Counting circuit

I am building a photo booth and want to accept coins. I need a circuit to count tokens or coins. Ie .25, .50 cents up to 2.50 dollars then display "please push start button". I am not sure what arduino and LCD to purchase. Please help

0 ntewinkel over 13 years ago

If all you are accepting is quarters, and you have a path that doesn't accept any bigger coins and drops out any smaller coins, then all you really need is one little switch at the bottom of the 25cent path that gets clicked as the coin goes past. I'm assuming you don't intend to get fancier than that (checking coin weights and conductivity seems rather painful to me).
I'm thinking of a micro-switch like this: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9414

That can be considered the same as a button press. Arduino.cc has examples of how to handle button presses (with debounce).

A regular Arduino Uno or Nano can easily handle the coin button as well as the start button and a display.

A basic 1602 (16x2) LCD display will work well. Arduino has libraries built in, with examples available. These displays are also inexpensive to buy on eBay and such.

Cheers,
-Nico
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0 Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to ntewinkel

I would like to use a coin acceptor. Will a arduino duemilanove with a LCD work. I'm not sure. Thanks for your help
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0 ntewinkel over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

Hi Nick,

I just found this link for a tutorial at adafruit.com which does exactly what you want: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/04/23/programmable-4-coin-acceptor-in-action/

Neat stuff! I didn't even know those were available for this kind of thing (I've worked with them a little bit in vending machines).

Looks like AdaFruit sells 1-coin and 4-coin acceptors: http://www.adafruit.com/category/35_104

Cheers,
-Nico
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