Motion Sensing Candy Dispenser

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The Reject Shop were selling a motion-activated candy dispenser for $15. I love silly toys like this, so I couldn't resist.

I had to fill it with something, so I decided to get some bulk M&M's Mini's from The Professors in Castle Hill (NSW).

The unit works well, though it appears to need some degree of ambient light to work properly. I have the unit sitting on my coffee table, and in near complete darkness such as when watching a movie at night, the dispenser doesn't always "see" you. Likewise, sometimes when you open the curtain and suddenly go from dark to sudden light in daytime, the dispenser can suddenly activate with no-one near it as well, so I'm not sure if it's actually using an IR sensor to detect motion.

In any case, it's still a cool toy, only takes four AA batteries to run and was cheap.

Once my current M&M's Mini's run out, I'll likely replace it with regular-sized M&M's as I get about 20-30 Mini's dispensed on average which might be too much for some. I have also found that Peanut M&M's are too large for this unit - it will jam.

If you're wondering why on earth I decided to buy 10KG of M&M's in bulk, it's that it is over $100 cheaper to buy 10KG worth from The Professors than it is for the same amount through retail shops like Woolworths and Coles at normal retail prices! We're talking $1.47 per 100g instead of $2.68 per 100g!

EDIT: The dispenser holds approximately 2.2KG worth of M&M's fully loaded, allowing me to refill it 5 times. The box lasted 10 weeks. ;-) But now that the novelty has worn off, I expect my next 10KG's worth to last longer. I also found that places like Woolworths sometimes sell their M&M's on special at under the Professor's pricing. My 10KG refill was 27 packets of regular 380g M&M's priced at $1.32 per 100g. I retained the 10KG box and refilled it with the packets.

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