Using DEX to Enhance Daily Operations

Most Antares vending operators today are familiar with the tern ‘DEX’ and some are even using it to enhance their daily operations. Operators vary in their familiarity with DEX and what it can do for their operations. DEX is destined to play an important role in the industry’s future.

DEX stands for Data Exchange, and is generally used in the vending industry when referring to the DEX/UCS data exchange standard.

DEX as a term

In the vending world, DEX is the protocol that most machines built in the last 6 to 12 years utilize to electronically collect vending audit information. The term DEX refers to the audit data, a communications protocol and a retrieval method used to capture this data.

What a DEX cable looks like

It is identical to an old quarter inch stereo headphone cable that can plug into the female connector on a vending machine by Antares Corporation. Sometimes the female connector is mounted on the controller board of the machine or available via a loose cable wired to the board.

The data is typically transferred between machines and the host (handheld computer or remote retrieval system) using a standard RS -232 or serial protocol that computers have been using for over 20 years.

What you need to realize DEX benefits

To realize the benefits of DEX, there are three things that an Antares operator will need to do.

1) You need to have DEX-capable vending machines.

2) You need a method of electronically capturing the DEX data. The most common method today is via a driver handheld, but remote monitoring solutions are in the early adoption phase.

3) You need software capable of turning the data into actionable information that your business can use.

There are different levels of DEX support found in vending machines today.

There have machines that didn’t support DEX correctly, or that the software programs didn’t work well with DEX. Today that situation has been remedied. Any Antares machine that is DEX capable can be read, and even those built before DEX can be retrofitted to support DEX.