Some build notes

[Chris Brenton]

Hey folks,

Some stuff I've run into that I'm posting here in the hope that it can assist others.

We got some steady rain which unfortunately got into the crowbox. I've drilled a small hole in the corner to facilitate draining water that collects on the bottom. A 1/8" drill bit seems to do the trick and is small enough to keep bugs from entering.

Since that rain, stage 2 is no longer working for me. Running it down with a multimeter I'm pretty sure the problem is with the Genuino. I'm guessing that while the board was wet I got some customers and that caused a short. I've since figured out that if you extend the wires for the roller switch closest to the side opening, a sandwich bag completely protects the board from moisture. You can't seal the bag, but a couple of pieces of electrical tape seems to do the trick. ;-)

I'm having trouble with stage 3 in that the coins are not being fed consistently. They either swipe the bottom of the coin or only half feed it, causing a jam. I'm pretty sure it's a tolerance issue with the two triangles that push out the coin. This occurs when I use a piece of styrene on each side of the coin dispenser to set the height (about .50 mm). If I try to go lower, it starts interfering with the lid. There probably is a "sweet spot" but the tolerance is so tight I have not been able to find it.

As a work around, I tried gluing a small piece of styrene to the hypotenuse of the two triangles that feed the coin. This is better, but only about 80% consistent at best. I'm going to try another layer and hopefully that does the trick.

I hope the above is helpful!

Chris

[Todd]

Chris:

I found the same.  I've drilled holes in the corner to facilitate more drainage - I didn't have a TON, but I didn't want any standing water interfering with the copper tape on the bottom.  I also put the arduino/breadboard in a ziploc bag - open on one side, electric tape around the holes for the wires (electric, pressure switches), and that seems to have helped.  I definitely had an arduino short out.  I also got a solderable breadboard to help some of the looseness in the connections, and I think that helped greatly.  I was looking for a slim box to put it in, but with the servo, it had to be very thin.  I am looking at a standard pencil box for the next iteration, and taking the arduino/breadboard off the mounting plastic and just put it in the pencil box (with drilled holes on the sides for wires/ventilation).

I gave up on the coin feeder, although I got mine to work mostly reliably.  My issue is that it will throw out one coin, and not all blue jays "get it".  I definitely have one or two that will just throw the coin off the feeder instead of into the slot.  That left no coins on the box, and the birds that do "get it", don't quite get the idea that they can go to the ground and get the coin yet.  So after a day or two, I would go and put the coin back on, and within moments, a bird would either knock it in, or knock it off.  So now, I just throw a handful of coins on top and check on it periodically.

My other big issue is with the reliability of the stage 3 coin sensor.  These birds are messy, and often leave remnants in the coin slot.  Those remnants will either block the coin from going all the way down, or they will cause the coin to kind of bump around/jump when it hits the copper tape causing it to not close the circuit fully.  I end up cleaning it out thoroughly once a week.

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[Chris Brenton]

Hey Todd,

Wow. Deja vu. ;-)

The side access panel is cut low enough that there should never be enough standing water to interfere with the copper tape's operation directly. However, the evaporation of the water that does accumulate will certainly mess with the electronics. Probably more of a concern for me as I'm located in Florida where it gets very hot and when it rains it absolutely downpours. 

I like the idea of the solderable breadboard. I can understand the design decision to use press fit as it's one less tool/skill that could be a barrier to building the box. However, I feel pretty confident that most folks who are willing to take on a project like this have already soldered once or twice in their life. ;-)

The other concern I've had with the breadboard, which has not yet been a problem, is that I'm seeing rust around the base. This will eventually interfere with the press fit connections. Soldering them in place would help take care of that. 

I like the pencil box idea. There are many cases available for the Raspberry Pi, so one of those may also work. It would also be pretty easy to build the box out of acrylic. That way the sizing could be exact.

Thanks for the insight on coin management. I have mine out on the lawn and it would probably be a real challenge to find lost coins in the grass ( we have St Augustine down here which grows with many layers of stolons on top of each other making it easy to loose small items). I'll start thinking through what I can place at the base to make retrieving dropped coins a bit easier.

I've run into the exact same problem with the coin return. I picked up a set of curved hemostats to help clear the top of the coin return, but if the debris makes it down to the ramp it's a real challenge. Having a rear panel would make cleaning the ramp a bit easier, but that would trigger its own set of design challenges. For now I've just been putting the crowbox on it's back and lightly pinching the styrene until the debris works loose. This is not optimal, so I think next time I'm going to try an inspection mirror with the curved hemostats. That way I can at least leave the crowbox on the pole.

I'm also wondering if a couple of small inspection holes in the styrene may help. This shouldn't interfere with the coin return operation but would make it easier to spot when there is a jam. You could then use a small screwdriver to push the debris through to the crowbox. I may give this a shot if this turns into a consistent problem.

BTW, I hope that no one takes any of my commentary as complaints about the design. It's clear that a lot of thought has gone into this and it's challenging to account for every single variable.

Thanks for the sage advice!

Chris

[Josh Klein]

Just wanted to jump in and say that these are great points. We're looking at some of these now, but also the designs are open source - so if you've got a great fix in mind please feel free to try it out and share!

- J

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