First project ever and need help!

Hi Chris

That's a very ambitious first project. Your best approach it to break the whole thing down into a series of smaller tasks.

You mention servo motors, a good arduino article about them can be found here; Arduino - Sweep

What are you looking to dispense with this machine? How do you envisage servo's achieving the vending operation?

Thanks for the reply my original idea was to use servos to rotate a large coil that would then drop the item, but thinking about it a servo wouldn't work a would need a whole motor to rotate the coil to be ready to dispense again and servo would just rewind back to its previous state. Except I have no experience with the code. Would it be fairly difficult to make a code that rotates the motor enough to make only one item dispense? and also have a delay so it can't be spammed?

And you can repeat this x number of times.

Thanks so much! Now I have a lot to go off of. I was taking notes

Good to know. Keep us updated on your progress.

Another aspect to look at (though possibly a little more complete to wire up) is Stepper Motors. You can instruct them to rotate by a stated number of degrees. You can issue a command to rotate by 360º. Optical sensing would therefore only be necessary for error detection.

Would 5 of these work? And what is a driver board? is it necessary?

Amazon.com: RioRand Stepper Motor 5V DC 4-Phase 5-Wire with ULN2003 Driver Board: Computers & Accessories

Those stepper motors appear to be supplied with the necessary diver board. You will need 4 digital outputs per motor to drive these.

My only concern is wether they have enough torque to turn the coil and drag the goodies along the track in your machine.

I had a feeling the torque would be low this doesn't have a driver board but does have high torque

1700-7300RPM 1.5-6.5V High Torque Cylinder Electric Mini DC Motor - Electric Fan Motors - Amazon.com

The speed would be an issue. If directly connected to the motor your coil would spin 1700 times a minute, resulting in a dispensing rate of 28 items per second. A vending machine gun.

You would need some kind of gearbox to reduce the speed to a sensible ratio.

You could take some inspiration from Jan Cumps in his article: [Christmas Wreath of Things] Internet of Holiday Lights: part 5 - Stepper Motor works.

This approach only uses two I/Os from the Arduino and gives you more flexibility over the voltage of your stepper motor.

I will keep searching for a high toqrue motor with board then. Good to know.

I will keep searching for a high toqrue motor with board then. Good to know.

See if you have any surplus electronics stores in your area. Most big cities seem to have them, or a store that includes a surplus section.

Unfortunately the Isle of Man is lacking in such a place, but I was in Montreal last month and there was one there. Sooooo tempted to fill my suitcase.