Vending Machines

History

Vending machines were picked up on 11/14/10. Add funny stories here.

Almost every idiot light on the rental truck dash board was lit up; battery, check engine, check transmission, oil, headlights, etc. The fuel tank gauge laid down on the full side once the truck was in drive.

The fork lift didn't fit in the truck so we brought Ancient Egyptian moving tools (rope and 2x4 levers).

The truck topped out at 45mph, so Zach got out and jogged along side when he got bored.

The truck was 13ft 6in and several bridges on our route were significantly shorter ( e.g. 7ft 9in ) which our GPS didn't account for. Luckily, Adam's Droid saved the day with Google walking directions.

Once we arrived, the driveway to the former owner's driveway had a steep incline so we couldn't back the truck up to the garage without gouging the driveway. (We were glad we didn't have to move the machines UP the driveway). There were several other heavy machines in the garage covering our machines (kinda like R2 and C3PO in the Jawa's crawler) that Vito, the son-in-law, had to help us move.

After the first machine was dislodged, the owner offered us another for parts at $350. It had been listed on Craig's List for $600. Zach, pointing out our sunk costs of surviving half the trip, truck, gas, fear, and most of a weekend day, that this was a steal, and opted for the additional machine. Wedging 2 bags of raked leaves between the machines, and using our best sailor's knots, we secured the machine for the bumpy trip home.

We found Raph's alter ego along route 25A: Trannyman - a transmission repair place. We also passed by Zach's brother's park and a castle. Adam told amazing stories to ease the passing of time and miles. A good time was had by all - especially when there was an enthusiastic crew to greet us upon arrival!

Machine Uno ("The One With The Bill Acceptor")

Is still downstairs in the MakerBot Garage. Does not have a lock.

Machine Dos ("The Other")

Is in Honor System ("Free Vend") mode. Changer (coin mechanism) and Bill Validator are missing. It is unclear if the machine can be used in anything other than Free Vend mode without the addition of a Changer. Does not have a lock. Fluorescent light is burnt out. Door Close switch is busted (my bad).

Hack Status

The 2nd machine is currently in Free Vend mode. This is probably fine since there is no lock on the machine anyway. If we do decide to lock it, we can hack it so that we control the credit in place of the Changer:

Possible Vectors of Credittack

• The Changer uses a serial line to announce credit, so that's probably out, unless we can capture the output from the other machine (if they're compatible).
• The Bill Validator uses pin pulses for $1 and $5 credit, although it is unclear if these pulses will work without a startup command being received by the controller to verify that the Bill Validator is connected.
• We could leave it in Free Vend mode, but disable the keypad. A microcontroller would "enter" the numbers for whatever should be vended.
• Disconnect the controller and build our own to driver the motors/LCD.

Other Hacks

• We should dynamically update the LCD to say different things. Twitter/IRC/Party Chat integration. Or it could insult you based on your last purchase, or remind you how much is on your tab.
• Venmo/SMS integration.