Powering Coin Mechs

[urbecrisch]

My project is converting a CAB to Mame.  There are 4 working coin mechs in my CAB and I'm wondering what I should do to power them up and connect them to my encoder.

1. When powering 4 coin mechs, can I use my 5v PC power supply split into 4 ways or use my CAB power supply?  Will each get equal power if the wires are split?

2. I'm assuming all I need to do to get the coin mechs to work is connect each coin slot (1&3 will be 1 player, 2&4 will be two player) to the encoder?

My coin mechs were plugged into the Jamma harness and powered through the CAB.  I just want to make sure I can disconnect the old wires on the coin mechs and use new wire running to the encoder and powered by the CPU 5v.

[Ken Layton]

Here in the USA coin acceptors are mechanical devices. They mechanically check the physical properties of a coin then send a valid coin out the "accept" hole to trip a coin microswitch.

The only "power" going to the coin door shoud be for the coin entry lamps that light up the reject buttons and if your door is so fitted, for coin "lockout" coils.

[urbecrisch]

You're right.  I wasn't specific enough.  If I want to "power" the lamps, is it OK to split the 5v coming from the PC power supply?  I know the coin mechs work, it's just a question of powering the lamps.
Cheers!

[Ken Layton]

Coin door lamp powering has already been quite well-discussed on these forums.

[Marky_1979]

http://www.nicemite.com/ this guy might sell something to help

[Pac-Fan]

Lamps pull a LOT of power (amperage) and care should be used in connecting them to the correct and sufficient power sources. Check the amperage draw on each lamp and then see how many amps your power supply feeds and how much already is in use by your computer/etc..  LED's are definitely the way to go if you don't want to worry about blowing up a supply and don't have a second one to just power lamps.

[bfauska]

Lamps pull a LOT of power (amperage) and care should be used in connecting them to the correct and sufficient power sources. Check the amperage draw on each lamp and then see how many amps your power supply feeds and how much already is in use by your computer/etc..  LED's are definitely the way to go if you don't want to worry about blowing up a supply and don't have a second one to just power lamps.

UMMMMMMMMM, I think you may be overstating just how much power the lamps in the coin door take.  A PC power supply, even on the low end, is several hundred watts, and a lamp for the coin return is going to be a few watts.  Provided you are not running several drives or video cards with extra fans you should barely be using what the power supply provides in the first place, you have enough power to drive some lamps also.

That being said...  LEDs are a better way to go, they don't create much if any heat, you will likely never have to replace them and they do draw much less power.

[SirPeale]

UMMMMMMMMM, I think you may be overstating just how much power the lamps in the coin door take.  A PC power supply, even on the low end, is several hundred watts, and a lamp for the coin return is going to be a few watts.  Provided you are not running several drives or video cards with extra fans you should barely be using what the power supply provides in the first place, you have enough power to drive some lamps also.

Your average bulb draws about 1/4 amp. 

[urbecrisch]

So how do I go about hooking up LED's to the coin lamps?
and...
Where's the best place to get them?

The only experience I have with any power supply is hooking up some NovaGemCDR Coin Drop Replacement Pushbuttons from GGG and testing out my Happs Translucent trackball with a nicemite LED hooked up to my PC power supply.

Cheers!

[bfauska]

UMMMMMMMMM, I think you may be overstating just how much power the lamps in the coin door take.  A PC power supply, even on the low end, is several hundred watts, and a lamp for the coin return is going to be a few watts.  Provided you are not running several drives or video cards with extra fans you should barely be using what the power supply provides in the first place, you have enough power to drive some lamps also.

Your average bulb draws about 1/4 amp. 

WOW, I was guessing (albeit educated guessing) and what do you know 1/4 amp x 12v (if you pull from your PC PSU's 12v rail) = 3watts.  3=few.  Good guess I suppose, and there you have it, plenty of power left for some other lights, your MB, HDD, etc...

[urbecrisch]

WOW, I was guessing (albeit educated guessing) and what do you know 1/4 amp x 12v (if you pull from your PC PSU's 12v rail) = 3watts.  3=few.  Good guess I suppose, and there you have it, plenty of power left for some other lights, your MB, HDD, etc...

   I have no idea what this means! LOL. SO... I can plug my coin lamps into my CPU?  Sorry, I'm still confused.

[scotthh]

bfauska was using Ohm's Law to show a single bulb (12 volts * 0.25 amps) would draw 3 watts. Your standard PC power supply provides several hundred watts. In other words, a couple of little bulbs wouldn't strain your PC's power supply.

If you use 12 volt light bulbs,  I think you'd want to use the PC's 12 volt rail, not the 5 volt rail.

If you look at your NovaGemCDR's, you'll see how to hook up a LED to a pushbutton. The NovaGem looks a lot like this Happ illuminated Pushbutton. Happ has LED parts for it that might work for you. Radio Shack sells a wide variety of LEDs, they are in that set of drawers in the back with all of the other parts.

If you get LEDs, you need to worry about the resistance. A number of threads here point to this calculator to figure out what resistor you need to connect. Resistors should be in the same set of drawers at Radio Shack. Look at this thread for an example of the LED and resistor "math".

[bfauska]

If you just want to use the lamps that are in the buttons to begin with, it would be best to know a little more about them, but they should work.  I would pull out the lamp and see if I could find any information about the voltage and wattage.  As long as the voltage is more than or equal to 12 volts you should use the 12 volts from your PC power supply, if it is between 5 and 12 volts use the 5.  Running with less voltage than the lamp is rated for will make it a little dimmer, but actually make it last longer.  As far as the wattage goes, as long as it is less than like 10 or so I wouldn't worry about it, especially if you are running a computer power supply of 300 watts or more. 

Still the LEDs are a brighter, cooler, less power consuming option.  With a little research you can find out which resisters to use to put the LEDs on the 5v from your PC.  I think but am not sure and hopefully somebody will either confirm or deny this, that you can actually run two 3volt LEDs in series on the 5v line w/o any trouble.

Somebody please check that last statement, I am curious about it.  Thanks.

[urbecrisch]

Here's a tutorial I found regarding coin lamps from pc power.  Looks like 4 LED lights can be powered through 12v on PC power supply.  I will do the same since I want to hook up 4 LED lights on my CAB. 

http://joelsgadgets.com/CoindoorPage2.HTML

Here's another
http://www.retroblast.com/articles/coindoor.html

There's a video on the bottom of this page showing you what to do.