AU777507B2 - Coin discrimination apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

S&F Ref: 447813D1

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name and Address of Applicant: Actual Inventor(s): Coinstar, Inc.

Suite 200 13231 S.E. 36th Street Bellevue Washington 98006 United States of America Doug Martin Larry Cannon Mark Waechter Rodrigo Berho Daniel Everhart Robert Blumberg Paul Leonard Cheryl Germany Dan Gerrity Alan C Phillips Stuart K Neubarth Spruson Ferguson St Martins Tower,Level 31 Market Street Sydney NSW 2000 (CCN 3710000177) Address for Service:

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CCC.

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Invention Title: Coin Discrimination Apparatus and Method The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us:- 5845c COIN DISCRIMINATION APPARATUS AND METHOD The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for sensing coins and other small discrete objects, and in particular to an apparatus which may be used in coin counting or handling.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION A number of devices are intended to identify and/or discriminate coins or other small discrete objects. One example is coin counting or handling devices, (such as those described in U.S. Patent Application 08/255,539 (now U.S. Patent No. 5,564,546), US Patent Application S.N. 08/237,486 (now U.S. Patent No. 5,620,079) and its continuation to application (now US Patent No. 5,799,767), filed April 7, 1997 (attorney file number 3730-901-3), and 08/431,070 (now US Patent No. 5,746,299), all of which are incorporated herein by reference). Other examples include vending machines, gaming devices such as slot machines, bus or subway coin or token "fare boxes", and the like.

Preferably, for such purposes, the sensors provide information which can be used to discriminate coins from non-coin objects and/or which can discriminate among different coin denominations and/or discriminate coins of one country from those of another.

Previous coin handling devices, and sensors therein, however, have suffered from a number of deficiencies. Many previous sensors have resulted in an undesirably large proportion of discrimination errors. At least in some cases this is believed to arise from an undesirably small signal to noise ratio in the sensor output. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide coin discrimination sensors having improved signal to noise ratio.

Many previous coin handling devices, and associated sensors, were configured to receive only one coin at a time, such as a typical vending machine which receives a single coin at a time through a coin slot. These devices typically present an easier coin handling and sensing environment because there is a lower expectation for coin throughout, an avoidance of the deposit of foreign material, an avoidance of small inter-coin spacing (or coin overlap), and because the slot naturally defines maximum coin diameter and thickness. Coin handlers and sensors that might be operable for a one-at-a-time coin environment may not be satisfactory for an environment in which a mass or plurality of coins can be received in a single location, all at once (such as a tray for receiving a mass of coins, poured into the tray from a coin jar). Accordingly it would be useful to provide a coin handler and/or sensor which, although it might be successfully employed in a one-coin-at-a-time environment, can also function satisfactorily in a device which receives a mass of coins.

[IADayLib\LBEJ41 57.doc:kxa Many previous sensors and associated circuitry used for coin discrimination were configured to sense characteristics or parameters of coins (or other objects) so as to provide data relating to an average value for a coin as a whole. Such sensors and circuitry were not able to provide information specific to certain regions or levels of the coin (such as core material vs. cladding material). In some currencies, two or more denominations may have average characteristics which are so similar that it is difficult to distinguish the coins. For example, it is difficult to distinguish U.S. dimes from pre-1982 U.S. pennies, based only on average differences, the main physical difference being the difference in cladding (or absence thereof). In some previous devices, inductive coin testing is used to detect the effect of a coin on an alternating electromagnetic field produced by a coil, and specifically the coin's effect upon the coil's impedance, e.g. related to one or more of the coin's diameter, thickness, conductivity and permeability. In general, when an alternating electromagnetic field is provided to sch a coil, the field will penetrate a coin to an extent that decreases with increasing frequency. Properties near the surface of a coin have a greater effect on a higher frequency field, and interior material have a lesser effect.

Because certain coins, such as the United States ten and twenty-five cent coins, are laminated, this frequency dependency can be of use in coin discrimination, but it is believed, has not previously been used in this manner. Accordingly, it would further be useful to provide a device which can provide information relating to different regions of coins or other objects.

Although there are a number of parameters which, at least theoretically, can be useful in discriminating coins and small objects (such as size, including diameter and thickness), mass, density, conductivity, magnetic permeability, homogeneity or lack thereof (such as cladded or plated coins), and the like, many previous sensors were 25 configured to detect only a single one of such parameters. In embodiments in which only a single parameter is used, discrimination among coins and other small objects was often inaccurate, yielding both misidentification of a coin denomination (false positives), and failure to recognize a coin denomination (false negatives). In some cases, two coins which are different may be identified as the same coin because a parameter which could 30 serve to discriminate between the coins (such as presence of absence of plating, magnetic non-magnetic character of the coin, etc.) is not detected by the sensor. Thus, using such sensors, when it is desired to use several parameters to discriminate coins and other objects, it has been necessary to provide a plurality of sensors (if such sensors are available), typically one sensor for each parameter to be detected. Multiplying the number of sensors in a device increases the cost of fabricating, designing, maintaining [I:\DayLib\LIBE]41I57.doc:kxa and repairing such apparatus. Furthermore, previous devices typically required that multiple sensors be spaced apart, usually along a linear track which the coins follow, and often the spacing must be relatively far apart in order to properly correlate sequential data from two sensors with a particular coin (and avoid attributing data from the two sensors to a single coin when the data was related, in fact, to two different coins). This spacing increases the physical size requirements for such a device, and may lead to an apparatus which is relatively slow since the path which the coins are required to traverse is longer.

Furthermore, when two or more sensors each output a single parameter, it is typically difficult or impossible to base discrimination on the relationship or profile of 0io one parameter to a second parameter for a given coin, because of the difficulty in knowing which point in a first parameter profile corresponds to which point in a second parameter profile. If there are multiple sensors spaced along the coin path, the software for coin discrimination becomes more complicated, since it is necessary to keep track of when a coin passes by the various sensors. Timing is affected, by speed variations in the coins as they move along the coin path, such as rolling down a rail.

Even in cases where a single core is used for two different frequencies or parameters, many previous devices take measurements at two different times, typically as the coin moves through different locations, in order to measure several different parameters. For example, in some devices, a core is arranged with two spaced-apart poles with a first measurement taken at a first time and location when a coin is adjacent a first pole, and a second measurement taken at a second, later time, when the coin has moved substantially toward the second pole. It is believed that, in general, providing two or more different measurement locations or times, in order to measure two or more parameters, or in order to use more frequencies, leads to undesirable loss of coin 25 throughout, occupies undesirably extended space and requires relatively complicated circuits and/or algorithms to match up sensor outputs as a particular coin moves to different measurement locations).

Some sensors relate to the electrical or magnetic properties of the coin or other object, and may involve creation of an electromagnetic field for application to the coin.

30 With many previous sensors, the interaction of generated magnetic flux with the coin was too low to permit the desired efficiency and accuracy of coin discrimination, and resulted in an insufficient signal-to-noise ratio.

Many previous coin handling devices and sensors had characteristics which were undesirable, especially when the devices were for use by untrained users. Such previous devices had insufficient accuracy, short service life, had an undesirably high potential for [I:\DayLib\LIBEJ41I57.doc:kxa -3acausing user injuries, were difficult to use, requiring training or extensive instruction, failed, too often, to return unprocessed coins to the user, took too long to process coins, had an undesirably low throughput, were susceptible to frequent jamming, which could not be cleared without human intervention, often requiring intervention by trained personnel, could handle only a narrow range of coin types, or denomination, were overly sensitive to wet or sticky coins or foreign or non-coin objects, either malfunctioning or placing the foreign objects in the coin bins, rejected an undesirably high portion of good coins, required frequent and/or complicated set-up, calibration or maintenance, required too large a volume or footprint, were overly-sensitive to temperature variations, were lo undesirably loud, were hard to upgrade or retrofit to benefit from new techniques or ideas, and/or were difficult or expensive to design and manufacture.

Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a coin handler and/or sensor device having improved discrimination and accuracy, reduced costs or space requirements, which is faster than previous devices, easier or less expensive to design, Is construct, use and ,maintain, and/or results in improved signal-to-noise ratio.

SUMMARY

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for use in a device for separating acceptable coins from other objects, comprising: a sensor for sensing at least a first coin characteristic and outputting at least a .oo.

first signal when a coin is recognized as an acceptable coin; a rail for transporting coins from said sensor to a controllable deflector; 25 wherein said deflector is configured to move from a first relaxed configuration to a second configuration for deflecting a coin off said rail to a path for placement in an acceptable-coin location, in response to said first signal, and wherein an item not deflected by said deflector moves along said rail to a path for placement in a reject location.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a **coin-handling apparatus comprising: an input tray for receiving a plurality of coins of a plurality of denominations in random orientations; .at least a first chute, having at least a first coin support surface, configured to transport coins from said input tray to a coin pickup device; [I:\DayLib\LIBE]4157.doc:kxa -3bsaid coin pickup device having a hopper for receiving coins in a random orientation and at least a first rail for delivering coin at an exit region of said first rail, with said coins in a substantially coplanar attitude and in single file; at least a first sensor, spaced from said exit region, for providing at least a first signal indicative of at least a first coin characteristic; circuitry coupled to said first sensor for receiving at least said first signal and outputting at least a second signal indicative of whether a sensed object is an acceptable coin; a deflector configured to move from a first configuration for deflecting a coin off said rail to a surface defining a first path having at least a second coin contact surface, and wherein items not deflected by said deflector move to a surface defining a second path, having at least a third coin contact surface; and a second rail for gravitational transport of coins from said exit region, past said sensor, to said deflector.

According to one embodiment of the invention, after input and, preferably, cleaning, coins are singulated and move past a sensor fro discrimination, counting and/or sorting. In general, coin slowing or adhesion is reduced by avoiding extensive flat regions in surfaces which contact coins (such as making such surfaces curved, quilted or dimpled). Coin paths are configured to flare or widen in the direction of coin travel to avoid jamming.

A singulating coin pickup assembly is preferably provided with two or more concentrically-mounted disks, one of which includes an integrated exit ledge. Movable paddles flex to avoid creating or exacerbating jams and deflect over the coin exit ledge.

25 Vertically stacked coins tip backwards into a recess and slide over supporting coins to facilitate singulation. At the end of a transaction, coins are forced along the coin path by a rake, and debris is removed through a trap door. Coins exiting the coin pickup assembly are tipped away from the face-support rail to minimise friction.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a sensor is provided in which nearly all the magnetic field produced by the coil interacts with the coin providing o relatively intense electromagnetic field in the region traversed by a coin or other object.

Preferably, the sensor can be used to obtain information on two different parameters of a i coin or other object. In one embodiment, a single sensor provides information indicative .I of both size, (diameter) and conductivity. In one embodiment, the sensor includes a core, such as a ferrite or other magnetically permeable material, in a curved torroid or [I:\DayLib\LIBE]41 57.doc:kxa 3c half-torroid) shape which defines a gap. The coin being sensed moves through the vicinity of he gap, in one embodiment, through the gap. In one embodiment, the core is shaped to reduce sensitivity of the sensor to slight deviations in the location of the coin within the gap (bounce or wobble). As a coin or the object passes through the field in the vicinity of the gap, data relating to the coin parameters are sensed, such as changes in inductance (from which the diameter of the object or coin, or positions thereof, can be derived), and the quality factor (Q factor), related to the amount of energy dissipated (from which conductivity of the object or coin, or positions thereof, can be obtained).

In one embodiment, data relating to conductance of the coin (or portions thereof) 1o as a function of a diameter are analyzed by comparing with conductance-diameter data for known coins) in order to discriminate the sensed coins. Preferably, the detection procedure uses several thresholds or window parameters to provide high recognition accuracy.

In one embodiment, low and high frequency coils on the core form a part of oscillator circuits. The circuits are configured to maintain oscillation of the signal through the coils at a substantially constant frequency, even as the effective inductance of the coil changes in response to passage of a coin). The amount of change in other components of the circuit needed to offset the change in inductance (and thus maintain the frequency at a substantially constant value) is a measure of the magnitude of the change in the inductance caused by the passage of the coin, and indicative of coin diameter.

In addition to providing information related to coin diameter, the sensor can also be used to provide information related to coin conductance, preferably substantially •simultaneously with providing the diameter information. As a coin moves past the coil, 25 there will be an amount of energy loss and the amplitude of the signal in the coil will change in a manner related to the conductance of the coin (or portions thereof). For a given effective diameter of the coin, the energy loss in the eddy currents will be inversely related to the conductivity of the coin material penetrated by the magnetic field.

Preferably, the coin pickup assembly and sensor regions are configured for easy 30 access for cleaning and maintenance, such as by providing a sensor block which slides away from the coin path and can be re-positioned without recalibration. In one embodiment, the diverter assembly is hinged to permit it to be tipped outward for access.

Preferably, coins which stray from the coin path are deflected, e.g. via a ramped sensor housing and/or bypass chutes, to a customer return area.

[1:\DayLib\LBE]41 57.doc:kxa -3d- Coins which are recognized and properly positioned or spaced are deflected out of the default (gravity-fed) coin path into an acceptance bin or trolley. Any coins or other objects which are not thus actively accepted along a default path to the customer return area. Preferably, information is sensed which permits an estimate of coin velocity and/or acceleration so that the deflector mechanism can be timed to deflect a coins even though different coins may be travelling at different velocities owing to stickiness or adhesion). In one embodiment, each object is individually analyzed to determine if it is a coin that should be accepted is recognized as an acceptable coin denomination), and, if so, if it is possible to properly deflect the coin it is sufficiently spaced from 1o adjacent coins). By requiring that active steps be taken to accept a coin by making the default path the "reject" path, it is more likely that all accepted objects will in fact be members of an acceptable class, and will be accurately counted.

e [I:\DayLib\LIBEJ4157.doc:kxa BRIEF DESICRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. IA depicts a coin Itandlin apartus that way be used in commeto with an embodiment of the present invention; Fib l B depicts a coin handling apparatus according toan emibodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2A is a front elevational view of a senso and adjacent coin, according to a embodiment of the present invention; S figs. 211and2Xaanperpective vimsof masnand coin-trnspotrail accordingto embodimentsoftherset inention; ig 2D depict: a w-core configuration according to an embodiment of the present invntion; fig. I isa fron eevatimnal view of a senso and adjacent coin, according to another em~dment of the present invention; fig. 4 is a top plan vew of the sunmo of Fig. 3; ig. S is a Modc diarm of a disaiinination device according to an embodiment of the present invention 6 is a block diagra of adiscisti. vice according moimne t of epretineim Fig. 7 depct various signals that occu in the circuit of figs. B-C; Fig 8A-D are block and schematic diagram of a circuit which nay be used in connection with an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 9 depicts an eunyilet of output signals of a type output by the circuit of Figs. BA-D as a coin passes the sensor, Figs 10A and l0B depict standard data and tolerance regions of a type that may be M for discrininating coins on the basis of data output by sensors IS of the present invention; Fig. I I is a block diagram of a discrimination device, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. I IA is a block diagram of a to-core discrimination device, according to an embodiment of the present invetion; fig. 12 is a schematic and block diagram of a discrimination advice according to an embodiment of the present inyention; fig. 13 depict use of in-phase and delayed amplitude data for coin discrininatinf according to one wenient; Fig. 14 depicts use of in-phase and delayed amplitude data for coin discrininating according to another embodiment; figs. I SA and 158 are front erationil and top plan view of a sensor, coin path and coin, according to an embodirntnt of the present invention; figs. 16A and 168 are gaphs showing D output from high and low frequency sensor, respectively, for eight copper and aluinum disks of various diameter s, according to an enbodiment of the present invention, ig. 17 is a perspective view of a coin pickup assnly, rail, sensor and chute system, according to an enmbodinment of the present invention; fig. 18 is anupoded view of the system of ig. 17; fig 19 depicts the system of fig. 17 with the front portion pivoted; fig 20 iu- cross-sectional view taken along line 20-20 of Fg. 17; Fig. 21 is a front elevational view of the coin rail portion of ig. 17; Fig. 22 is a persective view of the system of fig. I7. showing an ezampie of coin locations; 30 figs 23A through 23IG are cross sectionail view taken along lines 23*-23A through D23G.G respectively, of fig. 21; Fig 24 is a cross setional view taken along line 24-24 of Fig 22; ig. 2.S is a rear efevational view of the system of fig. I7; ig.2SA is apartial view corresponding to Fg. 2S.but showin the rah in the downsrampositio; figs. 26 and 26A are crosssectional view taken alon lines 26-26 and 26A-26A of Figs. 25 and 26Ais ig.2 6 is atop plan view of aportio of dwesystemnof igl, showing aral rak Figs. 21A and 213 are front and rer perspective views of a sensor and sensor board according to an embodiment of the present invention; figs. 28* and 28l8 art front and side elevational views of a sensor core according to an embodiment of the present invention; f ig 29 is a block iagram of funictional comnponent of a sensor board, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 30 is a grap of an eampkl of seso igals wordng to am emboiment of the prese t ntion; rig. 31 is a schMtk diaam Of senso board. accoringf to in embodiment of the present invention; fig. 32 isa bMock diagramn of hardware for a coin discrimination device, according to an enbodiment of the present invetion; rig. 33 is A graph of a hypoheiWa eaaipli of Sensor signals, according to in embodiment of the present invention; Tig..34 is a flow thait ofa coin signatre talc-4ation process, according to an embodiment of the present invention; S Fi.I sasaedganfraci iciiainpoescodn oa molmn ftepeetiiiiin ig. 16 is a state diagrmn for a ategorization process according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig.31 is a bMock diagra for a categorization process according to an embodient of the present invention; Fig.38 is astatediagram ofa 3 Drect Mwwoy ces process atcording to an embdimentof thepresentinention; Fig. 39 is a lining diagrami of a Direct Meor kcess process according to an embodiment of dve present invention.

ig. 40 is a flowchart showing a coin discrimination process, accordisng to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 41 is a block diagrams showing components of a coin discrimination system according to an embodiment of the present invention; fig. 42 is a flowchart showing a leading aW trailing gap verification procedia e; ansd fi g. 43 is a partial cross sectional view showing a coin return path according to an eilbodiment of the present invention.

is DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The sensor and associated apparatus described herein can bet used in connection with a number of devices and purposts. C.ie device is illustrated in Fig IA. In this device, coins are placed into a tray 120, and H to a sensor region ID. via a first ramp 230 and coin psickup assembl 280. In the sensor region 123, data is collected by which coins are discrinrinated from non-coin objets. and different denominations or countries of coins are discriminated. The data collete in the s'nsor area 123 is used by the computer at 290 to control nuvenvent of coins along a second rany 125 in such a way as to route the coins into one of a plurality of bins 210. The computer muy output information such as the tota value of die coins placed into the tray, via a printer 210. screen 130. or the like. In the depicted emrbodiment, the convyance apparatus 230, 280 which is upstream of the sensor region 123 provides te coins to the sensor area 123 serially, one at a time.

The embodimentidepicted in ig Ill generally includes a coin counting/sorting portion 12 and a foupon/oucher dispensing portions 143.b. Intdv depicted ensodinietK the coin counting portion 12 includes an input tray 16, a voucher dispensing region 18, a coin return region 22. and customer UVo devices including a keyboard 24, additiona keys 26. a speaker 28 and a video screen 32. The apparatus can include various indicia, signs, displays, avrse ntand the :like on its external surfaces. A power cord 34 provides power to the mechaism as described below.

preferably, when dve doors 36,a. 364 are in the Open position as shown, most or all of dve components are accessible for cleanint and/or maintenance.

In the depicted embodiment, a voucher printer 23 (fig. 41) is mounted on the inside of the door 36a. A number cf printers can be used for this purpose. In one embodiment, a model KLDSOSOJ printer, available from Auioh is used. The rightl-hand portion of the cabinet includes the coupon feeder 42 for dispensing. eLg, preprinted manufactureir coupon sheent through a chute 44to a coupon hopper on tht outside portion of dvt door 36b. A computer 46, in the depicted emibodiment, is *positioneatdthetop of thentthansd portion ofthe cabinet in order to provide a relativeiy clean, location for thecompue. An 1/0 board 48Bis positioned adjacent the shee teder 4L2 assembly 54, along a coin rail S6 and past a sensor 58. If. based on sensor data, it is determined that dve coin can aind should be accpted, a controllable deflector 3S door 62 is activated to divert coins from their gravitational path to coin tube 64a. b for delivery tonsin trolleys 6ka b. If it has not been determined that a coin can and should be accepted, the door 62 is not activated and coins (or other objecs) continue down ther gravitational or default path to a chute 68 for ~delivery to a customer-mccssible reject or retun boa 22.

Devices that my be use in connection with the input tray are described in U.S. SJI. OR/2539, now U.S. Patent 5564546. 08/23,486, now U.S.

Devices that may be used in connection with the coin trolleys 66a, 66b are described in US Application No. 883776 (attorney file number 3730-905), now US Patent No. 6,082,519, for COIN BIN WITH LOCKING LID, filed on even date herewith and incorporated herein by reference.

Devices that may be used in connection with the coin chutes and the trommel 52 are described in PCT/US97/03136 Feb 28, 1997 and its parent provisional application U.S.S.N. 60/012 964 both of which are incorporated by reference.

Briefly, and as described more thoroughly below and in the above-noted application, a user is provided with instructions such as on computer screen 32. The user io is prompted to push a button to inform the machine that the user wishes to have coins discriminated. Thereupon, the computer causes an input gate 17 (Fig. 41) to open and illuminates a signal to prompt the user to begin feeding coins. The gate may be controlled to open for a number of purposes, such as in response to sensing of a jam, sensing of load in the trommel or coin pickup assembly, and the like. In one embodiment, signal devices such as LEDs can provide a user with an indication of whether the gate is open or closed (or otherwise to prompt the user to feed or discontinue feeding coins or other objects).

Although instructions to feed or discontinue may be provided on the computer screen 32, indicator lights are believed useful since users often are watching the throat of the chute, rather than the computer screen, during the feeding of coins or other objects. When the gate is open, a motor 19 (Fig. 41) is activated to begin rotating the trommel assembly 52.

The user moves coins over the peaked output edge 72 of the input tray 16, typically by lifting or pivoting the tray by handle 74, and/or manually feeding coins over the peak 72.

The coins pass the gate (typically set to prevent passage of more than a predetermined number of stacked coins, such as defining an opening equal to about 3.5 times a typical S 25 coin thickness). Instructions on the screen 32 may be used to tell the user to continue or discontinue feeding coins, can relay the status of the machine, the amount counted thus far, provide encouragement or advertising messages and the like.

First and second chutes (not shown) are positioned between the output edge 72 of the input tray 16 and the and the input to the trommel 52. Preferably, the second chute provides a funneling effect by having a greater width at its upstream edge than its downstream edge. Preferably, the coins cascade or "waterfall" when passing from eh first o: chute to the second chute, e.g. to increase momentum and tumbling of the coins.

Preferably, some or all of the surfaces that contact the coin along the coin path, including the chutes, have no flat region large enough for a coin to contact the surface over all or substantially all of one of the faces of the coin. Some such surfaces are curved [IADayLib\LBEJ41 57.doc:kxa 6a to achieve this result, such that coins make contact on, at most, two points of such surfaces. Other surfaces may have depressions or protrusions such as being provided with dimples, quilting or other textures. Preferably, the surface of the second chute is constructed such that it has a finite radius of curvature along any plane normal to its longitudinal axis, and preferably with such radii of curvature increasing in the direction of coin flow.

In one embodiment, the chutes are formed from injected molded plastic such as an acetal resin e.g. Delrin®, available from E.I. DuPont de Nemours Co., or a polyamide polymer, such as nylon, and the like. Other materials that can be used for the 1o chute include metals, ceramics, fiberglass, reinforced materials, epoxies, ceramic-coated or reinforced materials and the like. The chutes may contain devices for performing additional functions such as stops or traps, for dealing with various types of elongate objects.

The trommel 52, in the depicted embodiment is a perforated-wall, square crosssection, rotatably mounted container. Preferably, dimples protrude slightly into the interior region of the trommel to avoid adhesion and/or reduce friction between coins and the interior surface of the trommel. The trommel is rotated about its longitudinal axis.

Preferably, operation of the device is monitored, such as by monitoring current draw for the trommel motor using a current sensor 21. A sudden increase or spike in current draw may be considered indicative of an undesirable load and/or jam of the trommel. The system may be configured in various ways to respond to such a sensed jam such as by turning off the trommel motor to stop attempted trommel rotation and/or reversing the motor, or altering motor direction periodically, to attempt to clear the jam. In one embodiment, when a jam or undesirable load is sensed, coin feed is stopped or 25 discouraged, e.g. by closing the gate and/or illuminating a "stop feed" indicator. As the trommel motor 19 rotates the trommel, one or more vanes protruding into the interior of the trommel assist in providing coin-lifting/free-fall and moving the coins in a direction towards the output region. Objects smaller than the smallest acceptable coin (about 17.5 mm, in one embodiment) pass through the perforated wall as the coins tumble. In one embodiment, the holes have a diameter of about 0.61 inches (about 1.55 cm) to prevent passage of U.S. dimes. An output chute directs the (at least partially) cleaned coins exiting the trommel towards the coin pickup assembly 54. The depicted horizontal disposition of the trommel, which relies on vanes rather than trommel inclination for longitudinal coin [I:\DayLib\LIBEJ4I 57.doc:Icxa mov-eenns achieves a relatively smal vertical spac requiriernent fow the tromiil. preferably the tronuel-is mounted in such a way that it ay be Usily remnoved and/or opened or disassembled for cleaning andi nui:-tenancit, as described, eg, in IT Apiplication US97jA3l36, supra.

As depicted in rig. 17, coin pickup assetmy S4 includes a hopper 1102 for receiving coins output from the tronmide 52. The hopper 1702 may be node at relativlyIncostsuch asby vcuum lorin. Ien N emii enrt. thpper702 ismdof aplasicmralsuha plyhebackd ith sunl S absobng loam for reducing noise. Wthout being bound by any theory, it is believed that polyethylene is useful to reduce coin sticking. Other features which may be provided for the hopper includet shaping to provide a curvature sufficient to avoid face-to-face :ontact between coins and the hopper surface and/lor *provriding surface twsure (such as embossing, dimpling, fctfing, quilting, ridging or ribbing) on the hopper interior surface. The hopper 1702 preferably his an amunt of flexibility, rather than being rigid, whic reduces the occurrence of jams andf assists in clearing jams since coins art not forced against a solid, unyielding sUrfbCe As described below, the coins mov into an aimular coin path defined, on the outsidet, by the edge of a circular reces I1802 (fig. 10) and, on the inside, by a dge1804 forned on arail diskl0 IS&Tecisaemvdaogteanlrpt ypdis10kb .dfrdlvr oteci alS A circuit board 1744 for providing certain control functions, as described below, is preferably mounted on the generally accessible front surface of the chassis 1864. An electromgnetic interference (ElII) safety shield 1746 normally covers the circuit board 1744 and swings open on hinges 1748a~b for easy service access.

is In the emboiment depicted in fig. 17 ansd I8, the coin rail S6 aiw the recess I808 for the disks are formed as a single piece or block. such as the depcted base plate1810. In one embodiment. the bas plate 1810 is formed from high densiey polyetlen (NDPE) and the recess 1808 and coin rail 56, as well as the vrious openings depicted, are formed by machining a theet or block of HOPE. HOPE is a useful material because, among other reasons, components may be mountedf using self-tapping screws, reducing manufacturing costs. Furthermore, use of a non-metallic back plate is preferred in order to avoid interference with the senisor. In one embodiment, electrically condluctive HOPE may be used, eq. to dissipate static electricity.

The base plate 1810 is mounted on a chassis 1864 which is positioned within the cabinet (fig. 18) such that the base plate 1810 is disposed at in ange 1866 with respect to vertical 868 of between about 0* andl about 45w', preferably between about 0* and about ISO, more preferably about 200. preferably, the diverter cover 1811 is pivotally coupled to the ba" late 1810. by hinges 1871, 1872b, so dtha the diverter cover 1811 may be easily pivoted forward (fig. 19), eq. for cleaning and n'QintUManc A rotating main disk 1812 is configured for tigh (small clearance) fit against the edge 1802 of recess 1808. finger holes I 813a, b, c, d facilitate removal of the disk for cleaning or maintenaince. Ittlativetly loose (large clearance) fit is provided between disk holes 18141, b, c. d and hub pins 1816a, b. c, d and between central opening 1818 and motor hub 1820. The loose fit of the holes and t. tight fit of the edge of disk 1812 asist in reducing debris entrapment and motor juus Because the main disk is received in recess 1302, it is free to flu and/or tilt, to some degree, e.g. in order to react to coin jani.

A stationary rail disk 1806 is positioned adjacent the main disk 1812 and ha a central opening 1824 fitting loosely with reuPect to the motor hub 1820.

*In one embodiment, the rail disk is formed of graphite-filled phenolic.

The ledg I80N defined by the rail disk 1806 is pireferabl configured so that the an.utar coin path flars or widtns in the direction of coin trave such that spacing between the ledge and the recess edge near the bottom or beginning of the coin path (at the eight oclock position I1876) is smtaller (such a sabout 0.2S *inches or about 6 mmsmler) an thecorresponding distance182at the twelve o'clock position 1878 In one embodiment the rail disk 1906 (andnmotor 2032) are mounted at a slight angle to the plane formed by the attachment edge 2042 of the hopper 1702 such that, along the coin path, the coin channel generally increases in depth (iAe. in a direction perpendicular to the face of the rail disk).

is~ 3 As the coins travel counterclockwise from approimtely a 120 position 1828 of the rail disk the ledge is thereafter substantially linear along a portion 1834 Fig. 19) extending to the periphery of the rail disk 1806 and ending adjacent the coin backplate S6 anid rail tip 1836. A tab-like protrusion IBIS is engpd by MiItiS13C boldins te ri kAlt 86 in Position. TM ril 4A h Webemo e artily nufatireaWconsirte d preioudsagns such as those usin a coin kni. Fhalermore, the m t dwuip aoids the problem often und With a coin knife in which the tip of the knife was susceptiblo to pryint outward by debris accumuatd behind the tip of the coin knife.

A tension disk 1838 is positioned adjacent the rail disk. The tension disk 1838 is mounted on the motor hub 1820 via central opening 1842 and threaded disk knob 1844. As the knob 1844 is tihtned, spring fingers 1846k, bc. d apply force to keep the disks 1838,1806, 1812 tightly together, reducing spaces or cracks in whih debris could otherwise ecome entrpped. Preferably, te knob 1844 can be asily removed by hand, permitting removal of all the disks 1812, 1806,1838 for maintenance or cleaning) without the need for tools.

In one embodiment, the tension disk 1838 and main disk 1812 are formed of stainless steel while tf" .ail disk 1806 is formed of a different material such as graphite-filled phenolic, which is blived to be helpful in reducing galling. The depicted coin disc confiuration. using the described rmt'ials, can be manufactured relatively easily and inpensively, comprned to preious devices Paddles 1704a, c, d are pivotaly mounted on tension disk pins 184k b, c, d so as to permit the paddles to pivot in directions 1852a, 1852 parallel to the tension disk plane 1838. Such pivotin is useful in reducing the creation or uexacerbation of coin jams since coins or other items which are stopped along the coin path will cause the paddles to flex, or to pivot around pins 1848a, b. c, d, rather than requiring the paddles to continue applying full motor-induced force on the stopped coins or other objcts. Springs 1854a, b, c, d resist the pivoting 1852a, 1852b, urging the paddles to a position oriented radially outward, in the absence of resistance e.g. from a stopped coin or other objct.

Prefrably, sharp or irrqulu surfaces which may stop or entrap coins are avoided. Thus, covers 1856a, b. c, d are placed over the springs 1854a b, c, IS d and conicaJly-shape washers 1858 b, c, d protect the pivot pins 1848a, b, c, d. In a simi!ar spirit, the edit of the tension disk 1862 is angled or chamfered to avoid coins haning on a disk edge. potentially causin jarnming.

As depicted in Fig. 25, a number of components are mounted on the rear surface of the chassis 1864. A motor, such as model 2032 drives the rotation of disks 1812, 1838 via motor drive hub 1820. An actuator such as solenoid 2014 controls movement of the trap door 1872 (described below). A sensor assembly, including sensor printed circuit board (PCB) 2512 is sidably mounted in a shield 2514.

The lower edite of the reces 1808 is formed by a separate piece 1872 which is mounted to act as a trap door. The trap door 1872 is configured to be moved rearwardly 2012 (Fig. 20) by actuator 2014 to a position 2016 to enable debris to fill into debris cup 2018. Solenoid 2014 is actuated under control of a microcontroller as described below. Preferably, the trap door 1872 retracts substantially no further than the front edge of the coin rail disk, to avoid catching, which could lead to a failure of the trap door to close. Preferably, a sensor switch provides a signal to the microcontroller indicating whether the trap door has ompletely shut. Preferably the trap door is resiliently held in the losed position in such a manner that it can be manually opened if desired.

S 25 Coins which fall into the hopper 1702 from the trommel 52 are directed by the curvature of the hopper towards the 6.00 position 1877 (Fig. 19) of the annular coin path. In tenral, coins traveling over the downward-turning edge 2024 of the hopper 1702 are tipped onto edge and, partially owing to the backward indination 1866 of the apparaus, tend to fall into the annular space 1801. Coins which are not positioned in the space 1801 with their faces adjcent the surface of the rail disk (such as coins that may be tipped outward 2026a or may be perpendicular to the rail disk 2026b) will be struck by the paddle 1704 as it rotates, alitating the coins and eventualy corr*ctly positioning coins in the annular space 1801 with their faces adjacent the face 1801 of the annular space defined by the 10 ail disk 1806. It is believed that the shape of the paddle had 2028a, 2028c, in particular the rounded shpe of the radialll outmost portion 2206 of the hed, assists in agitating or striking coins in such a manner that they will assume the desired position.

Once coins are positioned alonl the annular path, the leading edle of the paddle heads 2028 contact the trailing edit of the coins, forcing them along the coin path, e.g. as depicted in Fi. 17. Prerabl each paddle can move a plurality of coins, such as up to about 10 coins. The coins are thus eventually forced to travel onto and along the linuear portion 1834 of the rail disk ledgt 1804 and are pushed onto the coin rail tio 1836. Some previous devices were ,rovided with an mit gate for coins exiting the coir, pickup assembly which, in some cass, was susceptible to jamining. According to an embodiment of the present invention, such jawinn is eliminated because no coin pickup assembly exit ite is provided.

As the paddle heads 2028 continue to mve alon the circular path, contact the linar portion 1834 (fig. 19 of dw ledg 1804 and flu uial) ootard 2032, ctad bya taperd hape of the dially iard ortion of the paddle pad 2028 to ride or in front of) a portion 1884 of the rail disk. In one umodimnt opints or holes 1708 are provided in this potion to reduce friconl drag and to receri trappd debris, which is thus cred from the annular coin path.

As seen in fig. 21, the ledp 1804 as defined by th rail disk 1806 is displaced upwardly 2102 with respect to the ledte 2104 of the coin rail tip 183.

The distance 2102 ay be, for xample, about 0.1 inches (about 2.5 mm). The difference in height 2102 assist in gravitationally moving coins from t. rail disk S ledg 1804 orr the upp portion of the Tr pp (desibd bow) and onto the ledI of coin rail tip 1836.

The terminal point 2105 of the rail disk ledg is laterally spaced a distance 2107 from the initial edge of the coin rail ledge 2104 to define a ppg thermbetween. This pp, which atends a certain distance 2109 circmferntially, as s n in Fi. 21, receives debris which may be swpt along by the coin paddles.

The uistence of the pp 2107, and its placement, tnding below the ril ledg, by providing a place for debris swept up by the paddles, avoids a problem found in certain previo devices in which debris tended to um te where a disk region met a linear region, sometimes accumulating to th point of crutin a bump or obsrution which could caue coins to hop or yoff the lede or rail.

The coin ral 6 functions to receive coins output by the coin pickup assembly 54, and transports the coins in a sinulated (one-at--time) fashion past the sns 58 to the divertin door 62. Sinulation and separation of coins is of parti: !uar us in connection with the duribed sensor, althouh other types of sensors may also bnefit from coin singulation and spacing. In gneral, coins are deliered to the coin rail 56 rolling or sliding on their ede or rim alon the rail ledge 2104. The face of the coins as they lide or roll down the coin rail ar supported. durin: a portion of their travl, by rails or striners 2106a, b, c. The IS stringen are poitioned (il 23A), respectively, at heights 2108a, b, c (with respect to the height of the ledge 2104) to proide support suitable for the range of coin sizes t be handled while priding a relatively small aru or region of contact between the coin face and the strinrs. Although some previous devices provide for flat-topped or rounded-profil rails or rides, the present invention provides rid or striner which at least in the second portion, 2121b have a triangular or peaked profile. This is believed to be sier to manufacture (such as by machining into the bastplate 1810) and also maintains relatively small area of contact with thl coin face despite stringer weat.

The position and shape of the stringers and the width of the rail 2104 at selected depending on the rane of coin size to be handled by the devic. In one embodiment, which is able to handle US. coins in the size rage between a U.S. dime and a US. half-dllar, the ledle 2104 has a depth 2111 (from the backplate 2114) of about 0.09 inches (about 2. mm). The top stringer 2106 is positioned at a heiht 2108a (above the lede 2104). of about 0.825 inches (about S. 20 mm), (the middle striner 2106b is positioned at a height 2108b of about 0.49 inchu (about 12.4 mm), and the bottom stringer 2106 is positioned at a heiht of about 0.175 inches (about 4.4 nm). In one embodiment the striners are about 0.8 inches (about 2 nmm) wide 2109 (Fi. 21C) and protrude about 0.05 inches 25 (about IJ mm) 2112 aboe the back plate 2114 of the coin rail.

As seen in fig. 22, as the coins enter the coin ail 56, the coins are typicall horizontaily singulated, it, coins are in single file, albeit possibly adjacent or touching one another. The sinfulated configuration of the coins can be contrasted with coins which art horizontaly partially overlapped 2202ab as shown in Fig. 22A. fig. 22A also illustrates a situation in which some coins are stacked on top of one another r :cally 2202c, d. A number of futures of the coin rail 56 contribute to changing the coins from the bunched configuraton to a singulated, and eventually separated, sries of coins by the time they move past the sensor 58.

One such future is a cut-out or recess 2116 provided in or adjacent the top portion of the rail alon a first portion of its tent As seen in Fi. 24, when coins which ar vertically stacked such as coins 2202c, illustrated in Fig. 22, reach the cut-out portion 2116, the top coin, aided by the inclination 1866 of the rail, zips backward 2402 an amount sufficient that it will tend to slide forward 2404 in front of the lower coin 2202, falling into the hopper utension 2204 which is positioned benath the cut-ut region 2116, and slidin back into the main portion of the hopper 1702 to be conveyed back on to the coin rail.

Another futtur contributing to singulation is the chany in inclmation of the coin rail from a first portion 2121a which is inclined, with respect to a 35 horizontal plane 2124 at an anle 2126 of about to about 30 preerably about 0 to about and more preferably about I0, to a second portion 2121b which is inclined with respect to a horizontal plane 2124 by an nlt 2128 of about 30 o to about 0 prefrably tween about 40 and about 50 and mon preferabl about 45. Peferably, the coin path in the transitional region 2121c between te fit portion 2121a and second portion 2121b is smoothly cured, as shown. In one embofmn, the radus of cuature of the ld 2104 in the traition reion 2121C is about I. inch (about 31 cm).

One ftre of sinutin coins, according to th depicted embodimnt, is to primarily ue ravitational orces for this purpose. Use of ravity fre is k r ed to, in rnual, reduce system costd conpluity. This is accomplished by confiuring the ail so that a imn coin, as it approaches and then etrs the second portion 2121i. will be ravitationally accdrated while the not ('followinf coin, on a shallower slop, is bein accderated to a much smller dtree, thus allowin the first coin to move awa from the follirg coin, creating a space therebetween and effectively producing a p between the singulated coins.

S Thereafter, the following coin mov into the reion where it is, in turn, accelerated away from the successive coin. As a coin moves from the first reiun 2121a toward and into the second region 2121b, the chan in rail inclination 2126, 2118 (Fi. 21) causes the coin to accelerate, whi'e :he following coins, which ar still positioned in the first reion 2121a, have a rltivel lower velocity.

In one embodiment, accderation ol a coin as it moes into the second rail region 2121b is also enhanced by placement of a short, relatively tall auiliary stringer 2112 tenrally in the transition region 2121c. The auxiliary striner 2132 projects outwardly from the back surface 21!4 of the coin rail. a distance 2134 (Fig. 238) reater than the distance 2112 of projection of the normal striners 2106a, b, c. Thus, as a coin moves into the transition region 2121c, the auxiliary string 2132 tips ti. coin top outward 2392, away from contact with the normal stringers 2106a, t so that it ter s to "ly (roll or slide on its ede or rim along the coin rail ledg 2104 without contact with the normal stringers 2106a, b, c) and, for at last a time period following movement past the auxiliary stringer 2132, continues to contact the coin rail only along the ledge 2104, further minimizing or reducing friction and allowing the coin to accelerate along the second region 2121b of the coin rail. In one embodiment, the coin-contact portion of the stringers in the first portion 2121a are somewhat flattened (Fi. 23A) to IS increas friction and exaerate the difference in coin accdration between the first section 2121a and the second section 2121b, where the stringer profiles are more pointed, such as being substantially peaked (Fig. 23C).

Another feature of the coin nil contributing to acceleration is the provision -f one or more free-fall regions where coins will normally be out of contact with the strinlers and thus will contact, at most, only the ledge portion 2104 of the rail. In the depicted embodiment, a first free-fall region is provided at the area 2136a wherein the auxiliary striner 2132 terminates. As noted above, coins in this region will tend to contact the coin rail only along tht idge 2104. Another freefall reion occurs just downstream of the upstream edge 2342 of the door 62. As seen in fit. 21E, the door 62 is preferably positioned a distance 2344 (such as about 0.02 inches, about 0.5 mm) from the surface 2114 of the rail region. This setback 2344, combined with the termination of the stringers 2106, provides a free-fall region adjacent the Joor 62. If desired, another free-fall region can be provided downstream from the door 62, e.g, where the reject coin path 1921 meets the (preferably embossed) surface of the reject clute or reject chute entrance which may be set back a distarce such as about 1/8 inch (about 3 mm).

Another free-fall region may be defined near the location 2103 where coins exit the disks 1812, 1806 and enter the rail 56, e.g, by positionint the disk 1812 to have its front surface in a plane slightly forward about 03 inches, or about 1.5 mm) of the plane defined by rail stringers 2106. This free-fall region is useful not only t assist th ransition from the disk onto the rail but makes it more likely that coins whih may be slowed or stopped on the rail near the end of a transaction will be positioned downstream of the retract position (Fig. 21) of th rake 2152 such that when the rake operates (as described below), it is more S: ikdy to push slowed or stopped coins down the rail than to knock such coins off the rail. Providing periods of coin flying reduces friction, contributes to coin accleration and also reduces variation in coin velocity since sticky or wet coins behave similarly to pristine coins when both are in a flying mode. Producing periods of flying is believed to be particularly useful in maininin a desired acceleration and velocity of coins which may be wet or sticky.

The sensor 58 is positioned a distance 2304 (Fi. 23D) away from the surface of the striners 2106a, b. c sufficient to accommodate passae of the thickest coin to be handled. Althouh certain preferred sensors, and their use, are described more thorouhly below. it is possible to use fetures of the present inventon with other types of sensors which may be positioned in another fashion such as embedded in the coin rail 56.

The leading surface of the sensor housin is prferably ramped 2306 such that coins or other objects which do not travd into the space 2304 (such a 35 coins or other objects which are too lare or hav movedpartially off the coin path) will be deflected by the ramp 2306 onto a bypass chute 1722 (fig. 17), having a deflector plan 1724 and a trouh 1726 for ddivery to the coin return or reject chute 68 where they may be returned to the user. The sensor housing also performs a spacer function, tending to hold any jam at least a minimum distance from the sensor core, preferably sufficiently far that th sensor readini is not affected (which could cause misdetection). If desired, the sensor housin can be confiured such that jams may be permitted within the sensing rane of the sensor to assist in detectin jam occurrence).

In the depicted confiurtion, the wor 5 is con6urd so that it can be moved to a position 2142 away from th coin rail 6, for deing or minaunanc, such as by sidin lo ot 2144. PnRd r, the deice is onstructd with s intufe c fit so that the sensor 58 my b m ed out of posion only when the drt cover 1811 has en piotd forward 1902 (Fi. 19) and such that the divrtr coer 1811 may not k rpositoned 1904 toits operatin confiuratim until the sensor 2142 has he proper positioned in its operating location (Fi. 21). Preferably, the sensor apparatus is confiured so that it will S seat rliably and accurately in a desired posio with respct to the coin rail such as by enaement of a retention clip 2704 (Fi. 21). Such seting, prefrably combined with a relativdy hih tolerance for positional variations of coins with respect to the senor (described below), means that the sensor may be moved to the maintenance position 2142 and returned to the perating position repeatedly, without requiring recalibration of the device.

As noted above, in the depicted mbodiment, a door 62 is used to selectively deflect coins or other objects so the coins ultimatly travel to either an acceptabltobject or coin bin or trolly, or a reject chute 6 In the enbodiment depicted in Fi. 43, a coin return ramp 4312 extends from the coin return region 1921, throulh the opening 1813 of the diverter cover 1811 and exndsadistance 4314outward and aboe th initial portion ofthcoin turnchute 68. Thus, coins which a not deflected by th door 62 travel down the ramp 4312 and fly off the end 4316 of the rnmp in a "ski jup" fashion before landing on the coin return surface 68. Even though preferably, coin contact surfaces such as the ramp 4312 and coin return chute 68 ar embossed or otherwise reduce facial contact with coins, proiding the ski jump" flying region further reduces potential for slowing or adhesion of coins (or other objects) as they travel down the return chute towards the customer return box.

1S Preferably the device is configured su. that activation of the door deflect coins to an acceptable coin bin and non-activation allows a coin to more along a default path to the reject chute 68. Sucn "actuate-to-accept" technique not only avoids accumulation of debris in the xit bins but improves accuracy by accpting only coins that are recognized and, further, provides a confiuration which is believed superior durin power failure situations. The actuate-to-accept approach also has the 2dvntae that the actuation mechanism will be operating on an object of known characteristics known diameter, which may be used, in connection with deterninin vdocity and/or acceleration, or known mass, which may be used, e.g. for adjustment of forces, such as deflection forces). This affords the opportunity to adjust, the timing, duration and/or strength of the deflection to the speed and/or mass of the coin. In a system in which items to be rejected ar actively deflected, it would be necessary to actuate the deflection mechanism with respect to an object which may be unrecognized or have unknown characteristics.

Although in one embodiment the door 62 is separately actuated for each acceptable coin (thus reducing solenoid 2306 duty cycl and heat Feneration).

it would also be possible to configure a dic in r h, when there are one or two or more sequential accepted coins, the door 62 is maintained in its flxed 25 position continuously until the net non-accepted coin (or other object) approaches the door 62.

An embodiment for control and timint of the door 62 deflection will be described more thoroughly below. In the depicted embodiment, the door 62 is deflected by activation of a solenoid 2306. The door 62, in one embodiment, is made of a hard resilient material, such as 301 full hard stainless steel which may be provided in a channe shape as shown. In on enbodiment, the back surface 4f the coin-contact region of the door 2308a is substantially covered with a sounddeadening mterial 2334 such as a foam tape (available from Company). Preferably the foam tape has a hole 235 adjacent the region where th solenoid 2306 strikes the door62.

In one embodimnt, the door 62 is not hinged but moves outwardly from its rest position (fit. ZE) to its deflected position (Fil. 23F) by bending or flexing, rather thn pivoting. Door 62. beini formed of a resilitet material, will then deflect back 2112 to its rest position once the solenoid 2306 is no loner activated. By reling on resiliency of an unhined door for a rturn motion, there is no need to provide a door return spring. furthermore the resilincy of the door, in general, provides a force reater thn the solenoid sprin return force normally provided with a solenoid, so that the door 62 will force the solenoid back to its rest position (Fig. 2E) (after cet i n of the activation pulse), more quickly than would have been possible if relin only on the force o the solenoid return spring. As a mult, the effective cycd time for the solenoid/door system is reduced. In on embodiment, a solenoid is used which has a normal cycle time of about 24 illiseconds but which is able to ahim a cycle time of about 10 millisconds when the resilient-door-osint fture is used for solenoid rturn, s described.

In one aodiment, a soeoid is d which is rated at 12 vlts but is utivated uin a 24-ol puls.

-12- In some situations, particularly at the end of a coin discrimination cycle or transaction, one or more coins, especially wet or sticky coins, may reside on the first portion 2121 a of the rail such that they will not spontaneously (or will only slowly) move toward the sensor 58. Thus, it may be desirable to include a mechanical or other transducer for providing energy, in response to a sensed jam, slow-up or other abnormality. One configuration for providing energy is described in U.S. patent application Serial Number 08/431,070 filed April 27, 1995, now U.S. Patent No.

5,746,299 incorporated herein by reference. According to one embodiment for providing energy, a coin rake 2152, normally retracted into a rate slot 2154 (Fig. 23A), may be 1o activated to extend outward 2156 form the slot 2154 and move lengthwise 2156 down the slot 2154 to push slow or stopped coins down the coin path, such as onto the second portion 2121 b of the coin rail, or off the rail to be captured by the hopper extension 2204.

An embodiment for timing and control of the rake is described more thoroughly below.

In one embodiment, rake movement is achieved by activating a rake motor 2502 (Fig. 19) Is coupled to a link arm 2504 (Fig. 25). This link 2504 is movably mounted to the rear portion of the chassis 1864 by a pin and slot system 2506a,b, 2507a,b. A plate section 2509 of the link 2504 is coupled via slot 2511 to an eccentric pin of motor 2502. A slot 2513 of the link arm 2504 engages a rear portion of the rake 2152. Activation of the motor 2502 rotates eccentric pin 2515 and causes link 2504 to move longitudinally 2517.

A slot 2513 of the link arm 2534, forces the rake 2152 to move 2519 along the inclined slot 2154 toward a downstream position 2510 (Fig. 26A). The function of causing the rake to protrude or extend outward 2156 from the slot 2154 can be achieved in a number .oo.

of fashions. In one embodiment, the link arm 2504 is shaped so that when the rake is S positioned down the slot 2154, the rake 2152 is urged outwardly 2156 by the shape of the resilient link arm 2504. As the rake is moved upstream 2525 toward the normal operating location, a cam follower formed on the free end 2527 of the link arm is urged rearwardly by a cam 2529 carrying the rake 2152 with it, rearwardly to the retracted position (Fig.

23A, Fig. 26).

Preferably, the rake position is sensed or monitored, such as by sensing the position of the rake motor 2502, in order to ensure proper rake operation. Preferably the system will detect via activity sensor 1754) if the coin rake knocked coins off the rail or, via coin sensor 58, if the coin rake pushed coins down the coin rail to move past the sensor 58. In one embodiment if activation of the coin rake results in coins being knocked off the rail or moved down the rail, the coin rake will be activated at least a [IADayLib\LBEJ41 57.doc:kxa 12asecond time and the system may be configured to output a message indicating that the system should be cleaned or requires maintenance.

Between the time that a coin passes beneath the sensor 58 and the time it reaches the deflection door 62 (typically a period of about 30 milliseconds), control apparatus and software (described below) determine whether the coin should be diverted by the door 62.

In general, it is preferred to make the time delay between sensing an object and deflecting the object to make the distance between the sensor and the deflection door) as short as possible while still allowing sufficient time for the recognition and categorization process to operate. The time requirements will be at least partially dependent on the speed of the processor which is used. In general, it is possible to shorten the delay by employing a higher-speed processor, albeit at increased expense. Shortening the path between the sensor and deflector not only reduces the physical size of the device but also reduces the possibility that a coin or other object may become stuck or stray from the coin path after detection and before disposition (potentially resulting in errors, e.g. of a type in a coin is "credited" but not directed to a coin bin). Furthermore, shortening the separation additionally reduces the opportunity for coin acceleration measured or (calculated using data measured) at the sensor, a larger separation (and consequently larger rail length with potential variations is, e.g. friction) between the sensor 58 and the door 62 increases the potential for the measured or calculated coin velocity or acceleration to be in error (or misleading).

Because the coin deflector requires a certain minimum cycle time the time from activation of the solenoid until the door has returned to a rest state and is capable of o.

being reactivated), it is impossible to successfully deflect two coins which are too close together. Accordingly, when the system determines that two coins are too close together S 25 by detecting successive "trail" times which are less than a minimum period apart), the system will refrain from activating the deflector door upon passage of one or both such coins, thus allowing one or both such coins to follow the default path to the reject chute despite the fact that the coins may have been both successfully recognized as acceptable coins.

If a coin is to be diverted, when it reaches the door 62, solenoid 2306 is *0 activated. Typically because of the step 2136b and/or other flying-inducing features, by the time a coin reaches door 62 it will be spaced a short distance 2307 (such as 0.08 inches, or about 2mm) above the door plane 62 and the door, as it is deflected to its 00activated position (Fig. 23F), will meet the flying coin and knock the coin in an outward direction 2323 to the common entrance 1728 of [1:\DayLib\L1BEJ4 I57.doc:kxa acceptalk-coin tubas 64a. 64b. Preferably all coin contact surfaces of the return chute and coin tube are provided with a surface tat such as an embossed surface which wig reduce friction and/of adhesion. Additionally, such stutcs may be provided with a soumd. deadening material and/or a kinetic energyabsorbing material (to help direct coins accuarattly into the accept bins).

In one embioiment, the tinungj of deflection of the door 62 is controlled to increast the likelihood that the door will strike the coin as desired in such a S fashion as to divert it to entrance to the coin tubes 172&. The preferred striking position may be selected emirically. if detsired, and may depend. at keas partially, on the diameerand nass of thecons and thecoinix expected in tacineas wellasthreadcateistcs of tedor6L In oneensodiment, the machirr is configured to, on average strike the coin when the Ieadinii !dge of the coin is approximately 3 nun; upstream ('uptram* indicating a direction opposite the direction of coin flow 2332) of the downstream edge 2334 of the actuator door 62 (fig. BIE). In one embiodiment, this strike position is the preferre position regardless of the diameter of the coin.

Preferably, there is a gap between coins as they stream past the door 62 The preferred gap between adjacent coins which have d'ifferent destinations when ad jant coins include an accepted coin and a not -m cepted coin) depends on whether the accepted coin is before or after the non-accepted coin (in which the 'accepted coin* is a coin which will be diveirted by she door and the not-accepted coin will travel past the door without keing divferted). The gap behind a not-accepted coin (or other object) which reaches the door 62 belare an accepted coin is referred to herain as a 'leding gap'. The gap behind an accepted coin is referred to herein as a 'triling rap'. In one embodiment, the preferred leading gap is described by the follovinig equationr is GAP,_ Ads,+ Error,,.,

(I)

where: Ad,, represents the change in the actual inter-coin gap from the timei the coins Fass the sensor 58 to the time when the coins reach the door 62 (approxinutely I nun); Errorftm, represents the distance error due to comptinsation uncertainties, smnn leading gap worst conditions of maximum initial velocity and a 2u frictionless rail (alpiozicrately 6 nun); and a repretsent the nsion from the downstream edge of the actuator door 2334 to the leading edge of the coin at the preferred strike position (approzimately I nmm).

The preferred nirsj leading gap of approximately 12 nisn applies when a non-accepted coin (or other objet) precedes an accepted coin. In the commonn case of a string of consecutive accepted coins, this corstraint need not kt enforced after the first coin in the stream 25 In one embodiment, thew preferred truiling gap is described by the following equation: *GAP.. Ad,, Ad.. Error_ b- a (2) where represents the change in actual inter-coin gap between the ienso. 5.1 and the door 62 (approximately 2 nun); represetsthe distance the coins travel during the time the actuator doo; is xended (approxinmately 5 nmm); Errori,, represents the error due so compensation uncertainties, assuming trailing gap ::.rst c;Wnitions of zero initial velocity and a sticky or high- ::friction rail (approximately 6 nun); b represents the lengt 2336 of the door 62; and SD., represents the diameter of the accepted calin (in the worst case for a conunon US. coin nix, i 7.Sr num).

This results in aprtfm inimum trailing gapof S1m.

A proess br veriyin the existence of prefered leading and trailing gaps, in appropriate situations, and/or selecting or controlling the activation of the door 62 to s"ik coins at the preferre position. is described below.

In the depictd wbodimtgth 8wrgWo of the common entrance 1721 (Fig. 14) h provided with a flapper nmvble from a first position 1732a whicls for d& t dsecand co6 Ajqg UL I n bodmnt, tbefRappur 1732 ismadt of p i cto reduce noisan te ndency to bind duringopeata A solenoid actuator 1734, via figk arm 173k, is aued to move the Dlapper betwee the positions 173ka 1732b, eq. in response to control signals from a nicrocontroller S (decribed below). The 11ap9W 1732 =y glo be rapidly cycled betwee its ult a. positons to sef-dean mat.erial from the nmechanism. In one vnbodinnt such self-dearsing is performed after eaich transactioo In one embo(r.t coin detectors such is pired UEs &Wd optical detectors 1738a, b output signals to t& roicroco Is litehnever passag of a coin is detected. These signsals m~y be used for variou purposes such as verilying that a coin deflecte by the door Q2 is delivered to acoin tubt. veifying that the apper 1732 is intecorrect position, and detecing coin b lockatts suchasany result from backup of coins fromn an over-flled coin bin. Theis, the senor 1732, 1738b at the end. efath tube, each provides data used for ptrforrying two or more functions, such as verifying accepted-coin delivery. verifying Riapper plactment, and vanlying and detecting coin bin overfill.

As best sen in Figs. 27A and 273. thet sensor 58 is preferably directly mounted on the sensor KB 251 2 and communicates, electrically, therewit via a header 2702 with Inds 2704 soldered onto the board 2512. Providing the sensor and the sensor board as a single integrated unit reduces manufacturing costs and dinratts cabling and associated signal noise, N o S sPaeofaloa20 (is.A 2y wt aftheueiy,204adNtinduncin0gssigso tecot Plriyoote idig jdol be observed so that they are property synchronized. Providing a winding in a riven direction can cause signal cancellation The core 28OZ in the depicted emboduint, is generally U-shaped with a lower annular, sernicircular, rectangular cross-sectioned portion 2808 and an upper portion defining two spaced-apart legs 2812a. 2812b. The core 2904 in the depicted ermboidiment, has a thickness 2814 of less than about 03 inchei,, preferably, about 01 inches (about S mmn), a height 2816 of about 2.09 inches (about S) nin) and a width 2818 of aboat 1.44 inches (about M.S cm).

Bicaus the sensor SO is preferabl relatively thin, 2814, the magnetic field is relatively tightly focused in the longitudinal (strearmvist) direction. As a result, the coin or other ob*ec nazi' be relativelyr close to the sewo before the coin will have significant effect on sensor output. for this reason, it is possible to provide relatively close spacing of coins without substu.'ial risk 01 uridesirale influence of a lading.:f following coin on sensor oUu The facing surfat.s 28211. b of the legp 2812a. b are, in the depicted trnbodimen'., substantially parallel and planar and ane spaced apart a distance 2824fabutD0 ichs(aotabm) Te nero fcigiufainchesb at hihta lsteua t hewdtto heconr;182,)uh.s butI inches (aou 33 nmn). With the sensior positioned as depicted in fAg. 21 in the operating configuration, the upper leg 281 ?a of the core is spaced from the low leg 2812b of the core (see Fig. 230) by the inter-face gap 2824 to define a space 2304 for coin passuge through the inter-leg gap. Trie core 2802 may be viewed as having the shape of a gapped torroid with extned legs 2812a. 2812b with parale laces 282h., b. In one embilodimeint, the legs 28120~ are substantially parallel.

In noth emboiiment. the les261 artslghtly inctined with respect to one anot.her to defin a taperedgap. Without wishing tobe bound by any thoy. it is pritmVdt erleso olntci one n rwbl)a onpwtruhtep 84 In the depictedesnboimeint the facts 282,b extend ace- the entire path witto senst all metallic object that mvalong the path in the regionof the sensor.

te hs believed that proidiag a core with a larger gap (it. with more air volume) is partially responsible for decreasing the sensitivity to coin mi~gmnbttrd orsl nasmwa oamgei estvt n nicuti rs-LIoewolmKtesn a rvd eibesno outpu despite a vertical displacemet' (*boixce) of about 0.1 inch (abouv IS ow) oir more, and a Wieways (away from the stringers) displacement or 'wobble' IS of up to 0.1inches (about.DAwms).

widnis oitiotone Waesc206ab of the senitar porim Inafton diissw hlow qqnding is confied to hv an niutmt(tef w drin and detction dmcutry desoibe beow) of about 4.0 ufterv a&d the hillh freqeny winding 2806a, b to have an inducance of about 40 uricroenepi These inUCtan V1111 Mles e asured in the low kreqenc winMn With the high kaquency winn open and measured in the high frequency winding with the low frequenicy winding shorted together. The signals on th windings ane provided to printed circuit board v4 keads 2704.

fit.

2 9 bdepcste 11 omeu omoent f hoK Is i Z ngnrl h esro rndcr 8poie oto fapaelce loop which is maintained at a sibtnilyconstant frequency. Thus, the low freuency coil leads are provided to a low frequency PUL 2902& and th high S frque leads art Provided to high frequency ser PUL 2902b.

fig. 40 provides an overview of a typical trantsactiol The transaction begins when a user presses a or start button 4012. In response, the system opensthe gate. and begins the treated and coA pickup numbwly s motors 401k. As coins begin Passing throu.- the systen, a ser (not sAmw) is used to dmiii h opfi ni vfU nii nw s h t scoe 01L .su scniuul oioedfrcretpasi h oos42 eLg. using curret sensors 21, 4121 (Fig. 41) so that corrective action sascls as rmuvri ther or both of the mtors for dejamrning purposes 4024 can be During normal counting operations, the system will sense that coins are streanen past the sensor 402& The system is able to determine 4028 whether coins anbegwiotherejectchue orthe cntrolly ntelte ath ytmpoed mly iftesno nteci ht upt nitritrto flickering signal. However, if the coin tube sensor is stock on or off, indicating a 0a upstream or downstream (such as an overfiled bin), operation are suspended 4036.

is In one emodimn,the flow of coinstrough hesystem is gnud/or Minced As showinF. 41, coinflow can benaged by, Lg, controllig any or all of the state of the gate 17, state or speed of the Vonind owter 19 and/or state or speed of the coin pickup assernbly inuto, 2032 eq. to optimize or otheiwise control the anwunit of coins residing in the tronind and/vr coin Pickup assemnbly. fo ec xample, if a sensor 1754 indicates that the coin pikupasumly54 haseome fulh mircntrllr2can trn offhe tomlto sop feeding tN coin pickup assembly. Inone v*dinet, asensor 4114 coupled to or adjacent the tronmde S 2 senseshe aontn(a dr t ofdebrisflling ou tetofhel duringapa ,1a rasionla or mepei a&d, in response, the nicmecmntollr 3202 camse the coin pickup assembly motor 2032 to run in a different speed and/clr irevment pattern (eq. to acconmmodate a particularly dirt batch of coins), possibly at the epense of a reduction in throughput.

When the coin senso S3 (and associated circuty and software) an used to intasuret or caiculmt coin speed, this infornation may be used not only to control the deflctor door 62 as described bertih, but to output an indication of a need for mainteance for ezanit as coin speeds decrease, a mesisage (or series tranisaction.

~Once the system senses that coins are no onger straungn past the sensor. if desired a sensor may be used to deternine whether coins are present e.

nertebto ftehpe 0LI on nsilpeet h ioo otneoeaig44 *Jcisaen ogrdtce near the bottomoffthe hopper.

W4ad if coinsared to mepst tecoin w rSRnortoteopr. coung yleis pefltro epted. Otherwise, the transaction will be 30 consiered finished 4028, and the system wigl cycle the trap door and output eq. a "ocher of a type which may be exchanged hor goods. services or cash.

!he coin sen hsor lcked lop whic includes yhe sensor or transducer SO. naintains a constant frquency and responds to the presene of a requres no adjustments and typically senie in about 200 ntiroMcWds The system is seff-starting and begins oscillating and locks phase automsatically. The winding sigls (2 each Set high frequency And low frequency channes) ane conditioned 2904 as described below and sent to an analot-to-digital (AID) couwet Board Assenmby (PCA) (described beow) for further manipisdation to identify coins.

Asa con pasm&wg uhe wucvS8the uqllt o the PLLer voltage 2909a b (sometimes referred to Werin aa V signa) and the atosdtd of the 111 inoidal esubwte signa (sometime rehire to as a signal) decrease. The PUL error voltage vs filtered and cosndionaed for coaerIo to fiital data, The oscillato igna is fitered. demodua datete coaditiowe for coaversion to digital data. Sine these signals ane geneated by two P11 circits 16 (high and low loequensscy), bar signals re*l a the esiak.urto for identiffing coins. Figurs 30 sAow a four channel oscilloscop, plot of the chang in the hir stnial; (11-0 3002, U-0 300K HF-0 300k and XF-Q 3001) as; a coin passes the sensoir. Infomeuistion about the coin is represented in the shape taing And anpltudei of the signsal changets in the lowr sipalL. Th Control FCBk which receives a digitized data representation of these signais, perform a disciination agoithmi to categoriz a coin and deterndm its geed ough the transdluceir, as described Weow.

S The coin senso phase locked loop, according to one enliodiment, consists of a volute controlled oscillator, a phase comparator, amnpliflerflter for the phs comprator output, and a rtlerensce dock. The two PU's operate at 200 1Hz and 2.0 MHlL with their reerec ocks synchronizedl. The phase relationship lidween the two dlock signals ]INA, Isis Mintaineid by wsing a divided-downt clock rather than two independent clock sources 3102L The 2 MKZ clock outut 3101& is also Msdas the clte ock hor the DID converter 2906.

As aci asstruhtetasue'Ateeiachneithmantccrut ttU LThis is seen by circuitryas adecrease in the indu nce vaue and resultsn a corr onding decrease in theamplitude of thePLLerror"hi, providijga frst coin~nid inglaw.o The passingcoin also casm a decrease in the ansplitode ot the sinusidal oscillator wavefom depending on its composition, q. due to an eddy current loss, and this is measured to provide a second c0o-identityin factor.

The bp&V of the oscillators2902a, brelies ana 180 dqgrephase M bh feek kto isdrive circuitry and itssifed as aolpitts oscilator.

The Colpitts oscillator is a sysissetric t"polo and allow the osciIlator to be isolated from groundi. Drive for the oscillator is prvied by a high speed comparator IS 3104a, b. The comparator has a fast propagatio to minimize distotioa due to phase delay. low input current to mininuze loss, and renuins, stable while operating in its intear r-gion. In the depicted tribodimneKi thie plus an inus terminals of the inductors go directly to a highs-speedl comparator which asitbiases the coprtrs htstil ovetqiky& tes% tkt oclainads htteeisn edt ii hyoprto oaCM1vlt ee.B tying the plus and minus terinnats of the inductor to the plus and minus terminals of the comparator, the crossing of the terminals' voltge at any arbtrary point ithe vohqgespecris lc ums a w itch inthe coparaor ou"uvoltage so that it is auobi ni. This achieves a more nearly even duty cycle.

The outpu of the comparator drives tie osscillator thOugh ritsstor 3106a, bs. The amplitude of the oscillating signal varies and is correawe to the slwot the tranisduccr gap. Aesistors 3108 a, bsc, d work with the input capacitancet of the com-parator 3104a, b to provide filttfing of uwanted high frequenicy sitnal cmponets.

Volte control of the osclltor frequency is provided by way of the varactors 3112a. b, c, d. which act as volte controlled capacitors (or tuning: .060 6*-6 2S diodes). These aractor change the capacitive components a' oscillator. Use oft tw n matosnintains balaniced capacitance on each leg of windingls 2804.

00f. 2906. Asd the reerj iodwhgeincreasecapacianedecreases. Thus by chaniging the Yoltg Controlled Oscillator input volte in accordlance with the chang in inductance d6e to the presence of a coin, the frequenc of oscillation can be mintained. This VCO input veltage is the signal used to indicate changet of go* inductacernishs circit.

ede:The phasflrquency detectr 31 14a. b perform.s cernin co* nt ictions in thsis circuit. It compares the output frequency of the cconyarator 3106a, b 0 30 to asycroiedu ediivccock sigl anhasnoupu ta arinas dotosgnialsdiverge. The outputstae ofthe device amrifis and ffters tis phase 00 comiparato output signal. This anylied Sheso output provides the KO control signal use t, indicate changei of inductance in this circuit.

0S 0 14 onemkbdiftaalockfasia 4stth o theo aessorheon the owK Aas an a indiaton.andan 110isprovded toindicate wenbth high 2. 0 e v4 a low rqucy PLLuain alocked state.

.000% is Because esermS8reces cit atto aMeqw~iedn ih o coils wrappedn thsamfrite c thereis apotentiafor thecouling of 004signals which my result in undesired ansplituide modulatonthe individual signals that are being mossitored. lilters 291 2a, b rune the undesirdspectra comsponent Wtae mninin the detsiredl signal pnor to morlude measuruien ts M i way, the measured ampitude it each sigmai is not influened by an The filtere eutput ugsais are level shifted to centern at 3.A I in order to conrol the measurement of the signial amplitude by downstream circuitry.

lnathe depicted embdi y at.th actn ndhasv lowps filters are inVmpneted as Saflen-Iey Sutterworth two-pole filter circits 2916a, b. DC off iusmof the outpot signals is accomplished by using a buffered voltage divride atsa reference. Input buffers 2914a, b are provided to nmnireze losses of The lwass filter 2916a is designed to provide more than 2DdB of attenuation at 2 KHZ while maintaii'ing integrity of the 200K~z signal, with less *that 0.ldB of losat that frequency. Theacutoff freqmfsciSsiolHL Ifgps itrn fteotu rmtelrasff spoie 98 ihactf for subsequent amplitude measurtement.

The highipms filter 2916b is designed to provide more than 20dB of attenuation at 2001Hz while maintaining integrity of the 200 MHZ signal with les that 0.1 dll of lotssat that frequency. The cutoff frequency is ISO DLa Amplitude P-easremnt of the sinwo;dal oscillator waveform is accomplished by demodulating the signal with a negative peak detecting circuit, and measuing the difference betwee this vau and the DC refeence voltage at which the sinutoidal signal is centered. This comrison measurement is then scaled to utilize a significant portion of the AID convu to s input range. The input to the circuit is a filtered sinusoidal signal centered at a knowin DC reference voltage outpu of the highpas or lWpam active filter.

The input signal is demodulated by a closed-loop diode peak detector circuit. The tirm constant of the network, Llg. 33 nwe, is long compared to the peio o his data kk utsor wo omardtothpfneelpedasasthepmthouh heskdr.Ths eltinhitalos hePakdeurtorec quickly to a change in amplitude caused by a coin vent. The circuit is implemented as a negative peak detector rather than a positive peak detector because the comparator is more predictable in its ability to drive the signal to ground than to drive it high. Comparators 3126a, b. such as model LTIOI6CSB, available from Linear Technology, provide a high slew rate and maintain stability while in the linear regioin. The analog closed-loop peak detector avoids the potential phase error problemu that filter-stage phase lag and dyriamic PU phase shifts night create for a sampl-and-hold implemntition and eliminates the need for a sampling clock.

Th~negasimepeak demuctroutsput isco"aned to the DC reference voltage,thien scaled and filtered, byusingin op amp 3124a. b implemented as a differenice ampifier. 4ifferenc amp is configured to subtract the negative peak from the DC reference and multiply the difference by a scaling factor. In wit 2S ernbodiment, for the low frWquncy channel, the scaling factor is 4102. and the high frequency channel scaies the output by S.1 1. The output of the difference amplifier has a lowpass filter on the feedback with a corner freuency at approximately 600 Hz. In the depicted embodiment, theret is a snubber at the output to filter high frequency transients caused by switching in the AID conerer.

The error voltage meaurament, scaling, and filtering circuit 312k b is designed to subtract 2.5 VOC from the PUI error voltage and amlify the input range the offt ageqtisubacted and the signalisamplfed.

The input signal is pro-filtered with& a bpass cornier frequency of 01 Hz, and the output is filtered in the feedback loop. with a cut -off frequency of 2J H.A snubber at the output fit ihfequency tatts caused by switching in the A/D converter.

In an interface circuit 2922 data andf control signals are pulled up and pass through seies ternmn~Ation resistors. In addition, the data signals DATA- DATAIS are buffered by bi-directionial registers. These bidirectional buffers isolate the A/D convener from direct connection to the data but and associated IS interconnect cabling.A The DI convrte Mf is a single supply, k-hanne, 12-bit sampling converer (such as mod AD78S9AP available from Analog Devices). The AdD transactions are directly controle by the microprocemor on thet Contol PCSA.

Is An svmvi of conro Provded for Vaflosis hardwrare COnPOnTU is depicted in Fig. 32. In Fig. 32, the control hardware is generallyr divided into the citia sensor hadware 3204 and the coin transport htardware 320& A uumber of aspects if hardware 3204, 3206 are controlled via a inkcocontrolier 3202 which nay be any of a number of irccontroiles. In one embodiment, Model AM18613, available from Mdvanced Miro Devics is provided.

The microconso l ler30 2 ommn cswihand it tosondtde cone bte coputer 46. Th ost comuter 46 can be any of a number of con~utesi. In one emnbodiment, cozsyuter 46 is a computer enplcying an Intel 486 or Ptntium® processor or equivalent. The host computer 46 and snicroontrollier 3202 conmmicate owa serial lin 3208 via respective serial ports 3212, 3214. The micrOCO.-srOflef 3202, in the depiCted enbWodI11nt has A secOnd serial port 3216 which masy be used for purposes such as debugging, field service 3218 and she like.

During normal operation, progranvoting and data for the microcontroller are stored in memory which msy include normal random access, vernory (WM) 3222, non-volatile random acueso eoy sucs as flash memory. static mmoy and the like 3224. and read-onlyr memory 3226 whichmnayindludet prograniable and/or electronically erasale progranmiiable red-onl memory (EEPROM). In one embodiment, microprocessor firmware can be downloaded from a runose location via the host computer.

Applications software 3228 for controlling operation of the host computer 46 nay be stored in, hard disk memory, nionvolatile RAMl memory and the like.

Although a number of items are described as being implemented in software, in general It is also possible to provide a hardware implementation such as by using hard wired control logic and/or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

An input/output (IV) interface on the snicroctintrolltr 3232 facilitates commnunication such as bus commnunication, direct VD~, interrupt requests and/or direct memory access (DMA) requests. Since, as described moire thoroughly below, DMA is used for much of the sensor conionicasions, the coin sensor circuitry includes DMA logic circuitry 3234 as well as circuitry for status and control signials 3236. Although, in the detscribed embodiment, only a single sensor is provided Wo coin sensingj, it is possible to configure an operablet device having additional sensors I3.38 In z~dition so the motors 252, 2032. solenoids 2014. 1734, 2306 and sensors 17138.17S4 describe above in connection w~ith coin transpoft controlling latchets, gates and drivers of a type that will be understood by those of skill in the art, after understanding the present ;mvention, are provided 3242.

A methd for deriving, from the four senso signals (Fig. 30) a set of values or a "signaturxe sicative of a coin which has passed the sensor, is described in connection withthegrphs of ig. 3? which show a hypohetical example of he I signals LID3302,11Q 3304,RID 3306 andHIQ 330O during a ~~period of tim in which a coin pasme through the arm of the sensor. Units of Fig. 33 ane arbitrary since fig. 33 is used to illustrate the principles behind this emibodimnent. A baseline value 3312.3314,3316C 3318 is associated with each of the sensor signals, representing a value equal to the averg or mean value for that signal when no coins are adjacent the sensor. Although, in the depicted enbodimest the LID signal is used to define a window of time 3322 during which the minnimum values for eich of the four signals 3302. 330.4, 3306. 3308 will be determined and other threshold -crossing events, (at least in part because this signal typically has the sharpest peak), it would be possible to use other signals to define any or all of the various crossing events, or it smay bp possible to define the window separately For each signal.

In the depicted embodiment, the base ine value 3312 associated with the LED signal 3302 Is used to define a descent threshld 3324 (equal to the LID *baseline 3312 minus a predefired descent offset 3326, and a predefinied gap threshold 3328 equal to the LID baseline 3312 nuinus a gaq offset 3332).

In one wenvent, the sysatra will rmain in an idk lop 3402 (fig. 34) until the system is placed in a ready status (as described below) 3104. Once the system is in ready status, it is ready to respond to passage of a coin pass the senso.

In the depicted embodimnt, the beinning of a coin passage pais the senso is signaled by the LID signal 3302 beoting less 4212 than the descent IS3 theshsold 3324 (3406) which. inthe Len-3dirmint of Fig. 33, occurs at time t,3336. When this event occurs 3338, anumber of Walueart initializd or gtored 3403.

The sttsitsett a talutindicating tatthe window 1322 is open 4214. Bth thepeaktie value andh'Ileadtime alueaset equalttheclck V31ue Lit, equal to ts3, Lfour variables UDIUN 3342 LIQMN 3344. HCMON 3346 and HFQMIN 33411, are used to hold a valut indicating the flioimumn signal values, for each of the signals 3302.3304.3306, 330t, dhfr achievied during the wvindow 3322 and thus art itialined at the T, vaue for each of the variabes 3302.

3304,3306.3308. In the ifluenfits of Fig. 33, the rnning noimum values 3342. 3344, 3346, 3348 are depicted as dotted linets, slightly offset verficafty dmwW for darity.

During the dint that the window is open 3322. the mininsum-idng variables LIDMIN, IJQN, HEDMIN and HIQMIM will ke updated, as needed, to reflect the ro~nimum value thu-fair achieved. In the depicted itiboditnent, the four values are updaited serially and cycricaly, owe every dock signal. Updating of by overmp ecij ficharin ecoto ndaccuy can b imprved. As the LDvalue is beig tested and, if necessary, updated, avalue forain ascient thehod 336 (wwgbe ed to eteeo f the w i-4w Zas srie owsacltedorupaed 344. The value for the ascent treshold 3336 iscalculated or updated as avauqal to the tavalue for UDlllk lt plus apedefined aent hysteressi33S2 Whenever the LIDMIN value 3342 mast be updated (Ue, when the value of LID descends below the previously-stored nimnum value 3412), the 'peak' tim value isa&In updae bybeiingnmade 2qual to the current clockvai.. 'nhs way, at the end 426of the wndow 3322, thepea*vaiabewillholda value indicating the time at wAic LD 3302 reached its murn value vthin the window 3322.

As a coin passes through the anm of a sensor, the four signal values 3302. 3304, 3306, 3308 will, In general, reach a ninimum value and thein begin once more to ascend towarid the basetline value 3312,.3314, 3316,3318. In the Sepicted emvbodimeitnt, the windcw 3322 isi declared 'dose* when the LID value 3302 raises to a point that it equals the currenrt value for the ascent value th-eshold 3336. In the illustration of Fig. 33. this event 33S4 occurs at time T3335S6. Upon detection 3418 of this event, the current value lor the clock the value t...icating time 13) is stored in the 'trail' variable. Thus, at this point three times have been stored in three vasiabes: lead" holds a value indicating tirm tht time at which the window was opened; "peak* holds a value indicating time 12, iLt, the minimumn value fo variable LID 3302,~ and variable 'trail" holds a value indicating time T3, the tirm when the window 3322 was closed.

The other portion of the signature for the coin which was pist detected (in addition to the three time variables) art values indicating the minimum achieved, within the window 3332, for tach of the variables 3302, 3304, 3306, 3308. These values ire calculated 3422 by subtracting the inimum values at time 13 3342, 3344, 3346, 3348 from the respective baseline values 3312,3314.3316. 3318 to yield four difference or delta values, AdD 3362. ALFO 3364, ANFD 3366 and AHIQ 3368 Providing output which is relative to the baseline value for each signal is useful in avoiding sensitivity to temperature changes.

Nthough, at time t 33S6, 4~ the values reqiried for the coin signature have ben obtained, in the depicted embodimetnt, the system is not yet placed inaarea tt.Thsidyci sdeie o sutdo mi a atamiiu p ewe teciawiht utdtcedada.yfloi h on is also desirable to maintain at least a inimuwm distance or gap from any preceding coin. In general, it is believed usefU to provide at least some spacing bftwee 25 coins for accuate sensor reading, since coins which are touching can result in eddy current passing between coins. Maintaining a iminim gap as coins move toward the door 62 is useful in mnaking sure tit door 62 will strike the coin at the desired time and location. Striking too soon or too late noy result in deflecting in accepted coin other than into the acceptance bin, degrading system accuracy.

Information gathered by the sensor S8 may also be used in connection with assuring the existence of a preferred minimum gap between coins. 13i this way, if coins aie too closely spaced, one or more coins which night otherwise be an accepted coin, will not be deflected (and wil! not be 'counted' as an accepted *.30 coin). Similarly, in one enibodimet a coin having an acceleration less than a threshold (such as less than hill a maximum acceleration) will not be accepted.

Accordingly, in order to assure an adequate leading gp,. the system is not placed in a 'rtad' state until the LFD signal 3302 has reached a valut equal to the gap threshold 3328. After the system verifies 3424 that this event 3flhas occurred, tte tatus is set equal to 'redy 3326 anid the system returns to in W. adlstate 1401 toawaitpassage of the net rin.

To provide for a uurunema preferred bailing gap, in one embodiment, the software monitors tW LFD signal 3302 for a short time alter the Ascending 3S hysttresis criterion has been satisfied 423. Ihe signal has moved uffnly bcktowards thebaseline 332 (measuredesithet with ptsWto thebaseline W 4244. 9 d teuifin 99 tt hievd, t u t Ple acdd 444,ssdm a oslly Onecoin will be murned to er. In all U9% sohnh reMild an Khij btedusgtheh o skst MmL. US. di m n the cas ofa UScinhi).

Because0 the occrenc Of MUvens ISa the crossing of teod6 S 338. 3354, 3372 are only tested at discrete tin. intervals 341z Ia 411b, 1411c, 341 Id, in nost cus the emit will raet be detete until sonm in after it has Occurred. for example, it nuy happen that, with regard to tie ascent-crossing event 3354, the previous emint-test at fin M4 3374 Occurs bellore the crossing event 3354 and the neut event-tst Occur at time TS, a period Of inw 3378 afe the crossing ement 3354. kecodingly in one en*.diment once a tesn detesmines that a crossing event has occurred, interpolation such as linear interpolation, *flirefi neplto rtefki sdt r-ieamreacatetmt fteata ieo h vn 34 As noe bvbMi ,J ,altevle eure o h onsgauehv enotie.Aso. by time t, the infrmtion wich can be used for calculating the time at which the door 62 should be activated (atusing the coin is identified as an accepted coin) is avvabl. Because the distance from the seso to the door is consant and knowun. the amunt of time required for a coin to travel to the preferred position with respect to the door can be culated nuatly if the acceleration of the coin along the rail is known(anod constant) and a velocity, such as the velocity at the sensor is known. According to 10o10 tW ueeains liae b oprn hylct~ttci st o attesno ~ihtelctyoteci s0pse vrte'm in the transition region 2121C. In one emboiment, the initial 'bae' velocity is assumned to be a single value for all coins, in one case, O.S meters/second. bnowing dhe velocity at two locations (the knee 2121C and the sensor location S8) and Itnowing the distance from the knee 2121C to the sensor location 58, the acceleration experienced by the coin can be calculated. "ae on this calculated acceleration, it is then possible to calculate hiew long it will be, continuing at that acceleration, before the coin is positioned at the preferred location over the actuator. This system essentially operates on a principle of assuming an initial velocity And using IS measurements of the senior to ultimately calculate how friction (or other factor such as surface tension) affect the acceleration being experienced by each coin.

Another appach n6gh be used in which an effective friction was assumed as a constant value and the data gathered at the sensor was used to calculate the initial (*knee) velocity.

In any case, the calculation of the tine when the coin will reach the preferred position can be expected to have some amount of error difference between calculated position and actual position at the door activation time). The eror can arise from a number of fautors including departures from the assunytion regarding the kne velocity, non-constant values for friction along the rail, an the like. In one embodiment it has been found that, usng the described procedure, and for the depicted and described design, the woM-t~cs error occurs With the smallest Coin (eCg., Amount 173 nmm in diameter) and arnounts to approximately 6 mnm in either direction. It is believed that in at least some envirnments, an error window of 6 mmn is tolerable results in a relatively low rate of misdirecting coins or other objects).

In order to imuplemnent this procedure, data obtained at the sensor S8 is u sed to cakculate a velocity. According to one scheme, time t, 3336 is taken as th tmewentonci frthetrsth ssensore1,(te andi s thuste im he tecohas eteedatravelorendthsda tavla distance approximately equal to a coin radius. Because, Once the coin has been recognized (eq as described below in connection with figs. 36 and 37), the radius of the coin is known (eLg. using a look-up table), it is possible to calculate Velocity as radius divided by the difference 3 The procedue ilustrated in Fgs. 33 and 34is anexampleof one emodimntof adetection proess3S02. As seen in ig. 3S. anumber of processes, in adiio o eecinsoudblprorengtee hetmedtriabtiedb tespsr Oadohctmeacinrchsthesrcan eerl poese enb considered as being either recognition processes 35S04 relating to identifying and locating objects which pass the sensor, and disposition processes 3506, relating to sedn coins to desired destinations. Once the detection process has exanined dhe stream of sensor readings and has generated signatures corresponding to the coin (or other objet) passing the sensor, the signatures are passed 4228 to a categorization process 3508. This process exanines the signatures received from the detection process 3502 and determines, if possible, what coin or Object has pase the sensor. kefrring to Fig. 32. the recognition and disposition processes 3504.

3506 an pmly performed by the microcontroller 3202.

fig. 36 provides an illustration of wm embodimnent of a categorization process. As shown in Fig. 36, in one embodimnent a calibration mode my be provided inwhich apluralty of borntypes of coinsareplaced in the machine and these coins are usedto definemrax]inumand nusn UD, LFQ,IHID and IIFQ WhSfr that paacoqrdeof emiatinfn. Of~Lnoemo etsnparamesersarealso established and stored during the calibration prcess.

Accoding to the enbolinunt of fig. 36, if the syt nil nergoing calibratioa 3602, the system doe not attempt to recogn of categomie the coins and, by convention, the coins used hor calibration are categorized as *Memglzed* 3604.

As illustrated in fig. 37, in IM ansbodimnnt a coin ignature 3702 is used to categorize an object by perfran; a compr~aison for each olf a nmer of signal peak 3362. 3364, 3366 3368 is comparied, (successively for each catgory J704a, 3704b, 3704n) with nminimum and imaximum (*floor" and "ceiling'") values defining a 'window, for each ignature component 3712a. 3712b. 3714a, b, 3716a, b. 371 ak b. A mtch is declared 3612 for a given category only if anl four components of the igntuire 3362, 3364, 3366, and 3368 fall within the corresponding window for a particular category 37O4a, b, c. o.

In the enmodisent of lFig. 36, the systern may be configured to end the cattegiation process 3622 whenever the fis category 3624 resulting in a match has been found, or to continue 3626 until all a categories have been tested. In normal operation, the first mode 3624 will typically be used. It is believed the latter mode will be useful principally for research and developet purposes.

Th results of the categorization 3508 are storied in a category buffe 3S12 and are provided to the relegator process 3514. The difference between categorization and relegtion relates, in part, to the differenrce between a coin catergory and a coin denornination. Not all coins of a given denomination wi have imfilar structure, and thus two coins of the same denonination my have substantially different signatures. for example, pennies minted before 1982 have a Mtucturet (copper core) substantially different from that of pennies minted after that date (zinc core). Some previous devices have attempted to define a coin discrimination based on coin denomination, which would thus require a device which recognizes two physically different tye of penny as a single category.

Is According to one embodiment, coins or other objets are discriminated not necessarily on the basis of denomination but on the basis of coin categories (in which a ingle detnomination amy have two or more categories). Thus, according to one embodiment, pennies minted before 1982 and pennies minted after I982 beong to two differet coin categories 3704. This use of categories, based on physical characteristics of coins (or othe object), rather than attempting to define on the bais of detnominations, is advantageous since it is believed that thi approach leads to better discrimination accuracy. In particular, by defining separate categories eg. for pre-198 and post-1982 pennies, it becomes easier to discriminate all pennies from other objects, whereas if an attempt was made to defirie a ingle category embracing both types of pennies, it is believed that the recognition windows or thretsholds would have to be so broadly defined that there would be a substantial risk of mis-discrinination. By providing a system in which coin categories rather than coin denominations are recognized, coin destinations my be easily configured and changed.

S urthermnore in addition to improving discrimination accuracy, the present invention provides an opportunity to count coins and sort coins or other objets on a basis other than denomination, for xmple, if desired, the device could be configured to place 'real silver" coins in a separate coin bin so that the machine operator can benefit from their potentially greater Value.

~~Once a relgtor process 3514 receive infornmtion from a catgory buffer regarding the category of a coin (or other objet), the relegator outputs a destination indicator, corresponding to that coin, to a destination buffer 3516. The data from the destination buffer is provided to a director process 3518 whose function is to provide appropriate control ignals at the appropriate time in order to send the coin to a desired d-stination, eg. to provide signals causing the deflecto door to activate at the proper time if the coin is destined for an acceptance bin. In the embodiment of ig. I5, the director procedure outputs informantion regardinghe action to beAN And etime when it 6tobe taken to acontroscheule process 3SI2whichgrtes acotrobit inule324 prvided to nmoprocessor output poirts 3526 for tranisio to th coin transport hardware 320&.

In one embodiment, the solenoid is controlled in suc a manner as to not only control the time at which the door is activated 4234, 4244 but also the asnourt of force to be used (such as the strength aind/or duration of the solenoid activation Volts). In one embodiment. the amount of force is varied depeniding on thess ofthe coi,whichcan be derned. mLIfom upa leqbleaed o nrecognitionofthe coin ctegory.

is informtion from the detsfination buffer 351 6 is also provided to a counter 3528 which retains a tally of at least the numbe of coins of e&a denomination sent to the coin bins. If deired,a&uMrberfffCounmszrsan beprovided so that the system can keep trick not only of uhcoindenomiration. but Of echb Coin caeor and/cr, coin bin the coin was destined for.

In genetral, the fOw of data depicted in fit, IS represens a narrowing bandwidth in which a relatively large amount of data is provde hee te JD conererwhchisuse b te etctr 502tooupu atmllo aloia o dta(asth cstSinaure, ltmael rsutin i a snge ounerinuenut 52 According to one embodiment of the present irntion, the system is confiured to use the most rapid and efficient means of information transfer for those inforration or sipul pats which have the ratest volume or bandwidth reqirmnts. Accordingfl, in one embodiment, a direct memory access (DMA) procedure is used in connection with transferring senor ata from the conerter 2906 to the microcontroller reading buffer 3500.

As depicted in fig. 38, a two-channel DMA controller (providing channels DMAO and DMAI) is used 80.L In the depicted embodiment, one of the DMA channels is used for uploading the program from one of the serial ports to memory. After this operation is completed, both DMA channels are used in implementint the DMA transfer. DMAO is used to write controller data 3804 to the A-to-D converter 2906, via a control register image buffer 3806. This operation slects the analog channel for the nut read, start the conversion and sets up the nut read for the A-to-D converter output data register. DMAI then reads the output data register 3808. DMA will then write to the controllr register 3806 and DMAI will read the next analog channel and so forth.

In the preferred embodiment, the DNA interface does not limit the ability of the software to independently read or write to the A-to-D converter. It is possible, howeer, that writing to the control reister of the A-to-D converter in the middle of a DMA transfer may cause the wrong channel to be read.

Preferably the DMA process takes advantage of the DMA channels to configure a multiple word table in memory with the desired A-to-D controller register data. Preferably the table length (number of words in the table) is configurable, permitting a balance to be struck between reducin microcontroller overhead (by using a loner table), and reducing memory requirements (by usin a shorter table). The DMA process sets up DMAO for writing these words to a fied 110 address. Nut, DMAI is set up for reading the samenumbner of words from the same I/O address to a data buffer in memory. DMAI is preferably set up to IS interrupt the processor when all words have been read 3812. Preferably hardware DMA decoder logic controls the timing between DMAO and DMAI.

Fig. 39 depicts timing for DMA transfer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a PIO pin will be used to enable or disable the tirer output 3902. If the timer enable signal 3904 is low, the hardware will block the timer output 3902 and conversions can only be started by setting the start conversion bit in the control register of the A-to-D converter 3906. If the timer enable sinal 3904 is high, the A/D conversions start at the rising edge of the timer output 3902, and write cycles will be allowed only after the following edg of the timer output 3902 with read cycles only being allowed after the busy signal 3912 goes low while the timer output signal 3902 is high. The described desig provides treat flexibility with relatively small overhead. There is a single interrupt (DMA interrupt) event once the buffer is filled with data from the A-to-D converter are read and put into memory. Preferably, software can be configured to change the DMA configuration to read any or all analog channels, do multiple reads in some channels, read the channels in any order and the like. Preferably, the A-to-D converter is directly linked to the microprocessor by a 16-bit data bus. The microprocessor is able to read or write to the A-to-D converter bus interface port as a single input or output instruction to a fixed I/O address. Data flow between the A-to-D converter and the microprocessor is controlled by the busy 3912, 25 chip select, read 3914 and write 3908 signals. A conversion clock 3902 and clock enable 3904 signals provide control and flexibility over the A-to-D conversion S*rate.

Another embodiment of a gapped torroid sensor, and its use, is depicted in Figs 2A through 16B. As depicted in Fi. 2A, a sensor, 212 includes a cort 214 having a generally curved shape and defining a gap 216, having a first width 218. In the depicted embodiment, the curved core is a torroidal section. Although *"torroidal" includes a locus defined by rotating a circle about a non-intersecting coplanar line, as used herein, the term "torroidal generally means a shape which is curved or otherwise non-linear. Eamples include a ring shape, a U shape, a V shape or a polygon. In the depicted embodiment both the major cross section (of the shape as a whole) and the minor cross section (of the prnerating form) have a circular shape. However, other major and minor cross-sectional shapes can be S used, including elliptical or oval shapes, partial dlipses, ovals or circles (such as a semi-circular shape), polygonal shapes (such as a regular or irregular huapgn/octagon, etc.), and the like.

core 214 may be made from a number of materials provided that the material is capable of providing a substantial magnetic field in the gap 216.

35 In one embodiment, the core 214 consists of, or includes, a ferrite material, such as formed by fusing ferric oxide with another material such as a carbonate hydroxide or Wkaline metal chloride, a ceramic ferrite, and th like. If the con is driven by an alternatin current, the material chosen for the co of the inductor, should be normal-loss or low-oss at the frequency of osillation such that the no-coin" Q of the i circuit is substantially higher than the Q of th C circuit with a coin adjacent th sensor. This ratio detrin, in part, the il -to-i ratio for the coin's conductivity measurnm The lower e losses in th core an th winding td greater thc chan in ddy we nt losse, w the coin is placed in or paue by the pp. and hu the t r u the sensidtity of the dvic the 23 depte modimen a mdutivre o rislw sw wabout apprto f h or4sio a ofor id uc2J tive ev Athoughig. 2Adepictsa singletail, in some embodinsent,, two or more coils ay be used, eLg. as described below. In the delpicted embodiment, the coin or other Object to be discriminated is positioned in the vicinity of the gap (in the depicted embdimet within the gap 216). ThwA in die depicted embodiment the gap width 218 is sombwat larger dthse thcats;22Pfti itefoieraiblybhesnor24toalo o msai thegaene efriy.o dries fth on.Pefrbyte 16 1 is as WWIlas posible consientwith practical paeof tecoin. Ins m bdment the gap isabout4m.

ig. 23 depits a senso 212'. pesitioned with respect to a coin conveying rail 23Z, such that, as the coin Ninmove down the ral 234, the rail guides the coin 214 thrughi the gap 216 of the senso 212'. Although fig. 23 depicts the coin 214 traveling in a vertical (on-edge) orientation, the device could be configured so that the coin 224 travels in other orientation&, such as in a lateral (hotizontal) configuration or angles therebertweens. One of the advantages of the present invention is tN ability to increase speed of coin movement (and thus throughput) since coin discrimination can be performed rapidly. This feuture is particularly imp9ortant in the pret inventiott since coins which move very rapidly down a coin rail have a tendency to 'fly' or move partially and/or momentarily awayomteril h reetiveto anbfofiuerucohtth esrtsrltieyheiirttosc eprue fo h epceLo l inlci position., Thus, the pretsent invention contributes to the ability to achieve rapid coin movemnt, not only by providing rapid coin discrimination but insensitivity to coin 'flying.' Although ig. 23 depicts a configuration in which the coin 224 moves down the rail 232 in response to gravity, coin movement can be achieved by other unpowed or powered raens such as aconveyorbeL Mtholwgpase ofthe coin throughthe gap26is deicted, inanoherbdnt the coin passe across, but not through the ga (eg. as depoicted with regard to the embodiment of Fig. 4).

fig. 3 depicts a second configuration of a sensor, in which the gap 316, rather than being formed by opposed faces 2421a, 242b, of the core 214 is.

instead, formed betwee opposed edge of spaed-apant plates (or 'pole pieces') 344a, 344b, which are coupled to the core 314. In this configuration, the core 3l4 is a hall-tonas. The plaits 344a, M4b. may be coupled to a torroid in a number of fashions, such as by using an adhesive cement or glue, a pressfit, spqt weling, or brazingl, riveting, screwing, and the like. MhOsagh the emnbodiment depicted in fig. 3 shows the plaits 344a, 344b attached to the torroid 314, it is also possible for the plaits and torroid to be formed integrally. As see in fig. 4, the plates 344t, 344b, may have haif-oval shapes, but a number of other shapes are possible, including semi-circular, square, rectangular, polygonal, and the like. In the embodiment of Figs. I and 4, the field .oncentrating tifect of ferrite can be used to produce a ver localized field for interaction with a moin, thus reducing or eliminating the effect of a touching neighbor coin. The embodiment of figs. 3 and 4 can also be configured to be relatively insentsitive to the effects of coin 'lying' and ithu contribute to the ability to provide rapid coin movemnent and increase coin ~throughput Although the percentage of the magnetic field which is affected by the prnce of a coin will typically be less in the configuration of figs. 3 and 4, 25 than in the configuration of Fig. 2. satisfactory results can be obtained if the field changes are sufficient'y large to yield a consistently high ignai-to-noise indication of coin parameters. Preferably the gap 316 is sufficiently smll to produce the desired magn!tic field intensity in or adjacent to the coin, in order to expose t coin to an intense field as it pase by and/or through the gap 3 16. In the embodiment of fig. 4, the length of the gap 402 is large enough so that coins with different diameters cover different proportionts of 'he gap.

The embodiment of ig. 3 and 4 is believed to be partictilarly useful in situations in which it is difficult or imipossible to provid access to both faces of a coin 30 at the sMe time. freape fteci sbigCnee noeo t at ahrta na de(-,bigcnee nacneo eto aumbl) narow such that the magnetic field to which thet coin is exposed is also relatively narrow. This configuration can be useful in avoiding an adjaent ot 'touching' coin situation since, even if coins are touching, the magnetic field to which the coins are exposed will be too narrow to substan~tially influence more than one coin at a time (during most of a coin's passage past the senso).

*the gap 216k,316). Th neato fteci rohro~twt uhamgei il o akteef ilsdt hc rvdsifrainaotprmtr *of the coin or object which can be used for discuiaiination, eLg. as described more thorouighlyr below.

In ON mbolmen, a ts tM frm Of avaiable or aterating anent (M isupplied to the col 22. Although the formof the curmnybe sustantially sinusoidal as sed Werin -V is meant Is WAcud any maiable (foonsstaist) wav form, including "aw, sawtooth, ajuare wvm~ and compits 24 waves such as wave fms whic a the sum or two or mrt sinusoidal wavs. ecause of the configuration of th sensor, and the positional reationhip of the coin or object to the ap, the coin can be eposed to a sinifict nrmnctic field, which cun kbe siilican t l affected by the presnce of the coin. The sensor con be used to detect thse changes in the eectron netic fieldd, as the coin passes over or through the app, preferably in such as way as to provid data indicative of at least two different paramters of the coin or object In one embodiment, a paramter such as the se or diameter of the coin or object is indiated by a change in inductance, due to the passal of the coin, and the conductivity of the coin or object is (inversely) rdated to the enrg loss (which my be indicated b the quality factor or Figs. ISA and ISB depict an embodiment which provides a capability for capacitive sensing, et.. for detecting or compensating for coin rdief ad/or flying. In e embodiment of Figs. ISA and 15B, a coin 224 is constrained to move along a substantially linear coin path 1502 defined by a rail deice such as a polystyrn rail 1504. At least a portion of the coin path is adjacent a two-layer structure having an upper layer wrich is substantially non-dectricall conducting 1506 such as fiberllass and a second layer 1508 which is substantially conductive such as copper. The two-layer structure 1506, 1508 can be conveniently provided by ordinary circuit board ntrial 1509 such as 1/23 inch thick circuit board nmterial with the fiberlass side contacting the coin as depicted. In the depicted embodiment, a rectangular window is formed in the copper cladding or layer 1508 to accommodate rectangular ferrite plates 1512a, 1512b which are coupled to faces IS114a, 1514b of the ferrite torroid core 1516. A conductive structure such as a copper plate or shield 1518 is positioned within the gap 1520 formed between the ferrite plates 15112, IS12b. The shield is useful for increasing the flux interacting with the coin. Wthout wishing to be bound by any theory, it is believed that such a shield ISIS has the effect of forcing the flux to o around the shield and therefore to bulge out more into the coin path in the vicinity of the gp 1520 which is believed to provide more flux interacting with the coin than without the shield (for a better signal-to-noise ratio). The shield IS18 can also be used as one side of a capacitive sensor, with the other side being the copper backing/ground plane 1508 of the circuit board structure 1509. Capacitive chanes sensed between the shield 1518 and the ground plane 1508 are believed to be related to the relief of the coin adjacent the gap 1520 and the distance to the coin.

In the embodiment of Fig. 5, the output of signal 512 is related to change in inductance, and thus to coin diameter which is termed The configuration of Fig. 6 results in the output of a signal 612 which is related to Q and thus to conductivity, termd, in fil. 6, Q. Although the 0 signal is not purely proportional to diameter (being at leat somewhat influenced by the value of Q) and Q is not strictly and linearly proportional to conductance (berl somewhat influenced by coin diameter) there is a sufficient relationship between signipal 512 and coin diameter and between signal Q 612 and conductance that these signals, when properly analyzed, cn serve as a basis for coin discrimination. Without wishing to be bound b any theory. it is believed that the interaction •between Q and D is substantially predictable and is substantially linear over the range of interest for a coin-cunting device.

25 tany methods and/or devices can be used for analyzing the signals 512, 612, including visual inspection of an oscilloscope trace or graph as "shown in Fig. automatic analysis usin a diital or analog circuit and/or a computing device such as a microprocessor-based computer and/or using a digital Ssigal processor (DSP). When it is desired to use a computer, it is useful to provide signals 512 and 612 (or modify those signals) so as to have a voltae range and/or other paramters compatible with input to a computer. In one embodiment, signals 512 and 612 will be volta signals nornlly lying within the range 0 to +5 volts.

In som cases, it is desired to separatly obtain information about coin parameters for the interior or core portion of the coin and the xttrior or skin portion, particularly in cases where so or all of the coins to be discriminated nay be cladded, plated or coated coins. For uample, in some cases it nu be that Sthe mon t efficient and rduiable way to discriminate betr two rtypes of coins is to determine the prtsnce or absence of claddin or platig or comupare a skin or cor para ter with a correspondint skin or core parameter of a knon coin. In one embodiment, different frequencies ar used to probe different depths in the thicknesst of the coin. This mthod is effective because, in terms of the interaction between a coin and a nalnetic field, the rMquncy of variable nmaetic ldd definus a skin depth, which is the effective depth of the portion of the coin or other object which interacts with the variablet magnetic fid. Thus, in this b odinnt, a first frequency is provided which is relatively low to provide for a larpr skin depth, and thus interaction with the core of the coin or other obct and a second, hither frequency i provided, hith enoulh to result in a skin depth substantil y ess thn the thickness of the coin. In this wayl, rather thn a s le snsor proiding two parameters, th sensor s able to provid four parameters co conductivity; daddinl or coatin conductivit core diameter and cladding or coatin dimtter (atheth it Is anticipated that, in anny instancs, the core and cladding diameters will e similar). eferably, the blw-equenc ski dept is eater than the t tnu of t platin or laination, and the hilh kfrquenq skin depth is ks thn, oto ab iorl to, the platin or lainatic thickness (or the rang of lakination depths, for the anticipted coin population). Thus the frequency which is chosen depends on the hu t tics of the oins or other objects epected to be input. In one ebodimnt, the low fquency is between about 0 KHz and about 500 I, prtfer about 200 Iz and the hih frequency is between about 0.5 HMI and about 10 MHNI preferably about 2 IHL.

In some situtions, it aym be necessary to provide a first drivin signal frequency component in order to achieve a second, different frequency sensor sigal component. In particular,it i found ht if the sensor 212 (Fi. 2) is first driven th hih frequen usin hih frequenc coil 242 and then the low frequency sigal 220 is added, addin the low frequency sital will affect the frequency of theih frequency snal 242. Thus, the high frequency drivin s al my need to be adjusted to drive at a nominal frequency which is different from the desired high frequency of the sensor such that when the low frequency is added, the high frequency is perturbed into the desired value by the addition of the low frequency.

Multiple frequencies can be provided in a number of ways. In one embodiment, a single continuous wave form 702 (Fig. which is the sum of two (or more) sinusoidal or periodic waveforms having different frequencies 704, 706, is provided to the sensor. As depicted in fig. X, a sensor 214 is preferably conigured with two different coils to be driven at two different frequencies. It is believed that, generally, the presence of a second coil can undesirably affect the inductance of the first coil, at the frequency of operation of the first coil. Generally, the number of turns of the first coil may be correspondingly adjusted so that th first coil has the desired inductanc. In the e odimnt of figX, the snsor core 214 is wound in a lower portion with a first coil 220 for drivin with low frequency signal 706 and is wound in a second region by a second coil 242 for driving at a higher frequency 704. In the depicted embodiment, the high frequency IS coil 742 has a smaller number of turns and uses a larger auge wire than the first coil 220. In the depicted embodiment, the high frequency coil 242 is spaced 242a, 242b from the first coil 220 and is positioned closer to the gap 216. Providing some separation 242a, 242b is believed to help reduce the effect one coil has on the irductance of the other and may somewhat reduce direct coupling between the low frequency and high frequency signals.

As can be seen from fi. 7, the phase relationship of the high frequency signal 704 and low frequency signal 706 will affect the particular shape of the composite wave form 7L Signals 702 and 704 represent voltge at the tenninals of the high and low frequency coils, 220, 242. If the phase relationship is not controlled, or at least known, output signals indicating, for uample, amplitude and/or Q in the oscillator circuit as the coin passs the sensor may be such that it is difficult to deternmine how much of the chang in amplitude or Q of the signal results from the passage of the coin and how much is attributable to the phase relationship of the two sials 704 and 706 in the particular cycle bein analyzed. ccordingly, in one embodiment, the phases of the low and high signls 704, 706 are controlled such that sampfing points along the composite sinal 702 (described below) are taken at the same phase for both the low and high signals 704, 7106. A number of ways of assuring the desired phase relationship can be used including generating both signals 704, 706 from a comrnn reference source (such as a crystal oscillator) and/or usin i a phase locked loop (PUL) to control the phase relationship of the signals 704.706. By using a phase locked loop, the wave shape of the compsite signal 702 will be the same during any cycle during any low frequency cyc!t), or at luast will change only very slowly and thus it is possible to determine the sampling-points (described below) based on, e.1, a pre-dfined position or phase within the (low frequency) cycle rather than based on detecting characteristics of the wave form 702.

fits. 8A 80D depict circuitry which can be used for driving the sensor of fig. X and obtaining si1als useful in coin discrinination. The low frequency and high frequency coils 220, 242, form portions of a low frequency and high frequency phase locked loop, respectively 802a, 802b. Details of the clock circuits 808 are shown in Fig. 8D. The details of the high frequency phase locked loop are depicted in fig. 88 and, the low frequency phase locked loop 802a may be identical to that shown in ig. 88 except that some components may be provided with different values, as discussed below. The output from the phase locked loop is provided to filters, 804, shown in greater detail in Fit. SC. The remainder of the components of fig. 8A are generally directed to providing reference and/or samplinl pulses or signals for purposes described more fully below.

Is The crystal eilltorcircuit 6 (Fi. OD) providesa reen cre rqus 8 i o dock pin oacounter 810 uh asajousondivide byl owmu.

The oanter outputs a lh requl rdnce sipal 812 and various output QO9 dein 10 diffs phn positions with respect to the rrence itl al 1 Inth depicted thodim e,two of thee pha position pulses 816, 81 are pro ided to h e hi equencl pla locked loop b l r purposes dribed o A cond conWt r ceiV e itdock it tme n rt e ipal 812 outputs a low freuencyrdl n sil 812and bt and f s nd low frequency sam psis 816 16'UW ch are a iashin an log o fu of dq high que pm 816 and 8lb dei below.

Wh qQmatausP6I2 Tb1h h dUmy uugm8llisc f~aianw byae wp tRg2&l balwr~~ faon dismodbelhw. by a santan pOm detotor 832 for providing an iptto a dik mnc anplifio 834 which oututs an eror uignal 512 which it proided to t S oscillator M2 (to vmizin t freqy And phase of t oscillator s~antially conistant) and prides t figh frequesc D output signal S12.

duty frqwax cycin do conqm to 842 (wkha s a low frquuq cunponent) This 4 s eful to avid dri~ng oW fequency And ligh freutscy in t sanu oscillator M22 As me in f6g. 88, in inductor and capacitor hmn valus ftspectv*y of 82 rnicaofmys and 82 pgcofardL The corresponding cwornouis in t low rquen ciruit 802.

have vY9^s repctiv*l, of oam nicrhvy and OJ nricrolarads, respectively (d such a3 is pVoided at ain). In high frquenc triangle wave geneator, capad-Or 844 is Considering t circui of fig. 88 insoinewhat greater detail, it is desired to provide te oscillator 82 in such a fashion that t frequmqc rumins substanially consta ept nes iind2uanc f yiacg24 n d as m s e fro i p fan npas t tesenso). Inodrt civ hspl h siltrM i rrte with a voloag contrllak capacitor (or mactor 844 such tt, as t inductance of t coil 242 chanes t capacitance of t vractor diode 844 is adjusted. wing IS t r signal 512 to conpeso was to maintain t LC resonant frqixncy substantially constant. In t confgifabon of Fig. 88, t capacitance demuning t reoant frquisicy it a function of bot t varactor diode capacitance and t capactane of kzad apacitor 846. PHerably, capacitor 846 and varactor diode 844 art selce o ta t con"o voltage 512 can use t greater pat of t dynic range of t varactor diode and yet t control voltage 512 rwains in a preferred range such as O-S vts (mful hr outputting dirctl to a coaTute). Op 852 isa zer gai buffer arlifer (opedance isolator) whose outpt provides one input to cornliartor 842 whicli Acts as a hard lmiter And has relatively Noigh gie hard-linited (square wai) output of couparator E42 is provided, arross a high value resistor 844 to drive t coa 242 is a function of its Q. Insrvr.asn aeoilto nteL ici scnetdt osatapiuesur atsga rvn h Ecri ota h "ritudit of t oscillations in t L circui ane direK* a measure of t Q of t dircuit.

Sk is nd sec~ ond a 84opv i apes o tt tavlern itUtim detried bute r qtypi l es 6a. 6b. In mentodinmUthtiingis deterined errpiricafly by selecting different outputs 814 from t counter 810. As seen in Fig. B, t (arpirically selected) outputs used for Utdig fre quc ciruit =Iy be dilr m dose used r thlwfrequ ncy crcuitofdlfeist ffeing delays i ttworcitsand theIkL Switches 4 capdors SSSfrm a mpland hold ciruit hor sapling peak and trough oltages And Utu volutags Art provided to differential anplifier 856 whose output 612 is thus proportional to t anplitude of t signalin teLCcrcurand, ccordingfis msly ppinaoQ (andth related tocond t of thcoin). Because thephaseod loops for the 6%and igh frquescy signals Ane lked to a cmrrnn reference, be phase relationship betwee t two frequency components is luted, and any interference bietween the two frquenoes a k commmde (or nealy s),ince thsewave frm wilstay narly tnefrom cyce tocyce, And tco mode conpoent wibesbtractdo y it differetial worlier 856.

inadition t vW q A upu612 w h hi tdto coicnductance, eU lm ircui2 1alsoprovides an W"a 52 relatedto coin diaane. in t an8tioimo ig.Bd i tder wNf d5 id signal HD52i inlwhich a ttoteco iue of tk mtio d u s ppliied rct r dioe Wto corrc hor change in inductance of t coil 242 as t coin passes t sensor. fig. I illustrates signals which play a rit in detanining whter correction to t vancto od844 itneeded. If ter hee n nocagein oinduc tarn1Zt e e nnftoscil oflte siltr 8 inlstht bstnt ally cons tantd wl hea, substantially constant phs relationship with respect to t higt frequencyu reeec signal 812. Thus. in t abwxt of t passage of a coin paig t sitr (or any other disturnceof ik inuctaceof thcol 244)Utsquam waveoutput signl 843 w ma phistewhich coff Ws ito tepase of theferncetsignal 812 such that athe tinof tub dge71,2.71k f aosilatosqr eW wmsigral80.,the idem lsig napl wil ei s ye niway twm ave pa And wv trough. Any dqxmfromtts dnnioteaw ma 69,tocltr~ladosauuh In hresoeoet d o m r. o ft. oder todo n Cs Lddyrturs da au sgal 1116w orte i &w m genrato oaVi a mOUinth pm mp3 m to a ff tca giua msgnl 0 tu t owvim The saffld sgnalsanthed by opatr68. As can beam om 68. 7, f tdm ta bom no dw n dw freuusy or -h rdatimnsiNp of do *Ai osinal 843, at th imes of the jqsnn wave edge 712a, 71h, 712cdth valui of the sqia wav signal B62will be half wy bem w eak waueand tit Vugh valuL Inted Wenoiwtetragi m82itcniue ohv nwpiui Wt h dliffentme between KCC (typically S volt) and grouridf potential. Thus, difference anfiv 834 is conllgwed to conipmr dhe san~sl values from dfe trianglet wav 8B2 with onethntwibe nortignal-iniuced d to the capaduaacitordlod"e3 Hf,fthrme anluskmtewt;4 ave80w i hal" Wjm grmadpow"sia and n cruxeanylitr 14will ouspua voltap on flieS12 which is sufficint o adjust thecpacitanceof yract &&od 844 in ananMit and &Wdlonn WfetDCorvv da fonam frsqaey of ft oiiator Mlwto nim thefroquenyattdeiredsbiaiai h 'tva ue. signsalilsamntwof configured for noise repcison The ps bandi for dei Milen B04 a preferbly selected to provide durile signal to noise ratio csactewistc for die outpt signals O8ak JIM2, BOYa, SM2. for aank tin bandwidth which is provied hr dhe filters 804 may depend upon dhe 9Wee at which coins pass the senors, and sinilar factors In ne enrodinw. it tput* signals 3ka 8SM, MY.a 8822' an provided to a con~uter for coin discrinination or other analysis. Before describing aanples of IS such analysis, it is belived uli to describe 1we typical profiles of die output signals 882a 8B, BM2', 8Q'. ig. 9 is a graph depic ting the output signahs, etg, as they ingt pea teoutp itriapoetdipelyd an a re mogsci loscope. In the iusration oFig. 9,de vaues ofde high and ow freuncyQ sgnals 8122 BMWa and igh and low fquncy D signals 88 82bhmv values (depicted on the left of the grah of Fig. 9) pior to patsag of a coin past the sensor Which change as indicatedin fig. 9as the coininive toward the sw, and is atpcm or centere within the gap of dhe sensor at tinie returning to substantialy the original values as the coin nv away from ie senrwat tini 2.

The signals 8821, 80.b 8SM', 8bM' can be used in a nunber of fashions Sn chairacteise coins or other objects as describelow. The magnitude of changes 902 92 ofh Wk fny i ig irqerc vlesantecinpse wsmsndte bout ale 94 04 f h lwv hg feuec sgal M 882a, nspectivly. at the tiot t, when the ctin or odw obpct is rms nexly aligned with the mwuo (as dttenied eqg by the tifnt of the Isical rnp tkmus in the D signals 8M2, 8822) an wefuin dwanttriwucoins. Mot die low anid high fruluency Q values ant usefu for dirinnation. Lasrinated coins showignificantifeecsm ie Q rec6nghrhawts.highfrquecy. T~he fan r~ rl Valuesaes se ulfor d srininaion. Ithas benfoutht smol'lof 2S w cmpopiatiw orflcmldwattitof vr oin d ornin nshtoins can be disiidwihigh mcu, y.

In one eirtodmint values M2a, 901s, 904, 904' ant obtained hor a big. tnurnber of coins so as to deline standaid values chatactistic of each coin :denoniustion. figs. IOA and JOB depict high and bwfrsqw 0 and Ddaa fr dffmm nU. coins. Thalues for thedatoint n s..IA and 08 arat inary unis.

A mioffuues of the dat anappairustfromfs. IA and JOB. fiM it itnoted thde Q.D dats poins fr dfufir eno a tons of coimndtcufte in thsense fit IO O n m th o uin s anlard ni er a at o d ty t W in fi g s O B 0 o det e v n th d ri o i n o an k u cw coin 4 v define Q Dr mp ons an eahofte highs fruey and low h uxnygV mi h vicinity of the data point.o u1wfkuin lgLLA anciluO, rpou I.Iw 102t,100a'- IOR art depited asreungularawwmffuysg d te data pou. kmdc o.e ulic i myandh"ig r mhigh qaer m D dab w atod tomco crip" i 3S meponseto thecoin nn g he muo th gh uuqD 0, D fra mthe unknown con a cwW th of the rgi rs IJc 12e of he h gh frq ncy rapandth e qmeq Q, Ddata coffipnd oach of rtim 10s02A' -102e' ofthe low frequeyrh ig.10B. Iftheunncoin fiwitin dwped~ned uiom spw~ o thesadiensdunaionrnrtbof dptgwo a*Fig. IOB i 0,the n ini iicated as having that doniton. If dwQ. D datafalls outside th~it h~;10- OC 102e 102tonde bv raptor ddapotodmbo n r o r 40 fals insidea rgon orrpadiitoa Jim en o rnraon ith a NO i bwuq graph Mo a ififeru demrtumon with low froquq graph da coi or odw object is; hiicau its not corrsponding to am, of ft denoitiom del nedh toVpaphf Fgs. IOA and IOL p~ar de-;.do Uaa k k rot) ie 6geioin Wfich am to m Will reslt in =Woccptbly brge nmber of fals nqtive irW to idenily a S dedoed Wr lks. n f oimi r mZOh -VXM MW2 O haeam And hm eried aonthebashmofa m ilalyinof theQ, D nki.

hrtrrm he ize aM a dup oft i:oms ml be adpmld dya&q on dit '1 4pa- coin popdtion (qg in eqiom nrn moian borders, repent my med be deinae fm I 6xi i fa roi 06% mn at the cod oil raik i Mmeogativ War n wfeas Such affamwi ofth Vin or impe of the regions may not be .msat catios i on ror ofau era cm"Arbinci uqbe I eid oam mc ecniue bi fsisrm qteQ Dvle fteciswiha iciw ytekni h d This dab c= be mMi to dex ugeg ug onpopulation oem int rcdngis ii Vi veroge Q. Dvaui such as may miifi rm aging or war of the iom or othercopnyonws Suchuduummioninbe md s b (p the whmor he xW b mnta c aon the inand the k oe ornodimt, the Ipparatus i ikoli te Uda5 Mici is ed rlb de d wihtaham m ication device uhas a mWdu S l4) and uy be n 6gud tps mit the defro ofe IS rtgimi 10021. 00 It Y- l00 oroherdaoftwaet be nodt drmy(e ob downicaded toa field itefma cenral site). In aohrnodienL b deice mAscoend to afwizl adjimto idnitioof io 100h 10024,1002a'-1002 inrepons towoq ttstical analysis of the Dft br coins arci e umixed amig the device., to provide a type of ad abati o th oi dic rinimr.

In light of the above description a nir advantages of the present invention can be ens. En6Wdment of the present inventio can provide a device with inesed accuracy and service life, asn and safely of use, requirns little or no training and fittit. or no instruction, which reliably returns unprocessed coins kntevtion,. which has reduced need for Wnermition by trained personnel. can handle a broad range of coin ypes. denoninations, can handbt wet or sticky coins or foreign or noo-co.n objects, has reduced incdence of ouactioal or placing "or objects in the coin bins, has reduced incidence of rejeting good toinas, his sinyifled andor reduced rquw atnms for setup caibration or maintenance, has relatively snail volun or footprint requireimis. it tolerant of tarrierflnr variations is relatvrely quied. and/or aeanced ease of upgrading or retrofitting.

25 In one urnbdiment, the apparatus ane singulauion of a randomly-orietedti ass of coins with reduced *jan and high throughput. In one eoin tcown are elfectirely separatedl fronm oe another prio to mn and/or deflection In one ernodiment. deflection piarters, Such as force and/or tinofdflection nb cdmdt am ntocd caarstics of coins or oo .sch si, spee. h A wuacterant siinauay of coin handlig. In one enodimen, slow or stuc coins are autornatically noved (such as by a pin or rae), or otherwise provided with kinetic energy, in one ernodiffeni item inclug tse w W e not ogoied is valuableo" ae oeirable coins orother ob u allowedo follow a -dvertaed, dfau 30 path prdnvbly, underhe eofgavit), while at leatur toga ndor accepted coinsartierted from tedefaul pah toMoveuh ituinto an acceptance bin or other location.

~In one esutodinmn, the device provides hr uase of application (eLg. nultiple measiuntrts done simulitaneously vao at one location), increased pefrnUrnce, such as inyvove throughput anrimeduce jams (tha prematurelyend ransacion 2-d risk losing coins). moruacurate discriuoiation, and reduced cost andor siz. One or More torroidal Woes can be used hir sensing properties of coins or other object passing through a nugneti fiW, created in or adjacent a 3 S gap in the torvoid, thus allowing coiins, disp erical, round or otheir objects, to be measurted for ther physical. dimnensional, or metali properies (preferably twoor uW1 apropein a single Pass over Wthough onsensor). The devictEfitlwa pWdcoinino-timntand highhrnagpuL The device provides for *better ifiscu~iaxtion among coins and other objets tdan man previous device, particularly with respect to U.S. um and permies, wle) aeqanring few mnr an/o a malliv sensor regio to achimv dis resulL. Preferably, mutple parmeter of a coin are measured sustantially simalitaeusly and with the coin located in p nosi e, dtpetimaom oato ata psitnrathLin puksch as ri. n amia fcsa rpontris it QWhich -29produce more than one function, in order to reduce part count and maintenance. For example, certain sensors, as described below, are used for sensing two or more items and/or provide data which are used for two or more functions. Coin handling apparatus having a lower cost of design, fabrication, shipping, maintenance or repair can be achieved. In one embodiment, a single sensor exposes a coin to two different electromagnetic frequencies substantially simultaneously, and substantially without the need to move the coin to achieve the desired two-frequency measurement. In this context, "substantially" means that, while there may be some minor departure from simultaneity or minor coin movement during the exposure to two different frequencies, the departure from simultaneity or minor coin movement during the exposure to two different frequencies, the departure from simultaneity or movement is not so great as to interfere with certain purposes of the invention such as reducing space requirements, increasing coin throughout and the like, as compared to previous devices. For example, preferably, during detection results of exposure to the two frequencies, a coin will move less than a diameter of the largest-diameter coin to be detected, more preferably less than about 3/4 a largest-coin diameter and even more preferably less than about 2 of a coin diameter.

An embodiment of the present invention makes possible improved discrimination, lower cost, simpler circuit implementation, smaller size, and ease of use in a practical system. Preferably, all parameters needed to identify a coin are obtained at the same time and with the coin in the same physical location, so software and other oo o discrimination algorithms are simplified.

Other door configurations than those depicted can be used. The door 62 may have a laminated structure, such as two steel or other sheets coupled by, adhesive 25 foam tape.

A number of variations and modifications of the invention can be used. It is possible to use some aspects of the invention without using others. For example, the described techniques and devices for providing multiple frequencies at a single sensor location can be advantageously employed without necessarily using the sensor geometry depicted. It is possible to use the described torroid-core sensors, while using analysis, devices or techniques different from those described herein and vice versa. It is possible to use the sensor and or coin rail configuration described herein without using the described coin pickup assembly. For example it is possible to use the sensor described S".i herein in connection with the coin pickup assembly described in US Application 883655, (attorney file number 3730-906) now US Patent No. 6,168,001 for POSITIVE DRIVE [I:\DayLib\L1BE]4157.doc:kxa 29a COIN DISCRIMINATING APPARATUS AND METHOD, filed on even date herewith and incorporated herein by reference. It is possible to use aspects of the singulation and/or discrimination portion of the apparatus without using a trommel. Although an embodiment of the invention has been described in the context of a machine which receives a plurality of coins in a mass, a number of features of an embodiment of the invention can be used in connection with devices which receive coins one at a time, such as through a coin slot.

Although the sensors have been described in connection with the coin counting or handling device, sensors can also be used in connection with coin activated devices, such as vending machines, telephones, gaming devices, and the like. In addition to using information about discriminated coins for outputting a printed voucher, the information can be used in connection with making electronic funds transfers, e.g. to the bank account of the user in accordance with information read from a bank card, credit card or the like) and/or to an account of a third party, such as the retail location where the apparatus IS is placed, to a utility company, to a governmental agency, such as the U.S. Postal Service, or to a charitable, non-profit or political organization as described in U.S. application Serial Number 852329, filed May 7, 1997 for Donation Transaction method and apparatus (attorney file number 3739-901-4), now US Patent No. 5,909,794 incorporated herein by reference. In addition to discriminating among coins, devices can be used for discriminating and/or quality control on other devices such as for small, discrete metallic parts such as ball bearings, bolts and the like. Although the depicted embodiments show a single sensor, it is possible to provide adjacent or spaced multiple sensors to detect o..

one or more properties or parameters at different skin depths). The sensor of the present invention can be combined with other sensors, known in the art such as optical sensors, 25 mass sensors, and the like. In the depicted embodiment, the coin 242 is positioned on both a first side 244a of the gap and a second side 244b of the gap. It is believed that as the coin 224 moves down the rail 232, it will be typically positioned very close to the second portion 244b of the coil 242. If it is found that this close positioning results in an undesirably high sensitivity of the sensor inductance to the coin position an undesirably large variation in inductance when coins "fly" or are otherwise somewhat spaced from the back wall of the rail 232), it may be desirable to place the high frequency coil 242 only on the second portion 244a (Fig. 2C) which is believed to be normally S.I :somewhat farther spaced from the coin 242 and thus less sensitive to coin positional variations. The gap may be formed between opposed faces of a torroid section, or formed [I:\DayLib\LBE]41 57.doc:kxa 29b between the opposed and spaced edges of two plates, coupled (such as by adhesion) to faces of a section of a torroid. In either configuration, a single continuous non-linear core has first and second ends, with a gap therebetween.

9 99** [I:\DayLib\LBE4157.doc:Ixa AlthpAi ssioet isPeei afsow iswhichecmeis driey adiect c urenhably, the creis drienby an alternating orvarying In ont trisbdnit wo or more frequencies are used. Preferably, to reduce the mnme of swors in the devices, both frequencies drive a single CWtL In this way. a first fr~quency can be selected to obtain Paranters relatng to the corn of a coin and a second frequency selected to obtain parameter; relating to the S reio osfte coin, toharactriz plated or amnated coins. One difficltyin usitoor mor frequenciesn asngle coneis the potatal fr intrfrce I n ei ibodimnt, to avoid c interference both freqluencies ate phase locke to a single reference frequency. In one approachthe sentsorforims an inductor of an L-C siscillaxa, whose frequency is maintained by a Phast-lacitad Loop (PUL) to defint an errm signal (related to Q) and amplitude which chang as the coin movres past die mser.

As see in figs. 2A.,21,1 and 4, the dqkite senor includes a coil which will provide a certain amount of indluctance or inductive reactance in a circuit to which it is connected. The effetive Wuctanc of the coil will chang A eq. a coin move adjacent or thrugh the gpp and this chang of inductance can be used to at least partially charize the coin. VWt wishing to be bound by any theory, it is believed the coin or other object affects inductance in the following usanne. As the conuevsby orars th p. the ngetc fidlines aatrd. If the frcy of thevring madicufidflty h igh to defne a 'skin depthch isssdoabo tewth ote coin, nofield lins wilgo through thecoins the coinmoves across orthrotihthe pp. As thecoin is moved across or into tie gp,. tie inducte of a codl wound on the core decreases, because the magnetic field of the direct, short path is caniceled (e#g1, b eddy currents flowing in the coin). Since, under these conditions no flux goe through any coin having any substantial cond-Xtiviry, the decrease in inductance due to the pirtsence of the coin is primarily a function of the surface ame (and thus diameter) of the coin.

A relatively straigtfoirward approach would be to use the coil as an inductor in a resonat circuit stich as in LC oscillator circuit and deec changets in the resonant frequenc of the circutit as the coin moved past or through t gap. Although this approach has been found to be operab~e and to provide informationi which my be use to sense certain chanectesistcs of the coin (such as its diameter) a nvre preferred emboiment is shown. in genral form, in fig. S and is descibed in greater detai below.

Int tie urbodiment of fig. S. a phase dtector 506 compares a signal indicative of the frequency in the oscillator SOB with a reference frequency 510 arid oututs an eror signal S12 which controls a frequency-vaqying componenit of the oscillator S14 (such as a variable capacitor). The mgnitude of the eror signal S12 is A indication of the magntude of the change in the effctive inductanice of the coil 502. The detection configuration shown in fig. 5 is thus capable of deteting changets in inductanice (related to the coin diameter) while maintaining the frequenc of the oscillator substantially constant. Providing a substantially constant frequency is usefu becaust, among other reasons, the senor will be less &.-.tied by interfering electrosmagnetic fields than a sensor that allows the freuency to shift would be. It will also b- easier to prevent unwanted electromagnetic radiation from the sensor, since filtering or shielding would be provided only with respect to onie frequency as opposed to a range of frequencies.

Withou wishing to be bound by any theory, it is believed that the pretsence of the coin affects energy lois, as indicated by the Q factor in the following mumn. As oed abo i thcoie otropg orthruteg pp. eddy urentsDow causing aner lo, which isrelated toboththe ampitude of tie current and die resistance of die coin. The amplitude of the current is substantially independent of coin conductivity (since the mgntudet of the current is alwayseanogtoacacd the magtic fied that is pevnibydietprsemitof thcoin). Jherefo, for agjiveeffective diametrof the coin. theneryIonsin the eddycrrnswill beinenlyrelated to the conductivity of thcoin. The rdationship can be tomplicated by such fators as thesin depth. whichaffectsthe ara of cwurrt Row with the shim depth being related to coehucirvity.

Thus, for a coil S02 driven at a first, eq. sinusosidal, frequency, the amlilitudle can be determined by using timing signals 602 (fig. 6) to sample te vlata iekn ocrepn otepa opi h yl uigafis ~t 0 n alla tascn on nt*ccekont ortpn to te rtngh using asecondsan r Lvd3 Tho sapld(and hdd) pakand tnugh voltagscan be provided to adifferetial amplifier 61.the output of which 612 is related 19 hcut ane 0111VCM orteprecisely spainttie output612 will represent ie*Q ofte circuit. In prneral. Qis ameasure of the amount of energ Ion in an oidahtor. Ina perfeouiator km odbe no mV l~oes o tar he c irc itwould ilteree and the Q vuwoldbe infirAite n a ml ckrcit de amplitude of osicillations wi divinish and Q is a measure of the rat at which die anlitude diinishes. In anther itiboint 0 data reating III canges in freuec as a fworuim of change in ane analyzed (or comlated with data indicative of this fmctionaJ relationship hW vaou t"ae of CO ofoho Gsff lt4.

In oe unbodile. the :1Wnvtion involves cooilung two or mci freuenies on one core by phase-locking all the frequencies to the sae Rfeene.

Because the frequencies t phase-loked to each othff. the interference Affct of one frequency on the other becomes a convnon-mnode signal w"ic is renoe, S eLgwithadiff1eentialanlfier.

In Got vnbdiient a coin discennmnation apantus and meho is povided in wfic a oscillating electromagnetic field is grated on a single *sensing cone. The oscillatin o ronagsetic field is conysed of oe or moe frequency cvmpynents. The electromagneti fed interacts with a coin. and tese ineamctions an monitored an used to denssily the coin acording to its physcal properties. MR frequency components of the magnetic field ane phase-ocked to a common referece frequency. The phase relationships bevwe the various frequencies ane fixed, and the interaction of each frequency conyonent with the coin can be arately determined wi" ut the need for complicated eletrica filters or special geometric shaping of the sensing core. In one embodon, a sensor having a come preferably ferrite, which is curved (or otherwise on-ronea). such as in a U-shape or in the shape of a section of a torus, and defining a gap, is provide with a wire winding h" excitation andor detecton. The -mPss-; can be used hor simultaneusly obtaining data relating to two or more parameters of a coin or other object such as sine and conduactivity of the obct Two or more frequencies can be used to sens core and/or cladding properties.

IS be apaet odse ofs n akodw cimi iy be caimiedr pefri ucin sfli iannaigcisuigtes=o is 4 Scniome w sts may beuseultoslect copon s iniinth elect o m eu, duihk insoe sitios particularfy whhvokire situntions. some or an of dwcimitrynmy be pwie x r y sinuch a engb rden applconaapecfc fgrdcicit(S). no emOf~imnmyb ale ii d w atirt riole s qa rwan 843 an iangle waves62. for anyleradw tand oiirlnaasawle pulse based on a square wav signal 843, acircut could be usedwich m 4 Mthokdohteus ors of Fgs. BA-8 prides for tog ireuendiesit is possible to deign a detector using ttvv or n frqeqne. eq. to provide har kmte e. Coin disaination.

da tin, reqswe for the frquny Io or to mitain the coin suia~ydw&ill t Inqeqicy wp hIsmne a oia l ae ofor nad iton toJ n vah o btand a ngle tim 1 61. -to charfze coins or ow ~tsitmy be ueful isuse *.so in som w~im wK aai u db ntv ml-i ondaakfsissc spaigtik or surlce itL Isom eieve ita lgrcis .0&soa~ bdn osra onio a emt l.itigihf a ftncK t itnus ed!4m'ilt itnus ldcisfo mamo h 64. S smedwnain n a LI o o m hsina renlb o incwfrmk ifi it W ufceMdva tisF nat ontut m't ptvd daa*4 wWa mi ~o uha ailyqntwo r a fw ncdwdt rikdbvq nua q do di el fatC2r Alftuh fig- S depcts Oe foAki. If obtaining a igna related to 0, Other Circuits can aISO be Wedl. Ithe embodiment depicted in Fig. 5, a coin or other object Adjacent the gap 216.,31 k as described abome ifferent phase consponents of the resulting current wae form can be used to obtain data reatedto inductaniceandQ respectively. In the depkWcted oiluen, the current in the togl 220 is decomposed into at least two components, a first componerst Ths opnnscnb band sr hs-estvta Oi 1104.1106Osuch asa p asedlo ect dopas eda ae hft or dely d,.f a type well bowt in the art The ins-phase comiponent is related to Q. and the 90 dere laggng component is related to ind~utc. In ON anbodiment. the ot frm theph sedisarinators 104,1106, isiitizedbyan anal-to-digialconverter Il08kandprocessdbya microprocesor 1110. In one in aentaio of this technique, nmasaremabt are taken at manny frequenicies. Each frequency drives a resistor connected to tie m~il. The aths'ernd ofdie coil is grounded. for eac4 freuency, there is a dedcted *receivers that detects the I and Q signals. Alternatively, it is possible to ana&"z all frequencies simultaneously by emloying eqg, 3afast lounernf IOrM al) in the Mrprocesso. Inaohrebdmri spsil ouea medneaaye ora h o lutnet)ai inductance of a coil.

Ini another embodiment, depicted in Fig. 12t information regarding the coin parameters is obtained by using the se .nsor 1212 as an inductor in an [C oscillator 1202. A number of types of LC oscillators can be used as will be apparent to those of skill in the an, after understanding the present disclosure. Although IS a transistor 1204 has ber depicted,. other ampfiers such as op amps, can be used in differen configurations. In the depicted embodiment, the sensor 1212 has been depicted as an inductor, since presence of a coin in the viiit of the sensor gap will affect the inductance. Since the resonant frequency of the oscillator 1202 is related to the effective inductance (frequency varies as as the diameter of the coin increases, the frequency of the oscillator increases. The "lritudle of the AX in the resonant LC circuit, is affected by the condluctivity of objects in the vicinity of the sensor gap. The frequency is detected by frequency detector and by amplt dertector 1206, using well known electronics techniques with the results preferably being digitized 1208, va processed by mcroprocessor 1210. In one embodiment the oscillation loop is completed by ampstying the voltage, using a hard-limiting amplifier (square waie output), which drive a resistor. Changes in the mragnitude of Nh indur-tanc caused the oscillator's frequency to change. As the diameter of the test coin increases, the frequency of the oscillator increases As the conductivity of the test coin decreases, t8w anglitnade of the AC voltage and the tuned circuit toes down. By having a hard-linu ter, and having a curretntliniting resister that is much lage than 8w resonant impedlance of the tune circuit, the amplittude of the signal! at the resonant circuit substntially accurately see@ sees indicats. in imvrse Hitina p, theQ of the conductor.

Is. ways. Although it would be possble to use formula: or statistical regressions to calculate or obtain the numerical values hr diameter in inches) and/or OS'0 conductivity (eqg, in mhos). it is contemiplated that a frequent use of the present invenion will be in connection with a coin counter or handler, which is intended to 1) discuininate coins from non-coin objects, 2) discmnunate domestic from foreign coins and/or 3) discriminate one coin denomination from another.

Accordingl, in one embodiment, the inicroprocesso compares the diameteridicating data, and conductivity~indicating data, with standard data inicative of 0.

detctor of ig. S an ifr6omevalus in thezangof 0to Sv"It, hestndard datacharact istic oiosknncoins can be rirpror to OW&O 3s Although inone bodimentit ispoieto use da from asing e pin i e, such as w he coin is c ed on thegap16, (sindadq by arelaive nimum, or sninwmin a signal), in anothser embodiment a plurality of values or aconinuous signal of the value obtained as the coin momespast s or througbithe gap 216is prtlerably ued.

An wnfleof asingle poW of coipaiworach of tihe manildelayed detectoris depictedin Fig.j 13. ntis figtim standard datk (staredlin the cOnpute), indicates the ama and/o amcptac or tolanc wag of inpnas aeslitws (idicative of conductivity), which baa been found to be assoIatedith U.S IIParines, Vlkels diWe and qartS' reptfively 1302 Dasta ba also gtored, iinditating the Imuage and/oer ace tc or toerance ranget of values Output by the g0 degree delayed anplitude dettor 406 (Indicative Of dimewe) assoiate with te SUM coins IM0. Pieferably, the envemlop or toleranc is sufficiently broad to lese the oczwrese of Wals negative results, (which can arn. L9g, from vans rnishpen, or dirty coins, electronic noise, and tdo like), but sufficiently narrow to amid fals positivet esults, and to avoid or reduce substantial overlap of the enivelopes of two or more curve (m order to piride for discritnination between denomninations). Although, in the figures, the data stored in the comiputer is shown in graphical iorn, for the sake of clarity of disclosure, S typcany the data winbe stred in igita; forin in a "Main a mn well bvnin the cnutartam In the erndimw tin which only a sngle value is used for discrinination, the digitized single in-phase ampitudle value, which is detected for a particular coin (in this ezaMple a value of 3.5) (scaled to a range of 0 to S and digitized), is comnpaed to the standard in-phasse data, and the value of 3.5 is found (using progranmung techts known in the ant) to be contsistent with eisd aqureratadnt10a.Siiaquarteremedlae oradvauiwih sdem frthssu oi 31 intis308. avlu f co" t hesanadinpitalaas tealeof10 sfwWtabchnitntwtheiwapnn rsdn 3L hs atouheahtstb isllol yield arnbiguous results, ince the single detcto provides inforimtion on two paraneters (one related to conductivity and one related to diameter), the discriuirnation can be mnade ursunhiguously since thene it only one denination (dim) 1314 which is consistent with both the conductivity data and the diaetrw data.

As noted, rathe than using singfe-point conparisorn, is is possible to use multiple data points (or a continuous curve) generated as the coin moves past or through the gap 216, 316. Profiles of data of this type can be used in sevra different ways. In the example of ig. 14, a plurality of knwn dennnations IS of coins are sent through the discrininating device in order to accurnulate standard data profiles for each cf the denorninations 1402a, b, c, d, 1404a, b, c, d. These represent the avenget change in output from the in-phase ampitude detector 1104 and a 90-degree delay detector for (shown on the vertical ues) 1403 and acceptance ranges or tolerances 140S as the coins move past the detector ove a period of timre, (shown on the horizontal axis). In order to discrirsunate an unknown coin or other object, the object i5 passed trough or across the detector, and each of the in-phase amplitude detector 1104 and 90-degree delayed amplitude detector 1106, rispectively, produce a curv or profile 1406.1410, respectively. In the emibodimnent depicted in Fig. B. the in-phase profile 1406 generated as a coin passe the detector 212. is conpared to the various standard profilts for different coins 14021, 1402b. 1402c. 1402d. Comnparison can be made in a ~nurnber of ways. In one embodimenit, the data is scaled so that a horizontal axis between initial and fia threshold values 1406a equals a standard tim for bette mnatching with the standard values 1402a through 1402d. The profile shown in 1406 is then coinpared with standard profiles stored in memory 1402a through *1402d, to detenriine whether the detected profile is within the acceptable envelopes defined in any of the curves 1402a through 1402d. Anothe mthod is to calculate a closeness of fit parameter using wenl know curve-fitting techniques, and select a detnomnination or seeral denorninations, which mst closely fit the 2S sensed profile 140&. Still anothe r ethod is to select a plurality of points at predeterotnd (sealed) intervals along the tim axis 1406a (140ka b, c, d) and comnpare these values with corresponding tinit points for each of the detnominations. In this case, only the standard value" and tolerances or envelopes at such *predetervined ties needstobe stared inthe computeram, ry. Using any orallmntheise ethmaionof theisnddata 406w he taedstndr data 1402a through 1402d indicates, in this exampl, that the in-phase sensed data is mst in accord with standard data for quarters or dimets 1409. A sinilar comnparison of the 90-degre delayed data 1410 to stored standard 90-degree delayed data (1404a through 1404d), ;ndicates that the sensed con was esther a peniny or adime. As before, using both these resuls,it isposibleto deteriine that the coin was adim 1404.

In one uubodixist the in-phase and out-of-phase data are correlated to provi de a table or graph of in-phase ampliutud versus 90-degree delayed anprsssd for the sensed coin (similar to thet Q verus D data depicted in Figs IDA and l0B), which can then be compared with standad in-phase versus delayed profiles obtained for various coin denominations in a maum simnilar to that discussed above in connection with Figs IDA and l08.

NAthousgh coin acceptance regio n r depicted (Figs. ICA, lOB) as rectangular, they may have any shape.

is In both the configuration of ig. 2 and the conhfuration of figs.)I and 4, the prmsnce of t coin affect the nognetic field. It is believed that in sornt cases, eddl current flowing in the coin, result in a smalle inductance as the coin diameter is larger, and also result in a lower Q of the inductor, as the codctvtnd teconislwn s eslvityofaietfohecoinisoo o ilo2Aad 8 o hesnsrofFgs ad4,cn ep." an naye by the apparatus dticted in figs. S and 6 even though the detected changes in the configuration of figs. I and 4 will typically be smaller than the changes detected in the configuration of Figs. 2A and 23.

Although certain smor hapes have been dcribed herein, the tchniques disclosed for applying multiple frequencies on a sinle core could be applied to and of a number of snsr shapes, or other muns of ormnint an inductor to subject a coin to an alternatin manetic field.

Althouh an embodiment dscribed above provides two AC frequencies to a sinle sensor core at the same time, other approaches are possible. One approach is a time division approach, in which dfferent frequencies an nerated during different, small time periods, as the coin mo pat the sensor. This approch presents the difficulty of controllin the oscillator in a "time-slice fashion, and correlating tim periods with frequencies for achiring the desired analysi Another potential problem with tim-muliplein is the inherent time i taes to accurately measure Q in a resonant circuit. he hisher the Q, the lonr it tabs for the oscillator's amplitude to set to a stable vlue. This will limit the rate of switching and ultimately the coin throuthput. n another embodiment two separat sensor cores 1142 ab fi IIA) can be provided, each with its own winding 1144a. b and each driven at a different frequency 1146 b. This approach has not only the advantap of redudng or avoidin harmonic interferenc, but provides the opportunity of optimizing the core naterials or shap to provide the best relts at the frequency for which that core is desiged. When two or more frequencies are used, analysis of the data cn be simila to that described abo, with different sets of standard or reference data bein provided for each frequenc. In one embodiment multiple cores, such as the two cores 1142, b of fi IIA along the coin path 48 are driven by diffent fequencies 1146,b that are phase-locked IIS2a, b to the sam refrence 1154, such as a crystal or other reference oscillator. In one mbodiment, the oscillators II b that provide the core driving frequencies 1146ab are phase-locked by varactor tuning as desrribed above) the oscillators II54, b usin the sensing inductor II54 a, b as part of the frequency determination.

In one embodiment, a sensor include first and seond ferrite cores, uch substantially in the shape of a section of a torus 282a, b (Fig. 2D), said first core definin a first ap 284a, and said second core definin a second gp 284b, said cores positioned with said ps aligned 286 so that a coin conveyed by said countin device will move throuh sid first and second paps; at rst firt and second coils 288a, b of conductive material wound about a first portion of ach of said first and second cores, repctivy an oscillator 292 a coupled to said first coil 288a confitured to provide current definin at least a first frequenc deining a first skn depth less than aid cladding thicknessu and wherein, when a coin is conveyed past said first pp 282, th signal in said coil undergoes at leat a firsnt 20 d 'an in inductance and a chane in the quality factor of said inductor; an oscillator 292b coupled to sid second coil 288b configured to provide current definin at least a second freqmuency defiin a secod skin depth treater thn said first kin depth wherein, whn said coin is conveyed past said second ap 284b, the siul in said coil underoes at last a second chang in inductanc and a second change in the quality factor of said inductor and a processor 294 configured to receive .""data indicative of said first and second chans in inductance and chanes in quality factor to permit separate characterization of said claddin and said core.

In another embodimnt current provided to the coil is a substantially constant or DC current This configuration is useful for detecting magnetic 2 (rroma ntic) v.non-maneti coi Asoin mov through or past the pp, there will be ddy current Ifftc, as well as prmeability effect. As discussed above, these effects can be used to obtain. e, information regaprding conductivity, such as core conductivity. Thus, in this configuration such a sensor can provide not only information about the fernomanetic or nomagnetic nature of the coin, but also regrding the conductivity. Such a confiuration can be combined with a high-frequency (skin effect) acitation of the core and, since there would be no low-frequency (and thus no low-frequency haumonics) interference problems wou be avoided. It is also possible to use two (or more) cores, one driven with DC, and another with AC. h D-driven snsor provides another parameter for discrimination (permeability). Permeability masurenirt can be useful in, for eample, discriminating between coins and certain foreign coins or slus.

Prefraby, computer processin is performed in order to remove 'speed effects.

Although the invention has been described by way of a preferred embodiment and certain variations and modifications, other variations and modifications can alske used, the invention being defined by the following daims.

Claims (29)

1. An apparatus for use in a device for separating acceptable coins from other objects, comprising: a sensor for sensing at least a first coin characteristic and outputting at least a first signal when a coin is recognized as an acceptable coin; a rail for transporting coins from said sensor to a controllable deflector; wherein said deflector is configured to move from a first relaxed configuration to a second configuration for deflecting a coin off said rail to a path for placement in an acceptable-coin location, in response to said first signal, and wherein an item not deflected by said deflector moves along said rail to a path for placement in a reject location.

2. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 1, wherein said deflector comprises a plate and an actuator for moving said plate to said second configuration.

3. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a sound-deadening material adjacent at least a portion of said deflector.

4. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 2, wherein said actuator comprises a solenoid situated for striking a rear surface of said plate.

5. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 2, wherein said plate, in said second configuration, is flexed to a curvilinear profile.

6. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 5, wherein said plate is substantially resilient and wherein said plate, in said second configuration exerts a resilient force towards its relaxed configuration.

7. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 6, wherein said actuator comprises a solenoid .000 movable from a retracted position while said solenoid is in an unactuated state to an extended position contacting the rear of said plate when said solenoid is in an actuated S. state, and wherein said resilient force assists in moving said solenoid to said retracted position when said solenoid returns to said unactuated state. [R:\LIBE]4I 54.doc:eaa -36-

8. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 1 wherein said deflector, in said relaxed configuration, is spaced from a coin face support member of said rail such that as a coin moves into alignment with said deflector, the face of said coin is substantially unsupported.

9. A coin-handling apparatus comprising: an input tray for receiving a plurality of coins of a plurality of denominations in random orientations; at least a first chute, having at least a first coin support surface, configured to to transport coins from said input tray to a coin pickup device; said coin pickup device having a hopper for receiving coins in a random orientation and at least a first rail for delivering coin at an exit region of said first rail, with said coins in a substantially coplanar attitude and in single file; at least a first sensor, spaced from said exit region, for providing at least a first signal indicative of at least a first coin characteristic; circuitry coupled to said first sensor for receiving at least said first signal and outputting at least a second signal indicative of whether a sensed object is an acceptable coin; a deflector configured to move from a first configuration for deflecting a coin off said rail to a surface defining a first path having at least a second coin contact surface, and wherein items not deflected by said deflector move to a surface defining a second path, *fee having at least a third coin contact surface; and *a second rail for gravitational transport of coins from said exit region, past said sensor, to said deflector. f ee.

The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said first coin path is an acceptance path for placement of items in an acceptable-coin location and wherein said second coin path is a reject path for placement of items in a reject location.

11. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9, wherein at least a portion of at least one of said first, second and third coin contact regions is embossed. 6

12. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9, wherein substantially all of said first, second and third contact regions are embossed. [R:\LIBE]4154.doc:eaa -37-

13. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9, wherein at least said surface defining said first path and said surface defining said second path are coupled to a cover plate which is pivotable with respect to said second rail to facilitate cleaning or maintenance.

14. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9, wherein said sensor is movable, with respect to said second rail, to facilitate cleaning or maintenance.

The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9, wherein: said sensor is movable, with respect to said second rail from a first sensing position to a second cleaning position; said surface defining said first path and said surface defining said second path are coupled to a cover plate which is movable with respect to said second rail from a first operation position to a second cleaning position; and wherein said cover plate can not be moved to said first operation position until Is said sensor has been moved to said first sensing position.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a bypass chute for delivering, to said reject path, coins which stray from said second rail prior to reaching said deflector.

17. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 10, wherein said reject path includes a first ooo• chute surface having an edge which is spaced from a second chute surface wherein coins o00° ooexiting off said edge free fall before reaching said second chute surface. OS O* 25

18. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 10, wherein said acceptance path includes first and second coin tubes adjacent a common entrance wherein a controllable flapper determines which of said first and second coin tube acceptable coins enter.

S19. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 10, further comprising at least a first sensor se 30 for sensing coin passage along at least a first region of said acceptance path.

20. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9, wherein said circuitry comprises a S microprocessor. S 55 S0 S S [R:\LIBE4I 54.doc:eaa -38-

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein said microprocessor includes at least a first serial port.

22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein said microprocessor includes at s least first and second serial ports.

23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20 wherein data from said sensor is provided to said microprocessor using a direct memory access procedure.

24. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9, wherein at least a portion of said circuitry is provided on a printed circuit board and wherein said sensor is integrated with said printed circuit board.

The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9 wherein said sensor comprises a U-shaped magnetic core defining first and second spaced apart legs having a length at least equal to a width of said second rail.

26. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 25 wherein said first and second legs are substantially parallel. ••g

27. The apparatus, as claimed in claim 9 wherein said sensor has a thickness, in a dimension parallel to the direction of coin flow, of less than about 12.5mm (0.5 inches). o• An apparatus for use in a device for separating coins from other objects, said apparatus substantially as described herein before in relation to any one of the described embodiments as that embodiment is shown with reference to the accompanying drawings.

OOi [R:\LIBE]41 54.doc:eaa -39-

29. A coin handling apparatus substantially as described herein before in relation to any one of the described embodiments as that embodiment is shown with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED this twenty-first Day of October, 2003 Coinstar, Inc. Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON FERGUSON [R:\LIBE]4I54.doc:eaa