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stepper motor help ?'s.

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AlienInferno:
I have a project I'm thinking about starting work on once my cab is finished.  A token machine.  What I'm thinking is controlling a stepper motor somehow with either the keyboard or a coin switch.  Kind of like how you can hook a coin switch to an Ipac.  The idea is that when a coin is inserted and triggers a keypress the motor turns a coin plate (a plate with 4 holes for a coin) a quarter turn.  That way if I hook up my bill acceptor to it I can get it to turn a full rotation for the dollar.  The hard part for me would be getting the computer to control the stepper motor in the first place and make it move the required distance with one keypress.  I've had a few basic programming classes over the years in C+ (I think.  C something anyway) and VB.  I enjoyed it but headed in a different direction. 

So if you can understand all that (I'm tired and need to sleep.  Tend to ramble) could anybody either let me know or point me somewhere that might help me get started on this.  It would need to be something simple.  Turn the computer/token machine on and it does the rest.  Not planning on having any kind of monitor hooked up to it.  Just the basic components needed to run.

Thanks.

AlienInferno:
Also if there is a way to do it without the computer.  Say just the coin switch and some kind of controller for the motor that would be great too.

TopJimmyCooks:
To be clear, you want to build a machine that accepts a dollar bill, returns 4 tokens via a rotating mechanism actuated by a stepper motor/motor controller, and does not involve a PC?

drventure:
It won't necessarily be a super easy project, but you could likely use an arduino, with a shield or two to do that.

The arduino is an "open source" relatively easy to program microcontroller. (ie no computer required, once you've programmed it).

"Shields" are daughterboards that can be connected to the arduino to provide all sorts of functionallity, from stepper motor control, to wireless, to pushbutton inputs, and led outputs.

You'd probably use an input board (to get input from the bill collector) and a motor control board (to control the stepper motor).

Just google "arduino", there's tons of stuff on it.

crashwg:
I'd try the element 14 forums if I were you.

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