coin slots

[ShinraArcade]

does anyone have any ideas about making coin slots from scratch or maybe someone sells simple coin slots i can just connect to a switch?
any help is greatly appreciated.

[SirPeale]

Get yerself a coin door.  They're really simple devices.  

[ShinraArcade]

what is a coin door and where do i get them from?
thanks

[SirPeale]

what is a coin door and where do i get them from?

The coin door is the part on the front of an arcade cabinet that you put your money into.

You can buy them new from Happ (http://www.happcontrols.com) used on eBay (http://www.eBay.com) and occasionally I've got some. (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=8249)

[ShinraArcade]

happ doors seem very expensive and im still not exactly sure which 1 to get or how they work ??

[SirPeale]

It all depends on your cabinet.  What do you have?  Or are you building your own?

[ShinraArcade]

I've built a mame cab out of an old mvs cab it had a 19 inch monitor and an old coinslot next to it i replaced the 19 inch with a 25 and i threw out the coin slot because there was nothing i could do with it.
i would like a coin slot that simply hits a switch when you insert a coin id like to be able to fit it horizontaly next to the 1p and 2p start buttons

[SirPeale]

I don't know why you couldn't do something with the existing coin door, unless it was in extremely bad repair.

My advice?  Wire up a button on your CP that adds credits.

[ShinraArcade]

I dont want a button thats the point. I want coins.
the old coin mech was an old sentinal system completely usless for what I need
thanks anyway

[SirPeale]

I think you better show us a pic of your cabinet so we might have an idea what to work with here.

You've pretty much got two options: get a door, or wire a button.

I don't know what a sentinel door is.  Got a pic of that?

[ShinraArcade]

I dont have an updated pic but the shape of the cab is pretty much the same.
I've just swapped the monitor (from 19 - 25) and made my own control pannel!
The control panel is 21cm x 60cm has 2 sticks and 9 buttons on each side
ive hacked 2 gravis gamepad pro pads for this they have 10 buttons each so the remaining buttons will be for 1p and 2p start. i would like to put the two slots flat on the panel next to the respective start buttons, so the coin just drops down some sort of chute and hits some sort of switch. if this fails i suppose i could put a 2 coin doors on the front of the cab but i dont know how they work and there very expensive!
Thanks to everyone for there input on this subject.
someone must have came upon this problem before?

[CitznFish]

I hope you're not making a mame machine for profit. That's illegal and frowned upon around here.



you could just mount coin mechs from a door in the position you described. I think they'll still work at that angle.

[gnateye]

a coin door is definately the easiest and most authentic, you can find them much cheaper than the brand new happs prices on ebay i just sold 3 for under 30$ including shipping each. you just cut a big hole in the fromt of the cab (unless it already there) and bolt the coindoor in, it takes coind and triggers a switch when they are dropped in, it usually comes witha little place for the coins to fall and reject buttons and lights that say insert coin etc. but if you are dead set on just having slots in your control panel, just cut small slots (or look on ebay for just the coin slot besels) then make a tube of cardboard or a papertowel/toilet paper tube that leads from the slots, squish it so the coins stay upright when they drop, then either buy coin door switches (a regular cherry switch, but instead of a button on top i has a long wire attached, when coins fall they hit the wire and trigger a credit) just attach those somehow to the bottom of the tube so the coins always tigger the switch when they fall. or rig up some regular cherry switches do the same thing. either way you will still need inputs for the switches just like every other button and switch in the cabinet, so take another button away from each player for credit, 9 buttons per player is a lot.

my advice though is to go buy a coindoor off ebay, look for a complete one with coin mechs and you will usually get a nice wiring harness that you can connect to your cab wiring. BTW i dont have anymore left right now

and i go with what was said above, mame is not for making money from, so i hope thats not your intention, but i use tokens for my kids and friends and it makes it a little funner than just always hitting credit when you die, puts a little bit of the edge back into the game.


gnat

[grafixmonkey]

If you don't want to buy a coin door, or would prefer your cab accept any type of coin with no hassles, you can get a few bucks worth of electronics and have any number of coin inputs you want, minimal wiring too.

Make slots in the piece of wood you want your coins to go into.  Put an LED on one side of each slot, and a phototransistor on the other side.  For the phototransistors, wire the 'collector' sides to 5v.  Wire a 1 Kohm resistor to the 'emitter' side, and the other side of the 1kohm resistor to ground.  Ignore the 'base' pin, or chop it off entirely.  Then put another wire from the 'emitter' side to your ipac's coin input, and you have a generic coin acceptor.  If that makes no sense, I'll make a diagram.

Total wire connections for two slots:  12.  As a bonus, your LEDs shine through your coin slots a little bit.    

If you don't feel electrically inclined, you can manufacture a coin chute out of wood, cardboard, or scrap plexiglass, and mount a microswitch with a lever arm that triggers when the coin drops through.  That's how actual coin mechs do it, except they sort quarters from non-quarters first.

[paigeoliver]

What in the heck kind of cabinet does this guy have that has the coin slots up near the monitor? I don't think they have made anything oddball like that since the late 70s.

[SirPeale]

What in the heck kind of cabinet does this guy have that has the coin slots up near the monitor? I don't think they have made anything oddball like that since the late 70s.

I don't think he does; I think this is just where he wants to put them.

[Silverwind]

What in the heck kind of cabinet does this guy have that has the coin slots up near the monitor? I don't think they have made anything oddball like that since the late 70s.

I don't think he does; I think this is just where he wants to put them.

http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/darts_foos/26106500.htm

something like that???

[SirPeale]

What in the heck kind of cabinet does this guy have that has the coin slots up near the monitor? I don't think they have made anything oddball like that since the late 70s.

I don't think he does; I think this is just where he wants to put them.

http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/darts_foos/26106500.htm

something like that???

No, he wants the coins to drop down where the player start buttons are.

[APFelon]

Like a Die Hard cabinet? Ishy.

The problem with that system is that the vibrations from the CP will occasionally dislodge or break the mechanics of the coin apparatus. Unlike the coin door method-- the tried and true way of mounting coin mechs- the Die Hard cab fits the mechs so that they dangle. It was a nightmare to repair and maintain.

Buy a coin door. If you plan to do a custom mech fitting, plan on spending time repairing it after you and a few buddies beat on the CP after an intense game of Wrestlefest.

APf