This project was one I did with two friends for the 2022 Highlander Engineering Challenge, a two month-long challenge with 150+ participants. In the end, our team won Best Hardware Project!
(link to devpost: https://devpost.com/software/monopoly-juniors-atm)
What does the project do? Well, with a push of a big red button, it dispenses Monopoly Junior Money!
Inspiration
This was inspired from the early stages of our lives when we were unable to count money. It was a hustle having to persuade an older family member to sit with us for the next 4 hours of game night. As we grew older & gained more interest in technology, we realized a robot could easily take over this tedious role. With this in mind, we made our ATM operable by any age group to spread the love of Monopoly without a bored adult tagging along.
My Building Process
We first planned out the roles each member would take on. Each member then fulfilled their part of the project and we would share our progress through meetings. Once we put it all together, we made our finishing touches and Viola! A lovely ATM in front of our eyes.
One of my partners focused on the design aspect, and the other focused on the construction aspect, while I focused on the CIRCUITRY aspect! I built the circuit and connected it to the code I wrote on Arduino.
Here’s a video of me testing the circuit (at home in my pajamas):
Challenges we ran into
A big challenge I faced was with getting our motors to work. At first, I used Servo motors until we realised we needed a stronger motor that could rotate 360 degrees. That meant that we had to use DC stepper motors, something we’ve never used before. It was an adventure learning how they work, as well as getting the speed and direction to our liking. Outside of that, like all build projects, there was a bit of a challenge to make it work even smoother and as efficiently as possible for our users.
Overall, a HUGE Success!
With this being me first time participating in the Highlander Engineering Challenge, I was so proud of being able to submit something for it, especially something that is fully functional!
Save the hassle of dealing money for a bunch of kids with this Monopoly Junior ATM 🙂
KD Tech Days 
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