Well this evening I powered down the machine and pulled the validator out of the door. All eight dip switches were set to "off", meaning it had been programmed with the optical coupon at some time in the past. These units are supposed to remember their programming even when turned off, but I have no way of knowing how long it had been powered down. It may remember programming for a while, but nothing lasts forever. The coupon programming had been forgotten and it was set to reject everything, which it was doing quite nicely.

I checked the flat connector on the side, there were no bent pins. It was all in the dips. I set it to accept bills in 2-way, turned ON the $1 permission (!) and set the security level. I had to trip the door switch, which was suggested above. Once I did that, the flashing LED turned solid. I closed the door and fed it a bill. It clicked, whirred, took my bill, - and just sat there. No credit. No "Thank You", not even a good night kiss.

After pulling the validator 3 more times I noticed dip #8, "credit". I turned that one on and everything started working. It now accepts $1 bills, issues credit, makes change, everything it's supposed to do. Like an old, fat, grizzled prince kissing Sleeping Beauty out of a deep sleep, we're back in business.

Thanks to all who replied, I would never have gotten the nerve to pull the validator out without your encouragement. I have the manual downloaded which gave me all the dip settings but this is uncharted territory for me. I can adjust the valves and rebuild the carburetors on a 1100cc Honda V-4 motorcycle engine in the dark but with this thing I feel like Jethro Bodine doing brain surgery.

Thanks again for all the advice. Next week I'm going to try to tickle this ancient Dixie Narco can machine to do bottled water, I'm sure I'll be back.

If anybody needs sport touring motorcycle advice, lodging in the general area of Deals Gap and the Cherohala Skyway, or - believe it or not - Arabic translation, I'm your go-to guy.

Replying to both: It's a 145. The number on the plate inside the door is 145 54143. I bought this machine used from a man who had several machines on a 5 county route. It was supposedly in good working condition but he was upgrading all his machines and selling off the old ones. He plugged it in and tried most functions - price change, diagnostics, etc. He had the door open during all this and neither of us thought to check the validator. I have been unable to reach him by phone since that time but I'll keep trying. He mentioned when I picked it up that it would not vend without coins in the tubes so we robbed the soda machine to fill the tubes when we got it home.

I've tried the door switch. It makes no difference. The coin tubes are full. The display says "coins only" and the machine passes all other diagnostic tests. I've had it in operation this weekend and it works fine with coins. It vends, makes change, and does all it's supposed to do. It just won't take a bill. Won't even try.

There's a coupon setup button on the validator and if I have all the mech dip switches set to off and hit that button, it will go into coupon setup mode. During that mode it will take a bill, hold it for a second, then spit it back out and go back to the error code.