Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) It’s alive, oh crap it does not work, ok let’s ‘hack’ it, look mom it works, kinda. Let me tell you what I did. TL;DR The adventure began with an expectation that a modern coin acceptor could be mounted,...
Bottom Line Up Front Selecting a coin acceptor was straight forward. I wanted to program new coins and a token, be inexpensive, and physically fit inside a pinball. Let’s hack the Microcoin QL. TL;DR “All this has happened before” –BSG...
Bottom Line Up Front Plug it in, turn it on, Darn it, my coin acceptor does nothing. OK, so what’s this orange (amber) LED all about? TL;DR I got such a deal. So, I saw an auction for a dozen Microcoin QLs, about $100 + shipping. That’s a great...
Bottom Line Up FrontccTalk is an open specification for communication between hosts like vending machines, your PC or perhaps even my pinball machine (someday!) AND coin acceptors and bill validators. Connect a data line between the ccTalk port and your...
Bottom Line Up Front Was it a $5 part? I don’t recall. It’s just a USB serial adaptor. Look mom, there’s a Tx and Rx pin. What more is there to say? Next. TL;DR My point: We should not take our systems, devices, and components for granted. It’s...
Bottom Line Up FrontAs an engineer, one must recognize when it is more cost effective to buy the solution vs. build your own. To that end, I researched the company’s Micromate and VAL 364 USB interface. Both are used to control the coin acceptor. Both...
Before anything else, a strong caution: I am not some guy who has been laying tile for 20 years. In fact, this is my first go at it. Although I'm describing my thought process and various decisions, some of those things will be based on my assessment...
I don't know how many videos about tiling I have watched over the last few months, but I'm sure it's more than a hundred. When I viewed one that I thought was particularly noteworthy, for one reason or another, I added it to a youtube playlist. Sometimes...
This is a familiar situation for many of us. Do I hire someone to do this job or do it myself? Either way, there is a sub-decision about the approach. Let's consider that sub-decision first.Replacing the old tile can be done with either traditional tile...
In this project log entry, I'm recording various measurements so as to have them all in one place instead of the zoo of tiny slips of paper where I have previously recorded them. Some measurements will only be determined after I have done some demolition,...
Strictly speaking, this isn't part of the tile job. Since I was going to be opening up the walls, I planned to replace the tub/shower combo water controls. The current controls were probably the originals from when the house was built 30-40 years...
Looking at available tiles is dizzying. There are several different materials, several common sizes, and unaccountably many colors or patterns. If it were easy or inexpensive to change out the tiles, I'd probably go with something pretty provocative...
Or, rather, the day of. This is how it starts: And this is how it (almost) ends: I still have to take the backing off the other two walls and then trim up all around. I found out some interesting things during demolition. First of all, as far as...
I caught a break on one part of the job. I know how important it is to start tiling with a level first row and adapting for out-of-level tub tops. Many videos have assured me that an existing tub is never level, and I will have to make adjustments. Well,...
Every tile job now must feature a niche. It's just one of society's rules. Fabricating a custom niche out of waterproof foam board seems straightforward, and that's the way I would do it if I had more experience with this. Instead, I've decided to go...