Importance

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Abstract

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.

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First Claim