Software
DEX
Term from the vending glossary
Data Exchange — serial interface (RS-232) through which vending machines transmit inventory and sales data to collection devices or telemetry modules.
DEX is the interface through which a vending machine outputs its data: sales by slot, cash box contents, faults, and door openings. The standard originated in an era when data was collected manually from the device using a handheld terminal, and for that very reason remains available on nearly every installed machine today.
Today DEX is typically no longer read manually, but rather by a telemetry module that forwards the data. For the operator, this is the cheapest way to connect a legacy machine to modern monitoring — but data quality then depends on how carefully the machine maintains its counters.