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

[T]

Oh, and a great opportunity for some to teach others about...

Driving strings of LEDs with current-limited (buck/boost/sepic/cuk)
circuits (see threads re LED scarves and glow-ball umbrellas)

Best Regards.



On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 09:38, T <t at of.net> wrote:
> 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
>>
>