Rugged control board
A resilient PCB built for outdoor deployment, hardened against electrical noise, heat and moisture so the machine keeps running unattended.
- EMI resistant
- Thermal & weather tolerant
- Production-optimised
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CASE STUDY · WATER
Water Vending Machine
An automated, coin-operated water vending machine that sells and tracks clean water around the clock. No attendant required.
01 / Overview
SECTOR
Water
OUR ROLE
PCB · Firmware · Pilot
FIRMWARE
FreeRTOS multitasking
STATUS
Piloted & production-ready
A water-vending operator was losing time and revenue to manual sales: inconsistent service hours, an attendant on every machine, and no reliable record of what was actually sold.
We built a smart vending machine that automates dispensing entirely. It runs coin-operated, tracks every sale and the machine's uptime in real time, and needs no full-time staff on site.
The hardware is engineered to survive the field, resilient to electrical noise, thermal stress and weather, and the board was optimised for low-cost mass production.
02 / How we built it
From brief to field.
01
System analysis
Studied the water-dispensing business and the real user experience to define what the machine had to do.
02
Hardware (PCB)
Designed a rugged board resistant to EMI, thermal damage and weather for reliable outdoor duty.
03
Firmware
Built multitasking firmware on FreeRTOS with an intuitive UI, memory optimisation and security.
04
Test & production
Ran pilot units in the field, then optimised the board for lower-cost mass production and logistics.
03 / Key components
What’s inside.
ON-DEVICE FIRMWARE
On-device firmware
FreeRTOS-based firmware handles dispensing, payment and a clear on-machine interface, with secure state and optimised memory.
- FreeRTOS multitasking
- Intuitive UI
- Secure sale state
SALES TRACKING
Sales tracking
Every transaction and the machine's uptime are recorded, giving the operator transparent revenue and reliability data.
- Real-time sales log
- Uptime monitoring
- Revenue transparency
04 / Results
Automating the machine turned an attended stall into a 24/7 business with clean books.
+30%
INCREASE IN REVENUE
24/7
NO ATTENDANT NEEDED
Full
SALES TRACKING & UPTIME
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