DMVI Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Hi I'm David. I'm a partner at Digital Media Vending in San Francisco, CA. We design and build custom vending machines. We've done lots of projects over the years and I'd love to share some with you all. Looking forward to being part of the community Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 Hi David, Welcome! Do you design and build from scratch or is there a particular parts supplier that y'all use to build the machines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMVI Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 It depends on the client's requirements... We can design and build from the ground up, but we also have some standard cabinets which we can customize internally. Some clients want something totally unique that has never been done before, other clients have a unique product that they want to be dispensed. Designing from the ground up can be costly, so if the budget is tight, we try and use our existing cabinets and components. Depending on the requirements, we try and use components that are readily available - there is no point reinventing the wheel. But where necessary we create custom dispense solutions. Most of our clients either have a unique product that they want to dispense or they have a specific external aesthetic they want to achieve, so each project is tailored to meet requirements and budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 That sounds like fun! I’m sure challenging, but creating the unique and bringing it to life sounds like it doesn’t get boring. One of my locations happens to have a pretty unique machine he wants made. It was a day or two after I asked you that question. I told him I would get him your contact info because it seemed like something that you would be the one he needs to talk too. It surely isn’t a typical machine, however given the gravity of his profession sounds like something that could be made for all in the medical profession, from ambulances to hospitals regarding the use of controlled substances, security, and accountability. Should I have him ask for you, or does it matter who he gets in contact with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Oh dang lol almost forgot... The reason I asked if y’all built from the ground up yada yada, is because I took over another girls vending route of 9 machines. Four of which are the same company of my first 10 machines, and 5 are of companies out of business. 3 Genesis Go-380’s and 2 Purco (Seaga looking) Office Deli’s. All of them work, but I need them up dated with card readers. They have been put on a “back-burner” per se while I have been cleaning up and updating 3 Wittern 3120’s (with satellites) with new boards, keypads, card readers, etc. I’m wondering, (hoping), that your team of “vending machine industry professionals” happens to know about these specific machines, and what it would take to get the boards/keypads/motors updated with Dex ports for my card readers. And/or what it cost if it had to be “created”, if swapping the guts of the machines over to Witterns isnt easier/cheaper, or vise verse? I also have a Savamco that has a Simply Cool Box for drink half that looks like someone has “rednecked” without the control panel. The Simply Cool people seemed to have moved out of the country and don’t do the boxes anymore. All of a sudden my Tahoe is seeming like it’s easier to work on lol. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 The only thing that allows you to do card readers is if the machine is running MDB for the mech and validator. If that's the coinage configuration then you can connect a card reader. The Purco (built with Seaga parts) is MDB but the Genesis probably isn't. Just don't expect any DEX from them. And if you're smart and plan on staying in the business for a while you need to ditch those machines and get real machines for your accounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMVI Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 Hi Cat6, give us a call from the contact page on our website. AZVendor is right, if the machines use MDB then you can add an MDB reader into the loop. I would need the make/model/year of the manufacturer so I could see if they are MDB or not. Even if it is Pulse, there are credit card options for that too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Thanks David! I already added a card reader to one of the Purco’s, and it is MDB. I also had Seaga send me a Dex harness, however there isn’t port for it on the board. My Cantaloupe program acknowledges the reader, but not the inventory. The card reader won’t accept payment. The machine is still on location, both Purco’s are. I have the card reader for the other one I just haven’t installed it yet until I get the other one figured out. The hotel that has it is pulling 1000 a month, the card readers are about 1/2 my sales so I’m pretty confident it’ll double when the card reader is working. The hotel has people asking them if they can do cash back on their debt cards for the machine, which they can’t. So I’m a bit hard pressed to get it connected. I found a board for it for 350 that has the port, from Seaga, but it’s not a Seaga, which leads me to think that it’s not going to be a simple swap. (Nothing is that easy lol). I have already updated 3 Wittern machines, and have one more to go. So I’d like to be a bit more confident that the Seaga board will work before dropping 350-700 on it. Especially if there is a smaller/cheaper way around it. The Purco’s also have the same kind of coin and bill acceptors as the Witterns, (Coinco). I will call ya tomorrow, for sure, thanks! I think we still have a 3 hr time difference in Florida during daylight savings (?) Its been awhile, but I’m from Southern California (Ventura, So. Pasadena, San Diego). I’ve been to San Francisco, I froze to death up there during my visit lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Cat, I'd have to say that you are really being short sighted if you have these flimsy machines in a hotel doing a grand per month (it's only a matter of time before one of them gets trashed and you have to junk it.) It means you're either having to service the machines too often or you're missing sales that real, dedicated machines will give you. Sell these and invest in real machines for a real return on your investment. Then you won't be dicking around with DEX and weird logic boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Hi AZ, It’s always a pleasure to read such frank honesty, and I respect the knowledge you bring to the table. I’m sure there will come a time sooner or later when I have to repair or switch out the machine, but at the moment it is doing fine. It has been at this location a number of years, how many, I’m not sure, but it has made 32400.00 of .65 cent stuff in it. Which means it was working twice as hard as it is now, since I have nothing under a dollar in it. If getting “trashed” means somebody intentionally damaging the machine, they would have to be highly intoxicated and incredibly stupid, since the machine is 60 ft from the front desk and under video surveillance. I also have another machine on the 3rd Floor, it’s a Wittern 3589 (I think, if I remember right) it already has a card reader and all the bells and whistles. It’s doing a little over 500 month. Since I have WiFi communication with it, I have been able to gauge what the 1st floor machine might be doing, because on average, the 1st floor does twice as much as the 3rd floor. Most of the time I see the machines once a week, there has been times when I have gone there before a weekend than back after the weekend. I have 20 machines at the moment, so for now, that does not bother me, especially when it’s a 200-300 dollar weekend. I guess the only thing here that I seem to be at a loss is what the machines are that you consider to be the real work horses? And if they are already equipped with Dex and card readers? Because if their not, I’m still gonna be “dicking” around with it, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 18 minutes ago, Cat6 said: Hi AZ, It’s always a pleasure to read such frank honesty, and I respect the knowledge you bring to the table. I’m sure there will come a time sooner or later when I have to repair or switch out the machine, but at the moment it is doing fine. It has been at this location a number of years, how many, I’m not sure, but it has made 32400.00 of .65 cent stuff in it. Which means it was working twice as hard as it is now, since I have nothing under a dollar in it. If getting “trashed” means somebody intentionally damaging the machine, they would have to be highly intoxicated and incredibly stupid, since the machine is 60 ft from the front desk and under video surveillance. I also have another machine on the 3rd Floor, it’s a Wittern 3589 (I think, if I remember right) it already has a card reader and all the bells and whistles. It’s doing a little over 500 month. Since I have WiFi communication with it, I have been able to gauge what the 1st floor machine might be doing, because on average, the 1st floor does twice as much as the 3rd floor. Most of the time I see the machines once a week, there has been times when I have gone there before a weekend than back after the weekend. I have 20 machines at the moment, so for now, that does not bother me, especially when it’s a 200-300 dollar weekend. I guess the only thing here that I seem to be at a loss is what the machines are that you consider to be the real work horses? And if they are already equipped with Dex and card readers? Because if their not, I’m still gonna be “dicking” around with it, lol. Real workhorses are AMS, AP's, Crane/Nationals, Dixie Narcos, Royals, and Vendos. Most machines made by these companies after the late 90s have dex ports and MDB, which means that telemetry and card readers are going to be plug and play with the right harness. Only thing that might have to be changed is the memory chip, and that is only if it hasn't been updated to the latest version yet. Easy and cheap to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Thank you orsd, Good to know! I will keep an eye out for those. I have looked into Crane machines when I had certain locations that wanted outdoor machines. I just didn’t follow through with it much past that because I found I had far more things to research about it. Mostly because this is Florida, “I’m not in Kansas (California lol) anymore.” Weather is a huge factor here, and is probably the reason they were having problems with the machines that they already had on location. So I put that one on the “back burner” until I figured more things out. The route I took over came with 10 machines, 9 machines all on location, all were within a 10 mile radius. 4 of them (8 units) of side by side Witterns, 2 Purco’s OD’s (3 piece units), and 3 Genesis GO380’s. All in working order, but half needed serious cleaning. There was also a 10th machine being pulling from a location, because that business was going out of business and it is a Savamco (22 or 32, I think it’s a 22) Which works, but I was told it wasn’t keeping drinks cold. But all for a grand total of 10,000, it’s like 1000.00 per machine, or 2000.00 for the good half of the machines, getting the other half of crap for free. They worked and they weren’t ugly lol, so I jumped on it. Everything I have seen so far in that price range, didn’t look at all visually appealing enough for me to put at someone’s location. Which it is highly highly important to me to not expect a place to accept an eye sore at their location. One of my machines has already been mentioned on Trip Advisor as being a wonderful asset to one of my hotels. Which makes them look good, and makes me look good. At the moment, I have the Savamco and GO380’s in my garage, the rest are out working. The GO380’s were costing me more money than what was being made in them. Having to go check them, the distance they were from my location, the timeframe in which they could be gotten to, and amount of OOD’s, it was easier and cheaper to pull them. Then I could at least tinker on them until I figured out how to get them to do what I want them to do. The Savamco appears to be the oldest unit, and I have had a bit of a hard time finding to much on it. It has a Simply Cool removable box which looks like someone has been in it, bypassing what looks like should have been a control panel that’s missing. Maybe I am short sighted, maybe I am wasting my time, at the moment it’s working for me. Maybe that will all change down the road. But I like to refurbish, and bring life back to things like “new and improved” where I see potential. I’d post finished pic but me and the file max total size button don’t get along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Having complications with choose file attachments. The second pic (above), it wouldn’t let me delete, then wouldn’t let me up load a different pic. (FYI this isn’t me in pic, it’s the person I got the route from.) And I still can’t load other pic. How do we delete files to make room for files? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Finally!! Ok, this is the after pic of the above machine that was suppose to be the second pic above. This is before it left to location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Loon Group LLC Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Hi Vendiscuss, I'm 17 months in with 8 active machines. 1 Seaga Infinity 5S and 7 Wittern Combo model 3589. I am finding these machines way limited and even though they are brand new, I am having 2 main issues repeadetly. I get coin jams all the time. I also get iVend sensor issues on teh drink compartment of my machines. How Can I help these issues? I would love to swap to better machines, but I bought through KarmaBox and paid way too much money. I just can't invest any more capital. I get on the phone with Tech Support but they can't seem to figure it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat6 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Hi Loon (lol) How old are your 3589’s? Are they graphic wrapped? What kind of sensor issues? Drinks getting stuck? The coins I noticed if you take the roll tray out, you have to make sure it’s all the way in. By that I mean it may look like it and snap in and all but some how not exactly seated completely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Loon Group LLC Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 My oldest one is a year this February. Yes, they are graphically wrapped. The issue I have is that the machines eat money and do not give product. I am getting a drink iVend sensor error code. Meaning the sensor is not sitting right and not recognizing that the machine has NOT dispensed a drink. I have done all troubleshooting with tech support and the machine is set to SNACK. Not sure what else to do, besides turn on/off, SM01, SM06, SM006. It will reset it but then it is happening again. BY the roll tray, I assume you mean the entire coin holder on the bottom. I will look at it and make sure it is seated correctly. I was also told to adjust the shoot to make sure it is hitting the lip of the coin dispenser as far down as possible so dimes and other coins don't jump out and cause a coin jam. I am not sure how to do that though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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