Newbie Coin Door questions: Restoration + Wiring

[Arshad]

I'm in the process of researching what components to get for my cabinet.  I was originally going to get the 'fake' coin door from Happs to give it a more authentic look, but managed to find a coin door in reasonably good condition for only $5!  I picked up a couple of coin mechanisms for $10 each and 300 tokens for $10, so I'm a happy camper   Now that I have all this I'm thinking that I'd actually like to wire the coin door up and have it trigger coin1/coin2 through the keyboard encoder.

Some newbie questions:

1) You can see in the image that the door itself is in fairly good condition.  (The coin counter inside is only at 1086).  What is the best way to restore the flaked off paint?  I don't want to strip it all off and repaint it.  If I were to just "touch up", what is the recommended type of paint?  It doesn't have to look perfect -- just better than it does right now.

2) The lock mechanism is broken and is missing the key.  I'm assuming this is easily replaced by taking it into a locksmith?

3) How can I tell if this requires 5v or 12v? 

4) The wiring is such that the 'trigger' line is wired to both microswitches and comes out to a wiring harness with 3 pins.  I assume this is power, ground and the trigger line.  How do I make this work for separate coin1/coin2?  Is it as simple as wiring each microswitch separately as you would a button's microswitch?  Is there a way to do this and still keep the coin counter operational?

The broader question I had was how do they deal with this in the arcade?  Do most games with dual coin mech's  just connect out to a single credit trigger, which is then used by either start1 or start2?  Or do they have separate coin boxes for each player, each wired independantly?  Do I even need to bother with separate coin1+coin2, or am I fine just wiring coin1 for all 2 player games?

[Thenasty]

no need to pay more $$$ for a locksmith... Just take it off yourself and buy one and replace.

The voltage in the lamps, you decide what you want to use. a % volt LAMP is good enough.
If you want to test the lamp you have already, just apply the 5 vold to it, if it lits then your set. if it don't lit, then it maybe a 12 volt.

[boogieman]

You can just wire the switch up to the coin1 and coin2 on the keyboard encoder.  They usually carry those type locks at good equipped hardware stores.

[Arshad]

Thanks for the tips on the lock and voltage guys.

To answer my own question about whether coin2 is required (saw it answered in a different thread):  Yes some games require coin2 in order to use start2, so in my case I need to wire up both coin mechs independently.

Anyone have any recommendations on the best way to touch up the paint on the coin door?

EDIT: I just noticed that the coin counter that is currently hooked up (KE610) is labelled 12V/2W.  I'm assuming this means that everything else also requires 12V since there's only a single power source?

[Jdurg]

While stripping and repainting might be a lot of work, it will be worth it in the end.  I mean, you'll be looking at it quite a bit so you might as well spend the time to fix it up. 

I bought a coin door dirt cheap off of E-Bay and spent maybe two weekends stripping the paint off, de-rusting all the rusted parts, and then repainting it.  If I could do it over again, I'd have used truck-bed liner to repaint the door since that stuff sticks to EVERYTHING and has the texture I'm looking for.  Instead, I just used Rustoleum Hammered Black paint followed by a few coats of Satin Black spray paint over that to kick back some of the gloss.

For wiring it up, you can do as mentioned before and take the switch from Slot 1 and wire it to the proper spot on your encoder.  Do the same for Slot 2.  The bulbs that are in your coin door should state at the base what voltage they use.  Typically, coin-door bulbs use 12V.  I replaced mine with LED bulbs since they last MUCH longer and don't give off a ton of heat.  They will be powered by the computer's power supply.

If your coin door has a meter and you want to hook it up to your encoder so it will work, then you just need some solder, four 1-Amp Diodes, and a spare USB cable that you're willing to hack apart.  Start off by crimping two wires into each quick disconnect that will be connected to the coin switch.  (A total of two QD's;  One for each coin switch).  One of the wires will go into your keyboard encoder, and the other wire will go into the coin meter.  On each of the wires you'll want to solder in a diode with the current directed towards the swith.  (So your cathodes will be closest to the coinswitch once they're soldered on).  Now put your QD's on the NO outputs of your coinswitches and connect one wire from each to the appropriate spot on your encoder.  The other two wires coming off of the NO outputs need to be soldered together along with the negative wire from your coin meter.  (PLEASE NOTE:  This is all assuming that you are using a 4.5/6V coin meter and that it has a diode built into the meter.  This is critical since if it doesn't have the diode in it or doesn't run at that voltage it might damage your setup.   I am assuming that your meter is a standard Kessler-Ellis meter where the Wattage and Voltage should be printed on the casing).

So now your coinswitches will be tied into your encoder and the negative side of your meter with diodes on each of the wires.  (Again, with the cathodes closes to your coinswitch).  Now, take that USB cable and on one end of it cut the connector off.  Strip down the wire and you'll see four wires in there; White, Black, Green and Red.  The red is the one you want.  Strip it down and solder it to the positive wire from your meter.  Now, just connect the grounds on your coinswitches to your encoder's ground, and the USB cable to your computer.  You will now have the two separate coinswitches working in full, but they'll both count up on your meter.  The diodes are in there to prevent any current from flowing in the wrong direction and shorting out the signal, and the USB cable will provide the 5V needed for the counter and only 500mA of current which the encoder (if it is hooked up by either PS/2 or USB) will be able to handle the 500mA of current.

[Arshad]

Thanks for the advice JDurg.  I understand that if I want a proper finish, I have to strip and repaint but I was hoping that minor touch-up would get me 90% of the way there.  I suppose I can experiment a bit and if it doesn't work I can always strip and start over.

Thank you for the detailed description of the wiring.  I've been following your other thread on connecting the counter, but in my case the 12V is going to be an issue.  Once I figure out a solution, I'll post it up...

[boogieman]

You could lightly sand the whole thing (just the metal take the other stuff out), clean it with acetone, then paint it with rustoleum hammerite spray paint.  It does a good job of covering up small surface imperfections.  Just put your coin slots and lock back in and you are good to go.

[Thenasty]

but in my case the 12V is going to be an issue

replace it with a 6volt one..... 
The 5volt is enough to trip it.

[Jdurg]

And most of those 6V ones actually have 4.5V/6V stamped on there so anything in between should work.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Based on the picture, I would just remove the square pieces on the front and spray paint those.  Then put them back on.  The trouble is, you have to practically take apart the whole thing to remove them, which means, you might as well paint the door too.  (the door comes off with 4 screws on the inside of the coin door, so you don't have to paint the whole bracket.

~ D