This video shows how ATMs spit out the right amount of money every time

Shawn Knight

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Most people don’t think twice about getting money out of an ATM. Insert your bank card, enter your PIN, select the amount of cash you want to withdraw then take your money and carry on with the rest of your day. The entire process can take less than a minute.

Behind the scenes, deep in the heart of the machine is a sophisticated system of high-friction and smooth rollers, sensors and conveyors that ensure you always get the right amount of money every time. All of this is tucked away inside a heavy-duty safe weighing nearly 500 pounds with steel walls measuring half an inch thick.

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Cool video, but not nearly as cool as the narrator thinks it is. You'd think he was announcing the next summer action blockbuster, lol.

I used to work for the company who kept thousands of ATMs online in the midwest. Best story I heard was once in Eau Claire, Wisconsin the tech put the $5 bills in the drawer for the $20 bills and the 20's in the drawer of the $5s. (Yes, this was like 20 years ago - when ATMs still had 5's) Didn't take long before someone tried to get $30 out and got 2 - 20's and a 5 instead of a 20 and two 5s. Better yet - this ATM was on the street with all the bars in the college part of the town, and it happened on a Friday. They told all their friends - and there was a run on the ATM with people taking out $15 each and getting $60. Only $15 was being taking from their account each time too. The bank got cleaned out for thousands of dollars.

Of course - it was pretty easy to get the log of transactions for the ATM since the last money fill. So when they figured out what happened, they just debited everyone's account for the amount of money they actually got out of the machine so no one ended up with anything for free. probably resulted in a few over drafts. :)
 
Cool video.

I like MilwaukeeMike's story. I heard one similar in my area where the ATM was set with a default maintenance code found straight out of the on-line manual. Some thief figured this out and coded the machine to think the cassette had $5 in it. So when people went to take out $20 they would get $80. (Four $20 bills, instead of 4 $5 bills.) It wasn't know how long the machine was acting in this manor before some nice old lady was honest and informed the store of the mistake.
 
Cool video, but not nearly as cool as the narrator thinks it is. You'd think he was announcing the next summer action blockbuster, lol.

Agreed. Sorta like that TV show that deconstructed fight styles and techniques and the way it would describe a head kick "That would deliver the force of 450 lbs onto an opponents skull" sounds like the guys head would explode yet is just one of many kicks that guy would receive in a fight. You'd think that by the way he talks, any strike from a fighter means instant death scenes like that found in "Riki-Oh - The Story of Ricky"
 
Looks like very similar technology to a production copier. Just minus a 400 F fuser assembly and all that, plus better built than any copier I have every owned.....
 
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