This is another "Thing" I made inspired in my previous project Cuckoo IR Alexa exploring the home automation with the combo " Alexa and Universal Remote Control" people who loves (oh my...) Alexa, use to have. As mentioned before in the Cuckoo project, it will work with any other voice assitants.

This project uses an ordinatry Nano board, Servo, Keypad and an IR receiver led. No need the Arduino Iot Cloud.

Browsing for project ideas, I start to give attention to these ingenious pet feeders. So do I need a pet feeder? No. I need a... Money Dispenser! kkkkkkk.

The here comes the idea: A coin dispenser. A device who give an exact amount of them.

Nothing exceptional, Some Servo motor with a lever that pushes the coins with a keypad command to set que amount needed.

This can be done in a infinite ways... Distance Sensor, proximiy sensor, light sensor, push buttons, etc.

This is also be developed with lcd, oled displays, password security, and so on.

But my thing is keep it as simple as possible. Only push a number on keypad and retrieve de coins.

And finally, the voice comand like " Alexa, give me 3 coins" and get them.

The device at that time will be operated manually (boring...) and through voice commands (yep").

Its unbelievable but I forgot to photograph the assembling with Arduino and all the wiring...my mistake. Please refer to Mounting Scheme.

All the wiring was made with ordinary jumper coneceted and fixed togheter with scotch tape. Easy and quick. No bread boards or custom pcb boards. No weldings.

The code is simple and I think more experienced users will write this code in a more economic and efficient way and I will aprecciate a lot some suggestions.

The libraries are IRemote.h, Servpo.h and Keypad.h.

The main Funcions are "pushPull" that makes the servo moves to push one coin. the other functions are "pushPull1. pushPull2, pushPull3... that uses one, two, three...N pushPull for each amount of coin.

You press 1 on keypad, pushPull1 will move one pushPull. You press 2 on keypad, pushPull2 will move two pushPull and so on until 9.

This is the "Manual" module.

The Code continues with routines to each Infrared remote control for each numbers of coins needed, using the same amount of"pushPulls".

Veru simple, very straightforward I think.

The power system I recommend is a 127-240V to 5V 1A power conected to a smart plug so you can keep the device off and initialize it only when needed, adding this command to Alexa Routine, and of course another scene to turn it off.

In future who knows I get an Iot Arduino Board to acheive real IOT monitoring the number os coins retrieved and any other possible data.

EXPANDED TECHNICAL DETAILS

Mechanical Currency Management

This project automates the sorting and dispensing of physical coins for DIY kiosks or vending machines.

• Solenoid Actuation: Uses a high-speed 12V push-pull solenoid to eject coins from a vertical stack. The Arduino drives the solenoid via a logic-level MOSFET or relay.
• Inventory Sensors: Uses IR proximity sensors to detect when a coin hopper is low or empty.

Interaction Layers

• Universal Remote & Alexa: Dispensing can be triggered via a standard IR remote or by voice command (e.g., "Alexa, dispense two quarters").
• Logic Sync: The firmware maintains a digital count of the "Inventory" in EEPROM, ensuring that the machine never tries to dispense a coin it doesn't have.