[Noisebridge-discuss] vending machine fail

Dr. Jesus j at hug.gs
Mon Jan 17 18:42:19 UTC 2011


It ate a dollar from me, too.

This machine is lacking an important feature called positive vend
detection.  Machines with this feature have a photosensor which
detects when product is vended, and if the photosensor doesn't trip
after a vend attempt it will retry the vend.  Without this feature the
machine will be less reliable.

Replacing the controller logic and adding a vend detector isn't that
complicated, but it takes a while to prototype and test a new
controller.  If someone has time to spend on testing and installation
I can do the EE design work and donate a suitable PLC with relay
drivers.  I think this is the only way the vending machine will be
able to take more than $1 in bills per product, too.

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:04 AM, Nicholas Iannone <knyck2 at me.com> wrote:
> Not sure about the bill feeder but the sprite was loaded incorrectly, so it
> wasn't tripping the circuit, the machine works best with a nicely stocked
> column of soda. I have a feeling the diet coke may be loaded improperly as
> well, I'll take a look today, turns out loading that stuff is not as easy as
> it seems.
>
> Thanks for pointing this out.
>
> On Jan 17, 2011, at 8:34 AM, Josh Myer wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 7:54 AM, John E <neurofog at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Everyone,
>> I did some testing and it is reliably dispensing coke, but there may be a
>> weird glitch with the other drinks (sprite & diet coke)
>
> The other gotcha we noticed was that it, at least that one time, chewed up a
> bill it decided not to accept, tearing the end of it when you pulled the
> bill back out.
> Also, there were cans in the Sprite hopper, but the "OUT" light was lit on
> the Sprite button.
> It seems like we need to get the guy who sold it to us to come look at it
> under the very short warranty we have.  After that, we'll have to do some of
> our own kludgery to make this thing work, but, until then, it's nice to have
> it Just Work.
> --
> /jbm
>
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>
>



More information about the Noisebridge-discuss mailing list