• siha@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      The thing that gets me is that they seem to have a separate machine for each display

          • froh42@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            This is being produced in relatively low numbers (thousands) , so software development is a factor. Just plopping a scripted browser in kiosk mode on Debian is cheaper than ESP32 UI development.

            • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 days ago

              Idk, if they’re plugging in one for each screen it sounds like a lot; there are libraries to do most of this. It wpuld only take me about a month or someone competent a couple days to write this. I kbow there’s libraries to display, but i don’t know what else this is monitoring/controlling. So that seems safe,

              So there’s a computer hardware cost that goes from ~5x(4?) Per machine to ~45x4 per machine. That’s ~ 2 hours of code per machine difference that this would make, assuming you were paying ~80/hr to write it, which is reasonable.

              Even assuming no code was needed for the pi, production takes twice as long as expected, and electricity costs don’t matter (which, next to the condenser; they may not) you break even at ~16 machines. 20 if you want to throw in some other random arbitrary cost.

              Even if you assune pi 0’s, at, what 20/each? You still break even before 100 units.

              So it would take less than a hundred machines for smaller chips to pay off. I’d believe an exec didnt (even ask someone else to) do this math, but how long have pi’s had multiple video out’s?

              • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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                1 day ago

                Idk, if they’re plugging in one for each screen it sounds like a lot; there are libraries to do most of this.

                X11 can easily handle multiple screens.
                Not sure about the Pi’s limitations but COTS SBCs can too.

                • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  1 day ago

                  Can’t read the text in the image but i’m informed it’s a crash.

                  Which would mean that machine, or that virtual machine, is not on any of the other screens. Right?

                  • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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                    1 day ago

                    Yeah, it seems as though it’s one controlling (virtual) machine per dispenser, so 1:1 to the screens.

              • froh42@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                For an Esp32 you’d need to take a larger model which has psram. With the Pi, yes a is take a zero (Zero 2w or so). The Pi already has hdmi on board and a graphics chip and accelerator, while for the ESP32 you’d need a custom solution.

                The price difference is maybe 10 Dollars per piece or so. On the PI I have 512Mb of RAM and what ever SD they put in for storage. On the Esp32 I have 8 psram or so and a tiny bit of flash.

                Ah right, for the ESP i probably need to wire up a sd card, custom board, all that stuff, to just store that 24bit 1024x768bit image.

                Naah, while I love my ESPs and am just build a project with one - the PI is just so more competent for this task while still being damn cheap.

                A decent Esp 32 board is around Eur 5, a. pi zero 2w around 20. Compute module proably similar - customer prices.

                That’s a 15 Euro difference.

                Ah and my developer pool who can code for Unix is a LOT bigger than the pool who have commercial experience for the Esp32.

                I can’t follow your math, at 100 units the price difference is 100x15 for me, which is 1500.- About a day of developing for a small team, if the office and hardware is free. More if you pay for those, too.

                When I calculate, custom development always is more expensive.

    • kibiz0r@midwest.social
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      2 days ago

      Not just to show the logo, but to run the entire machine. Probably IoT enabled, so monitoring and maintenance actions and OTA are important enough that it’s worth having a very slim version of Linux on there instead of taking the security risk of building up from a lower level.

    • jinwk00@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Probably there for “easily changing out logos of different flavor instead of using paper/plastic printout”

      • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        Sure but there’s a different machine for each display.

        One crashed. The others didn’t.

        Im very much a ‘hell, lets take it apart right here and figure out what’s going on’ kinda girl, but this is a sign that i never want to see the inside of that machine.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          Depending on how much is linked up between them its entirely possible each machine is basically independent from each other and simply sharing the same casing. The advantage of this would be that even if one machine goes out or is having issues the other ones hopefully aren’t. I watch enough Bringus to know that shit under the hood for these commercial machines are fucking weird.

          • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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            2 days ago

            i’d imagine the company would make 2, 4, 6, 10 drink dispensing machines… having commodity hardware makes it super cheap to just have different shells and a power bus that you bolt electronics and mechanics onto in discrete parts

            heck each individual controller could read an RFID tag embedded in the syrup and update its display automatically just from the inserted cartridge which would be PITA to do on a single machine

            adding all the sensors for each, a display out for each… it’s really just way simpler to duplicate the hardware… honestly, good engineering

        • st3ph3n@midwest.social
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          2 days ago

          Seems insane to run multiple machines for something like this. I wonder if maybe it is virtualized under the hood and one VM went kaput or something?

        • hansolo@lemmy.today
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          2 days ago

          It’s likely a connected IoT device. Might simply have pinged for an open port due to bad setup and someone was trying to run an attack on it. Or maybe just a corrupted update file. Or a cosmic ray hit the ram or chipset and if just randomly crashed as a result.

          Don’t over think a crashed computer. Just ask if anyone has tried turning it off and then on again.

    • PacMan@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      So working on ad machines before a lot of them connect to an external ftp site to pull down the latest version of the logo. Things like this you don’t care if it’s secure or not

    • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The computer controls the whole machine the logo part is a bonus. It also changes to like a do not use when Its not frozen or out of order.