Hamilton RNS Bill Changer stealing money

[Kevin James]

We have a Hamilton RNS bill changer that has started stealing money every now and then. It has a Mars validator installed and has worked flawlessly for about 3 or 4 years. We cleaned the transport in the bottom with Windex, the white wheels are white again, and the cleaning didn’t help. Does anyone have a clue as to where to start looking or what the problem could be? It never fails, busy 4th of July and a busy weekend coming up.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Sometimes the pay out switches in the hamiltions hoppers tend to go bad and do this very symptom most of the time. I would recommend you send the hopper off to get serviced and instail your spare and see if this continues and if it does it's your validator. I personally have never had good luck installing them myself.

Word of wise always have a spare hopper & validator on stand by, especially if you just have 1 changer at your site

 

[DiamondWash]

Does your hopper sound like it's struggling to turn? We've encountered this and it turned out the hopper wheel had a jammed quarter at the bottom causing it not to dispense quarters but take the bills.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Does the "out of service" light come on? If so, what is the flash sequence on the controller? If the light doesn't come on and the green light is steady, most likely you have a validator issue. Is the light on the validator flashing? If so, the sequence?

Rule of thumb I use: OS light on, the problem is something other than the validator. OS light off, validator more likely.

 

[Randy]

We have a Hamilton RNS bill changer that has started stealing money every now and then. It has a Mars validator installed and has worked flawlessly for about 3 or 4 years. We cleaned the transport in the bottom with Windex, the white wheels are white again, and the cleaning didn’t help. Does anyone have a clue as to where to start looking or what the problem could be? It never fails, busy 4th of July and a busy weekend coming up.

There could be a couple of things that could be wrong. If the Green light on the controller is steady on and the out of service is off then there is something wrong with the Mars validator or inhibit relay box that is attached to the Mars validator. I would to probably say it’s the validator. Over time the capacitor on the main board gets weak and then the validator will do some strange things like poor acceptance, cycle the stacker, steal money, etc. I’d swap out the validator and send it in for servicing. If you replace the validator and it’s still acting up then it’s the inhibit relay box, they go out from time to time.
When you swap out the validator and you have the ivory colored 3 x3 plastic box inhibit relay adapter be very careful when you plug it into the replacement validator. The plug doesn’t fill up the slot on the validator so it’s possible to plug the plug from the relay adapter into the validator backwards or one pin off, the plug on the relay adapter isn’t keyed. If you do this the validator is toast. Inside that plastic 3 x 3 box is a 110 volt DPDT relay with the wires soldered to legs on the relay and the unit is glued together, there’s nothing inside that is serviceable, so now you don’t have to open it. There is one on the market that has a plug that fills up the validator slot and is keyed so you can’t plug it in wrong and the relay that comes with it is replaceable, should it ever go bad.

 

[Kevin James]

We have a Hamilton RNS bill changer that has started stealing money every now and then. It has a Mars validator installed and has worked flawlessly for about 3 or 4 years. We cleaned the transport in the bottom with Windex, the white wheels are white again, and the cleaning didn’t help. Does anyone have a clue as to where to start looking or what the problem could be? It never fails, busy 4th of July and a busy weekend coming up.

UPDATE: I sent both the Mars validator and the adapter box that plugs into the validator in to be checked out. It turns out that there were 2 problems. I thought the validator was about 4 years old, turns out its closer to 6 years old and it was in dire need of an overhaul. The biggest problem was like Randy said the capacitor on the main board of the validator was weak, along with one of the motors. New belts, tires, upper & lower housings, a motor, and a software upgrade it works better than it’s ever worked. There was also a problem with the adapter box that plugs into the validator. The replacement I received has a relay that can be replaced and the plug that plugs into the validator fills up the slot on the validator. It’s all good now.