ELECTROMECHANICAL PARKING METER DOOR COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACE

摘要

An electronic security system for a parking meter. The parking meter housing assembly (200) includes a vault door having a spring-biased contact terminal for making breakable electrical contact with a housing hinge bracket (204a-204b) contact terminal mounted in a vault opening (203). An electronic lock control circuit is able to communicate with a meter control (coin counting/auditing) circuit in the meter portion of the system through the vault door/housing hinge bracket contact terminals, thus eliminating a direct cable connection between the lock circuit and the meter circuit. The spring-biased contact may be substituted by equivalent breakable electrical contacts such as optocoupler contacts.