5 ms·

The process of unlocking the managment functions on Taylor machines goes as such (see Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-

The process of unlocking the managment functions on Taylor machines goes as such (see Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/ https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-...): Press the cone icon on the screen of the Taylor C602 digital ice cream machine ... 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. Seems to be a fairly obvious (in the common sense, rather than the legal sense) of deliberate obfuscation to directly curtail 3rd party repair.

wyldfire 5y ago
> 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. I think I heard Brother Maynard read something from the Book of Armaments that sounded like that one.
- BLKNSLVR 5y ago
  Copy down a sentence that you've read today that you feel was the least likely for you to come across in the entire duration of your life: The rabbit is the antagonist in a major set piece battle[0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_of_Caerbannog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_of_Caerbannog
AlotOfReading 5y ago
As someone who's done some time in embedded, that sounds like they needed a repair menu and didn't want to add a dedicated number pad. It's a fairly typical solution. Similarly, these expensive industrial machines with lots of moving parts often have a whole bunch of tunable parameters somewhere. Setting these parameters incorrectly can sometimes make the product unsafe or self-destructive, so it's often a good idea to secure access. There may very well be obfuscation here, but the technician menu doesn't really demonstrate it to me. The lack of repair franchising/certification is more problematic, but that's the most of the industry at this point.
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
  I agree (also from a career in embedded). People forget that before Bluetooth Low Energy and everyone walking around with cheap, sophisticated computers in their pockets, putting an easily navigable menu on a machine that didn't otherwise need one was expensive. If your machine didn't need a keypad or a display in normal operation, you simply wouldn't have one. Maybe you'd show error codes by blinking an LED in a certain pattern. These days, it's cheap to have an available BLE connection to a cell phone that can provide a nice text or graphical control screen to tell you everything you need to know about the machine. A lot of the cost is in the UI and that gets offloaded to the the user's phone.
joezydeco 5y ago
All McD equipment like this has a manager or service password to adjust things like temperature calibration values, diagnostic routines, or error logs but keep the kitchen staff from fucking with it. Or causing a health or safety issue. The C602 doesn't have a keyboard, so this is how you enter the password.
anonymousiam 5y ago
So now that the McFlurry "Konami code" has been revealed, any MD employee can proceed to wreck havoc!

wyldfire 5y ago

> 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. I think I heard Brother Maynard read something from the Book of Armaments that sounded like that one.

BLKNSLVR 5y ago
Copy down a sentence that you've read today that you feel was the least likely for you to come across in the entire duration of your life: The rabbit is the antagonist in a major set piece battle[0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_of_Caerbannog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_of_Caerbannog

AlotOfReading 5y ago

As someone who's done some time in embedded, that sounds like they needed a repair menu and didn't want to add a dedicated number pad. It's a fairly typical solution. Similarly, these expensive industrial machines with lots of moving parts often have a whole bunch of tunable parameters somewhere. Setting these parameters incorrectly can sometimes make the product unsafe or self-destructive, so it's often a good idea to secure access. There may very well be obfuscation here, but the technician menu doesn't really demonstrate it to me. The lack of repair franchising/certification is more problematic, but that's the most of the industry at this point.

HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
I agree (also from a career in embedded). People forget that before Bluetooth Low Energy and everyone walking around with cheap, sophisticated computers in their pockets, putting an easily navigable menu on a machine that didn't otherwise need one was expensive. If your machine didn't need a keypad or a display in normal operation, you simply wouldn't have one. Maybe you'd show error codes by blinking an LED in a certain pattern. These days, it's cheap to have an available BLE connection to a cell phone that can provide a nice text or graphical control screen to tell you everything you need to know about the machine. A lot of the cost is in the UI and that gets offloaded to the the user's phone.

joezydeco 5y ago

All McD equipment like this has a manager or service password to adjust things like temperature calibration values, diagnostic routines, or error logs but keep the kitchen staff from fucking with it. Or causing a health or safety issue. The C602 doesn't have a keyboard, so this is how you enter the password.

anonymousiam 5y ago

So now that the McFlurry "Konami code" has been revealed, any MD employee can proceed to wreck havoc!