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Looking for help with a Mars 6200H coin mechanism


Jon Sherrod

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The school where my wife works has a pop machine in the teacher's lounge that the building owns. They use the profits to provide faculty lunches at Christmas and end of year get togethers.  Recently the machine stopped accepting any coins.  The coins just pass through to the return.  My wife is the person in charge of stocking the machine, so it has fallen to me to try and troubleshoot the issue with the machine.  As near as I can tell, the problem is in the coin mechanism (although I am open to other suggest as to the problem).  The mechanism has a label on it that TRC-6200H (pic attached).  It has 3 coin tubes, one each for nickels, dimes and quarters.  Online I cannot find any websites that even mention a 6200H.  I find TRC-6200 and TRC-6800H units mentions, so I am not sure what is going on there.

Now to my actual question.  In looking at the coin changer, I noticed that there was a noise in the unit (top deck???) that the coins goes past when they are dropped in.  My understanding is that the magnets in it are used to validate that the coins are real and what value they are.  Anyway, I opened the back of it and noticed that one of the magnets is broken in to four pieces with on piece missing (pic attached). After some research, I see that cracked/broken magnets will cause the unit to not function correctly.  This is the issue I believe.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to find anywhere to purchase the necessary magnet to replace the broken one.  Nor have I been able to find a place to buy a TRC-6200H unit.  The machine lists a whole bunch of coin units that will apparently work in the machine, but I am not familiar enough with vending machines to know if any of the other coin changers are just plug in and go compatible with what is already in the machine.

I was hoping someone here could point me in the right direction to purchase a magnet to replace the broken one or some place to get a working replacement top deck or coin unit that will work in the machine.

unit label.jpeg

coin deck.jpeg

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The coil what actually discriminates coins from slugs.  The broken ferrite allows other "noise" in that affects the coils readings and in turn, prevents the coin from being seen as authentic.   The TRC6200H was MEI's early Single Price mech that should only accept and store nickels and dimes.  Quarters should be sent to the cash box. There are 3 tubes but the quarter tube likely has a block on it and shouldn't have a payout solenoid on that tube. The "H" designates that it has dbv harnessing built in to operate with MEI bill acceptors. 

That mech would need to be repaired and then "retuned".   In your position, I would go ahead and replace that mech with a TRC6800H which will do everything you're trying to do but will also inventory quarters.   Those are very common coin mechs and should be easy to find at a local vending distributor or online. 

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They use the same harness and the TRC6800H will drop right in and plug into the same "Jones plug".  It will not accept bills until the quarter and nickel tubes have around 1 1/2" of coins to cover the lower sensors.  You can see the head of those sensors in the bottoms and top of each tube.

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The ferrite breaks from too many times of pulling the gate open to look for a coin jam and then letting it slam closed.  Make sure you don't do that with the next coin mech.

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Okay, I am back with more questions about the TRC6200H coin unit.  Sorry for the length of this post, but I figure the more info you have the better able you will be able to help me. 

I managed to locate a company that would sell me just the flapper piece that contains the ferrite discs in it.  It was supposed to be a cleaned and checked unit that would work. I am questioning whether it is a working unit.  When I received it, I immediately popped off the cover and saw that the ferrite discs were hot glued in place and it appears that they might be cracked because there are hot glue strips running across the magnets as well as around the outside edges.  (I have attached a picture of it.) Is it safe to assume that if these are cracked that they will not work at all, or could this still be in working order?

I ask this because after I installed it, I did the process for retraining the coin unit, but it does not seem to be working.  The process I tried was the one I found videos on that works for the TRC6000 and TRC6800 units.  Is this the correct process or is there another process?  After I shorted across the two pins, I never heard the click I am supposed to hear after dropping in the 2 nickels, 2 dimes, 2 quarters and then triggering the coin return twice (as I do not want to train for dollar coins).  I still went ahead and then dropped in the 20 nickels, 20 dimes and 20 quarters then unplugged the power, set the price back to $0.75 and then plugged the power back in and tested it.  The coins still fall through to the coin return slot.  

I wondered if the unit was getting power or if the dollar bill acceptor was interfering with it some way, especially since it is connected by a power block between the machine connector and the 6200H power plug.    I didn't really figure that the power was the issue because when it was plugged in with the bill acceptor hooked up as normal, I could get the unit to dispense nickels and dimes with the buttons on the machine.  Just to be sure, however, I removed it and plugged the coin changer directly into the machine outlet with the pins shorted across and it immediately kicked out a nickel and dime from the coin tubes. I then tried to retrain the coin unit using the same steps as before and it still did not work.  

I am going to contact the company I purchased the flapper door, to see what they say about the ferrite magnets, but I am looking for other suggestions on what I might be doing wrong to get it to work correctly.

glued ferrite magnets copy.jpeg

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Just replace the entire coin mech with a rebuilt unit from a known source that repairs them.  The hot glue is a fix to a point but I would never just buy the gate, primarily because the spring is so strong you could either break the gate or the plastic it snaps on to.  You must have succeeded but now see what you have?

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AZ is right...you've spent 5 times that coin mech's value in your own time trying to repair it.  Plus, you'll need to accept quarters as noone carries enough nickels and dimes to do anything with anymore.  If you're accepting dollar bills, you'll be refilling those tubes constantly.  Those are seriously very inexpensive and very plentiful.  The tuning process is not as simple as it some of the videos might seem. You have to perform each step in a time frame and in the proper sequence which I'm not sure is happening.  I've always tuned on an SEM or other benchtop tester which has a button that allows you to put the mech into a "learn" mode.  You still short the proper pins (there are 2 sets to choose from and only one is correct).  Also, you don't keep the pins shorted throughout the entire process for MEI mechs.  There are also coils on the back of the body of the acceptor that likely have broken ferrite as well.  If so, those would need attention before any tuning will be effective.

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I would move to a 6800H since it's one generation newer than your coin mech is.  It's like the difference between an MC5000 vs a TRC6000, well almost anyway.  You never said what bill acceptor you have in the machine so you could also move away from Mars to Coinco that doesn't use the ferrites.

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Not disagreeing with what I have been told, but will clarify some things that I apparently didn't give information on.  

This coin unit does have 3 tubes (nickels, dimes and quarters) although it does not have a vend switch on it for the quarters (just a blank hole).  My wife says that when people put in a dollar it gives a quarter back for change, but I don't remember if it does as I work in a different school building and am rarely at her building and purchase a soda. 

When I tried the retraining process, I did not leave the pins shorted while trying to retrain it.  Once I shorted across the pins, I plugged it back into power and waited about 5 seconds before pulling out the screwdriver I was using to short across and then did the training process.  The speed at which I did the process could have been a problem because I went kind of slow in dropping in the coins and there was a little lag between the different types of coins.  I am however not sure I ever got it into the retraining mode because after do the initial pairs of coins, I never heard a solenoid cycle (click).  

The bill changer in the machine is a CoinCo BA30B.  I will attached a pic of a sticker in the machine that shows what coin units are supposed to work in the machine.

As for the coils on the back of the unit, I was not aware of those.  I could look at those I suppose.  My time isn't really an issue here as I do not do this for pay.  I do things like this when I am capable of it as a service to the district I work for to help conserve money for other uses.  I was/am trying to go the cheapest way to fix it as they profits they make from the machine are so small that there probably will not be enough at the end of the year to pay for their faculty luncheon.

Having said that, I have been instructed that I can pretty much do whatever needs to be done to get the machine back up in working condition so they do not have to purchase a newer/new expensive unit to replace it.  If that means a newer coin changer like the TRC6800H then I will do that.  Any suggestions on reliable companies that sell refurbished units and what would be a decent price for one?

 

acceptable coin units b.jpeg

Edited by Jon Sherrod
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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't know what made me think of this, but it seems like I remember reading somewhere on the net that if a machine somehow gets stuck in vend mode, it would not accept any coins.  Now I am second guessing my original assumption about what was wrong with the machine. Is this a possible cause of why the soft drink machine stopped taking change and if so, how do I tell if it is stuck in vend mode?  Anyone point me to a website or video that would explain what to look for to check for this issue?  I took some pictures over the weekend of the front of the machine where the cams and switches are if that would help in figuring out if it is stuck in vend mode.  I have attached a link to a google drive folder with pictures I took as every time I try to upload a pic here, it tells me the picture has to be resized down to about 10% of the original size.

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1a6TU3fUC89LF_poc-M7SuQ-Ay4mKqpHM?usp=sharing

 

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That is the dreaded and unrecommended Vendo lowering shelf machine.  It's a VF407.  There is one green cam motor that isn't depressing the switch plunger that is causing your lack of coin acceptance.  On this piece of junk machine every black lever must have depressed it's specific motor switch at the end of it's last cycle to enable the vend circuit.  If one motor doesn't do that then it kills the vend circuit.  The cause could be a jammed column or, more likely, lack of lubrication on all the pivot points in that column's lowering levers or you have a bad motor on that column.  These machines are so old that when the lowering parts wear out they can't be adjusted to properly vend.  There are no motors available nor are there motor cams or any other metal parts.  The switches are easily replaced though.  

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Okay, I will look at the switches and see if I can figure out which one is not being depressed.  I will then play with the motors a bit to see if it is working okay now and if it is working, I will lubricate the mechanisms as soon as I have time.  I did find a video discussing what to do to clean and lubricate them.  He was manually tripping the mechanisms and watching the cams rotate around.  To do this, is there a switch I need to depress or some such to fool the unit into believing that the 'door' is closed?  I have dealt with a snack machine once that had one I had to depress to check the motors on some drawers that were not working correctly.  

Alternatively, is there a video anywhere that shows a newb like me how to work with/run the motors to check them.

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Just pull the black levers away from the motor switches and that will start one vend if you immediately release the lever.  That will also uncover the switch plunger that isn't pushed in or will expose a bad switch or jammed column. No videos that I'm aware of since this machine was built before Al Gore invented the internet. But you and everyone else that has this machine can keep flogging your dead horses.

Edited by AZVendor
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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks to the help of everyone who responded, I have purchased a MEI TRC6800H coin unit.  It is installed and taking change correctly.  It is still not dispensing cans of soda however.  once the coin mechanism receives enough change to pay for a can, it returns any extra amount of change (say you put in 80 cents for a soda that costs 75 cents, the machine automatically returns a nickel).  At this point, any more change put in the machine will simply fall into the return receptacle.  However, no matter which of the selection buttons is pressed, no can is dispensed.  However, if I manually trip one of the motor switches, the machine will will dispense a can and then it will accept change again getting ready for the next 'vend'. I did not check this with all 8 of the dispenser motors, but I did do several of them and the dispensing process seemed to clear the waiting to vend state. 

 Would this situation indicate a problem with the vend relay or motor switch or ??????

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Because it's a lowering shelf machine I would only put about 30 mins of diagnostic time into it before I would advise the customer to get a better machine. Your problem is either switch related or wiring related, probably in the door, but who knows.

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Does the vend relay engage when you hit the vend price?  It should click and your "use correct change" light should come on.  Some of them even "buzz" a little while engaged.   If so, I'd start looking at the selection harness wiring as well as the motor switches. 

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Checked this morning, and once the vend price is met, the relay kicks on and seems to stay on until I manually trigger one of the dispenser motors.  I didn't watch the light, but if I remember correctly from Saturday when I was checking it, the light only comes on for maybe 5 seconds before it shuts off. 

I am going to order 4-6 replacement switches and when I have some time (probably a couple of weeks from now) I will start checking switches and cleaning things up on the machine.  I will need to do a little research on what is okay to use to clean around the motors and switches if there is any pop residue and what needs to be lubricated and what to use.  Figure I might as well give it as good of a servicing as I can once I start messing with it.

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Based on the age of the machine, I would strongly consider replacing the entire batch of switches.  While replacing them, you may come across a broken wire as they don't always rear their head very easily.  I'm still not clear on whether your selection panel is getting power as I believe you said you're running the motor by hitting the motor switch.  An open "common" wire on the selection panel would cause this issue as well due to inability to close the vend circuit.

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