How-To: Electronic Piggy Bank (video)

Learn to make a glowing electronic piggy bank in this tutorial video using the Programmable 1 Coin Acceptor. Video on YouTube and Vimeo, code on Github.

ID786 LRG

Coin Acceptor – Programmable 1 Coin Type.

Your project may be free-as-in-speech, but that doesn’t mean it has to be free-as-in-beer. This handy coin validator/acceptor module is just like the ones you’ve seen in arcades. First, program it with what coin you want it to accept, any coin from 10.8mm to 25.1mm in diameter can be used. When a valid coin is inserted, the output line will pulse for 20-60ms (configurable). The acceptor looks for diameter, thickness, dropping speed, etc to determine if a coin is valid. You can select 3 different “strictness” levels.

Comes with the acceptor itself, mounting hardware, and a cable for power/signal.

To program the validator: power with 12VDC (red wire goes to +12VDC, black wire to common ground). Press and hold the little button on top for 5 seconds and release. The LED will be on. Now insert 30 sample coins of the value you want to detect (say 30 quarters or 30 Euro coins). Once the LED goes out it’s programmed! Connect a 10K (1K to 100K is fine) pullup resistor from the white wire to your microcontroller’s VCC line (for Arduino, this is a +5V). Insert a coin, and verify that the LED line pulses high for about 40 milliseconds.

  • Power requirements: 12VDC (+- 20%)
  • Quiescent current: ~25mA
  • Peak current (for solenoid): 400mA
  • Accepts coins from 10.8mm to 15.1mm in diameter, 1.2mm to 3.0mm thick
  • Programmable for a single coin

ID787 LRG

There’s also a 4-coin model: Coin Acceptor – Programmable 4 Coin Type


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