Arduino with MDB coffee controller

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Dear Members,

I wish to connect/communicate Arduino with MDB coffee vending machine controller. Can anyone please assist me with details. Also assist me with a sketch for connection and code.

Thank you.

2

It might help your cause for you to provide details of that MDB device.

3

There's a pdf on their website which shows the connections: it seems (5.2.3) the MDB can handle TTL serial which is what an Arduino RX/TX pin are. That's probably the easy part.

That pdf mentions "MDB commands" and refers to a protocol manual, which I couldn't find online. I expect that manual to explain what those commands do and what their format is. Then once you understand that, it's a matter of composing the command strings in Arduino and zooming them off to the MDB module. You would also need to decode the commands coming back from the MDB, presumably.

BUT I see two possible glitches:

  • That pdf says the comms is full-duplex
  • It also says the protocol uses STX/ETX frames

Can the Arduino serial interface handle those? I don't know.

4

juma_yetu:
There's a pdf on their website which shows the connections: it seems (5.2.3) the MDB can handle TTL serial which is what an Arduino RX/TX pin are. That's probably the easy part.

That pdf mentions "MDB commands" and refers to a protocol manual, which I couldn't find online. I expect that manual to explain what those commands do and what their format is. Then once you understand that, it's a matter of composing the command strings in Arduino and zooming them off to the MDB module. You would also need to decode the commands coming back from the MDB, presumably.

BUT I see two possible glitches:

  • That pdf says the comms is full-duplex
  • It also says the protocol uses STX/ETX frames

Can the Arduino serial interface handle those? I don't know.

Full duplex, in this case, means you cannot be sure a response will not come to the Arduino while you are sending some other message. It's just how you write the Arduino program!

Paul

5

Thank you juma_yetu and Paul_KD7HB.

Can you please assist me with a sample code.

Thanks.

6

Sure. Write out the logic of the program you need and show the example you currently have.

Paul

7

The Multi Drop Bus / Internal Communication Protocol used by vending machine controllers is documented in this specification .

8