has anyone wired just a coin door?

[pcates]

I just picked up an out run cab. I am going to use a logitech wheel for the CP, but I want to use the original coin mechs for the credits. I do not want to spend alot of money just to hook up 2 buttons. Has anyone just wired up the coin doors???

[SirPeale]

No.  No one has ever, EVER done that before.

For asking such a question, you will receive...a boot to the head.  *boot*

Seriously, the coin switches are just like any other switch.  Wire them up and it'll work fine.

[JoyMonkey]

You could even do it without a keyboard encoder, just wire the switches directly to the '5' and '6' keys of an old clicketyclick keyboard- the worlds simplest keyboard hack.

[pcates]

Thanks....I was not sure if I could wire directly to the keyboard, I was trying to avoid the encoder expense. Now I just need to find an old keyboard. Most I have taken apart recently, just have a plastic contact wired to a small encoder board. I guess I might have to decode the board. I'll have to go back and find the directions for that...

[JoyMonkey]

These old Dell keyboards are the easiest to hack that I've come across. They came with the old Optiplex desktops, this one is model AT101W.
Each key has a momentary contact switch which is wired to a circuit board that covers the entire back of the keyboard, each switch has two contacts right behind the key it corresponds to, so you can easily solder your coin switches to whichever key you'd like.
They're pretty common keyboards, I've hacked four of them like this. Two of those I found on the street, one I bought on eBay and another came with an Optiplex that I used for a cocktail cabinet.

[Zakk]

couldn't you just get a $5 joystick and hack that instead?  might be easier than finding an old keyboard.  Just a thought, since I'm -fairly- sure you could remap a joystick keypress to the coin-up buttons (?)

[SirPeale]

I know you can do it with a mouse.  I have an idea for a trackball only cabinet that has *no* keyboard at all.