Note Dispensers: How the Stack Gets to the Slot

A “dispenser jam” is really a failure somewhere in a three-stage relay: pull notes from the stack, route one forward, confirm one actually moved. Repairs become obvious once you hear the stages.

Stage 1 — pick

• Pick wheels pull the top note from the cassette. Worn or glazed rubber grabs two notes (double-feed) or zero.
• Stack height and cassette geometry matter — a badly seated cassette mimics a wheel fault.

Stage 2 — single and route

A thickness check rejects doubles at the gate; the diverter then commits the single note to the payout path. Sticky diverters produce “dispensed but not delivered” complaints — the note is real, the door is lazy.

Stage 3 — confirm

Sensors near the shutter count the exit. No count means the host retries and may abort the customer’s transaction — the reason shutter and sensor cleanliness is an uptime item, not a cosmetic one.

Field triage order

1. Reseat cassette, inspect stack alignment.
2. Look at pick-wheel surface; clean lightly or replace.
3. Air-blast diverter and confirmation sensor windows.
4. Only then suspect electronics.

Keep pick wheels and one cassette as shelf spares — the two consumables behind most payout downtime. For the deposit-side half of the story read escrow versus drop designs, and when you order those spares, the four-point compatibility check keeps them installable. The full payout-care series lives in the RMG Knowledge Base.