Integrating Retail POS system with DVR

[SambaNoodles 0]

I have installed a GeoVision based DVR in retail store, and they want me to overlay the date from their POS terminals onto a respective camera. I undertand many DVRs (including GeoVision) have this type of fuctionality built it.

 

The retail store is using Microsoft Retail Mangement System (Dynamics 2.0). Anyone know if this particular POS system will work with GeoVision DVRs? if so, how does one configure it to do so?

 

FYI, Microsoft Retail Management System uses OPOS drivers to print to a receipt printer and open a cash drawer.

 

The printers are EPSON TM88iii thermal printers. Each POS terminal consists of a computer which connects via parallel cable to the EPSON printer. There is no other port on the printer to connect to the GeoVision system.

[tomcctv 187]

I have installed a GeoVision based DVR in retail store, and they want me to overlay the date from their POS terminals onto a respective camera. I undertand many DVRs (including GeoVision) have this type of fuctionality built it.

 

The retail store is using Microsoft Retail Mangement System (Dynamics 2.0). Anyone know if this particular POS system will work with GeoVision DVRs? if so, how does one configure it to do so?

 

FYI, Microsoft Retail Management System uses OPOS drivers to print to a receipt printer and open a cash drawer.

 

The printers are EPSON TM88iii thermal printers. Each POS terminal consists of a computer which connects via parallel cable to the EPSON printer. There is no other port on the printer to connect to the GeoVision system.

 

Hi SambaNoodles.

 

if you have not done pos before you will find it hard and also it would be hard to give instructions on here.

Geovision do an add on pos box which connect up to the epson but you will need to start making connecton leads. and this is were you need to know what you are doing. but they is another way. ave are the world leaders in pos data. tell them the till manufacture and they will send you out a unit that is plug and play. http://www.americanvideoequipment.com/vsimax.pdf

[Soundy 1]

Typically, you would connect a serial port on your POS system to the capture device, whether that's a DVR or a text-overlay box or whatever. In some cases, the POS will have an option to drive a pole display; in some you'll use an output for a serial receipt printer - either method typically outputs plainly formatted raw text that is then captured via a serial port on the DVR or TVS for processing.

 

Many DVRs, BTW, won't do text overlay-on-video inherently; if they do it internally, it generally requires additional hardware. More commonly (and far more usefully), the data is simply logged, synchronized to the video. This makes it searchable, something that's not possible when the text is simply embedded in the video.

 

The method we've been using most recently is a Honeywell SmartPIT - it's a very smart box can take the serial data in one port, overlay it on the video, filter it for the DVR to log out another serial port, and pass-through the data unfiltered via a third port, in case you need to insert it in-line with a printer or display. It's web-configurable, and can log incoming serial data internally and create a file that you can send to Honeywell to have a custom filter made, if necessary.

[Neutech 0]

Since you already have the geovision installed seems bit crazy to start looking elsewhere plus the geovision is fantastic at EPOS

 

You need to check if the Tills are auto receipt printing or if they only print receipt on demand

 

The connection from the V3E data capture is normally inline between Terminal and Printer

 

Contact the EPOS supply company as im sure they will have dealt with this before and should be able to give you the correct information

 

Tech Support from Geo is normally excellent

[SambaNoodles 0]

What I've learned thus far after talking to Microsoft people and Geovision people, is that nobody has any clear answer. That is kind of strange considering how widely deployed *both* Microsoft Dynamics POS and Geovision are in the field.

 

Actually, in this case GeoVision TechSupport seemed a bit more aware of the capabilities of their software in integrating with various POS systems. But they really need to know how the POS system outputs transaction data to its output devices (i.e. receipt printer).

 

The best answer i got from the *free version* of Microsoft Tech Support (user community based help) for this product was that they *believe* that the output to the OPOS printer is just a graphics image. In other words, there is NO text data for the GeoVision DVR to extract. However, they did mention that most Pole Display devices take raw text as input, so likely I can grab the output from the pole display and connect that to a GeoVision Text Capture Box.

 

Geovision says to test this, I will need to get my hands on a Female-Female RS-232 crossover cable, then use that cable to connect a test computer to the COM port of the POS terminal (the same COM port that is supposed to be connect to the Pole Display). Using a Windows application like HyperTerminal on the test computer, you can capture the output from the POS terminal. If you try to Tender a transaction on the POS terminal and if it appears to be text on the Hyper Terminal application, then that means you can go ahead and use a GeoVision Text Capture Box to implement your Text-Overlay solution.

 

In fact, Geovision, in addition to providing you with a Text-Overlay on a camera of your choice, will also log that text data seperately, so you can do searches for events (transactions) occuring within the POS terminal.

 

Just take everything you read above with a grain of salt. This is only what I've been told. I'll get back to you all if and when it works.

[Soundy 1]

Actually, in this case GeoVision TechSupport seemed a bit more aware of the capabilities of their software in integrating with various POS systems. But they really need to know how the POS system outputs transaction data to its output devices (i.e. receipt printer).

 

The problem is, there's very little standardization in the POS industry, and everyone likes to do things their own way (sound familiar?), so keeping track of EVERY different system out there, let alone being FAMILIAR with them all, is asking a lot.

 

Case in point: Vigil DVRs list some *83* different devices when you select a POS type for data capture - some are *store-specific* (there's an entry for "Subway"), some brands have four or five different models listed. *ALL* of these are under the "Serial" setting, too, meaning all they do is capture text data from the serial port - these different entries are to accommodate varying formatting codes and data layouts (columns and what not - position in the stream of the date, transaction number, product name, price, etc.).

 

Squirrel isn't listed at all, despite Camacc (the makers of Vigil) and Squirrel being both being BC-based companies - we actually had to have them create a custom IP interface for the Squirrel POS systems for a customer that wanted it, a restaurant chain with an average of a dozen Squirrel terminals in each of over a dozen stores. In fact, Squirrel is used widely around BC, but until just a couple years ago, apparently nobody needed to interface it to a Vigil.

 

We've also put Vigils in a couple of Tim Hortons stores (a MAJOR coffee-and-donut chain all across Canada and growing in the US), where they use a Panasonic POS, and there's no support for that specific model in Vigil either - again, apparently just something nobody's ever asked for.

 

The best answer i got from the *free version* of Microsoft Tech Support (user community based help) for this product was that they *believe* that the output to the OPOS printer is just a graphics image. In other words, there is NO text data for the GeoVision DVR to extract. However, they did mention that most Pole Display devices take raw text as input, so likely I can grab the output from the pole display and connect that to a GeoVision Text Capture Box.

 

I think I already suggested that

 

Geovision says to test this, I will need to get my hands on a Female-Female RS-232 crossover cable, then use that cable to connect a test computer to the COM port of the POS terminal (the same COM port that is supposed to be connect to the Pole Display). Using a Windows application like HyperTerminal on the test computer, you can capture the output from the POS terminal. If you try to Tender a transaction on the POS terminal and if it appears to be text on the Hyper Terminal application, then that means you can go ahead and use a GeoVision Text Capture Box to implement your Text-Overlay solution.

 

That's about the process. The tricky part is, you have to know what baud rate (2400/4800/9600) and comm settings (data bits/parity/stop bits - 8N1, 7E1, 8O2, etc.) the POS is using, and match that with your Hyperterm settings. If that doesn't match, you could just see gibberish, or you could be hacking away and see nothing at all - doesn't mean it's not working, just means that the communication parameters don't match up YET.