I came across a genuine dollar bill acceptor identical to the ones in soda machines. It is an Ardac UpStack model USA-15. You can get these on ebay or from a handful of vending machine companies for about $25.00 to $105.00 used.

This thing is built solid and weights about 8 pounds. It didn’t take me long before I figured out the wiring and had this thing hooked up to my HAL 2000 home automation system. Now when people come over and see this bill acceptor sitting out with lights flashing they ask, "What is that for?" I just say, "Put a dollar in and find out." Of course about 2 seconds after the dollar bill disappears into the machine forever you hear a big nasty burp and then Bart Simpson says, "Sucker!" across all the speakers in the house. Too bad I don’t get a lot of repeat business.

This was very easy to wire up and can even be installed in a wall or cabinet. (As long as you get permission from your wife, which I never received.) All I needed to have this up and running was a polarized 2 conductor extension cord and a X-10 Power flash Interface.

If you are making connections directly to the built in wiring harness use the second wiring chart. If you have the pigtail cable that plugs into the primary harness (like in the picture) then use the first chart.

Wired to pigtail extension cable (Like in picture)

Wired direct to Ardac cable

The Power Flash interface should be set to as follows:

Input = B and Mode = 3

This will cause the power flash interface to send the X-10 signal when the dollar bill is accepted. The Ardac simply makes a contact closure across these two wires so the polarity is not really important. In HAL 2000 you will need to ADD a new X-10 sensor and associate it to the X-10 address of the power flash interface. Now you can use the name of the sensor as a trigger event (TE) in HAL.

TIP: If you want the reliability of a "wired" interface to your home automation system simply connect two "trigger" wires to any supervised digital input such as the Ocelot’s SECU-16.

I know one experienced home automater who is going to hook their children’s TV to a built in X-10 outlet so they can use their allowance to purchase TV time. I think this is an excellent idea and would be very easy to set up in HAL 2000. Until then, I will continue to make a dollar or two off family and friends to help pay for this hobby of mine.