12 replies to this topic

[uptown47]

Hi all,

 

Later in the year I'm looking at building an MFME cabinet that will accept money and pay money out.

 

I have quite a few questions about this (which I'll put in separate threads to keep them 'on topic').

 

I've been doing some research on how to implement a "pay in" and found these two coin mechanisms...

http://www.robotshop...BE10RoC6fvw_wcB

https://www.arcadewo...-mechanism.html

 

I'm quite confident I can get the pay in side to work but I've no idea how to get the "pay out" side working.

 

Am I correct that in a real fruit machine the money falls into a "hopper"?

 

Does anyone know how the hopper receives signals and how it knows how much to pay out? Is it serially through comms or just pulses on different pins that fires out a £1 etc?

 

Also, does anyone know what I would be searching for on eBay to get something that would perform this function in my own cabinet (basically pay out based on a signal sent from MFME) ?

 

Any info you have on this side of things at all would be really useful to me as, at the moment, I have no idea.

 

Cheers :-)

[Wizard]

At present MFME cannot drive an external hopper.

 

Hoppers come in two flavours, serial ( ccTalk ) and Parallel. Parallel are the easiest to drive and normally just consist of a motor drive enable and a opto output that signals the coins exiting.

ccTalk is far more complicated and requires a lot of software to drive them.

[uptown47]

At present MFME cannot drive an external hopper.
 
Hoppers come in two flavours, serial ( ccTalk ) and Parallel. Parallel are the easiest to drive and normally just consist of a motor drive enable and a opto output that signals the coins exiting.
ccTalk is far more complicated and requires a lot of software to drive them.

Thanks for the info Wizard. I seem to recall reading somewhere about some software that can interface with MFME and drive a hopper? Have you heard of such a thing or did I dream it? :-)

[thecodfather]

Hi there both,

No1Stoney has successfully managed to get something working which has inspired me to have a go.

The thread is here.

http://www.fruit-emu...1-mfme-machine/

It is currently a work in progress, when I am closer to having something to show, I will post.

Wizard, is there a way of taking the numerical value of the coins out of a machine which is being played and sending that to a secondary process? Was thinking about connecting an arduino or something similar to control the hopper connected to the PC in the same way No1Stoney has done.

Big thanks to everyone in the scene for making such things happen.

[uptown47]

I've had a quick read of that Cod and that looks the business. I told the missus I wouldn't start the build until after my daughters wedding in August but it's making me want to start now! :-)
Hopefully No1 will post what interface board and hopper he's used.
It's just good to know that it's possible.

Thanks for the link and the help. When I start my build I'll document everything on here so hopefully it will help others who want to build one :-)

[thecodfather]

Impressive isn't it? Just watched the video again and I am aching to get mine done. I am waiting for the hoppers and control board to arrive and my cab will be for one game only, Red Hot Poker! Once that is done I hope to build another with multiple games on!

No1Stoney has been incredibly patient and helpful. Just hoping it will work as good as his.

[uptown47]

What interface board and hopper type are you using?
Are you going to post about it when you're done. I'd love to see how you got on with it. :-)

[thecodfather]

Hi there Uptown, I have the one from here.

 

Bernd (the guy from Casino Software is very helpful, I am also getting some hoppers from him as well as the ones I have bought from the bay are OK but I know one will not work.

 

I have ordered two Azkoyen hoppers from Bernd and an interface cable from him so that I can use the Cube II hopper that I have got from the Bay,  I am looking to build a simple  one hopper machine first.  As I have said, once that is working, I am going to build another one with two hoppers and will have a screen in portrait mode...

 

I will be posting something soon once I have something to show.

 

I have seen the Arduino control a change machine using the Cube II hopper to dispense 10p's which I thought was clever, I am trying to work out how to get the hopper to payout coins  once the collect button is pressed.  For the one machine I think it is quite easy as I can create some code that once the player presses collect a simple batch file will be run which will send two pound coins out of the hopper.  Not sure how to do it with the main portrait machine.

 

Keep us posted and I will hopefully have something to show and I will post here.

[uptown47]

Hi Cod,

 

Thanks for the info. I've just bought the same interface board myself tonight.

 

I've also bought this hopper from here:

http://www.e-service...medium-bowl-par

 

And I've bought this coin acceptor:

http://www.e-service...tor-gb-spec-que

 

I just hope "e-service" are a decent company. I've not had an email confirming my purchase yet?

 

I'm going to go through some of the machines I've got and see what buttons I need. Reg did a list of what he thinks are needed for most machines over at Desert Island Fruits in this thread....

http://www.desertisl...d/#comment-1138

 

He's built a really impressive control panel for MFME.

 

I'll probably distil this down a bit I think but not finally decided on the number of buttons yet. 

 

Once I have I'll order the iPac and the PacDrive(s) (pacdrive only has 16 outputs so might need 2?)

 

I'm hoping to just lash something together at first to test that everything works before I start building the cabinet and doing the full thing. :-)

[Wizard]

 

Once I have I'll order the iPac and the PacDrive(s) (pacdrive only has 16 outputs so might need 2?)

 

 

A word of advice regarding the PAC Drives, make sure you get the special version that powers up with the outputs off, and also make sure that the 2nd one has ID 2

[uptown47]

 

A word of advice regarding the PAC Drives, make sure you get the special version that powers up with the outputs off, and also make sure that the 2nd one has ID 2

 

Hi Wizard

 

This is the one I got:

https://www.arcadewo...iver-Board.html

 

I did change the ID on the two I bought as I'd read that before.

Is the above board the "special" one? Also, why does it need to power up with the outputs off (excuse my ignorance if it's obvious)?

 

Cheers :-)

[Wizard]

Look on the Ultimarc website, these guys appear to be resellers.

 

These will work but the PC will power up with all outputs on, so all your lamps will be on until you start MFME, if in the future the Ipac drives other stuff that might not be desirable.

[uptown47]

Look on the Ultimarc website, these guys appear to be resellers.

 

These will work but the PC will power up with all outputs on, so all your lamps will be on until you start MFME, if in the future the Ipac drives other stuff that might not be desirable.

 

Thanks for the info Wizard. I did see the Ultimarc ones but I've shopped with Arcade World before. I'm not too fussed about it defaulting to "on" as MFME will boot up automatically with the PC anyway when the cabinet is finished but thanks for pointing it out to me, I hadn't realised.

 

:-)