What a horrible design to require an individual computer for EVERY screen. JFC just have one device run multiple displays.
Why not just do a sticker there? What an inefficient approach!
Sticker requires transport, inefficient as shit relative to a file download.
As if the sugar water inside teleports there through a mere downloading deployment via Ansible.
Ansyruple
It’s probably literally cheaper to have a cheap device that supports one display than a single device capable of supporting multiple displays.
It also simplifies the design. You don’t need different hardware requirements or software configs for a slushy system of 3 or 4 or 5 flavors. You just have a single design for each slushy device.
On top of that, when a device is restarting or failed it only has a single failure. All of the other flavors are displayed.
Also, for the other “why not a sticker” comments. Having a digital display does have its advantages. You may not want your chain of stores having tacky hand drawn labels by a lazy employee. This prevents that. You can include the price in the display later if you want to. Ensuring you charge more for that “limited time” flavor and you don’t have to send stickers to each store.
Also, the cost of these displays is so little in comparison to the mechanical parts that operate the actual machine it’s likely worth the it for the flexibility in display.
Also, digital displays catch the eyes more. You’re gonna get more people that notice a flashy machine and think “I’m in the mood for a slurpy”. That alone is likely worth any other cost.
Capitalism doesn’t have to “make sense” in terms of design or simplicity. It often doesn’t. It chooses the things that return the most profit. It’s not reason based in “logic” it’s reason based in “profit”.
Also, for the other “why not a sticker” comments. Having a digital display does have its advantages. You may not want your chain of stores having tacky hand drawn labels by a lazy employee. This prevents that. You can include the price in the display later if you want to. Ensuring you charge more for that “limited time” flavor and you don’t have to send stickers to each store.
Ear me out: you print them, crazy right?!
You don’t have to send stickers to each store.
So purchase a nice color printer for each store? Or have an employee go to print at staples when you want to change labels?
Like, “just print them” is a lot more effort than you are making it sound to avoid the use of an extremely cheap screen.
There is a reason all vehicles put a big ass display in their car now even though people prefer actual buttons. Screens and software are dirt cheap. A printer with moving mechanical parts is expensive. Using employee time is expensive. Shipping is expensive.
You can pay other companies to print for you duh, they will print you anything for dirt cheap, it’s not like a company can’t afford it lmao
Yes, if the infrastructure is in place for it it can be very cheap. But obviously, the people working at these companies decided that the benefits of the digital screens are worth the small upfront cost of the machine.
Why can’t people understand that printing a physical copy of something off-site requires transport and overhead cost that are entirely eliminated by just literally using a digital screen that has a longer shelf life than the mechanical parts of the machine itself. It’s not that complicated to understand.
This gives you the advantage of literally being able to change the ad instantly. Based on time of year, event, etc. Its an ad. It’s good to be digital. It’s an ad. It’s not a label.
Why do you send an email instead of sending a letter? A smartphone is so expensive! /s
There are benefits beyond just cost. This isn’t about cost. THIS IS ABOUT PROFITS.
It also has the benefit of being able to show metrics and diagnostics right there without having to connect it to another device.
A raspy W is like 20 bucks each, and has a tiny footprint. Cheaper than the screen itself probably, and simpler than having to reconfigure the amount of displays based on available flavors in the setup.
Plus, I hear the systemd flavor is pretty good.
God I remember buying an RPi for less than 10€ this company really screwed up their product.
The only Raspberry Pi cheaper than 10€ is the Raspberry Pi Zero (no wifi) that launch at 5€/$5, the Raspberry Pi Zero W (with wifi) launch at 10€/$10, both in 2015. Raspberry Pi 1, 2 and 3 launched at 35€ and since the 4 and 5, it’s a bit more complicated because they have different RAM options. Today, the RPi4 1GB is sold 37,90€. Availability is more of an issue. But in terms of pricing it’s not bad ! I have the feeling, people’s expectations for a Raspberry Pi are a bit distorted. No, you don’t get a top of the line gaming PC for 40€… But even a RPi2 is still good for a tone of useful projects!
Might be a single computer that’s just the primary display.
Nothing in that boot sequence is a deal breaker it’s just missing an Internet connection I think.
Nah, storage is fried.
People always focus on systemd whenever this is posted, but all systemd is saying is that it can’t read the service files when it tries to start something. Earlier on the kernel is complaining about I/O errors as well.
Oh yeah youre right, I was squinting real hard to try and read that on on a phone and was only looking at the bottom
And then they blame ai for the ram shortage
Coca cola runs windows
I imagine they have an embedded raspberry pi type computer in the screen itself.
I drink Arch btw
Best blue slushy
Oh hell ya! Linux boot screen is my favorite flavor.
The complexity of modern stuff boggles my mind. Why?
I guess it could make sense to have a small computer in a Slurpee machine to check the temperature and the consistency of the ice, maybe do some maintenance, but yeah. Paper tags would make a lot more sense.
I can see having a single node in the whole machine, but one per mix makes me think this photo is doctored. Then again an esp32 is pretty damn cheap.
Very odd, I’d have thought it’s a single system too, surely there’s a lot of shared signals, like temperature, cleaning and whatnot.
The only reason for those to be individual with another ‘parent’ system is that it would be fully modular?I’d be interested in the actual answer/reason…
Just read through the installation and operations manual, and it looks like you’re right on the modular part. They offer 2, 3, and 4 dispenser models, along with a 1 and 2 dispenser “Multi-Flavor”. From what I can tell they have some other modules in the machine that control different things, as well as a parent module to tie them all together. The machine also tracks how often each dispenser is used, so the owner can know which flavors are popular and overall how profitable the machine is.
The machine has to manage electricity to solenoids, motors, sensors of all sorts, etc, as well as CO2, N2, compressed air, refrigerant, water, and syrup. A lot more complex than I ever thought while getting a slushy.
Be able to change the picture remotely. New flavor? No need to print out a new sticker, remove the old one, and add the new one.
Start your shift as a server.
Take the damn upvote, and get outta here.
I’m just glad slurpee machines run on Linux and not Windows CE. 😌
Mord important question: Why do they all have their own system?
Cost, Parts availability
They’re building them out of cheap SBC with sd cards.
It’s cheaper to put four economy SBC’s in than one computer that can handle 4 displays.
what is my purpose?You show a Mt Dew ad at a single store in Ketchikan, AK
Oh GOD, can’t I pass some butter?
or, hear me out, a backlit piece of paper
sorry to easy we’d rather go with a company that specializes in this task and charges a monthly subscription
As is the way of marketing.
They did that for years. It’s a good servicable option.
Of course, printing all those out and shipping them all over the world isn’t without cost.
These can be animated. Ideally, they can have an attract mode to improve sales.
Corporate can force the hand of small shops to put the flavors in they want to market.
There are probably as many pros as there are cons.
You’re 100% correct, they’re not necessary
I’m pretty sure its shopped because I’ve never seen a machine with actual displays in it for each flavor lol. They all use paper cut outs.
Maybe only the one on the right is a screen so you can diagnose things, but the rest are paper?
because computing is a forgotten magic and no one knows how to correctly operate those black boxes
Verify your age to drink the SystemD drink
SystemDrink
SystemD drink is for me and you!
At least it’s not too grubby
Free as in beer
This is what happens when you don’t drink your verification slurpee before getting another slurpee
Instant brain freeze. Followed by death.
It made me take a log dump. Do not recommend.
Systemd having a special it seems
They didn’t enter the machines date of birth…
Its the underlying filesystem
Is this a systemDrink?
