help for a stamp-based coin-op machine

Archiver

I'm working on a coin-op machine which uses a BS-2SX as its brain.
When the appropriate amount of quarters are deposited (the coinswitch
is wired to an input lead), it starts a 60-second show for the
customer. I need the Stamp to recognize coin-drops even when the
'show' is underway. Is there any way to have some process running in
the background to increment the quarters_deposited variable, no matter
what else the machine is doing?
Or do I need to switch to a different stamp to accomplish this?

thanks
--Alex

Archiver

You *may* be able to do it with one BASIC Stamp, but it will require some
fairly-tricky programming. It might be easier to use a slave Stamp to handle
the
coins, then a master to deal with the show. This is assuming that
controlling the show is a dynamic process and requires the main Stamp's
attention while
running.

-- Jon Williams
-- Parallax

In a message dated 5/29/2003 11:37:34 AM Central Standard Time,
atl_guy1138@y... writes:

> I'm working on a coin-op machine which uses a BS-2SX as its brain.
> When the appropriate amount of quarters are deposited (the coinswitch
> is wired to an input lead), it starts a 60-second show for the
> customer. I need the Stamp to recognize coin-drops even when the
> 'show' is underway. Is there any way to have some process running in
> the background to increment the quarters_deposited variable, no matter
> what else the machine is doing?
> Or do I need to switch to a different stamp to accomplish this?
>
> thanks
> --Alex



[noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Archiver

I kind of agree with JW - you could do some sort of polling
scheme/branch to subroutine for your coin input but the timing would
be a nightmare. A stamp simply can't multitask.

I'd go with a seperate coin counter chip (another stamp or whatever)
which you could check every so often when convenient within the
code. Perhaps you could even use something as simple as a 40 cent
generic 74XX counter IC?

--- In basicstamps@yahoogroups.com, "atl_guy1138" <atl_guy1138@y...>
wrote:
> I'm working on a coin-op machine which uses a BS-2SX as its brain.
> When the appropriate amount of quarters are deposited (the
coinswitch
> is wired to an input lead), it starts a 60-second show for the
> customer. I need the Stamp to recognize coin-drops even when the
> 'show' is underway. Is there any way to have some process running
in
> the background to increment the quarters_deposited variable, no
matter
> what else the machine is doing?
> Or do I need to switch to a different stamp to accomplish this?
>
> thanks
> --Alex