[SoggyBunz] lucked up and scored an Ultimate Raspberry Pi Bundle from Element 14. His idea was to use a Raspberry Pi to make a retro-mechanical arcade Coin Dozer game, and decided to build his first prototype inside a vacant Macintosh Plus shell.
The game is based on a Raspberry Pi running a small Python script. The Raspi operates a small servo that moves a piece of acrylic back and forth in a somewhat random fashion. The coins are inserted into slots cut into the Macintosh shell and eventually pile up. The moving acrylic lever pushes your winnings out of the machine and deposits them on whatever it’s sitting on, unlike this coin dispensing machine.
[SoggyBunz] concedes that the build is a bit rough and a servo is not the best choice of an actuator. But he aims to build a much improved version, and we can only hope he puts it on Hackaday.io and tips us in! Stick around after the break for a video of the Pi Dozer in action.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYKVylG97Oo&w=560&h=315%5D
just why would you use an raspberry pi?
take a cheap gear motor and this works much better
slow hackaday?
I couldn’t agree more, apparently as RPi > 0, interest grows in pointless projects.
To calculate the payout… eventually? Just spit balling really.
I’m too lazy to dig up a manual for one of these dozers but I believe they have sort of payout counter? Especially the redemption models?
Powering servo directly from a Pi?
I can only assume if he didn’t have a Pi to hand he’d have resorted to Arduinos to do the job of a basic reciprocating mechanism.
I’ve got a windscreen wiper motor here perfect for the job, I’ll post it to him for free if he promises to post the Pi kit to someone with a brain.
Engineering student? We’re doomed.
You must be boring at parties; Then again you don’t seem to be the “I know how to be respectful to human beings” type.
Respect used to be earned in this regard and hand holding and coddling imbecilic ideas is for kindergarten, That Pi is going to waste if it were counting coins with those hair trigger switches and reading a from a load sensor the current weight to establish hopper count current vs coins dropped
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Electronic-80mm-2kg-YZC-133-Weighing-Sensor-Load-Cell-Digital-/281311660316?pt=AU_B_I_Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item417f7b491c
Using a DC motor which could be started by the Rpi through a pwm speed controller http://www.robotroom.com/PWM5.html
Or even better using a Stepper motor like a proper Arcade unit having guide rails for dozer plate and a run for the coins to enter the dozer space…..
THIS IS NOT READY This is not note worthy hack of any kind as of yet.
You’ve just described the typical engineer. Thanks to them, you can have nice things that mostly work. Now, get off my lawn.
Eirinn – And you must be dangerous in a workshop.
He already has a geared motor, all he has to do is take the top off the servo, cut or file off the end stop, then solder wires directly to the DC motor inside and discard the PWM controller.
The whole point of the original coin dozer was that it was one single moving motor, the operator’s cut is whatever lands on the dozer blade or falls outside the “playing field”
A simple gear motor would only make it move back and forth in a predictable manner. He’s trying to get a somewhat random movement. I should mention that it’s possible to get a pseudorandom movement using only mechanical parts, though that wouldn’t exactly be easy to build…
This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.