DangerDane Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 Sorry if the topic doesn't belong here. But if it doesn't then feel free to move it or if its completely off the board just let me know and I will delete it At work a colleague and me brings in drinks and stocks a fridge full of pop and candy on an honor system. ie you take a piece of candy or pop you are supposed to put the appropriate amount of money in a money box. Sadly however very few people do and we are barely breaking even. So I am considering making a homemade vending machine that will only dispense drinks or candy if people actually *have money in their account. Sadly however I am at bit of a loss as to whether to buy an older machine and refurb it and fit with an arduino or Raspberry Pi, or build entirely from stock since actually buying a brand new machine is out of the question for our level of "business" and the amount of money it is supposed to generate. * As in that each of our prox tags gets an account on the system and they then pay us x amount of money and we then top their account up. Once the balance reaches 0 they can't get more dispensed from the system. But any bright ideas or suggestions are more than welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SchligVend Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Why would they give you money upfront? Why not place a regular soda and snack vending machine and have them pay as they go like everyone else has always done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DangerDane Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 Why would they give you money upfront? Why not place a regular soda and snack vending machine and have them pay as they go like everyone else has always done? Because a normal snack and vending machine is 1000 US+ or more and that's outside of our budget range. AND because as a society we are moving away from actual money where I live. I would hate if I had to bring coins with me to work every day to vend goods, as opposed to just transferring 100 US etc from my bank account to a company bank account and then get my vending account credited. And then having to just use my proximity tag that I already use for access to vend goods. Furthermore it discourages theft or "borrowing" since there are no real money changing hands as the system vends. And the gym that I use actually has a system like this where you get a monthly credit that you can use, which then gets put on your bill for next month and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 The cost of vending machines is associated with all of the parts. To "vend" items you need some type of "vending" device; a device that will allow the product to come out once a purchase has been made. Using any kind of control board or electronics is only useful when you are dealing with motors. Motors cost money. Figure at least $10 per motor. You also need spirals. What you'll figure out is that every part you need to vend several items is what you will find within a vending machine. Making a "homemade" vending machine is not a practical solution unless you are very good with electronics and motors. Even if you have this knowledge, the cost of parts will add up faster than you realize. Sure, a raspberry pi may be capable of doing most of the programming functions that a typical control board can do, but it does not have the inputs or the outputs that a vending machine control board has. Again, the parts you'll need to make everything work will cost a lot more than you realize. Although they can be a huge nightmare to have for a vending business, you might be far better off getting a cheap seaga or antarese combo in working condition. The quality is cheap but you might be able to get one of these for a couple hundred dollars and have snacks and cold soda by simply inserting the proper denomination of coins (ie. exactly 2 quarters to make 50 cents) and twist the handle to force the product out of that selection. Otherwise, you will be better off buying a used combo machine. You could also try a table-top snack machine for cheap and simply deal with the theft of the canned soda. There just isn't any real way to make a legitimate vending machine without putting hundreds of dollars into it. You'd be lucky to make a machine to vend 10 different items without going close to $1,000, and it would look like crap and virtually never be able to accept a coin mech, validator, or credit card reader. The final option I can think of is to have a device that unlocks when you put money into it. So... if you put in 75 cents, the lock comes undone and you can open the box and take "whatever you want" with the idea being that you'll only take one. Sorry about not being the response you are looking for, but we stock and repair vending machines here, we don't custom build them. If you insist on building your own vending machine, I challenge you to do one thing first: Find a way to vend a single item after inserting money into a device that accepts money. That means, you need to build something that causes a motor to turn after sufficient funds have been inserted. If you can't physically make one item vend, there's no way you'll be able to do anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RikaKazak Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 My first soda machine was $150 (used Dixie Narco) off of Craigslist. It came with a DBA installed and an extra new one in a box the guy threw in for me. He also put in a new compressor 6 months prior so it was in pretty good shape. (He was retiring and getting rid of all his machines after he'd sold his route) I'd just be patient, find a used machine, and go that way. If your patient and search craigslist once a week you can find tons of deals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 I agree with most of the above, except don't buy an Antares vendor, nothing good about them. Yes, cashless is coming but how do you accept card payments in your honor system now??? Walk before you run, check your local craigslist using several different search terms (vending, drink machine, snack machine). You will find something to your liking. The kind of employee ID based payment system you are talking about is out there for commercial operators already but is rarely seen in locations under 300 to 500 employees because of cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMMAN Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Look at Craigslist SEVERAL times a day. You need to act quickly on used machines that are actually a good deal because local dealers are looking at them also and usually have the capitol and a method of moving them. Make sure you get someone with the proper equipment to move it for you or someone will probably get hurt. Getting the machine moved alone is expensive, my first DN I got for about 300 bucks but it cost me 100 to have it moved. I build machines sometimes at my day job, not vending machines but drilling machines, test stands, sometimes fixtures for existing machines. If you are handy with electronics your raspberry pi will serve you well, but everything else will end up costing much more than a used vending machine. Even if the materials are free it could very well cost you more in time than a used machine is worth. Just buy one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Sorry if the topic doesn't belong here. But if it doesn't then feel free to move it or if its completely off the board just let me know and I will delete it At work a colleague and me brings in drinks and stocks a fridge full of pop and candy on an honor system. ie you take a piece of candy or pop you are supposed to put the appropriate amount of money in a money box. Sadly however very few people do and we are barely breaking even. So I am considering making a homemade vending machine that will only dispense drinks or candy if people actually *have money in their account. Sadly however I am at bit of a loss as to whether to buy an older machine and refurb it and fit with an arduino or Raspberry Pi, or build entirely from stock since actually buying a brand new machine is out of the question for our level of "business" and the amount of money it is supposed to generate. * As in that each of our prox tags gets an account on the system and they then pay us x amount of money and we then top their account up. Once the balance reaches 0 they can't get more dispensed from the system. But any bright ideas or suggestions are more than welcome. Put a lock on your refrigerator and forget all the bells whistles. Your workplace probably won't do enough volume to justify any major investment. If they ask about the lock - just tell them the honor system has failed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 I have a feeling that DangerDane is not in the US but rather is in Europe based on his reply. Machine availability is much different there and prices may be much higher due to supply and demand of used equipment. While I also discourage anyone from reinventing the wheel, I think that he's just in another part of the world where vending is different than it is here. My advise would be to find a combination snack/soda machine as it could be serviced as often as needed since they work there. The problem is that whatever their sales are they probably won't be making enough money to pay for the machine and they obviously don't have enough to buy one now. This is the paradox of vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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