Patent ID: 7131575

Claim:
A payment module for effectuating a cashless vend, said payment module comprising: a microcontroller; a memory device, said microcontroller having data communication access to said memory device, said microcontroller implements an MDB TRANSACTION STRING in said memory device, said MDB TRANSACTION STRING further comprising at least one of the following data fields: a VEND STATE field, a MAX VEND SALE field, a SALE PRICE field, a COLUMN field, or a VEND FLAG field, said COLUMN field is the column identification of the vend item selected, as reported by a vending machine controller, during an MDB vend request message transaction with said microcontroller; and a vending equipment interface interconnected with said microcontroller for electrically interconnecting said payment module to and data communicating with said vending machine controller, said vending machine controller being interconnected with a vending machine; wherein, said microcontroller constructs and manages said MDB TRANSACTION STRING based on data communications between said microcontroller and said vending machine controller to effectuate said cashless vend.