Today’s digital slot machines are anything but “fair,” in the way that most of us understand that word. There is tight regulation in most places, but the machines can still adjust their odds of payout in order to maintain a specific profit margin. If the machine thinks it has paid out too many wins recently, it will effectively prevent you from winning. That’s pretty infuriating when you think about it, so Hugo White built his own slot machine so he could control the odds.
This is a very basic slot machine with three wheels. Each has 12 symbols and there aren’t any complicated second screens, payline variations, or any of the other nonsense you’ll find in a modern casino. It is, however, a digital experience and the machine operates under the control of an Arduino Nano board. That means that White can set the odds programmatically. But for now, he plans to keep the odds natural (so each wheel has a 1:12 chance of landing on any particular symbol).
Three NEMA 17 stepper motors turn those wheels, under the control of the Arduino through a CNC shield with stepper driver modules. There is a small speaker and strips of WS2812B individually addressable RGB LEDs for added flair. The enclosure and all of the mechanical parts, aside from basic hardware and fasteners, were 3D-printed.
The highlight of this project is the coin-handling. It has custom mechanisms for accepting and dispensing coins. It will only take 50-cent coins (detected by a photo sensor) and, during a payout, it will push those coins out using a servo-actuated rack-and-pinion mechanism.
Unfortunately, White reports that there are still bugs in the code that he’s struggling to sort out. He’d like some assistance with that, so get in touch with him if you’re willing to lend a hand.
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