowl full of tokens that I keep next
to the games. (The Pachislo slot machine, in particular, needs a lot of
tokens ;-)

--
Kevin Steele
RetroBlast! Retrogaming News and Reviews
www.retroblast.com
 
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SA Development wrote:
> Would the cap have made the couple times
> look like one?

Yep, that's the idea. Late 70s pinball machines did this because the
processor wasn't fast enough to handle switch bounce.
 
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On Fri, 27 May 2005 09:19:45 -0400, Kevin Steele
<net-replyDEL@DELadelphia.net> wrote:

>Rutger6559 thought about it a bit, then said...
>
>> Do you have a source for the tokens? And what did they cost, and how
>> many did you buy, if you don't mind me asking?
>
>Forgot to mention: since my pinball machines, pachislo machine, and MAME
>cab all run on tokens now, I've stocked up. I've got about 4-5,000
>tokens roughly. I've got a big fish bowl full of tokens that I keep next
>to the games. (The Pachislo slot machine, in particular, needs a lot of
>tokens ;-)

WOW!!!! That's a lot of tokens!!!

Many thanks for the great info, Kevin!


--
Rick

I'd like to say "Thank you" on behalf of the group
and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition!
(John Lennon)