--- title: Hacking A $6000 Cotton Candy Machine To Fully Control It description: A hobbyist acquired a $6000 commercial cotton candy vending machine for $300 and was unable to regain account access from the manufacturer to configure... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/hacking-a-6000-cotton-candy-machine-to-fully-control-it-akv6ktig9 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Hacking A $6000 Cotton Candy Machine To Fully Control It | daily.dev og:description: A hobbyist acquired a $6000 commercial cotton candy vending machine for $300 and was unable to regain account access from the manufacturer to configure... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/hacking-a-6000-cotton-candy-machine-to-fully-control-it-akv6ktig9 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/aKv6KtIG9.png og:image:alt: Hacking A $6000 Cotton Candy Machine To Fully Control It og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Hacking A $6000 Cotton Candy Machine To Fully Control It **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 3 upvotes · 2 comments ## Summary A hobbyist acquired a $6000 commercial cotton candy vending machine for $300 and was unable to regain account access from the manufacturer to configure pricing. After discovering the machine runs an Android-based industrial system, they used ADB to access the app and its database. When database edits didn't reflect in the UI, the project stalled for months. Eventually, using free LLM coding chatbots to navigate a Chinese-language app, they modified the original application to add a custom settings menu with local price control, eliminating the need for remote account access entirely. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I access and modify an Android-based vending machine app when I don't have the vendor account credentials? Connecting via ADB gives access to the device's terminal application and product database stored on local storage. However, editing the database file directly may not update the UI — the more reliable approach is decompiling and modifying the original APK to add a custom settings menu. LLM coding assistants can help navigate app code, especially when it is written in a foreign language. _Makers tackling similar locked-down hardware find teardown write-ups and approaches on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@agustinbarrientos** · 0 upvotes > Three hundred dollars for Android archaeology sounds about right **@rvrlx** · 0 upvotes > This is peak “manufacturer locked me out so I just rewrote the app with free AI chatbots” energy — legend move. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Fixing A Cotton Candy Vending Machine](https://daily.dev/posts/fixing-a-cotton-candy-vending-machine-u3xi6z7bz) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I Hacked into my University’s Vending Machine And it was soo BAD\!](https://daily.dev/posts/i-hacked-into-my-university-s-vending-machine-and-it-was-soo-bad--w5k8jth7o) · InfoSec Write-ups · 4 upvotes · 0 comments - [Programmer Discovers His Smart Vacuum Was Spying on Him](https://daily.dev/posts/programmer-discovers-his-smart-vacuum-was-spying-on-him-triqxigcm) · 80 LEVEL · 47 upvotes · 11 comments --- Tags: [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#android](https://daily.dev/tags/android), [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded), [#android-development](https://daily.dev/tags/android-development), [#reverse-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/reverse-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/hacking-a-6000-cotton-candy-machine-to-fully-control-it-akv6ktig9) ```json 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