Train it with real coins
The acceptor learns a coin by being shown fifteen of them. There is no software for this, no computer, and no confirmation on the display — you count them yourself, and getting the count wrong is the commonest way this goes badly.
What training is
The acceptor does not know what a quarter is. It measures the coin that went through — its diameter, its thickness, how it interacts with a coil — and compares those measurements against ranges it has stored. Training is how the ranges get stored: you push fifteen examples through, and it takes the spread of those fifteen as the definition of that coin.
That is why fifteen and not one. One coin gives a point; fifteen gives a range wide enough to accept the next slightly-worn example and narrow enough to reject the one next to it in your pocket.
The sequence
Press the button and it walks through what the display says. From E:
- SET — the display shows
A. - SET again —
A1, asking for coin type one. - Feed it fifteen coins of that type. Press SET.
A2— fifteen of the second type. SET.- And so on, for as many types as you set pulse values for.
- Back to
E. It is trained.
A1 is the coin type you set P1's pulse value for, A2 is P2, and so on.
That is the only connection between the two menus, and it is positional — there
is nothing to relate them except the order you did them in.
Count them yourself
The display does not count up. It shows A1 from the first coin to the
fifteenth and gives no indication of how many it has had. So count into a pile
of fifteen before you start, and feed the pile.
Fewer than fifteen and the range is too narrow, which shows up as a coin that is accepted four times out of five. More than fifteen and — depending on the firmware — the extras are either ignored or folded in, and neither is what you asked for.
Test it properly
Drop one of each trained coin in. Two things should happen: the coin should be accepted rather than falling through to the reject slot, and the COIN wire should pulse the number of times you set for that coin.
If the coin is accepted but the pulse count is wrong, the problem is in the pulse menu, not in training. If it is rejected, it is training. Those are different pages and it is worth knowing which one you are on.
Mixing coins is the trap
Do not feed a mixture inside one type. Fifteen coins made of eight quarters and seven dollars teaches the machine one range that spans both, and from then on it will accept either as whichever type you were programming. Retraining that type is the fix.
When it does not work
Either the acceptor has not been trained at all, or the coin you are testing with is not one of the types you trained. A brand-new acceptor knows nothing, including the token in the box. Train it, then test with exactly the coins you trained on.
The training sample was too small or too varied. Redo that coin type with a full fifteen, and use coins in reasonable condition — a badly worn or bent coin teaches the machine a shape it will then look for.
Two denominations were mixed inside one training type, so the machine learned a range that covers both. Retrain that type with fifteen of one denomination only. Two coins of similar size and metal will always be harder to separate than two very different ones.
Press SET to close the type, then go back into training and do that type again. Redoing it overwrites the previous attempt, so nothing is stuck. Counting into a small pile before you start is easier than counting while feeding.
Two output wires, and the one-pulse coin that makes them look identical.
COIN or COUNTER: pick one wire →Edit this page — content/books/coin-acceptor/train-it-with-real-coins.mdx
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