Smart Donation Box

Jeremy · January 13, 2015, 12:21am

That looks great!

jenn · January 13, 2015, 1:48am

woo! awesome news!

jenn · January 30, 2015, 12:48am

how goes the box?

vicatcu · January 30, 2015, 1:06am

A day ago I got word from the inside sales person at Pyramid Technologies that the Bill Acceptor they are donating to us would hopefully ship out tomorrow, but didn’t hear anything today. I’ll follow up tomorrow to see if I can get some tracking info. As seen above, @sean has done some preliminary work (dang that was over two weeks ago :-/) on an audio capability which should provide some nice flair. @Jeremy are you able to give us any progress update / insights on what you’ve been thinking / working on in terms of the mechanical and/or aesthetic aspects of the project?

vicatcu · February 12, 2015, 2:12am

It’s here muahahahaha… when are people interested in reconvening to work on this project? /cc @sean @Jeremy @jenn

vicatcu · February 12, 2015, 2:57am

There’s some good stuff here: http://pyramidacceptors.com/spectra/. For example, @Jeremy, at the bottom of that page click on the “Dimensions” tab for dimensioned drawings of the bill acceptor.

Xanthe_Matychak · February 12, 2015, 10:29am

id happily redraw the sticker. leave one for me so i can scan it for specs

sean · February 12, 2015, 1:03pm

Great! I’ll be away probably through Tuesday but after that I should be able to dedicate a night a week or so.

Are we agreed on the following at this point?

Fun lights.
Fun sounds.
Dispense balls with something inside.

Anything else?

vicatcu · February 12, 2015, 4:45pm

Absolutely, I’ll leave them in your cubbie.

Xanthe_Matychak · February 12, 2015, 7:44pm

there are so many songs…

jenn · February 14, 2015, 4:07pm

yay excited to hear about this again. maybe post-board meeting we could talk about it?

Jeremy · March 3, 2015, 2:18am

I haven’t been able to make a ton of progress on this, but perhaps a little. I’ve got some servos and some containers to hold prizes. I’m looking for sources for lightweight clear rigid tubing at the moment. as for case design, I’ve got some functional dimensions in mind, and hope to process some pallet lumber tomorrow, with which I can assemble the carcass.

Xanthe_Matychak · March 3, 2015, 1:42pm

cool. i have spring break next week and hope to spend some hours at the makerspace. its been forever.

jenn · March 10, 2015, 12:34pm

would we want to have a donation box gathering pre-board meeting next thursday?

vicatcu · March 26, 2015, 1:22am

Yea I’ll bring the Bill Acceptor with me tomorrow. I actually got it working tonight finally, and it’s super easy. I put the code that I used up on Git-Hub here: https://github.com/ithacagenerator/SmartDonationBox. This borrows liberally from this other repository I found https://github.com/pkropf/greenbacks, not that there’s anything advanced going on in there or anything.

There are literally four wires connected to the bill acceptor: 12VDC, GND, /Enable input (which I just tied directly to GND), and /Pulse output which I connected to an Arduino INT pin. Besides that I just had to connect the Arduino GND to the bill acceptor GND, so I have a little breadboard to make the necessary junctions.

Bill Acceptor    ----   Arduino   ---- 12V power source
(1) /Pulse              DIG3         
(4) /Enable             GND
(11) Power              V_IN            12V
(12) GND                GND             GND

sean · March 26, 2015, 2:58am

Unfortunately I am away until April 3rd. Good job on the bill acceptor though.

-Sean

Xanthe_Matychak · March 27, 2015, 12:10am

http://pyramidacceptors.com/spectra

cc @Dirk_Swart

Xanthe_Matychak · March 27, 2015, 12:12am

@Dirk_Swart

vicatcu · April 12, 2015, 6:54pm

I’m buying spray paint. What color?

vicatcu · April 12, 2015, 7:43pm

Metallic hammered copper it is!