There are some debates that split the world down the middle. Serious stuff: M&Ms, or Smarties*? Yes, the two chocolate beans may bear a superficial resemblance to each other, but you’re either a Smartie lover, or an M&M lover. No compromises.
[Maximusvo] has sensibly dodged all questions of brand loyalty in his text if not in his images even though it’s obvious what kind of confectionery he’s working with in his candy vending machine. The hard-shell chocolates are loaded into a hopper, from which a colourful cascade is released onto a scale. When the desired weight has been accumulated, it is tipped into a drawer for the hungry recipient.
Behind it all is an Arduino with a motor to release the beans, a load cell to weigh them, and an LCD display to give a status report. A motor vibrates the chute to ensure they move down it, but as can be seen in the video demo below the break it’s not doing an entirely successful job. There is an external buzzer to indicate delivery, and aside from the wooden construction of the machine there are 3D printed parts in the scale.
Most of the vending machines we’ve shown you have involved not Smarties or M&Ms, but cans of soda. Perhaps your high school locker can house one, or failing that you’d like to raid someone else’s machine.
*European chocolate Smarties, that is, not American candy sweets.
What about Skittle? Some of us prefer candy coated sugar pill to candy coated chocolate pill :)
Too sweet!
The vibration table is adjustable. So Skittles should work ;)
Interesting- in the US, I always think of Smarties as not candy-coated chocolate, but the candy wafers: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties_Candy_Company
Ahh, those are Fizzers in the UK :)
Are you sure? We have a similar looking candy which actually fizzes on ones tongue. These “smarties” do not, they just dissolve into a sort of flavored sugar. Which one are your “Fizzers”?
Maybe Pop Rocks in USA? Sugar candy that fizzes and pops when you put em on tongue.
Rockets in Canada, also in UK they had also been known as refreshers years back, even while refreshers was yet another larger candy. Maybe also swizzlers if I’m not confused.
The 3M company and M&M Mars have announced a merger. The name of the new company? Ultradyne Systems!
(Thank you Simpsons!)
But I only want the red ones.
Fool! Green ones are the best.
You only want the ones coloured with bug juice?
Neither! I want Rieses Pieces!
The crummiest “candy” ever invented. No chocolate? No sale.
Dude, Sixlets.
OK, so Smarties in the US are a different creature… do we have UK Smarties, and if so, what are /they/ called here…?
M&Ms are the US version of Smarties. (I mean, they’re not made by Rowntree’s or Nestle, but …) M&Ms were directly inspired by one of the Mars family seeing Smarties.
M & M’s
Ah the US and the UK. Two peoples separated by a common language…