Bill Acceptors In Vending Machines

Bill acceptors were developed in the late 1960’s to make the selling sodas and candy bars from the vending machine much easier. They would accept the money that the customer placed in the machine, for the purchase of product. Bill acceptors are used in vending machines such as those provided by Antares Corporation. Also known as bill validators or bill acceptors, paper currency detectors scan pliant currency using optical and magnetic sensors. Upon validation, the bill validator will inform the vending machine controller (VMC) or other host device of a credit via a parallel or serial interface. Wrinkled or creased bills can cause these machines to reject the bills.

There are some problems that your Planet Antares vending machine can face with the bill acceptor, so it’s important that you keep a check on that. The most major problem is poor acceptance. This is because the magnetic reader heads become worn and are unable to read the bills. You can prevent this problem with your Antares vending machine by keeping the bill acceptor clean using Qtips and alcohol. If the bill acceptor is taken in bills without returning change that means that the magnetic heads are so worn that you will have to send in the bill acceptor for servicing. If the acceptor is not pulling in bills, that is caused by a bad front sensor.

A Planet Antares vending operator needs to pay an emphasis on the regular cleaning of the bill acceptors particularly the bill paths, sensors and belts. These devices were extremely susceptible to failures and jamming in the past due to folded or damaged notes. But they have been improved quite substantially in the recent years with the introduction of features such as automatic jam ejection, automatically calibrating sensors, and in order to remove contaminants from the machines, cleaning cards are available.

In order to keep the smooth functioning of the bill acceptors, proper maintenance of the equipment is essential for the vending business. As its inability to work properly will not only affect the venders but the customers as well leading to frustration steering them away from the use of the vending machines next time.