Group Actions
Engagement
  • Author Author: Jan Cumps
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 4613 views
  • Likes 4 likes
  • Comments 13 comments
Related
Recommended

Repairing a Vendo V-80 cola dispencer of the 1950s

Jan Cumps

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.

image

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 image

 

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.

Parents

  • As a wrap up for my work, a few thoughts on why I went for this particular solution, and a capture of coin detect test and final test with motor and bottles.

     

    I could have taken a number of other approaches. A microcontroller is not needed for this kind of functionality. But I have been working with constraints.

    We did not know what was all defect. We knew coin detection did not work, and that the whole machine with bypassed coin detector didn't work either. A µC gave me more flexibility to also solve issues with other detectors and actuators.

    Time: It was a present from someone to someone for her birthday. I focused on things that I had lying around. All components are second hand (Arduino, power adapter, relais, protoboard, caps) or recovery (IR opto-coupler, led's, resistors, semiconductors and trimpot).

     

    video: review the coin handler

     

    I don't know that making a dedicated circuit would have been more economical for a one-off like this. That doesn't mean a lot though if you compare it to the price of the motor revision.

    image

    We achieved our main goal. The vending machine is ready in time. We'll be packing it and hide it in the garage. The lucky one will get an envelope with a single coin without explanation, and we'll walk her to the garage with that. She can then buy the first botle.

     

    Us celebrating the working machine:

     

     

    Hooray!

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    Nice one, good to see it working again

     

    Expensive motor repair though... Ouch

     

    Peter

Comment Children
No Data