Coin Mech Question

[Monti3870]

What is a dummy mech?

[Snickers]

I believe any 12 or 15 pin changer regardless of make is referred to as a dumb mech. 

A couple examples would be 9302LF,6010XV

[Monti3870]

11 minutes ago, Snickers said:

I believe any 12 or 15 pin changer regardless of make is referred to as a dumb mech. 

A couple examples would be 9302LF,6010XV

Thanks

[AZVendor]

Anything not MDB is a dummy mech.  It means it is a logic mech but totally controlled by the vending machine controller.  MDB coin mechs are smarter and control their own change.  Before logic mechs came along there were single price, 4 price and 10 price mechs that ran all the pricing for the machines they were in but they were solid state, not logic mechs.

[NYCandyMaN]

we learn something new everyday. why is it called a dummy mech?

[AZVendor]

It's a dummy mech because while it's electronic and has a circuit board in it, it can't do anything until the machine logic board tells it to.

[DarkerTech]

In vending there are old technologies such as DumbMechs and new/current technologies that replace it like MDB.

Old/legacy technology, not sure of the official term but I've heard of it referred to as "Logic Based":

• MicroMech (aka DumbMech)  - The old standard for connecting coin changers.  Not sure what the bill acceptor equivalent is called.
• Single Price (& 4 price) interface - The earliest standard, basically before there was a computer in vending machines.

New technology, loaded full of features you may or may not need:

• MDB - The most commonly used standard.
• CCTalk - A MDB equivalent/competitor, the main difference that I'm currently aware of, is ccTalk natively offers encrypted data.

Legacy devices generally operate on 120v or 24v AC and communicate in parallel using those voltages.  Meaning a pin on the connector physically gets 120 volts to vend, or to communicate that a dollar is inserted, or any other action.  While new technology, uses 5 volt data lines that send a bunch of serial data, ones and zeroes, and all actions, and information is exchanged this way.  This reduces the size of the connectors, makes it safer (voltage) and lets you add way more features having it all in software, rather than adding a new pin to the connector for every new feature.  Modern MDB devices can transport files to and from one another (such as a software update), credit card readers (cashless payment devices) can request access to a machine's display to display messages, and/or request input from the machine's buttons.   Stuff like this is only possible with newer technologies.

Why is it called dumb mech?  Because it's 'dumb', doesn't run software on it, or if it does, not much of it at all, it can be operated without a processor.

 

Also, side note, DEX, which I don't know much about, is for data auditing, and I think would be a new technology.

 

[AZVendor]

Your last statement shows just how little you know about vending.  The DEX protocol has been around for about 20 years now.  It stands for Data Exchange Protocol and is simply a way to extract column-level sales data from a machine.  The problem with DEX is that while it's an industry standard per NAMA specifications there is enough room for manufacturers to play with the software, adding and subtracting memory, rearranging addressing, etc., that older machines can't now download their DEX data in any intelligible stream.  This is the fault of NAMA not overseeing or enforcing a technology protocol that they sponsored and endorsed.  Some machines can be fixed with a later eprom but the older a machine is the less likely that is available or that it will work.  Manufacturers don't even try to get their legacy machines to work on newer platforms.  They got their money years ago and just abandon what they sold, which typically is of such old technology that the software can't even be updated anyway.