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Opto Interrupter/Opto something, am I doing this right?

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Mishael

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Got a coin pusher (insert coin, drops onto field with many other coins, pusher/rake move coins over the edge) style arcade game at work that uses trip switches to sense when a coin is inserted into the machine. It is 8 sided and each side has 5 switches, one for each of the paths the coin can take. We just got it from a bankrupt arcade and 34 of the 40 switches do not work and the cheapest I can find for new switches is $17 each. Newer coin pushers use infrared sensors (I can't remember what they're called but its basically an opto interrupter that uses the object being inserted to complete a reflection rather than to block the light path) and I want to convert each of the sides over to that.

All the switches do is close the path between two wires with 5 volts on it so if I make it so that infrared is not reflected until a coin passes by then it is reflected and an IR reciever (transistor?) it will cause the necessary signal to the control board to coin up the game.

Right? my mind is all over the place right now and I think what im saying makes some sense
 
That was my first thought except that its not that the switches have very poor contact, its that there is nothing that goes through them at all, and this is all of them. even the NC side of the switch has no continuity
 
Camera's on most mobile 'phones are infra red sensitive, you'll at least be able to tell if the units are emmiting infra red with your 'phone.
 
They usually consist of an LED. Yep, you have to supply the current limiting resistor. and a photo-transistor. So, the transistor is ON when nothing is passing through, Think of it as an Open Collector TTL, but you really have access to both leads.
 
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