3d Printed Secure Candy Vending Machine

About the project

This vending machine secures my candy with a fingerprint scanner. Once access is granted, I can choose the amount of candy that i want (A Bit, Not Alot, Too Much). There's also a Dark Mode interface because why not? (;. The dispensing system is almost fully 3D printed, and is powered with a 9g servo.

Project info

Difficulty: Moderate

Platforms: Arduino

Estimated time: 5 days

License: GNU General Public License, version 3 or later (GPL3+)

Items used in this project

Hardware components

3.2" TFT Resistive Touchscreen 3.2" TFT Resistive Touchscreen Make sure you get a compatible shield, I got this kit which comes with a (cloned) arduino Mega2560, shield and the touch screen: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32756200704.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.41494c4dQGjBC2 x 1
Arduino Mega 2560 R3 Arduino Mega 2560 R3 x 1
Rugged Panel Mount Fingerprint Sensor with Bi-Color LED Ring - R503 Rugged Panel Mount Fingerprint Sensor with Bi-Color LED Ring - R503 x 1
9g 180 Micro Servo (1.6kg) 9g 180 Micro Servo (1.6kg) x 1
12mm M4 screw 12mm M4 screw x 4
Wire Jumpers Male to Male Wire Jumpers Male to Male x 10
WIRE JUMPER MALE TO MALE 15CM 10PK WIRE JUMPER MALE TO MALE 15CM 10PK x 5

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE Arduino IDE

Hand tools and fabrication machines

3D printer 3D printer x 1

Story

Here's a quick overview of my process:

So first I quickly sketched and 3D modeled what I had in mind for the vending machine:


After that was done, I got to work on the dispensing system, which is basically a tube with a slider that opens and closes on demand:


Then I bought all of the components I needed for the project: 


When I got all of the components, I got to work on the UI for the touch screen, coding the fingerprint scanner and the servo using Arduino IDE. Heres what it looks like bare bones:



So then I started 3D modeling the vending machine itself, Using Shapr3D. 

This is what the final design looks like:


Now all I had to do is 3D print that (took 35 hours!) and to assemble everything, and that's pretty much it!

Heres a video demo of it working:

To control the amount of dispensed candy, I can code how quickly the servo opens/closes.

For now I can only add fingerprints using Arduino IDE, but I could in the future implement the fingerprint system to be built in.

And as a finishing touch, I made a logo:


CAD, enclosures and custom parts

Vending Machine STL files

Go to download

Code

The Code

Credits

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