Getting a little behind here...anyway. No pictures in this one, it's late. A little while ago, my friend and I boosted the assemblies on Duplo bricks and added ramps to divert the coins. Later, I rebuilt both of the modules. I put care into making the mechanism that moves the touch sensor shorter, shortened the coin slot and connected the two together. Seemed like it worked pretty well (the assembly on the touch sensor felt like it made it more easily into the bucket). Then, I rebuilt the coin-holding and dispensing mechanism. Ended up pretty well, although wider than it needed to be. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this version....because inspiration struck.
I realized that I could stack the "coin slot and touch sensor mechanism" on top of the "change holding and dispensing" mechanism. The "bucket" could simply turn 180 degrees one way and deposit the coins. So, I did so. I added some sloped bricks on top of the linear moving assembly to divert the coins into the holders. The result is a much more compact machine, with the coin-dispensing location much more accessible.
After that came a slope to divert the coins down from the dispensing location. Then a second slope to divert the coins from the "bucket" rotating in the opposite direction (to return the coin being analyzed). Then, disaster.
Unfortunately, I forgot to put in a light sensor to sense the coins coming out of the dispensing location. And I don't want to lengthen the slope, so I pulled the RCX light sensor out of the coin slot and put it in. After a lot of programming employing just about every possible method to detect the coins consistently, it won't work like I want it. I'll have to lengthen the coin slot and change chute. (Or something else. How about twisting the change chute....?)
