stepper motor help ?'s.

[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.

[AlienInferno]

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?

Ideally I would like it to take coins as well.  But yes that's basically it.

[AlienInferno]

Thanks drventure and crashwg.  I'll check those out.

[NiN^_^NiN]

It could be made easier if you didn't care if the dollar bill or 20 dollar bill just spit out the 4 coins.

I had thought up a design for a manual change/token release

I has some PVC pipe a bit bigger than the size of the coins then added a small flat piece of plastic with two bolts on the side

The end of the PVC pipe had two nuts glued on and the bolts screwed into them to get the right hight so when coins were placed in the pipe only the width of a coin would sit on the flat piece

I had for tubes full of coins and a spring so when you pushed a button it moved a small bar that pushed the coins along the flat piece of plastic till it would just fall off then when released the spring shot the bar back.

You could do the same thing with the bill accepter just use a 5-5-5 timer kit at any electronic store so it spins the motor in the bill acceptor then kicks out 4 coins from the tubes.

Hopefully that actually makes sense   

[AlienInferno]

I think I will use the Arduino that drventure suggested.  I did some research on it last night and found a couple posts on people getting bill acceptors to work with it.  Shouldn't be too hard to do once I get my hands on one.



My thinking was I can have some PVC as holders for the coins similiar to what you did.  Except instead of having the tokens pushed out by a bar I can have one (thinking two possibly) round discs with 4 holes.  One coin would fit flat in each hole.  The Arduino could accept the input from the coin switch (for a single token with coins) and also the pulses from the bill acceptor.  It takes that input and turns on a small motor to turn the disc a set number of seconds.  There would be enough time for each input to allow the set number of tokens to fall.  As it turns the hole in the disc would turn with the coin until it is over a chute and drop it into a metal cup.  So if it was an input from the coin switch it would turn enough to drop one coin.  If it was the bill acceptor it would turn enough to drop 4.  My bill acceptor will only accept one dollar bills (not the new 5's, 10's or 20's) so 4 will be as high as I will go.



On the two round discs possibilities I was thinking something similiar to what's in this video at roughly the 2:56 mark. 

Hope all that makes sense.  If I can figure it out I know it won't be fancy so we'll see.

[DaOld Man]

Someday when Im filthy rich (and not just filthy), I am gonna get me one of them laser cutter things.