Feral Vending Mechanic

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Bevmax 4. Your first step is to make absolutely certain that the machine is perfectly level. One of the best places to check for this is at the junction of the glass door and the monetary door panel. They should align perfectly. The second thing you want to check is the levelness of the cup arm. In the home position, check to see that the gap is the same, top to bottom. Additionally, check the "XY belt idler tension housing" at the top left of the machine. Over time, it may pull away from the support and it may need to be rescrewed in or tightened. Many changes have been made to the various parts and sub assemblies of the machine over the years, so depending on the exact date of manufacture, it might be worth checking a few other things: 1 ) The actual XY motors. I've seen these go bad. ( They should both be replaced at the same time with the exact same motor. ) I strongly believe they received a bad batch of motors from a supplier at one point in time. 2 ) The small board behind the top plastic cover near the Y motor. In particular, examine it closely for an overabundance of dielectric grease. For a while, the assemblers of the machines were a bit exuberant in their application of it. Over time, it can degrade and begin causing problems. If you see huge globs of it, unplug all of the connectors and wipe the majority of it off. 3 ) Ensure that the glass hasn't been pushed in and is causing friction on the picker. And that the rubber seal around the windows isn't interfering. 4 ) You say you have a Coke tech helping out, check with them to see if they have an EPROM they can use to upgrade the board to the latest available firmware. ( There are different EPROMs available, depending on if it's a red board or a blue board. ) The Bevmax 4 is a good machine, but can be very frustrating when behaving erratically. Reaching out to Crane/National for assistance can sometimes be helpful. ( Some of the techs are more helpful than others. ) Good luck!

As a Vending Tech, I sunk far too much time into adjusting those damn sensors. I now disable them. ( I know this makes some people's heads explode. Sorry. ) There are three different models to concern yourself with. 1 ) The first is the one sensor model. It wasn't in production too long. To bypass the sensor, cut off then connector end of the sensor assembly, including about 3-4 inches of wiring. Strip an inch of insulation from the two outside wires, and twist them together, shorting out those wires. Put a small bit of electrical tape around the bare wires, and then tie the middle wire around the two ( now connected ) wires. This keeps them in place. 2 ) The second model is the basic two sensor model. It was in production far longer than the first one. The procedure is essentially the same, but now you have something else to work with. There is a jumper wire that connects to a small board that essentially feeds the two sensor circuits. Remove this jumper wire, it has the same connections as the end of one of the sensor assemblies. Simply cut all three wires at the halfway point and follow the instructions I detailed above. ( You also have a small bit of wire protector. I cut this in half and slide it down over the third wire that you've tied around the two jumped wires. It protects it. As a bonus, you've not damaged the sensor assemblies themselves, and can mess with them later if you want an exasperating experience comparable to the punishments of Sisyphus. 3 ) The Energy Star model is a bit different. The board that controls the sensors has a host of other duties, and cannot simply be bypassed. You must cut the sensor assembly wires as detailed in #1 to bypass the sensors. NOTE: In a perfect world, I would never, ever, ever bypass the sensors. They serve an important purpose, and over the long run keep your customers happy by reducing missed vends and bottle jams. Unfortunately, I 1) don't have the time to properly adjust the dang things. They're fiddly and just when you think you've got them aligned, they start beeping again. and 2) customers get more angry when a machine is constantly beeping ( especially when it's been going on a week and no one every called you because "well, Susan from Accounting is always the one who calls the vending company" ) than I've ever seen them about anything, ever.

It's not helpful, but man o man do I hate those machines. One thing to check is the cable that runs between the two machines. If the machines get banged around and the wire is a little loose, it can easily have a machine's leg smash down on it.

Also, is there a coin mech plugged into the machine? This model requires one to operate, even in pricing mode and such.

This is somewhat similar to what they did when I worked for [redacted large vending company.] They had a large work release center, with a bunch of machines, including three or four cold food machines. All of the cold food sandwiches that were getting close to the pull date would be removed from the cold food machines on the normal routes, and get placed in the work release center on Friday. Since the inmates weren't able to leave the center on the weekends, and had some money, ( from the jobs they were being released during the week to do ) they'd buy the heck out of those close to the end date sandwiches. The company actually found a way to make good money on cold food.