Archive: https://archive.today/xyELs From the post: >>Our hacker from [Appalachian Forge Works] wrote in to let us know about their vending machine build: a Halloween vending computer that talks. He starts by demonstrating the vending process: a backlit vend button is pressed, an animation plays on the screen as a synthetic voice speaks through attached speakers, the vending mechanism rotates until a successful vend is detected with a photoelectric sensor (a photoresistor and an LED) or a timeout of 10 seconds is reached (the timeout is particularly important for cases when the stock of prizes is fully depleted). For a successful vend the prize will roll out a vending tube and through some ramps, visible via a perspex side panel, into the receptacle, as the spooky voice announces the vend. It’s the photoelectric sensor which triggers the mask to speak.