[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen Staff Client Interface for Use of Physical Cash Drawers

[Justin Hopkins]

As the originator of the previously mentioned thread on cash drawers I'll share what I've learned since then:

Basically nothing.

The previous ILS of the library in question was TLC, and they had apparently provided a Windows driver that enabled integration with TLC's ILS and the printer that the library is using. I can't speak to the details of what was written by TLC, but from my research it really seems like ILS vendors creating custom drivers for each supported printer is the status quo. Hopefully the EG community can arrive at a way of supporting as many cash-drawer opening printers as possible without writing something custom every time.

Hopefully someone understands the ins and outs of printers, cash drawers, and printers that open cash drawers better than me and can come up with a good plan.

Justin


On May 31, 2012, at 1:13 PM, Jessie Bunker-Maxwell wrote:

> Hi Lebbeous,
> 
> We haven't bought any cash drawers yet but I think some people at our library were under the impression that there was an Evergreen interface that would work with "smart" cash drawers and we wanted to be certain about the status of Evergreen before we moved ahead with any purchases. Thanks for confirming the lack of a "smart" cash drawer interface.
> 
> Jess
> 
> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 11:09 AM, Lebbeous Fogle-Weekley <lebbeous at esilibrary.com> wrote:
> Jess,
> 
> Do you have a "smart" cash drawer or something that knows how much money it has in it?
> 
> The kind of cash drawer that Galen and Aaron are talking about doesn't do anything special except open when you tell it to.  Such a device doesn't have any information to share with the ILS.
> 
> There is no particular support in Evergreen today for smart cash drawers, no, but new development may be feasible.
> 
> Lebbeous
> 
> On 05/31/2012 01:52 PM, Jessie Bunker-Maxwell wrote:
> Galen and Aaron - thanks for the information - we do have Star TSP100
> receipt printers and I saw your email from last year, Aaron, with the
> suggestion to physically connect a cash drawer to the Star printer, etc.
> That didn't seem like a true software interface, i.e., there is no data
> connection between what happens on the cash drawer and payments received as
> far as borrower data being updated in the Evergreen database but I
> understand the intent of the physical connection as far as "securing"
> access to the cash drawer. So, there's no real Evergreen Staff Client
> interface then, yes?
> 
> Jess
> 
> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 10:31 AM, Aaron Zsembery<azsembery at pls-net.org>wrote:
> 
> "Galen Charlton"<gmc at esilibrary.com>  wrote:
> There is no defined interface, but there was some discussion [1] last
> year on a possible workaround, involving use of certain models of
> printers that can have cash drawers attached to them and using a
> control code in the circ receipt as a signal to open the drawer.  I
> would be curious to know if anybody ever got that working.
> [1]
> http://list.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/open-ils-general/2011-June/thread.html#5035
> Looks like you beat me to it, that is the thread I remembered.
> 
> Aaron Z
> Jr. Systems Administrator
> 
> Pioneer Library System
> 2557 State Rt. 21
> Canandaigua, New York  14424
> Phone: (585) 394-8260
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Lebbeous Fogle-Weekley
>  | Software Developer
>  | Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source
>  | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
>  | email:  lebbeous at esilibrary.com
>  | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jessie Bunker-Maxwell
> Santa Cruz Public Library
> ILS Administrator
> (831) 427-7707, Ext. 7764
> Hours:  Fri-Sun 8:00am-5:30pm
>         Monday  8:00am-7pm
>         Tuesday 7:30am-12pm
>