Video tabletop Gumball Machine Help

[Gruntchovski]

Hi,

First Time poster, and forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this.

So originally I wanted to build an arcade machine. So I got the raspberry pi and an 8" monitor. I eventually scrapped that idea. Instead I plan to build a machine similar to this:



My version would be IN THEORY simpler (no animatronics) Here is a concept sketch:



I have a Raspberry Pi, and monitor. I can easily build the cabinet. I can probably buy a coin slot. I need to hook up speakers too. The gumball mechanism I'd imagine would be the trickiest part.

I can pretty much do everything except I don't know how to program the pi to do the things above. I've seen videos of arcade machine setup and I understood that. But my idea is a lot less fancy in terms of what It can do and I don't think any video online covers this type of thing. So if anyone has information or would have an idea of how to set this up, PLEASE let me know. Forgive me if I sound like a noob. I'm not sure if this counts as an "Arcade" project either.

If you have specific questions I'll answer them gladly

Thanks and I look forward to sharing progress photos when I start it.

[JollyRoger]

Cool Idea. I think your best bet would be go to Rasberrypi community forums and look for projects and how to's there specific for programming the pi's.

[PL1]

Welcome aboard, Gruntchovski.   

This is certainly an unusual build concept.

The gumball mechanism I'd imagine would be the trickiest part.

For the gumball mech, you could use a servo/actuator/motor attached to a horizontal dowel with a slightly-larger than gumball hole drilled partway thru the side.



When the hole is facing up, one gumball falls into the hole.

When it's time to dispense a gumball, the servo/actuator/motor turns the dowel far enough for the gumball to fall out, then it returns to the upright position.

You can use upper/lower limit switches to ensure the dowel rotates far enough in each direction.

If the servo/actuator/motor position is controlled by PWM, you'll need some sort of controller circuit.

If the servo/actuator/motor reverses direction when polarity is reversed you can wire it like this diagram, but using two solid-state relays controlled by the Pi in place of the DPDT rocker switch. (related thread here)

I'm not sure if this counts as an "Arcade" project either.

No worries.  WannabeJoy's build here wasn't an "arcade" project either, but it was fun and educational.   


Scott