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Most of the parents teach their children to start saving money for future from the young age. It is always a good thing. Children use Piggy Bank for money savings. The sound of dropping coins inside the piggy bank always makes children feels good. But ordinary piggy banks can’t count how much money it stores inside. A lady named Becky has made an electronic piggy bank that count how much money it has inside.

Piggy bank (sometimes penny bank or money box) is most often used by children to store mmoney. The name piggy bank comes from their pig like shape. Piggy banks are typically made of ceramic or porcelain.

The fact is, the piggy banks can’t tell how much money you have saved inside it. To know the amount of money, you have to break the bank and count the money. However, Becky decides to make a different type of piggy bank. This piggy bank won’t have to be pig shaped. Unlike traditional piggy banks, this piggy bank would be an electronic piggy bank which could show how much money it has inside. Let’s see, how Becky made an electronic piggy bank.

How To Make A Glowing Electronic Piggy Bank :

First, Becky programs a handy coin validator/acceptor module through which the coins are dropped inside. Any coin from 10.8mm to 25.1mm in diameter can be used. When a valid coin is inserted, the output line will pulse for 20-60ms (configurable). The acceptor looks for diameter, thickness, dropping speed, etc to determine if a coin is valid. There is a mounting hardware and a cable for power/signal also. When the coin falls through, then it depends on you how and where to store them.

Programming the Validator :

Power with 12VDC (red wire goes to +12VDC, black wire to common ground). Press and hold the little button on top for 5 seconds and release. The LED will be on. Now insert 30 sample coins of the value you want to detect (say 20 quarters or 20 Euro coins). Connect a 10K (1K to 100K is good) pullup resistor from the white wire to the microcontroller’s VCC line (for Arduino, this is a +5V). Insert a coin, and verify that the LED line pulses high for about 40 milliseconds. Here is the technical details in summary.

–> Power requirements: 12VDC (+- 20%)
–> Quiescent current: ~25mA
–> Peak current (for solenoid): 400mA
–> Accepts coins from 10.8mm to 15.1mm in diameter, 1.2mm to 3.0mm thick
–> Programmable for a single coin

You can collect your electronic piggy bank from Amazon or click here. Check out the video below.

Source : Adafruit
Thanks To : blog.makezine

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