Crane national model 158 "use exact change"

[JJVend]

I have a crane national model 158 that is telling me to use exact change. The mech is full, and the mars series 2000 is NOT taking bills. I changed out the validator to another working mars 2000 and it still will not take bills... it takes change and gives change when I put in for instance a dollar coin and purchase a .75 item. Can someone point me in the right direction as to what the problem may be?? 

[AZVendor]

You will need to turn the machine off and remove the coin mech.  Dump all the coins out of the tubes and reinstall it, then power it up. Go into your "Tube Fill" mode and enter it.  Now drop all your coins, in any order, into the top of the coin mech so the mech can count them into the inventory.  When coins are deflected the coin box or you run out of coins then you are finished.  Exit the Tube Fill mode and go back to normal operation and the machine should work properly.  If it still does not then the coin mech needs to be replaced.  

These instructions are for MDB coinage so if you have a Micromech coin mech (12 or 15 pins on the plug) then this issue means you have a bad sensor in one or more of the coin tubes and the mech needs to be serviced.

If you need a mech for it you can email me at rbepic4gatgmaildotcom.

[JJVend]

Azvendor you are always most helpful my friend! I will let you know if I need a mech of this doesn't work! 

[JJVend]

20 hours ago, AZVendor said:

You will need to turn the machine off and remove the coin mech.  Dump all the coins out of the tubes and reinstall it, then power it up. Go into your "Tube Fill" mode and enter it.  Now drop all your coins, in any order, into the top of the coin mech so the mech can count them into the inventory.  When coins are deflected the coin box or you run out of coins then you are finished.  Exit the Tube Fill mode and go back to normal operation and the machine should work properly.  If it still does not then the coin mech needs to be replaced.  

These instructions are for MDB coinage so if you have a Micromech coin mech (12 or 15 pins on the plug) then this issue means you have a bad sensor in one or more of the coin tubes and the mech needs to be serviced.

If you need a mech for it you can email me at rbepic4gatgmaildotcom.

So I did everything, I'm not too sure what tube fill mode is. I pressed config machine.. then scrolled to mech and it said dumb mech, mdb mech and exec mech. The only one that doesn't throw a temporary out of service code is dumb mech. So I left it on that. It still doesn't take bills and says please use exact amount. Should I email you? 

[AngryChris]

Firstly, the coin mech settings you described are what tells the machine WHAT kind of coin mech is in there.  If you have an MDB coin mech installed and you set the machine to dumb mech, then it probably won't work ( I have never done that).  You need to find out if it is a dumb mech (larger black plug with 12-15 pins) or an MDB mech (white plastic 6-pin mech).  Depending on that, you need to put it on dumb mech or MDB mech, regardless of the error, but the "out of service" error probably came about because you have neither an MDB mech nor an executive mech or whatever that is.

As for tube fill, I haven't had to do this on most snack machines.  I suspect what you have is either a Mars TRC-6000 or a Coinco 9300-L in your machine with either a bad lower sensor on the nickels (if not more nickels and dimes), or the machine is low on coins, or you just have a bad coin mechanism in general.

If you have a TRC-6000 or Coinco 9300-L in there, then you need to verify that you have at LEAST 15 coins in each tube.  Make absolutely certain there isn't a jam in the coin tube (doubtful).  If the mech is full and you still get this error AND you have a TRC-6000 or Coinco 9300-L or any other 12-pin or 15-pin mech in there, then you need to get the coin mechanism repaired OR simply put a good coin mech in there with similar voltage (should be 110/117v).

[JJVend]

On 3/17/2017 at 11:23 PM, AngryChris said:

Firstly, the coin mech settings you described are what tells the machine WHAT kind of coin mech is in there.  If you have an MDB coin mech installed and you set the machine to dumb mech, then it probably won't work ( I have never done that).  You need to find out if it is a dumb mech (larger black plug with 12-15 pins) or an MDB mech (white plastic 6-pin mech).  Depending on that, you need to put it on dumb mech or MDB mech, regardless of the error, but the "out of service" error probably came about because you have neither an MDB mech nor an executive mech or whatever that is.

As for tube fill, I haven't had to do this on most snack machines.  I suspect what you have is either a Mars TRC-6000 or a Coinco 9300-L in your machine with either a bad lower sensor on the nickels (if not more nickels and dimes), or the machine is low on coins, or you just have a bad coin mechanism in general.

If you have a TRC-6000 or Coinco 9300-L in there, then you need to verify that you have at LEAST 15 coins in each tube.  Make absolutely certain there isn't a jam in the coin tube (doubtful).  If the mech is full and you still get this error AND you have a TRC-6000 or Coinco 9300-L or any other 12-pin or 15-pin mech in there, then you need to get the coin mechanism repaired OR simply put a good coin mech in there with similar voltage (should be 110/117v).

It's definitely a dumb mech. It's the large black 12-15 pin. And this is a machine that hasn't had a problem since I bought the business in October so it wasn't programmed into the board wrong. Looks like I have a bad mech. Cause the tubes are full, that's always the first thing I check.