Hi folks,

Does anybody know if there is a way to get the Money Control compact hopper to work with an IPac and Pac-Drive?

I've read all the info i cam find and it would appear to suggest that the system is looking for a hopper where the common or -ve is switched to activate coin ejection.

On the compact hopper it is the +ve which is switched to activate the motor.

Thanks in advance.

Pete

Hi Wizard,

 

Many thanks for your reply, that is great, I will try building that circuit and see how I get on.

 

I have ordered one of these:

 

https://www.ebay.co....p-/111646566564

 

So will see if that works.

 

Looking forward to more parts arriving.

 

Pete

Hello folks,
Over the past couple of weeks I've been assembling parts and this weekend, got some time to actually put some of them together, using the excellent MFME keyboard guide by Reg, I managed to build the attached.



I then decided to move onto trying to get my coin mech to accept coins..... I have got a Cashflow 126Dfx which has been updated to accept the new £1 coin. The issue I have is that every coin that it should accept gets for flashes on the diagnostic LED. Which according to the manual is, 'coin recognised but not accepted due to inhibit setting.' I've read the manual from cover to cover and I know it is something amiss in my wiring, the question is does anybody have a wiring diagram, suitable for use with MFME. Or some guidance for a terminally confused but enthusiastic amateur.

Thanks in advance

Pete

Hi Wizard,

Manny thanks for that info, tried it again this evening with all the inhibits grounded and I now have it accepting and routing coins.

Pete

Hi Again,

 

Do you guys know if the pulse for coin accept is the full 12v, as it is so quick even with Hold High enabled on my multi meter, I can't get a voltage reading, I get to see a pulse up to about 1.2-2.5v but I don't want to wire the coin accepts in to the iPAC and then find i've blown that sky high.

 

Thanks again

 

Pete

Hi Wizard,

 

Many thanks for that info, I now have my coinmech accepting all coins and crediting the results into MFME so when I put a pound in I get a pound credit.

 

 

The next issue I have come across is that I didn't read the ebay advert carefully for my Azkoyen hopper and have ended up with a ccTalk one.....

 

Is this an insurmountable problem or is there any kind of interface board that can 'talk  ' to the hopper?

 

I have been having a google but can't thus far see anything

 

Sorry for all the noob questions.

 

Pete

Hi Wizard,

 

Thanks for the reply, that is the conclusion I had come to also, so I have gone back to the idea of getting my compact hoppers working, I've ordered the parts for the circuit that you posted on my compact hopper thread and will go back to using those.....

 

That will teach me to read more carefully when late night shopping on eBay.

 

Thanks again, will hopefully post progress pics of cab soon, have decided to try and build my own from MDF.

 

Pete

Thank You for this release

Hi,

 

I don't even know if what i'm trying to do is possible, I have picked up a Star Wars a New Hope £70 JP machine for essentially free, which has suffered water damage, I would like if possible to resurrect it (as cheaply as possible as the glass is in pretty shoddy shape) I know I can buy a Game Card from eBay and then get the software uploaded onto it. Does anybody know if it is possible to use any security chip? or must it be the one that A New Hope is expecting?

 

If it is a non starter, I will probably just strip the cab for spares, as I am trying to build an emulator cabinet at the same time.

 

I've also posted this over on MPU Mecca

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

Pete

Hi Folks,

 

Have got the new board sorted, just need to understand how to upload the BIN files, I understand that the MPU 5 uses a Compact flash card to load the software, does anybody know how this is achieved and if there is a way to use a different security chip to the one the Game is expecting?

 

Pete

That was what I thought, Ah well, just have to keep a look out for an RTC TR09 security chip as that is what the Star Wars Game Cards use. Does anybody know if/where these chips can be purchased separately? 

That is looking great TommyC, I for one wouldn't have the first clue where to start, and I am appreciative of all the talented folks like you, Vec etc (apologies to all who didn't get a mention) who make these amazing DX and classic layouts for us to enjoy.

 

And lets be honest, you can spend more than a years gold membership on fancy coffee for 3 or 4 people these days!! and people think nothing of that but won't put their hand in their pocket to support the scene.

 

Pete

Hi Folks,

 

Finally got some time to have a bit more of a go with the items that I have ordered and I have a strange issue.

 

I am testing things using the Hulk £25 DX on Scorpion 5 tech as a test bench. I can get the hopper to be recognised and it will pay out, however on multiplier 1 the relay just click and the motor runs for a fraction and then stops. on multiplier 2 I get 3 coins for every 2 that should be paid out. Anybody any idea what I might be doing wrong?

 

Pete

I suspect that I have rectified the issue with the hopper, as a good clean of the Optical sensor seems to have got this machine working, however MPU5 technology machines will activate the hopper but they do not seem to coin count and I am getting sporadic over payments.

 

Is there a setting anybody has seen that controls this count?

 

Pete

Happy Birthday, hope you have a good un.

Hi All,

 

As you may have seen from some of my previous threads I have been collecting the bits to try and build a freestanding MFME cabinet. I have been inspired in this by Uptown and Reg and No1Stoney all of who seem to have made absolutely amazing cabinets. I just hope that my attempt will be playable once it is finished.

 

This weekend I managed to get some time and cut the sides of the machine, and when glued together they look like:

 

The reason that they are glued and not a single piece is that I do not have the space to handle a single sheet of MDF, so after some testing I have found that I can edge glue them and the result once cured is nigh on impossible to break at the join.

 

Once these were fully cured (next day) I then started to assemble the cabinet using join blocks so that the various panels can be removed to allow access to the innards.

 

 

And once the other side and a base frame were added we have a self supporting basis of a skeleton.

 

 

This evening, I have been trying to create a screen mount and get the positioning of the buttons round the screen to a position that I am happy with.

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks very much for these.

Hello Again,

 

Managed to make some further progress on the build today.

 

The monitor now has been mounted onto it's panel and the blocks for this to mount on have been put on the back of the front panel.

 

 

 

Below is the main panel fitted into the cabinet with the buttons in place. I think that it is going to work quite well and the height and layout feels good.

 

 

When the monitor was screwed in place to test I was really pleased with the fit and the space around the sides for access to the buttons for wiring etc.

 

 

 

Next was to look at creating the main button panel for below the monitor, I have added the following fixed buttons on this panel

 

Cancel, Hold, Hold/Hi, Hold/Lo, Hold (for Club machines), Collect, Exchange, Special (Let's play Barcrest etc) and Start

 

 

And when the control panel is fitted to the cabinet and with buttons in the holes:

 

 

Really starting to get a feel for how it will look, and I have to say I'm really pleased thus far.

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Reg,

Hoping to go the whole hog and have coin mech, and hoppers. Having a slight issue with the hoppers at the minute that it over pays due to a random coin out signal being sent when the motor starts. I'll get that sorted though, might need to buy new hoppers, I've currently got Money Controls compact hoppers.


Hoping to fit the coinmech tomorrow.

Will post a further update once done, hope I don't bore folks to death with my updates.

Pete

Hello Again,

 

I have had a bit of an issue with fitting the coinmech due to a bit of a measuring oversight, but fortunately I think that I have managed to get away with it and progress on the cabinet can now continue with the wiring and connections of the buttons.

 

I fitted the coinmech into the back of the cabinet and checked it for position, 

 

 

fortunately it cleared the monitor (just)

 

 

with this in place I created a test piece to make sure that I could get the coin bezel to fit onto the monitor panel.

 

 

Once that I had this, I was able to use it to create the holes in the monitor panel and mount the coin bezel on the machine.

 

 

It was all seeming to go well, so then fitted the coinmech into the coinmech holder which I'd fitted back into the machine, when I fitted this back into the machine and tried to feed a coin in, the bezel and the coinmech didn't line up, I was slightly stumped, so I removed the monitor panel and re-fitted the test piece, which lined up perfectly, this was when I realised that I had clamped the test piece onto the outside of the cabinet and lined up the outside edges. thus meaning that the Coin Bezel was too far to the left looking from the front of the cabinet.

 

 

So after a little bit of contemplating and measuring I realised that a piece of the Cabinet MDF fitted behind the coinmech holder would bring everything back in line, however this will mean that the bottom of the coinmech sorter will hit the monitor panel, so I would need to remove a piece from the side of the back of the monitor holder, shown below by the red rectangle.

 

 

So I cut a piece of MDF and mounted it behind the coinmech holder, thus moving the coinmech the required 18mm and allowing everything to line up.

 

 

 

with this piece of MDF in place and the coinmech mounted everything lined up as can be seen below:

 

 

And the piece that I had cut out of the back of the monitor holder was large enough to allow the coin sorter to clear then monitor.

 

 

 

 

Hope the post isn't to boring for folks.

 

 

Next I plan to move onto the wiring and position of the computer, I plan to mount the ipac and pac-drives on a board that will be able to be removed if needed.

 

Pete  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi All,

 

Apologies for the lack of updates, a last minute urgent business trip to the Czech Republic has kind of got in the way of progress. However I have managed to make myself some inserts for the various buttons. I wanted something that was common across all the buttons. I found a very useful guide over on DAD's for adding multiple strokes within Photoshop and with a bit of playing I came up with the below:

 

 

Which when fitted to the buttons look like:

 

 

 

Overall I think i'm pretty pleased with the look that they give. Hopefully will get some more time this week to work on the build.

 

Pete

 

 

Hi,

 

I made the image myself, it is just a series of layers, for the background and the text, if you are interested I can send you the PDF I used for printing them.

 

Pete

Fantastic work Majoris, I am looking to incorporate hopper into my cabinet, could you supply the link for the Cube hopper you mentioned?

 

Pete

I understand, I would appreciate if you could contact him and see if he would be willing to look at international postage.

 

I can see it might be too much for him, I do not know how expensive postal in Poland is but in UK it would be more than the hopper price.

 

Pete