One of my friends has bought a soft drink bottle cooler as a present for his partner.
The outside of the machine is agreeable, but the state of the electr(on)ics is bad. More than 20 wires have been cut off by previous owners and restorers. The only part that still works is the refrigerator.
At this moment I'm assessing the damage done by previous repairs, and building a plan to make the cooler dispense bottles in some way.
My current assessment:
- the motor that activates the vending cycle is toast. So is the gear box of that motor.
- the coin validation mechanism is incomplete and doesn't work anymore.
- everywhere I look wires are cut and bodged together in a seemingly random way. Someone had a go at it, but I think that person was not restricted by any relevant knowledge 
I'm planning to decipher the circuit (I purchased a service manual on-line), get the basic mechanism working again, and replace the coin detector by an optical interrupter.
I'm on a deadline. The cooler is for the girlfriend's birthday. And I'm invited late to the party. My design decisions will be guided by time and 'having the parts available at home' more than efficient solutions.
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