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MDB vending machine rec for electronics hackers


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I'm looking for an MDB vending machine for a hackerspace where we can design/install custom electronics on the MDB bus. Goal would be to accept bitcoin or RFID payment or other crazy projects.  For educational purposes.

Can anyone recommend a good snack machine for this?  What are the most common models?  Best spare parts availability?

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I have never heard of anything taking bitcoin, but it seems as though you would need a separate device to do that.  I mean, to accept RFID, you need a card reader as I don't know of a machine that comes WITH that acceptance.  The whole point of having MDB is to add devices.... so you would need something to hook up to that.  On the other hand, I think either the VE UCB or the InOne board have a USB connection where you might be able to add some kind of a device.  Sorry, that's over my head to be honest.

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Thanks for the reply, Chris!  

Yes, we can build a circuit board that speaks MDB like a card reader would.

What is the "Toyota Camry of snack machines"?  That's really what I'm trying to ask.  I'm talking about the most common, reliable, plenty of manuals online and easy to get spare parts.  Automatic Products?  Crane?  Selectivend?

Thank you.

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I am sort of guessing here. The MDB is an interface that allows something to tell the machine to vend. ie cc reader reads card tells MDB to vend bag of chips. Blukey reads payrange app tells MDB to vend bag of chips. Is that how it works? Or am I just pulling hair out of my golpher.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

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No, MDB doesn't tell anything what to do. Rather, it simply transmits the signal. MDB is to a vending machine what USB is to a computer. It's simply the protocol that allows devices to communicate with the control board or other devices. The validator might tell the board that a dollar has been inserted and the MDB harness transmits that data to the board so the board can decide what to do (ie. credit $1.00).  So the MDB harness uses MDB (the "language") to transmit the data. Aside from that, MDB is not a tangible thing. It cannot physically do anything. 

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50 minutes ago, Corvus Corax said:

I am sort of guessing here. The MDB is an interface that allows something to tell the machine to vend. ie cc reader reads card tells MDB to vend bag of chips. Blukey reads payrange app tells MDB to vend bag of chips. Is that how it works? Or am I just pulling hair out of my golpher.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 

To be clear, the board tells the motor to vend a bag of chips and there might be no MDB communication between the board and the motors. Those connections are not ever MDB from what I have seen. They are probably serial but that's actually over my head.

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Vending machines confuse everyone.  I doubt you made it any worse.  MDB is one of those things that no one understands until you actually grasp the concept, then it's easy to understand.  The same is true for procreation.

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