[Noisebridge-discuss] vending machine lights/poster & snack suggestions

[T]

how to replace the ballast?  oh, ballasts suck, replace frakkn mercury
vapor ballast-requirin flourescent with LED!

oh ya, save power, save replacement time in future...

IMHO the best solution an problematic question is often to step back a
bit and reengineer the system so there's no further need to even ask
the onerous question

T


On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 08:52, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:
>
> seems a reasonable possible hack to replace the
> v machine lights with LEDs.
>
>
> On Sat, 2011-01-15 at 17:13 -0800, Jonathan Foote wrote:
>> On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 4:37 PM, Patrick Keys <citizenkeys at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Vending machine
>> > -----------------
>> > is there a way to get the vending machine lights to work? do the bulbs
>> > just need to be replaced or what?
>>
>>
>> Story I heard was that the ballast was shot and needed replacing. I
>> couldn't find the ballast with a 30 second inspection, but it's in
>> there somewhere.
>>
>> Anyone interested should open it up and take a look inside. The front
>> "plexiglass" (acrylic I think) is not transparent as the "poster" is
>> silkscreened onto the back and is not easily removed without ruining
>> the plastic. Note that the drinks are still behind an insulating panel
>> and would not be visible even if the front was transparent.
>>
>> However the entire plastic front panel could be replaced with clear
>> acrylic or something else similarly flexible. There's plenty of space
>> for a flat panel or an LED array behind it. TAP Plastics will cut
>> things to size given dimensions; I think they could even handle the
>> notch for the drink slot.
>>
>> Drink inventory is another project for over-engineering; a few optical
>> sensors and an MCU could count cans leaving the machine. With a Chumby
>> or similar  Linux board we could put the sucker on the internets with
>> a web interface for seeing the current inventory and refreshing the
>> count when restocking.
>>
>> I think I actually promised to do this...
>>
>> > also, would anybody be interested in printing a noisebridge poster to
>> > replace the "cold drinks" poster on the front of the machine? a
>> > backlighted noisebridge logo would be very excellent.  the dimensions
>> > for the vending machine cover poster are about 28" wide by 68" tall.
>> > even just removing the "cold drinks" poster and leaving the see-through
>> > plexiglass to see how much drink inventory we have would be excellent.
>> >
>> >
>> > Snacks
>> > -----------------
>> > while on the topic... i'm getting ready to buy more snacks since we've
>> > broken even on donations for the $100 of snacks I already bought.  any
>> > suggestions for what snacks to buy?  I've already gotten feedback
>> > recommending anything-without-high-fructose-corn-syrup, fresh fruit,
>> > unsalted cashews, and sunflower seeds.  any other suggestions?
>> >
>> >
>> > Patrick
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>