Coin sorters - More Pics Added 6/26/11

kb4iqm

Sr. Member
Mar 26, 2011
319
1
Southeastern Tennessee
I bought a Coinalyzer coin sorter recently and was having issues with it. This was discussed a little bit in another thread, but I felt it needed a thread of its own to keep from hijacking that other thread.

My first post there is;
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,393353.msg2802679.html#msg2802679

I will continue here;
kb4iqm said:
blkcwbyhat said:
KB: do you have a divider set up under the bottom? It kicks the rejects to one side,without it,they fall randomly.I made the wooden box thing with the center piece belt sanded with a 45 degree on each side,centered on the outlet.I made the box big enough to fit some small tupperware square boxes on each side.I'm still working on some type of thing to make it easier to feed,my thumb gets sore quick!!
The coinalyzer is an electronic coin mechanism for a vending machine and fits the industry standard coin mechanism mounts. I used to be in the vending business and still have some machines and parts in storage. I took an old vending machine coin door, stripped it down to the bare minimum, and made a stand to hold it vertical. I mounted the coinalyzer in place of the original mechanical coin mechanism, it fits perfectly. All I have to do is set a pail under the back of the coin door to catch the coins that pass. All rejects and coin returns go into the coin return hopper on the front of the coin door. The pass/reject/return port spacings on the coinalyzer are in the industry standard locations.

When I first set it up, it worked, but it had trouble discriminating reliably. It would pass some of what it should reject, and reject some of what it should pass. If I ran multiple passes it would eventially get them all right. Like if I run the reject clad cents through several times it would eventually get all of the copper out. Then do the same with the coppers and it would eventually get all of the clads out. After testing it like this for an hour or so, it stopped passing coins totally and rejecting everything fed to it. I put it aside to mess with later, have not tried it again since then.

If I can get the coin mechanism itself to work reliably, then I'll just set up a dime feed hopper from a slot machine with the discs resized for pennies. These hoppers can be bought for under $50 from vending suppliers that sell used parts on feebay, and replacement discs are available as they wear out. Would be less than $100 invested to automate the process if I do all of the mechanical work to put it together. Now that I think we can afford :laughing7:

Bob
I just checked the coinalyzer and it was working again, but still very unreliable. I noticed the trigger timer was set to "short". I set the trigger timer to "common" and that cleared up the majority of the reliability issue. I'm now getting a clad in the copper 100:1 or less now vs 10:1 like it was. I've run 6 rolls so far and no coppers in the clad yet. I'll run the rest of the box and see how it does.

By the way, the coinalyzer mechanism will support adding a coin counter. It outputs a grounding pulse on the grey wire for every coin accepted. If you connect the leads of a vending machine coin counter to the grey wire and the red wire, it will increment the counter once for each coin accepted. I'm going to order a resettable counter for mine.

Bob
 

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jarlbartar

Full Member
Jan 3, 2012
176
10
Wisconsin
Primary Interest:
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lets see if this works

View attachment 636715
Above is the front view of the sorter, rocker switches are for comparitor and hopper power on / off

comparitor.JPG
 

agibby5

Newbie
Jul 11, 2012
1
0
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
kb4iqm, Do you have any further updates on your sorter setup?
 

O63tihson

Greenie
Dec 28, 2012
13
0
North East Ga
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Has anyone found any dime or nickel hoppers lately? I have 3 comparators that I'm tired of feeding by hand. Interested in doing pennies mostly. I just got skunked with 1K in halves. :dontknow:
 

O63tihson

Greenie
Dec 28, 2012
13
0
North East Ga
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BCD11, Thanks, I checked with Potero Enterprise who sells that hopper and they don't have any for dimes or nickel's. Is their such a hopper that would run Everything but halves without having to change the wheel?
 

BCD11

Full Member
Oct 11, 2011
194
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...they don't have any for dimes or nickel's. Is their such a hopper that would run Everything but halves without having to change the wheel?

The S2000 hopper, to the best of my knowledge, will run dimes, cents, and nickels as long as you have the right pin wheel and shelf wheel. The pin wheels that I use for dimes and cents have a 1 1/8" space between the pins (nubs), or 14 pins on a pin wheel that fits an S2000. I've found that a shelf wheel measuring 5 13/16 - 5 7/8" in diameter works for both dimes and pennies. You also need to use the small coin knife.


What they might have meant is they didn't have any S2000 hoppers with the correct diameter SHELF wheel. The S2000 hopper will handle dimes, cents, and nickles, with the correct SHELF wheel. For quarters you might have to have a PIN wheel with more than 1 1/8" between the pins or fewer than 14 pins per wheel. I can't remember if I used a different pin wheel for quarters. Just remember dimes/cents, nickels, and quarters each require a different SHELF wheel.
 

clarknau

Jr. Member
Jul 25, 2012
83
21
Mesa, AZ
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BCD11, Thanks, I checked with Potero Enterprise who sells that hopper and they don't have any for dimes or nickel's. Is their such a hopper that would run Everything but halves without having to change the wheel?

I've been looking into getting this same hopper too. It looks like it's new at this website,
IGT S2000 HOPPER
It also tells you to ask for the nickel version during checkout and it's almost the same price after shipping.

Might be a better buy.
 

O63tihson

Greenie
Dec 28, 2012
13
0
North East Ga
Primary Interest:
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Clarknau, yes that looks like a good one, but they are charging 20.00 for shipping. Thank you would still have to find the dime pin and shelf wheel.
 

BCD11

Full Member
Oct 11, 2011
194
9
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.... It looks like it's new at this website,
IGT S2000 HOPPER
It also tells you to ask for the nickel version during checkout and it's almost the same price after shipping.

Might be a better buy.

I would be very surprised if this is a new hopper BUT, by all means ask them. That's an excellent price IF it is new.


Shopping the internet is the best thing you can do when looking for sorter components. You'd be surprised how the prices differ on the same item.

Good luck on your search!
 

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