Get Your Smarties Or M&Ms From A Vending Machine

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.

19 thoughts on “Get Your Smarties Or M&Ms From A Vending Machine

      1. 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”?

    1. 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.

Leave a Reply to Steve123Cancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.