Ncr Corporation

Ncr Atleos Corporation

Scott Low Colston

Gary A Ross

Michael McLeod Rennie

Alexander William Whytock

Craig Scott Nicol

Ross Johnston

Anthony James Storey

Barrie Clark

Douglas L Milne

Gordon Burke

Scott Deas

Fraser Spowart

Disclosed are systems and methods for protecting an escrow clutch of a self-service terminal. The systems and methods may include actuating a motor of the self-service terminal to cause an escrow clutch of the self-service terminal to spin at a rate. As the clutch spins, a determination as to when a clutch slippage exceeds a preset slippage rate may be made. When the clutch slippage exceeds the preset slippage rate, the motor may be actuated to cause the escrow clutch to spin at a second rate. The second rate may less than the first rate.

Escrow clutch protection

A media storage bin has a guide member mounted via a hinge adjacent to a wall of an enclosure and a second free end. The guide member directs inserted media items downward and pivots around an axis of the hinge. A base plate is mounted below the guide member in the enclosure and is arranged to hold a stack of inserted media items on a top surface thereof. A motor is coupled to move the base plate up and down within the enclosure. A controller is coupled to control movement of the motor and is configured to provide signals to the motor to move the base plate to a predetermined home position adjacent to the guide member upon startup and move the base plate upward to compress any deformed inserted media items on the base plate until an input feedback signal reaches a predetermined level.

Media storage bin and method

A modular valuable media recycling device is presented. The valuable media recycling device includes a media infeed module, a validator module, an escrow module, a plurality of media feeder/stacking modules, and a plurality of cassette modules. When a module handles a valuable media item along a media transport path, the module's identifier and security information are passed as a message to a next module that is to handle the media item in a processing path for the media item. Each module independently validates the authenticity of the message received from a previous module. The number of media feeder/stacking modules and cassette modules are scalable based on the transaction terminal that the modular valuable media recycling device is integrated into.

Modular valuable media recycling device

Modular bank note recycling device

An escrow module of a valuable media depository is configured to self-adjust the position of an escrow drum relative to an escrow pinch. The media is maintained within the pinch as the escrow module takes in media items and returns media items by the self-adjusting positions of the escrow drum. As the drum fills up with media items, the drum is moved away from the escrow pinch while maintaining a consistent media path and providing consistent performance regardless of the number of media items being processed in a transaction to and from the drum.

Media escrow with dynamic drum positioning

A method and apparatus are disclosed for determining a condition at an item of media container. The method includes the steps of locating a suction element at a pick up region of a container, selectively connecting a source of negative pressure to the suction element, determining a pressure at the suction element, and determining a condition of the container responsive to the determined pressure.

Condition determining

A pick mechanism is described. The pick mechanism comprises: a movable pick component; a stepper motor; and, a stepper motor controller. The stepper motor is operably connected to the pick component to drive the pick component in a sequence of movements, and each movement involves the pick component travelling in one direction between one position and another position in a required time. The controller produces control signals that control the motor such that the pick component is driven during a movement at or close to the minimum rate of acceleration required to complete the movement in the required time.

Controlling a pick mechanism of a machine for handling sheet media

A media presenter is described. The media presenter comprises: a chassis including a central track; a nose coupled to the chassis at a nose end of the chassis; and a carriage. The nose includes a presenting end distal from the chassis, and a nose track arranged to couple to the central track to provide a presenting track extending from the chassis to the presenting end. The carriage is mounted on the presenting track for movement therealong, and comprises a carriage body and a carriage plate movable between an open position at which media items can be placed on the carriage plate, and a closed position for clamping media items between the carriage plate and the carriage body.

Media presenter

A media dispenser comprises: a pick unit arranged to pick individual sheets under control of a pick unit motor; a transport section arranged to transport each picked sheet; a stacker wheel arranged to collate transported sheets under control of a stacker wheel motor; and a controller including a counter. The controller is arranged to (i) enable selectively the pick unit motor and the stacker wheel motor, (ii) provide a first step signal to both the pick unit motor and an input to the counter, and (iii) provide an output from the counter as a second step signal to the stacker wheel motor.

Media dispenser

A card reader device has a card entrance for receiving a card and a card enclosure in registration with the card entrance. The card enclosure defines an area in which the card is read. The card reader also has a card transport mechanism for drawing a card into the card enclosure and for ejecting the card from the card enclosure. A sensor is provided for sensing displacement of part of the card transport mechanism in a direction transverse to the plane of transport of the card, and a control circuit ascertains if the displacement of the card transport mechanism fulfills an alarm criterion.

Card reader device with sensor for sensing card trapping device

Methods and apparatus for media characterization in a self-service terminal are described. The media us characterized in the self-service terminal by passing it by two electrodes and measuring the impedance across those two electrodes. The media is characterized by analyzing the measured impedance. The impedance may be measured by applying a modulated reference signal to one electrode and detecting the current on the second electrode. In an embodiment, the detected current may be converted into a voltage signal and mixed with a phase shifted version of the modulated reference signal.

Growing community of inventors

Dundee, United Kingdom

Scott Low Colston