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Electrical Wiring Question (Update: IT WORKS!!!!!)
Jdurg:
Today was a first for me. The first time I've EVER used a soldering iron and soldered a connection. I can't believe how easy it was and how strong the soldered connection is! I went to Radioshack and picked up a 15/30 Watt adjustable soldering iron, four 1000 mA-200V diodes, and a small thing of silver/tin rosin core solder. Pointing the current flow from the diodes towards the NO Connections on the coindoor microswitches, I soldered a diode in line between the microswitch and where the KeyWiz connection comes from, as well as from the NO Connections towards the solitary line that connects to the coin meter. I then took the lines from Coinswitch 1 and Coinswitch 2, that connect to the meter, and soldered them together.
It was quite interesting learning how to solder a connection. Basically, I took a shot glass full of pure grain alcohol to dip my fingers in, let the alcohol evaporate, then see that my fingertips were completely dry and free of oils. (Ethanol does a damned good job of drying out your skin and that allows you to work with the wire without any oils or greases from your body screwing things up). With ultra dry hands, I went and twisted some of the copper wire around the leads on the diodes after using some fine grain sanding papers to clean up the surfaces. With all connections twisted together, I plugged in the soldering iron at 30 W to let it heat up pretty quickly and strongly.
I took the iron and put it on the twisted wires and let it heat up until the solder that tinned the tip of the iron began to flow and smoke a bit. I then removed the iron and quickly applied my silver/tin solder. It was pretty cool seeing the solder flow from the solid wire into the little gaps between the twisted wires, then solidify. I repeated this until the soldered joint appeared to be secure without too much solder on there. It cooled almost immediately and it is now a nice solid mass. ;D
Sadly, I didn't have a spare USB cable lying around so I couldn't actually test my connections this weekend. (I don't feel like driving out to pick up another cable today). Next weekend I hope to be able to test out the wiring and see if it works. I need to also decide how long I need the wire from my coin door up to my KeyWiz needs to be so I can finish soldering that line. I may just end up attaching some very long wires to the diodes now and shrinking them down later on when I see how long they actually need to be. Much easier to make a cable shorter than it is to make it longer. ;)
I think this will all work out and using a USB connection to provide the voltage and current to the meter and then back out through the encoder shouldn't cause any harm at all. (Since the encoder is able to connect via USB, it must be able to safely handle the 500mA that the USB connection supplies).
Jdurg:
Alrighty, I got it to work!!!!! I didn't think I had a spare USB cable lying around, but I did have a spare USB gamepad that doesn't work anymore so I could just use that cable since the controller doesn't work. So I cut off the cord and saw the standard four wires. I soldered the red wire to the positive side of my old coin meter. (The one that is not set at 000000). I then soldered the connections from the coinswitches to the negative end of the meter with the diodes already soldered inline. (I used a total of four 1-amp diodes. One between the KeyWiz and the NO connection, and one between the the meter and the NO connection).
Using some throw-away cable, I then hooked up the ground to the KeyWiz and both inputs. I hooked everything up to my desktop computer (since if hacking the USB blew the system, my desktop can be the martyr :P ) I threw on Gauntlet, Rampage, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. and tested it out. When I put a coin in Slot 2, a credit registered for Player 2 and the meter incremented by one. If I threw a credit in Slot 1, a credit registered for Player 1 and the meter incremented by one. IT WORKED!!!!!!!!! On a few occasions, if I put money in really quickly, MAME would occasionally fail to register the credit but the meter would still increment. So that can be a bugger, but not a killer. I am just happy that four simple diodes worked to get this coin-door to function like I wanted it to. :applaud:
Arshad:
Awesome work! Was your eventual solution what you had in your second diagram? I have the exact same problem as yours... I want to connect up two independent mechs for coin1/coin2, but have a common counter. Unfortunately my electronics background is pretty much zero. I can see myself wiring up what you showed in your second diagram but the one with opto-isolators etc is way over my head. I'm planning on using an iPac2 over PS/2 which I'm assuming will work similarly to your KeyWiz. One big difference is that the KE610 that I have is rated for 12V/2W.
Jdurg:
Hehe. I JUST replied in your thread. ;D
Yes, the 2nd diagram I drew is the one I ended up using. For your setup, the 12V will be a problem. A USB cable only provides 5V of power and the meter will need 12V to work. The 2W means that it uses about half the amperage that my setup does, but still the volts are a problem. The one thing I'd be worried about if you went the Power Supply connection method is how much amperage the power supply provides on its 12V line. A PS/2 connection runs off of a 100mA, +5V power capacity, but the ground should be able to handle the amperage provided by the USB cable. (I didn't encounter any problems).
So if you could figure out the amps being provided by your 12V rail on your power supply, then figure out how to lower the voltage between the counter and the coin-switches, you should be able to work this out.
In the end, it might be easier if you were to get a brand new coin-meter. They are only about $10 or so and you'll also get one that is set at zero.