24Oct Hacking Coke Machines Explained

Thanks to ch0pstickninja for teaching the world about the menu, and for Fire for assisting with research.

Coke vending machines are everywhere. They’re getting more and more like regular computers

with LEDs that show little “ICE COLD” messages and whatnot. Well, there’s a lot more to those little built-in computers than you may think. Included in the low-level operating system that these babies run on is an actual debug menu that gives you access to all sorts of machine information and possibly gives you free cokes in older machines.

WHICH MACHINES WORK?

There’s a very strict list of vending machines that have the debug menu. First off, they’re all COCA-COLA product vending machines. This means the giant, un-missable picture on the front must show any of the following: Coke, Dasani (Water), Barq’s Root Beer, Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke, Sprite, Evlan (water), Fanta, Fresca, Frutopia, Hi-C, Sprite Remix, Mad River, Mello Yello, Minute Maid, Nestea, Odwalla, Mr. Pibb/Pibb Xtra, Planet Java, Power Ade, Seagram’s Ginger Ale, Simply Orange, Sparkletts, or Tab. Of course anything Diet or Caffeine free works too.

The machine must have an LED screen. Some of the older ones just allow the LED to be set to a price amount and won’t have the debug menu. You’re safer if the little LED is telling you something. Usually it will scroll a little message like “Ice Cold Cokes”. Newer machines are more likely candidates.

ACCESSING THE MENU

To enter the menu, there’s a button combination. HERE’S THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO REALLY REMEMBER:

[4]-[2]-[3]-[1]

The buttons are numbered depending on how they are positioned. They will either be vertical (more likely), or in horizontal rows of 4 buttons per row. If it is vertical, the first button is #1, the one below it is #2, and so forth. If the buttons are in horizontal rows, the first button is #1, and the one to the right of it is #2. The numbers work like a type writer after that. In rows of 4, the first button of row 2 will be button #5. So, to review, getting in to the debug menu looks like this:

COKE MACHINE::::::

$1.00 ——-

————-

[ Coke ] <– Hit this button last

[ Coke ] <– Hit this button second

[ Diet Coke ] <– Hit this button third

[ Sprite ] <– Hit this button first

[ And so on ]

————-

Some text should show up on the LED (probably the word “Error”, we’ll explain what it means next sections). If nothing happens, your machine doesn’t have the debug menu.

NAVIGATION

To navigate from option to option (What they are is next section), remember the numberings we gave the buttons. They work as follows: