The illusive Boxford 260vmc

[Ricardoco]

Or a piece of foil and one of those ebay £25 point and shoot auto reader counters.

Thanks George, I did consider going down that road and I may even buy one as they are a very reasonable price and usefull for other things, but i wanted to encorperate it into the machine nice and neatly, which as ugly as it may be the Trexon fitted the bill. Or even something similar I could get my hands on without waiting for eternity, but it seems that this type of circuit is not available off the shelf in the UK which im gutted about.

I have so little time in my day as it is, being a 12hr night shift worker, the only real time I can spare is sleep time, but it seems I will have to go down the Microcontroller road, as nobody on here at least can suggest any other alternative off the shelf solution to the Trexon .....:(

Rick