Several thousands of vending machines are distributed all over Norway with different protocols dealing with payments connecting to different banks.

The maintenance expense must be cost-efficient yet Auto-Vending had several different types of peripherals such as MSR, SMS, RSM and Bank terminals to support different types of payments. Therefore, the challenge was to accommodate several different modes of communication and protocols to adapt, such as Serial port, USB, SPI communication.

We were asked to provide a back-end management platform to manage the system remotely and support the exchange of data with a central server via GPRS, WI-FI or WLAN.

Our client tried to look for local providers for solutions. There are some vendors could help, but the price was prohibitive. Their alternative solution was PC- based technology which could cause stability problems.  So, they turned to Ethos. 

The Solution

Ethos found that using an embedded system using the .NET Micro Framework, the cost could drop down significantly and achieve higher performance and greater stability.

Ethos engineers developed several types of interface for the various types of peripherals, and several kinds of communication protocols to combine the hardware peripherals together.

To lower hardware cost, Ethos custom-designed a slave board, which converted data from 8 bits to 9 bits to fit MDB protocol, along with an application running on the main board under the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework environment.

Ethos engineers then implemented several protocols and peripheral interfaces to let different peripherals work with each other.

To enable remote management, Ethos developed a central server and connected the main board using DPWS. We then developed a web application using SQL Server, Silverlight, and ASP.net to store and handle the sales data.

Research tells that the implementation of equipment for cashless vending, like ours, will increase the use/visit at the vending machines by 15% and each purchase will have an increased turnover by 37%.

The Future of Vending

A cashless solution will increase the sales be cost efficient thru more efficient vending operation.

·   Online web server with stock level control

·   Flexibility to use cards

·   Bigger purchase volumes

·   Quicker visits

·   Time-saving accounting:  No time spent inserting or counting coins

·   The vending machine does not contain cash, which means a reduced risk of break-ins. Thus, the vending machine can be placed on more locations.

·   Allows price increases

·   Campaign facilities:  Remote product pricing of all your vending machines possible via website, from a PC. Changes can be made in relation to advertising campaigns.

·   Customized pricing for special customers, groups, members etc.

·   Product prices aren’t restricted by the value of coins.

·   A vending machine with a solution from CashFree Vending is “never” empty.

·   CashFree Vending solutions reduce costs

With CashFree Vending Remote Administrator, managers get a complete overview of the vending machine stocks to easily plan the refilling of the vending machines