Coin Acceptors, Inc.

Mark H Leibu

Joseph L Levasseur

Gilbert W Van Cleve

Thomas S Paczkowski

Ronald A Hoormann

Roger O Claghorn

Ronald E Lovall

Steven Michael Costello

Thierry J Vivet

Chuanming Wang

A bill validator for a vending machine including a bill validator housing having a pair of wing deflectors associated therewith in a sliding arrangement and a bezel having at least two indicator apertures in a faceplate portion thereof and further comprising a pair of opposing mounting wings, the mounting wings comprising retainer portions, the retainer portions comprising ramped surfaces and retainer surfaces on inner surfaces of the wings. The retainer portions cooperate with bezel mount apertures formed in the bill validator housing to retain the bezel upon the bill validator housing. The wing deflectors comprise tapered surfaces at an end adjacent to the mounting wings, the tapered surfaces when brought into contact with the mounting wings resiliently force the mounting wings outwardly to disengage the retainer portions from the bezel mount apertures to allow disassociation of the bezel from the bill validator housing.

Bill acceptor with improved bezel

A device for sensing predetermined characteristics of an object such as a coin or a token in order to determine its validity or genuineness and in some cases its denomination, the device including a combination of optical and electromagnetic sensors which operate together along a coin path and capable to analyze the coin or token in different positions so that if there are multiple holes or rings of transparent material they can be sensed and used to determine the coin or token's validity and denomination.

Detection device

An improved method and apparatus for selection of vendible products provides designated product reference areas at a refrigerated double glass front vending machine for making viewable product selections thereon by applying a light tap at its outer glass pane and sensing the tap location by three or more spaced apart resilient members each having its first portion attached at the inner glass pane. The resilient member's second portion suspends an inertia mass that reciprocates at a predetermined rate due to the inertia mass weight and the resiliency of the suspending member. A sensor senses the reciprocating movement in response to the light tap. The location of the tap is determined by measuring the arrival time of each predetermined signal produced by the first resonating alternation of its attached resiliently suspended inertia mass during the first rearward movement of the inner glass pane.

Method of selecting a product from a refrigerated glass front vending machine

A system and process for controlling one or more vending machine devices, including the provision of a communications and control system for effecting an interchange of information over a wireless bus between and among the vending machine devices, the communications and control system including a plurality of communications portions associated with respective vending machine components and operable to transmit and receive short distance communications signals, the vending machine components being positioned within range of the short distance communications signals to define a peer-to-peer network having a wireless communications bus accessible through the communications portions interconnecting the positioned vending machine components for point-to-point communications.

Vending machine system and method

A system for controlling one or more vending machines each of which has an associated module which can send and receive radio frequency signals, the system including a central data collection device which includes a device for sending radio frequency signals which can be intercepted by and used to control the operation of a selected one or more of the vending machines, each vending machine having elements for using the radio frequency signals it receives from the central data collection device to vend products selected by a customer, the central collection device includes a mechanism for determining the amount of deposits or credit entry in excess of the selected vends for returning this excess deposits or credit entry to the customer based on the amount of credit or deposits entered and the cost of the products selected to be vended by the vending machines.

Vending machine system

A bill validator for detecting the presence of a bill comprising a bill passageway having a first side and a second side, a light source positioned at the first side, the light source for emitting light across the passageway, a reflecting surface positioned at the second side, and a detector device positioned at the first side, the detector device for receiving light reflected from the reflecting surface.

System for detecting a foreign object attached to a bill passing through a bill validator

A coin detection device for determining a size of a coin traveling along a coin track comprises a first inductive sensor positioned along the coin track, a second inductive sensor positioned above the first inductive sensor, a processing circuit connected to the first and second inductive sensors, each of the sensors for providing an output signal to the processing circuit and the processing circuit determining the size of the coin based upon a ratio of the output signals.

Coin detection device

A four coin tube/four coin denomination coin changer is configured for installation and operation within existing vending machines, which existing vending machines have vending machine controllers configured to recognize and operate with coin changers having only three coin tubes and which vending machine controllers are operable to effect payout of coins from such three coin tube coin changers by signals produced on three coin tube interface lines. The four coin tube coin changer includes a processor which, when installed, is operatively connected to the three coin tube interface lines of the vending machine. The processor of the four coin tube coin changer is programmed to interpret signals received from the coin tube interface lines as particular monetary values, and the processor buffers or stores such values thereby accumulating a change payout amount. The processor is operable in various modes to effect payout of the accumulated change payout amount.

Multiple coin tube changer operable within existing vending machine

A differential type sensing unit which includes a winding core having a winding shaft is described. In one embodiment, a post extends from the winding shaft and is located intermediate first and second winding ends of the winding shaft. The post facilitates reversing the winding direction of a conductor wound on the winding shaft. The conductor is wound such that the sensing unit includes a first sensing coil and a second sensing coil formed in a series opposing configuration. The sensing unit may be integrated with a driving unit to include driving coils formed over the top of the sensing coils.

Coin detection apparatus

A coin validation system for determining if a coin moving along a coin rail is a valid coin, and if so, its denomination the system including a rail along which coins move, at least one optical sensor located along the rail to sense the presence or absence of a coin moving therealong, at least one magnetic sensor associated with each optical sensor located in the vicinity of the respective optical sensor, each of the magnetic sensors including an inductive element and a circuit for exciting the magnetic sensor to produce a field that is coupled to the coin moving past so that the coin and the inductive element have mutual inductance therebetween, the circuit ringing the magnetic sensor a predetermined number of times while the coin is adjacent to the magnetic sensor whereby the magnetic sensor generates a damped wave signal having characteristics representative of the physical and magnetic characteristics of the coin, a signal preprocessor operatively connected to the magnetic sensor for producing output responses representative of distinguishing characteristics of the coin, a feature extraction circuit for extracting from the output responses of the signal preprocessor signal portions representative of predetermined distinguishing characteristics of the coin, a circuit for producing a multi-dimensional representation of the extracted features and for comparing the multi-dimensional representation with the center of an established ellipsoidal cluster of selected coin denominations to determine the extent of the comparison therebetween and to be used to determine whether the coin is an acceptable coin or not, and an artificial neural network classifier circuit having connections to the preprocessor and to the comparator circuit, the neural network classifier circuit having an output which identifies the denomination of coins that are determined by the comparator circuit to be acceptable.

Growing community of inventors

St. Louis, MO, United States of America

Mark H Leibu