Someone built a coin-operated gaming PC, and it only works with quarters

A modder has added a coin acceptor into their gaming PC, and now to turn on that gaming rig, the modder must drop a quarter into the acceptor.

Someone built a coin-operated gaming PC, and it only works with quarters
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Tech and Science Editor
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1 minute & 30 seconds read time
TL;DR: Hardware engineer MrYeester demonstrates how to convert a PC into a coin-activated gaming rig by replacing the power button with a coin acceptor that detects specific coins to trigger startup. This arcade-style mod uses a relay and motherboard connection for authentic coin-operated PC activation.

A YouTuber and hardware engineer, MrYeester, recently posted a video on the "mryeester" YouTube channel that showcases how you too can turn your PC into a coin-activated gaming rig.

The creator of the coin-activated gaming PC explained in the above video that he is treating the PC as if it were an old arcade gaming machine, and to get a PC to work as an arcade machine, some customization needs to take place, specifically with the front-panel on/off button being replaced by an authentic coin acceptor. This device measures the properties of the coins inserted into it and can differentiate between them by identifying their magnetism, weight, and size.

The idea is that once the coin acceptor detects the correct coin, it will trigger the "on button press" signal, which is sent to the motherboard's Power SW header. The coin acceptor can be set to accept only one type of coin, and to get it set up, the modder uses a PSU breakout or adapter to provide 12V to the coin acceptor and relay. The modder then routes the relay output to the motherboard's front-panel header.

Once everything was set up and the coin acceptor was trained on a quarter, the modder demonstrated that not any coin will work, then successfully turned on their PC by dropping a quarter into the coin acceptor.