Problem A TCN vending machine charges customer $655.35 on credit card, but cash payment is ok. Story Some (or all of them?) TCN vending machines charge customer $655.35 on credit card, but cash payment is ok. This is because TCN vending machine initialised all cashless price to 0xFFFF after reset, and this causes the cashless pricing to $655.35, or 65.535 if your currency is 3-decimal. Solution Credit card reader should immediately abort these abnormal cashless transactions. Read more...

Problem Saeco SG200 and similar vending machines has a nasty bug - if customer made selection, and start credit card transaction, the whole vending machines will go into a limbo mode. Story Saeco SG200 is a nice standalone coffee machine. The coffee from this machine may taste ok, but besides maintenance, this vending machine allows customers to make selection first, and tap credit card. In MDB, this selection first, start payment later should be implemented as AlwaysIdle feature. Read more...

Problem Variants Baixue vending machines will cancel cashless transaction within 5 seconds. Story Chinese manufacturer Jiangsu Baixue Electric Appliances Co Ltd has a portfolio of bang for your money vending machines. Biggest problem is, the vending machine will cancel credit card transaction within 5 seconds after customer made selection. In lots of situations this is not long enough for credit card processor to finish the transaction. Solution Contact your technician. Read more...

Problem NECTA’s Snakky will call VendSuccess on MDB for cash sales Story This is about NECTA Snakky again. first one Apparently NECTA’s Snakky firmware developers are not reading MDB protocol carefully. VendSuccess 0x13 0x02 is for cashless only, and it’s for cashless devices to acknoledge the payment. To report a cash sales, just use the CashSale 0x13 0x05. Solution Ignore the VendSuccess 0x13 0x12 instruction.

Problem Blank screen after credit card transaction. A normal working NECTA Snakky will go blank screen after first credit card transaction, and only a power cycle could solve this. Story Necta mentioned in their website, With its user-friendly functions, Snakky provides the perfect solution for many small to medium sized locations thanks to its reduced dimensions and small footprint. However, for its 1.4 firmware, the little blue display would go completely dark after first credit card transaction, and it could not recover from this limbo state until the whole vending machine went through a power cycle. Read more...