Hardware
A BLE timer board on the STM32WB, a keypad daughter board and an AC-powered relay board with a solid-state relay to drive the vend mechanism.
All projects
Commercial equipment
Connected timer board and companion app
A connected timer board for vending equipment that tracks vends and cash collected, generates a daily access code from its real-time clock, and is managed from a phone app with firmware updates over BLE.
- Industry
- Commercial vending
- Our role
- Hardware, firmware, app, cloud
- Connectivity
- BLE to phone app
- Cloud
- AWS reporting across machines
Machine
Timer, keypad and relay boards
Phone app
Reads and configures over BLE
AWS cloud
Vends, cash and settings synced
Reports
Activity across every machine
The challenge
Operators needed to see machine activity, change settings and issue access codes without opening every machine, and the hardware had to keep working for years in the field.
Firmware
Real-time clock and daily access-code generation, vend and cash counters, remote vend on and off, and a BLE bootloader for over-the-air updates, shipped as numbered releases.
Cloud and software
A phone app reads each machine over BLE and syncs vend counts, cash totals and settings to an AWS backend for reporting across machines.
Key decisions
Client name and confidential details are withheld under NDA.
- One chip for radio and applicationThe STM32WB runs BLE and the application together, with a BLE bootloader so machines can be updated in place.
- Production the client can runProgramming with Tag-Connect cables is documented step by step, so the client's team can load firmware themselves.
- A code display without the appLow-cost display options were evaluated for a standalone box that shows the day's access code.
- Reaching across a buildingLoRa and sub-GHz options were explored for triggering vends from a front desk.
Vending operations dashboard
Revenue and vends across a site, activity as machines sync, and the record each machine sends up.
This dashboard is an illustration built for this site. Every value is generated in your browser; no client data is shown.
Building something similar?
Tell us about your product, from the board to the dashboard. We'll reply with next steps and a rough plan.