Hamilton Hopper

I've had a 2 occurences of a HSH hopper jamming in the last week. This hopper was rebuilt about 18 months ago. No issues until this week.

Validator Message
1/2 of 1. Unit inhibited • No ENABLE signal

Controller Message
2 FLASHES, PAUSE, 3 FLASHES HOPPER 3 JAMMED

The first time I found a small wing nut mixed in with the coins. I assumed this was the cause of the jam, although I didn't actually see anything jammed.

The second time I dumped the coins and could not find anything jammed. The wheel turns freely, etc. I don't see anything that appears to be worn or damaged.

Any advice on where to look or which parts to check?

Both times the hopper was nearly full. Is a full hopper more likely to jam due to weight?

It could be the coins themselves getting jammed. Every now and then I will see a jam with just the coins getting stuck at some point in the pin wheel.

I also have had them jam on the top of the pin wheel and coin chute.

If they were jammed on the pin wheel, sometimes just dumping them out releases the jam.

The hopper is designed to hold "as many coins as possible". The amount of coins has never been the problem for me.

If you fill it back up with coins, and it jams again within a short period of time, it may be the motor itself that is causing the jam.

Try with an empty hopper plugged in, to turn the coin dump on and off and check to see if the pin wheel starts and stops abruptly. If it seems to lag when the switch is turned off, the motor stop is worn out and needs to be serviced. I have had this problem before with the hopper giving me the same jam code 2 flashes 3 flashes and also 4 flashes 3 flashes and 5 flashes 3 flashes for the wrong payout.

The other thing to look for is the condition the composite (black plastic) material is in. Especially in and around the pin wheel. I just had one of my hoppers jam with a coin stuck in between the two halves of the composite material, not the pin wheel.

I see you are in Ohio.

Our recent weather resulted in mounds of snow inside the Hamilton Changers.

I will see if I can post pictures. Never had anything like that.

Anyway if snow gets in, depending on weather moisture can thaw and re freeze the quarrters in the hopper.

Only solution was to dump them out on a towel, (On my water heater) let them thaw and warm and dry, make sure the hopper was dry, and replace.

You’ve gotten a lot of good advice already. The Hamilton Hoppers are pretty reliable. But when they act up they can be very problematic. Who rebuilt the Hopper 18 months ago? What did they do to the Hopper when they rebuilt it? It almost sounds like the motor is weak. Try running the Hopper with the Hopper dump switch, the motor should sound strong and dispense coin at an even rate. Check the brake assembly on the back of the motor, it should be free and not hanging up. You could also have a problem with the wiring Harness and the controller.

Do you valuate your changer to make sure you're not getting strung? I've seen video of these guys running the changer 'til it quits, then scooping the coins from the cups and leaving. That causes them to back up into the hopper chute and jam it.

If the motor was replaced 18 months ago, ordinarily it shouldn't be worn out already assuming it was done right. I've replaced two motors barely a year old where someone at Hamilton removed one of the long motor screws and replaced it with a sheet metal screw for the ground wire.

Twice today the changer would not accept bills. No codes or lights. It just didn't recognize that a bill was present. Switched on/off then it ran fine for several hours. The validator is brand new.

This evening I took the whole changer apart, checked all the connections, made sure everything was installed right, cleaned the validator, etc.

I disassembled the hopper. The motor seems strong. I tried to slow it with my hand. With my unscientific approach it seemed to have plenty of power. When i use the coin switch, it start and stops abruptly. I inspected the brake it seems to be in good working order.

Nothing looked out of sorts. I am still not sure of the issue. I am keeping a close eye it. Is there any way to test for a failing controller?

Earl, where in Ohio are you? We have been very cold here for the last month. Freezing could be the issue.

Tpoppa said:

Is there any way to test for a failing controller?

Click to expand...

Not when there may be an intermittent problem. You could send it to Hamilton and let them test it, but if it works for them they can't do anything with it. Many of us have dual or multiple changers, and in that case I'd advise swapping the controller with another and watching to see if the problem moves.

If the validator fails to "see" a bill to try and accept it and it's showing the proper blinking dot, the problem cannot be with the controller. There's no sophisticated communication between the validator and controller, just voltage on a wire to tell the validator to run and pulses back to the controller to tell it to pay out.

I've been fighting the same issues for the last couple of months. both hoppers want to jam. found a quarter here and there that was dinged up, but removing them never really fixed the issue. Sometimes the jam was at the top where the coins leave the hopper, and sometimes the jam was at the bottom.

I started to leave the changer open, hoping that warm equip room air would help keep the hoppers warm. I think it actually made the hoppers colder. It seems like a draft developed thru the coin cup. Closing the door made my problems of jamming less frequent.

I finally cleaned the hopper really well, removing the coin wheel and cleaning underneath of it. It's been a week now without any jams.

I also had an unreal snowdrift inside one of my autocashiers. This autocahier has an etowah valley mars conversion, so the hamilton controller lays on a shelf to the left of the hopper. The controller was covered with snow, 6 inches deep. I can't believe it still works!