V2 - created for the BevMax45 vending machine, and is heavily based on v1, but now uses a custom PCB with a SAM D21 MCU (same as the Arduino Zero), a WizNet Ethernet shield and a MFRC522 RFID reader. There is an aim to update the first vending machine to use a v2 cashless device, but as of Dec 2018, this hasn't been done yet. Project Coin Machines Limited is a Casino Vendor involved with Slot Machines. Project Coin Machines Limited is located in Thornton Heath, England. 3 FRUIT MACHINE MANUALS, PROJECT COIN JOKER POKER, FIND THE LADY. Fruit Machine Coin Insert Splittershoot.
- Project Coin Fruit Machines Machine
- Project Coin Fruit Machines Dispense
- Project Coin Fruit Machines Walmart
< Vending Machine
- 2Hardware
- 3Messages
Versions
We now have two versions of the custom cashless device:
- v1 - created for the Westomatic vending machine, and uses a nanode and RDM880 based RFID module, and is build mostly on perf board.
- v2 - created for the BevMax45 vending machine, and is heavily based on v1, but now uses a custom PCB with a SAM D21 MCU (same as the Arduino Zero), a WizNet Ethernet shield and a MFRC522 RFID reader. There is an aim to update the first vending machine to use a v2 cashless device, but as of Dec 2018, this hasn't been done yet.
Hardware
v1
The cashless device has been built around a nanode, which is connected using UDP/IP over an Ethernet connection to holly.
There is a board between the Nanode (see Media:VMC-Nanode Schematic.png) and the vending machine which both powers the nanode from the ~34vdc supply, and allows serial communication with the VMC.
The nanode is connected (using software serial) to an RFID reader mounted under the 'H' logo on the outside of the Vending machine.There is also a micro-switch attached to the coin-reject mechanism (to allow any RFID card read to be cleared from memory), and a blue LED above the reader to indicate when a card has been read & recognised. An LCD to show your username & current balance was added in July 2013.
Firmware for this device is in GitHub.
The diagram below shows the connection between devices:
v2
The second cashless device uses a cutom PCB using the SAM D21 MCU (as used in the Arduino Zero), and has numerous changes, including:
- A MFRC522 RFID module, which is the same as the NoteAcceptor, tools boards, etc., instead of a RDM880 based module
- Uses TCP/IP to connect to a Mosquitto MQTT broker on holly instead of UDP/IP. The messages sent remain the same.
- A serial based setup menu, to allow for entry of device name, IP, etc. This should allow the same firmware to be used unmodified in both machines.
Firmware for this version is also in GitHub.
Messages
To keep things simple, the interface to holly is text based; the sequence of messages is shown in the flowchart below:
For v1, these messages are sent using UDP/IP, for v2 they use MQTT, transmitting on the
nh/<device_id>/tx
topic and receiving on the nh/<device_id>/rx
topic. Not an ideal implementation for MQTT by a long way, but reuses a message flow that's been working well for some years.Message details
From | To | Details |
---|---|---|
VM | Holly | AUTH:<RFID serial> Sent when RFID card first read |
Holly | VM | GRNT:<RFID serial>:<transaction number> Sent in response to AUTH if the card is known & marked as active in the database. |
Holly | VM | DENY:<RFID serial> Sent in reply to AUTH if the card is either not know, or marked as expired/canceled. |
VM | Holly | VREQ:<RFID serial>:<transaction number>:<amount> Sent when a selection is keyed in. <amount> is in pence. |
Holly | VM | VNOK:<RFID serial>:<transaction number> Sent in response to VREQ if the purchase is permitted (e.g. credit limit won't be exceeded). |
Holly | VM | VDNY:<RFID serial>:<transaction number> Sent in response to VREQ is the vend should be denied for any reason. |
VM | Holly | VSUC:<RFID serial>:<transaction number>:<position> Sent after the VMC reports to the nanode that the product has been successfully vended. |
VM | Holly | VFAL:<RFID serial>:<transaction number> Sent if the VMC reports that the vend failed. ***UNTESTED*** for the Westomatic machine, as we don't beleive the machine can/would ever report a failed vend. The BevMax45can report failed vends (if enabled on the machine), but due to a fault with the drop sensors, it was reporting every vend as failed, so this has been switched off. |
VM | Holly | VCAN:<RFID serial>:<transaction number> Sent if the coin reject button is pressed. Will record a cancelled vend if an AUTH has been sent, but no VREQ yet received - otherwise it has no effect. |
VM | Holly | INFO:<debug message> Information message that can be sent at any stage - has no effect other than being written to a log on holly. |
Variable | Description |
---|---|
<RFID serial> | RFID serial number - expected to be 9 digits long |
<transaction number> | Unique number assigned to the vending machine transaction when an AUTH message is received with an active RFID serial, and must be included in all related messages. |
<position> | Position in the vending machine as reported by the VMC. Note that this location is mapped to the locations codes displayed in the vending by holly (e.g. 41-31 reported here corresponds to location A1). |
Example session
(card presented)
AUTH:999999999
GRNT:999999999:352
(Selection made)VREQ:999999999:352:300
VNOK:999999999:352
(Product vended)VSUC:999999999:352:43-37
Source Code
The code of the server side component is on Github (the relevant part is nh-vend.cpp). Mega hit poker download. This code is common to both v1 & v2 of the cashless device, and also handles payments received via the NoteAcceptor & CoinAcceptor.
Retrieved from 'https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/index.php?title=Vending_Machine/Cashless_Device_Implementation&oldid=18624'
Key concepts
Physics
Engineering
Gravity
Mechanical design
Physics
Engineering
Gravity
Mechanical design
Project Coin Fruit Machines Machine
Introduction
Have you ever used a coin-sorting machine to separate pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters? When you need to separate things that are all mixed together, using a machine can be much faster than picking them apart by hand. In this project you will build a machine that can automatically separate two different size marbles—powered by nothing but gravity!
Have you ever used a coin-sorting machine to separate pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters? When you need to separate things that are all mixed together, using a machine can be much faster than picking them apart by hand. In this project you will build a machine that can automatically separate two different size marbles—powered by nothing but gravity!
Background
Sorting machines are used in many different applications, but they all have something in common. They automate a task that would be time-consuming or even impossible to do by hand. It might not be that difficult to sort a pocketful of coins manually, but what if you worked at a bank and had to sort thousands of coins? It would be nice to have a machine to do it! Mining is another example. Early miners would use a manual process called panning to separate gold nuggets from dirt and sand in a pan. Today, huge industrial machines are used to separate valuable gems and minerals from other rocks and dirt. Many recycling facilities have machines that can automatically separate paper, plastic, and metal objects—meaning that if your town has single-stream recycling, you can just dump all your recyclables into one bin at home, without sorting them yourself!
Sorting machines are used in many different applications, but they all have something in common. They automate a task that would be time-consuming or even impossible to do by hand. It might not be that difficult to sort a pocketful of coins manually, but what if you worked at a bank and had to sort thousands of coins? It would be nice to have a machine to do it! Mining is another example. Early miners would use a manual process called panning to separate gold nuggets from dirt and sand in a pan. Today, huge industrial machines are used to separate valuable gems and minerals from other rocks and dirt. Many recycling facilities have machines that can automatically separate paper, plastic, and metal objects—meaning that if your town has single-stream recycling, you can just dump all your recyclables into one bin at home, without sorting them yourself!
How exactly do machines separate all these different materials? They make use of the fact that different objects and materials have different properties. For example, some materials are magnetic and some are not, so you can use magnets to separate magnetic and non-magnetic materials. Materials have different densities—meaning some will float in water and some will sink. Some will be easily blown away by a strong puff of air, while others are heavy enough to stay put. Objects have many different sizes and shapes. Some might have smooth, round shapes that let them roll easily (such as a ball) and others might have irregular or flat shapes that make them get stuck easily (such as a flat piece of cardboard). Smaller objects can fall through holes in a grate while larger objects get stuck on top of it. In this project you will make use of that last feature to separate marbles with two different diameters.
Dream vegas. Materials
- Plastic cups
- Craft sticks
- Paper
- Tape
- Glue
- Scissors
- A few dozen 'small' marbles or plastic or wooden beads from a craft store. A diameter of six millimeters, or roughly 1/4-inch, works well.
- A few dozen 'large' marbles, or plastic or wooden beads from a craft store. A diameter of 12 mm or roughly 1/2-inch works well.
Preparation
- Pour a mixture of both large and small marbles into a single plastic cup. Shake or stir the cup to make sure the marbles are well mixed.
- The goal of this project is to build a machine where you can pour a mixed cup of large and small marbles into one end and have the machine automatically sort them into two different cups by size. This is an engineering design project, meaning there is no single 'right' way to do this. The procedure will describe one possible approach, but don't be afraid to modify it or try your own idea!
Project Coin Fruit Machines Dispense
Procedure
- Glue several craft sticks together to form a grate, as shown in the illustration. The gaps between the sticks should be large enough that the small marbles can fit through them, but small enough that the large marbles do not.
- Use plastic cups, other craft sticks, paper, glue and tape to build a support structure for your grate to hold it at an angle above two plastic cups. (If you use tape, you might be able to easily take apart your machine if you decide you want to modify it later; using glue might make this trickier—but you can build additional machines if necessary.) One cup should be directly below the grate to collect the smaller marbles as they fall through, the other cup should be at the lower end of the grate to collect the larger marbles. Make sure the collection cups are not permanently attached to the rest of the machine—you need to be able to remove them easily.
- Roll up a piece of paper or carefully cut up a plastic cup, and use it to make a funnel at the top end of your grate so you have a place to pour the marbles into your machine.
- Pour your cup of mixed marbles into the funnel and watch what happens. How do the marbles flow through your machine? Do the smaller marbles fall through the grate?
- Now, remove the two collection cups and look at their contents. Are the cups perfectly sorted (all large marbles in one, all small marbles in the other) or are they 'contaminated' with some marbles in the wrong cups?
- Pour all the marbles back into a single cup and mix them again.
- Engineers rarely get things perfect on the first try. 'Iteration' is an important part of the engineering design process—meaning you design something, build it, test it, then go back and repeat the process to improve the design. If your collection cups were contaminated with the wrong marbles, how can you improve your design so it works better?
- Try improving or changing your design so you can sort all the marbles into the correct cups. Can you get to the point where your samples are perfectly sorted, with all the marbles in the right cups?
Project Coin Fruit Machines Walmart
Observations and results
It is unlikely that you will build a machine that works perfectly on the first try. In particular, some of the smaller marbles might roll too quickly across the grate while staying on the flat side of an craft stick, and never fall through one of the holes, so they wind up in the wrong cup. There are multiple ways you could fix this. Live texas holdem poker online. You can make the grate longer, to increase the odds that the small marbles will fall through a hole. You can tilt the craft sticks or put them on edge so the 'flat' sides are not sitting horizontally, so the smaller marbles will always roll down towards the holes. You can put other craft stick pieces perpendicular to the rest of the grate to serve as obstacles, causing the marbles to bounce around as they roll down—again, increasing the odds that the small ones will fall through the holes. Once you improve your grate, you should be able to build a machine that can perfectly sort the large and small marbles. It can also help if you pour the marbles into the machine slowly instead of dumping them in all at once.
It is unlikely that you will build a machine that works perfectly on the first try. In particular, some of the smaller marbles might roll too quickly across the grate while staying on the flat side of an craft stick, and never fall through one of the holes, so they wind up in the wrong cup. There are multiple ways you could fix this. Live texas holdem poker online. You can make the grate longer, to increase the odds that the small marbles will fall through a hole. You can tilt the craft sticks or put them on edge so the 'flat' sides are not sitting horizontally, so the smaller marbles will always roll down towards the holes. You can put other craft stick pieces perpendicular to the rest of the grate to serve as obstacles, causing the marbles to bounce around as they roll down—again, increasing the odds that the small ones will fall through the holes. Once you improve your grate, you should be able to build a machine that can perfectly sort the large and small marbles. It can also help if you pour the marbles into the machine slowly instead of dumping them in all at once.
Cleanup
Check the floor to make sure you did not drop any marbles (they can be a choking hazard).
Check the floor to make sure you did not drop any marbles (they can be a choking hazard).
More to explore
Marble Machine, from Science Buddies
How It Works: Inside the Machine That Separates Your Recyclables, from Popular Science
Suspension Science: How Do Bridge Designs Compare?, from Scientific American
Science Activities for All Ages!, from Science Buddies
Marble Machine, from Science Buddies
How It Works: Inside the Machine That Separates Your Recyclables, from Popular Science
Suspension Science: How Do Bridge Designs Compare?, from Scientific American
Science Activities for All Ages!, from Science Buddies
This activity brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies