need help understanding coin acceptor.

[ishowernaked]

i'd like to build my first arcade cabinet and i wanted to just stick a dreamcast in my cabinet with a tv hooked up to it. does anyone here know how to add a coin acceptor to my dreamcast arcade cabinet?

[tom61]

The only electronic part of most coin accepters is a switch. Most just hook it up to the start button on a controller in Dreamcast cabs that have one.

[ishowernaked]

cool. i didnt know that. i thought it was much more complex

[Haunted360]

Nah, they seem quite complex - but all the fancy stuff is to detect the wrong coins and reject them.

The only thing you want, is the 2 wires coming from the Micro-switch. Either on MS1 for Player 1 (P1), and or MS2 for P2.

With those found, you then just want to solder them to the controller, and then find a path out of the controller for the wires to follow out.

[weaponepsilon]

You can find an old coin mech on ebay. It will take a lot of work to get a Dollar bill acceptor to work because it has to scan the bill and activate a command to stack and credit on the game.

[ryguy425425]

I know it's been answered, but I thought I'd add a few things. The coin acceptor is just a switch, it even looks the same as those for your buttons/joystick. It is very easy to wire. I got mine for $20 used on ebay, make sure you get the door and the coin mech for your country (So you don't have to go looking for american quarters even though Canadian quarters are almost identical ). I can get some pics of my cabinet if it would help.

[tom61]

I know it's been answered, but I thought I'd add a few things. The coin acceptor is just a switch, it even looks the same as those for your buttons/joystick. It is very easy to wire. I got mine for $20 used on ebay, make sure you get the door and the coin mech for your country (So you don't have to go looking for american quarters even though Canadian quarters are almost identical ). I can get some pics of my cabinet if it would help.

Most all arcade coin acceptors have a screw on the back that you can adjust for the size of coin, so that it can be made to take tokens instead. Sounds like yours is/was set for tokens, as Canadian quarters should be close enough to plunk through.