초록 ▼

A vend control system for vending machines which accept credit, have an established vend price, include customer actuatable selection capability, apparatus for producing a selected vend, and an empty product device operable to prevent energizing of the associated vend producing apparatus when the su

A vend control system for vending machines which accept credit, have an established vend price, include customer actuatable selection capability, apparatus for producing a selected vend, and an empty product device operable to prevent energizing of the associated vend producing apparatus when the supply of articles to be vended thereby is exhausted, the improvement including a circuit for establishing a power connection when an amount deposited at least equals the established vend price, circuit elements constructed to respond to the power connection to establish a credit condition and to enable selecting a product for vending including generating a vend signal in response thereto, a circuit responsive to the generation of a vend signal to enable energizing of selected vend producing apparatus, and a switch device under control of each respective vend producing apparatus to establish a circuit condition in association with the respective empty product device to assure that an energized vend producing apparatus will remain energized for sufficient time to complete a vend cycle even if the product being vended is the last product capable of being vended by the selected vend producing apparatus, the circuit condition being established being established by a first bi-stable circuit device operable in conjunction with the switch device to maintain the energized vend producing apparatus in an energized condition, a second bi-stable circuit device under control of the first bi-stable circuit device to control the de-energizing of the vend producing apparatus and the termination of a vend cycle, and a reset circuit to reset the control system when a vend cycle is terminated.

대표청구항 ▼

In a vend control system having means to accept and accumulate amounts of credit entered by a customer, a plurality of vend delivery means each having a product associated therewith and being selectively energizable to vend such product, and selection means actuatable by the customer to select a par

In a vend control system having means to accept and accumulate amounts of credit entered by a customer, a plurality of vend delivery means each having a product associated therewith and being selectively energizable to vend such product, and selection means actuatable by the customer to select a particular product from among the products that are available to be vended, the improvement comprising common circuit means associated with all of the vend delivery means and the selection means, a plurality of means each associated with a respective vend delivery means and operable when the supply of products to be vended under control of the respective vend delivery means becomes exhausted during a particular vend cycle to prevent the energizing during future vend cycles of said respective vend delivery means but not of others of said vend delivery means, and other means to maintain the selected vend delivery means energized for a full cycle of operation even if during a particular vend cycle the one of said plurality of means associated with the respective selected vend delivery means operable to prevent the future energizing of the selected vend delivery means operates thereby indicating that the supply of the product associated with such selected vend delivery means has become exhausted, said other means including a plurality of switch means each associated with a respective vend delivery means and operating under control thereof to cycle between two conditions during a complete operating cycle of the energized vend delivery means, means in said common circuit means operatively connected to all of said switch means and responsive to the operation of any of said switch means to effect maintenance of energization of the energized vend delivery means for a full cycle of its operation.