New some help with Hamilton Changer project

[GoBuckeyes]

Most of our washes have two Rowe BC 1400 changers which I am growing tired of for a multitude of reasons. What I want to do is gut the cabinets and install a Hamilton C2000 controller with a Mars acceptor and a Hamilton Hopper from an autocashier. Here is what I need help with:

1) I have programmed the controller for my hopper payouts but I am not sure how to set the controller configuration dip switches 3 and 4. The directions give four possibilities which are for 1) coinco, 2) Coinco II & Coinco III, 3) Slugbuster and 4) No Coin Mech? I am going to run a Mars 2600 with Etowah Valley's inhibit relay box, which option is equivalent?

2) I am assuming Hamilton changers had an out of service light on them. Is the violet wire (labeled service on the schematic) in the 5 pin female power plug the output for the out of service light? If so, what is the voltage.

I think thats all I need.

Thanks for any help.

 

[MEP001]

The DIP switches are for a coin acceptor you presumably don't have, so it'd be option 4.

The Hamilton OOS light is 120v. I can't answer whether the violet wire is for the light, but be careful because the light gets "hot" all the time and the controller closes common to make it come on. I don't like the Hamilton lamp because it looks like it's on when sunlight hits it, so people walk away thinking the changer is down. The bulb is also not very bright because it's neon. You can get a standard incandescent from Mouser of DigiKey a lot cheaper.

I've thought about making the same conversion. There's plenty of room for a single HSH hopper, you'd just need to make some sort of chute to get the coins to the cup. I would recommend a small 3A resettable breaker, some sort of power switch and a noise filter instead of spending some $80 on the power box. The switch in the power box acts as a fuse and it's not resettable.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Put the “Out of service” light inside the equipment room. You are the only one that really needs to see it. There is a way for crooks to use it to their advantage. No need to give them that avenue.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Thanks Mep.

Put the “Out of service” light inside the equipment room. You are the only one that really needs to see it. There is a way for crooks to use it to their advantage. No need to give them that avenue.

Currently we have a light inside the room for us and the one on the changer for the customer. They’re the 110v yellow lights Rowe uses.

I’d like to keep the same setup. If there is some type of jackpotting security issue with the Hamilton controller maybe I will isolate them with a relay.

 

[MEP001]

FYI the Rowe lights are 5v.

You can stop the jackpotting issue by putting the changer on a GFI outlet, securely zip-tying the harness every few inches, and putting a disconnect on the white wire to the hopper.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

The crooks knock the light out and fish the harness out the hole to jackpot the hopper. Whether they succeed or not is irrelevant because they still mangle the harness. The light does not need to be there for the customer. They are as likely to pay attention to it as they do an instruction sign. I would guarantee that the 1 in 100 that does see it will try to use it anyway.

 

[Randy]

You should never have to change the switch settings on the configuration switches on the back of the C-2000 controller for normal changer operations, all 8 switches should be off. The “Y” harness #48-0050 is connected to the power box #49-1020A and off of that “Y” harness, cable #48-0090 goes to the Out of Service lamp, I‘ve been using a Yellow Out of Service lamp. The wires for the out of service lamp are Black and Purple. The main 1H harness #48-1005 connects to the Y” harness #48-0050. To do this conversion right you’re going to do some serious fabrication and need a mounting bracket for the hopper, validator mounting bracket and inhibit relay. We’ve never had a problem with the bad guy’s punching out the out of service lamp. They’d fish the harness out the coin cup and short out the harness. We solved that problem by in-casing the harness to the hopper in 5/8” water hose and securing the hose to the inside of the changer with rubber lined metal clamps, the type used see used on airplanes or ships. We never had a problem after that. Something like these

McMaster-Carr

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[I.B. Washincars]

I’ve twice been a victim of accessing the harness through the hole. Neither attempt was successful, because I already knew about it from being on the forum. I had the wires firmly secured inside. On one attempt they had such a good hold on the wires they actually pulled one it two. That’s why I say to not have the lights there at all. Regardless of whether they’re successful you still have to deal with the damage.

 

[MEP001]

That’s why I say to not have the lights there at all.

That's probably why I've seen so many changers with a carriage bolt in the hole instead of a light.

One way to look at it is crooks are probably not going to see a Rowe changer and still try the Hamilton wire-fishing technique.

 

[Keith Baker]

If you made this into a conversion kit I'll bet people would buy it. My 2 BC1400's are mounted nicely into poured concrete walls with good reinforcement. I've had them since they were BC12's and converted them to the Mars accepter. No problems there, but the hoppers are shot, and the escrow buckets act up occasionally.
Will you leave anything from Rowe in there, or have all Hamilton components?

 

[Randy]

If you made this into a conversion kit I'll bet people would buy it. My 2 BC1400's are mounted nicely into poured concrete walls with good reinforcement. I've had them since they were BC12's and converted them to the Mars accepter. No problems there, but the hoppers are shot, and the escrow buckets act up occasionally.
Will you leave anything from Rowe in there, or have all Hamilton components?

I'm thinking that your going to have to completely gut the Rowe changer and install all Hamilton components. Standard already has a conversion kit for BC1400 changer. There list price is $1995.00.

 

[Keith Baker]

I'm thinking that your going to have to completely gut the Rowe changer and install all Hamilton components. Standard already has a conversion kit for BC1400 changer. There list price is $1995.00.

Thanks Randy. I just looked up your announcement on the subject from last year: https://www.carwashforum.com/threads/standard-rowe-conversion.17023/
Has anyone used these yet? How does Standard hold up? It looks like a good answer to the problem if Standard makes a good product.

 

[Randy]

Thanks Randy. I just looked up your announcement on the subject from last year: https://www.carwashforum.com/threads/standard-rowe-conversion.17023/
Has anyone used these yet? How does Standard hold up? It looks like a good answer to the problem if Standard makes a good product.

I’ve sold a lot of Standard changers, mostly to laundromats. They hold up well and I think they get used a lot more in a laundromat environment than in a car wash. The MC Hopper that Standard uses in there conversion kit hold 3200 quarters. I wouldn’t be afraid to install one if I had Rowe BC1400 changer. On a side note those of you who are using a Standard system 600 validator, your days maybe numbered. Parts for those validator are getting harder to come by and it won’t be long before they are totally obsolete.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

I gutted the Rowe last Friday and hooked everything up minus the out of service lights. Like Mep said, the Rowe lights are 5vdc so I just need a relay and a small power supply.
Randy is right about mounting the hopper. It’ll take a little bit of fabrication to mount it properly but it will be worth it. Right now it’s hillbilly mounted using some 2” rigid insulation board. I just wanted to get some money through it and make sure it was going to fit my needs.
We dispense $1 Tokens that are 1.074” big and I think we ran about $1500 through it since Friday without any issues.
That Standard Rowe conversion looks nice but I don’t like those hoppers. We have a Standard MC520RL-DA at another wash and it’s ok most of the time but those hoppers don’t like bent tokens or being overloaded. Maybe they’re better if dispensing small tokens or quarters.

Here is a pic of my hastily put together conversion.

 

[MEP001]

Like Mep said, the Rowe lights are 5vdc so I just need a relay and a small power supply.

The Hamilton lights are the same size, if you plan on putting one through to the outside.