[General] Soda Machine

[Nathan Warner]

There has been some interest in getting a soda machine at the shop.  Last
night brimstone, Strages and I traveled about an hour away to look at a
few.  We met a really nice gentlemen who taught us a ton about vending
machines in general.  The idea was to find out what he had to offer, and how
we could accomplish our requirements.

   1. Working Machine
   2. Vend from use of USB key, kind of like the door.
   3. Ability to add money to a vending account, for use with USB key.
   4. Detect amount of product left in machine. (This would be fun to show
   off and piratical)

We basically left with 3 machines in mind.  Each solving some or all of the
requirements.

   1. $300 - 5 drink, 1 price, Coin only, Can only, Co. is out of business,
   accomplishes #1 of our requirements, this machine http://rldn.net/2It
   2. $450 - 5 drink, 1 price, Has older dollar reader, Can only,
   accomplishes #1, #2 and #3 but only for $1 bills, #4 would be easily done
   though sensors I think, I believe it is actually this machine
   http://rldn.net/8A8
   3. $800 + a receipt for donation of $200 - 9 drink (I think), Multiple
   price, 10oz - 20oz, can or bottle, dollar reader, dax control (meaning
   easily do all of our requirements)

After talking with brimstone and Strages, we believe machine #2 would be
good for us.  We would need to do some hacking on it, like adding sensors to
detect when a can is vended, possibly a new bill acceptor that takes higher
bills.  Machines 1 and 2 are big, ugly, but cheap.  Machine 3 is only about
5 years old already has the sensors and everything in it for meeting out
requirements, but costs twice as much.

This is just some food for thought.  I wanted to make sure everyone knew
about the project, and see who was interested in helping/contributing to the
purchase of a soda machine.

wiki: https://256.makerslocal.org/wiki/index.php/Soda_Machine

Thanks
Nathan

P.S. The man has a broken (thinks its a blown cap) Ms. Pac Man machine for
$100.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.makerslocal.org/pipermail/general/attachments/20100729/cac22544/attachment.htm>