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They Hacked McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Apr 21, 2021.

  1. Melody Bot Apr 21, 2021
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Andy Greenburg, writing at Wired:

    Of all the mysteries and injustices of the McDonald’s ice cream machine, the one that Jeremy O’Sullivan insists you understand first is its secret passcode.

    Press the cone icon on the screen of the Taylor C602 digital ice cream machine, he explains, then tap the buttons that show a snowflake and a milkshake to set the digits on the screen to 5, then 2, then 3, then 1. After that precise series of no fewer than 16 button presses, a menu magically unlocks. Only with this cheat code can you access the machine’s vital signs: everything from the viscosity setting for its milk and sugar ingredients to the temperature of the glycol flowing through its heating element to the meanings of its many sphinxlike error messages.

    “No one at McDonald’s or Taylor will explain why there’s a secret, undisclosed menu,” O’Sullivan wrote in one of the first, cryptic text messages I received from him earlier this year.

    What a wild story.

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  2. Chad Grauke Apr 21, 2021
    Chad Grauke

    Newbie

    Biggest nothing burger of the day. Most if not all vending machines have these menus. In the early 2000's when I was in college we found out the Coca-Cola machines default code (3,1,4,2) and it would bring up the diagnostic functions. The series of machines we had on campus could even set the currency amount for items, from .05 to $10. We would set it to .05, get loaded up, then set it to $10 and leave. After a few times doing this their vendor changed the default code.
     
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  3. Jason Tate Apr 21, 2021
    Jason Tate

    newsletter is back Staff Member

    (The story isn’t really about the menu.)
     
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  4. scottlechowicz Apr 21, 2021
    scottlechowicz

    Trusted Supporter

    Lol. Someone didn't read the fucking article, like, even a little bit.
     
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  6. scottlechowicz Apr 21, 2021
    scottlechowicz

    Trusted Supporter

    But seriously, this had me pretty captivated. And my poor wife is going to hear me talking about McD's ice cream machines more than she anticipated when she woke up this morning.
     
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  7. Darth Amory Apr 21, 2021
    Darth Amory

    Sith Lord.

    So THIS is why they are always down?
     
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  8. Chad Grauke Apr 22, 2021
    Chad Grauke

    Newbie

    Yeah, someone did, but someone is also conflating and assuming things. I didn't know whether or not that code is documented in the owner's manual or whether or not the person who fills the Coke machines do their own maintenance or repairs or not. They could very well have been subject to the same stonewall McDonalds franchises are with their ice cream machines. Point is, this stuff is everywhere, it's just bunk to talk about this in 2021 when it's been par the course for, as far as I know, ever. I used to work for an IT company and we sold a lot of Panasonic ToughBooks, they had modular slots and easy accessibility to the mainboard and whatnot. Simply adding a GSM or GPS module added time and more money than just buying the cards yourself and installing them. So one batch order we did, and we installed them, but they couldn't be recognized until you initialize them through their factory locked BIOS and they wouldn't give us the code so we had to dispatch a person from Panasonic to unlock it to install them. Same thing...
     
  9. scottlechowicz Apr 22, 2021
    scottlechowicz

    Trusted Supporter

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