Re: POS integration

[Matt Ion <soundy106@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tommy wrote:
> I have a customer with a Gilbarco pos system and he wants to tie in the pos
> data to the video picture.
> I have the equipment but i have not done this with the gilbarco system
> before.
>
> Anyone out there have any experience with the gilbarco products? They have
> not been very helpful so far.
>
> the main thing i want to know is what format they feed out the data port?

As far as my experience with Gilbarco POS systems, the serial port
appears to just output straight 7-bit ASCII text, one line per item.
With the proper null-modem connection to a receiving PC, you should be
able to view the data in Windows' HyperTerminal.

If you're using one of those simple video-overlay boxes that simply
imprints the text onto the video itself, the box may need to be
configured specific to the Gilbarco (vs. other POS brands), but it
shouldn't be too difficult.

Best place to find that information is probably in the interface box's
own documentation - do you know the make and model of it, and have you
tried contacting its manufacturer?

The other thing you'll probably need to do, of course, is specify which
serial port to output the data on, in the POS's setup.  Gilbarco may be
able to help you with that, but with so many different types of devices
people are interfacing to capture that data, it's not surprising that
they're not as helpful on setting that up... heck, you can probably find
plans to build such a box on an electronics-project site.