I think we could turn this into a raspberry pi dispenser with prebuilt kodi, community grid, retro pi, kali, and some IoT distro.
If @Team_Creative_Arts wants to put some art in or one of the other committees care to have some consumables there then we’ll be open to that.
All we’d have to do is clean it up, get some vinyls made, and setup the rfid payment system.
I know that the leatherworking group (@jnorine) have been considering doing little leather kits.
Just FYI, local pickup from CT.
I’d love to get something like that up at the space.
Last time I was in vegas I saw two of these at the cosmopolitan, http://www.artomat.org/ they were very cool.
Ships to:
Local pick-up only
meh… I got family out there and some vacation time squirreled away.
Backup option:
close to home
I used to have one of the Lances. Wish I could have kept it. Loved playing with that thing! But it was big, bulky, hard to move, hard to store, and easy to cheat…
@Team_Logistics @Diplomat if I was to donate it would it take a board item to have this in the DMS gift shop?
good to know. Any suggestions for a better one?
Nope.
If you’re converting to electric vend, that should do it. Those mechanical ones were easy to jimmy, though. I had mine in a trusted space, and the folks who used it were getting merch for cost anyway, and they knew it, so it didn’t happen often (because I would have quit stocking it, which was largely for my own edification and amusement anyway, but they got whatnots they would have had to plan, drive, or beg for otherwise).
It has not an Agenda item. It is an item to be addressed by the Committee that “owns” the gift shop.
It that a good use of the “gift shop” space? That question needs to be answered before the donation is accepted.
There is also some fees involved in running vending machines in Texas.
Haven’t we had such a thing before ? That didn’t work well ?
A look back at previous vending machines …
We also talked about selling flash drives, sd cards, nuts and bolts, ardiunos and project kits.
The issue is repair and keeping it stocked. This is one reason we moved to Parks Pantry for snacks. We use to sell all kinds a few of other things like cables.
Here’s a link to some info about those fees. This is from the “plain English” part of the Comptroller’s site and it’s still “legalese” enough to give me tired-head.
There was also this effort
sold here
This is one of those, “how hard could it be,” ideas.
Vending machines are regulated and licensed by the state. Could one skirt around that by using something like Amazon Lockers only with smaller bins like post office box size?
I envision the process something like:
Identify desired product from some sort of printed “menu” with QR codes
Scan QR code for the product with smart phone
System (web page?) informs buyer if any are in stock
Pay using Square or Apple Pay or Google Pay or some kind of magic fairy dust
When payment clears, door pops open allowing purchaser to access product
Does that still sound like a vending machine?
I know, I know, “who will build it, who will maintain it, who will stock it.” Sounds like a fun project with a lot of hurdles, er, places to learn stuff.
edit: after thinking on it, this sounds a lot like reinventing the wheel 
I’ve seen one of those Artomatic vending machines. They have (had?) one at the Whole Foods near Greenville and Park, filled with art the size of a deck of cards in each slot. It was definitely attention getting.
So the art o mat is a whole system. You buy a coin for $5 and the artists actually pay to have work in the machine (I know right). They sell boxes specific size (easy to laser).
It was the coin issue that I gave up on.
Ahhh thanks for the memories
Those fees relate to coin-op amusement machines, not vending machines. There may be some regulations/fees regarding vending machines, but not those regulations/fees.