Importance

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Abstract

An improved vending control system for controlling events and sequences of events involved in vending and paying out or refunding of amounts deposited, the system including product delivery sensing apparatus to monitor the delivery of products and to indicate when a product dispensing cycle has been successfully completed, the sensing apparatus including a sensor device located to sense the dispensing of all products, circuits connecting the sensor device to produce outputs whenever a product being delivered is sensed, a timing device for establishing a predetermined time interval whenever a product delivery operation is initiated, and a comparator circuit to compare the time of occurrence of an output of the sensing apparatus to the predetermined time interval to control terminating a vend cycle and the subtracting of the price of a vend from an amount of credit entered by the customer. The present control system also includes other apparatus operable when no effective product delivery is sensed during the predetermined time interval to inhibit subtracting of the vend price from the credit entered and to terminate the vend cycle, the other apparatus including circuit elements operable to enable the customer to make an alternative selection or to receive a refund of the credited amount. The present system may optionally also include a memory circuit in which information is stored to indicate when a particular selected product has failed to be delivered to inhibit and prevent future selections of the same product and to record the particulars of the product delivery failure.

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First Claim