Building a Retail POS System

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A6Quattro

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Hi All-

I build, refurbish, and service computers for a living. Most of my work is in refurbished systems- I'm a Microsoft Registered Refurbisher. Most builds are pretty straightforward, but this one has me a little stumped. This is my first time building a POS, so please excuse the obvious questions.

My clients are opening a thrift store of sorts. They want a POS System where they can print labels with barcodes and pricing labels, and can scan those into the computer, handling the sale and spitting out a receipt. Seems simple enough, right?

They have a friend in another state that uses an Inventek setup. She's in love with her setup, so my clients think it's a good choice (we haven't even explored other options, yet!)

Now, my questions:

Is Inventek a good software setup? Is there something better? My concern is that the first mention I've heard of Inventek in my life was this afternoon. Also, I can't seem to find pricing on their website- just in their eBay store???

We're looking at using a computer that I'll refurbish. The tower I have in mind has a Core 2 Duo E4500 CPU (2.2 GHz), a 500 GB Hard Drive, and 4 GB DDR2 RAM. It will be refurbished with Windows 7 Professional. The motherboard has a max RAM capacity of 4 GB, so I'm figuring that 32 Bit is better than 64 Bit for this??? Is this a good system? Inventek is advertising a system with an Atom processor, so I figure this should be fine, right?

If we go with a complete setup, less CPU and monitor, what all do I need to do to make it all work together?

Any tips or advice would be appreciated!

 
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Our system is a little old, but I know the software works under all Windows with a little adjustment. However, our software version is also old, and the newest Vigilant products are fully compatible with Win 7 and 8 without any fiddling.

The biggest change in OS design some time ago was virtualization of all peripherals. That is, no apps get to communicate directly with peripherals. Windows takes total control of them, and apps use Windows to get to them. No problem at all for apps designed to work under Windows.

By far the most common interface for most peripherals today is USB2, and I'm certain the slip printer, barcode reader, and barcode printer will hook up that way. Note I'm assuming that the barcode printer will be a different...
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Paperdoc

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I can't comment on Inventek - don't know it. I can tell you our retail clothing store has been using a POS system from Vigilant Solutions for 20 years. Although it is not a well-known company, I was attracted to it because the software does everything a small retailer needs - POS, inventory tracking, accounting, payroll, etc. - all in a relatively low-priced package, whereas other systems were built from basic accounting packages with extra-cost add-ons for POS etc. I don't even use all its capabilities. For example, it does barcode reading and printing and communication with credit card machines, but I'm not using any of those. I do the bookeeping manually using it, rather than letting it do it all automatically as it is designed to do. However, although I am happy with Vigilant, I leave it to you to look at it if you're interested. I WILL make the point, however, that a lesser-known software package can do a very good job at a modest price compared to the "big guys".

A technical point. As you say, you don't need a 64-bit OS to use RAM limited to 4 GB. However, there may be an advantage to doing it, anyway. With a 32-bit OS, the memory space allocated to the RAM on the graphics card must be included in the 4 GB space. So if your graphics card has 512 MB of on-board RAM, that is deducted from the main board RAM and you only have use of 3.5 GB, not 4. OK, that's only 1/8 of the RAM space. But re-think: by the time you deduct that 0.5 GB, plus the space occupied by the OS itself and its reserved RAM space, you really get to use as "free memory" about 3 GB. An extra 0.5 GB can help. And you can have that by using a 64-bit OS. If you go 64-bit, the video card RAM can be above the 4 GB space occupied by the main board RAM, and you can use all that main board RAM except what is occupied by the OS.

Of course, if you are not using an added video card with its own RAM, this does not apply. Video on the mobo can only use main board RAM, and then there is no advantage to using a 64-bit OS.
 
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A6Quattro

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Thanks for the advice!

My thoughts: I'd be fine with a new tower. A Pentium or Athlon II should be plenty on this. My clients, though, want to save a bit by going refurbished.

I'll have to look into Vigilant Solutions.

As for RAM, our system (if we used what I had in mind), would be on Integrated Graphics. The graphics card is pretty under-powered (Max I can allocate to it is 256 MB). That was my logic on the 32 Bit. It does help to know that trick with external graphics cards, though- that'll surely come into play at some point.

How does everything hook together? How can I make the Pole Display, Receipt Printer, Cash Drawer, and other peripherals be recognized and usable by Windows. I'm sure it's simple, but I've never done it before.
 
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veladem

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Well, it all depends on what kind of connection your devices use. I know a bud up north of where I am that built a PC and got a little business selling hemp materials out of home. Was pretty cool to watch it all.

So, what kind of ports are needed? How many USB's etc.
 
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Paperdoc

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Our system is a little old, but I know the software works under all Windows with a little adjustment. However, our software version is also old, and the newest Vigilant products are fully compatible with Win 7 and 8 without any fiddling.

The biggest change in OS design some time ago was virtualization of all peripherals. That is, no apps get to communicate directly with peripherals. Windows takes total control of them, and apps use Windows to get to them. No problem at all for apps designed to work under Windows.

By far the most common interface for most peripherals today is USB2, and I'm certain the slip printer, barcode reader, and barcode printer will hook up that way. Note I'm assuming that the barcode printer will be a different unit from the sales slip printer. But that will depend on what you choose. If you want the credit card machine connected to the computer for data exchange, I suspect it will be via USB also. In our system (and I think this is still common), the sales slip printer has a special feature for the cash drawer. There is a small cable from a printer connector to the cash drawer to activate a solenoid in the drawer assembly and open it. It is triggered by a particular printing character sent to the printer (in our case, an ASCII CHR$(7), I think) and that's just part of the POS software setup. That way the cash drawer does not take up a computer port, and it is automatically opened whenever a sales slip is printed. Now, you may not get that sort of set-up, especially since one can arrange to have many USB ports to use. But that does remind me - since you may be using several USB2 ports, you may need a powered USB2 Hub to turn one computer port into many.

As for pole display, I don't have one. My guess is it will be something simple like a VGA port connection, or maybe just USB2 since all it's doing it displaying text. Look carefully at the specs for the display. If you need to feed it from a VGA port, that MAY mean you need two of them - one for the main screen. Or, maybe the on-board video system can feed both VGA and HDMI or other digital signals out for a 2-monitor setup.
 
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A6Quattro

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Neat- So everything basically is just Plug-and-Play?

The Pole Display I was kind of looking at is an IBM 41K6814. It uses a cable that kind of looks like an ethernet cable with a slightly different plug shape???

Any tips on that, or advice on a cheap Pole Display?
 
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Paperdoc

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I can't find any specs on that display. Most of what I found indicates that these are slightly older pieces of hardware but quite common. What type of connection it uses to the computer I cannot tell. It may not be a common desktop PC type of connection. I am sure, however, that you would need a device driver for it so the computer can communicate with the display, and I don't know where you get that. MAYBE a firm that sells them can tell you the details and supply the driver.

Most peripherals (like a bar code reader or the two printers) will connect via some common means like USB2, and will come with device drivers (often on a CD, maybe by download from a website) that you install in Windows so you can use the device. That means you need the driver for the particular version of Windows you are using.
 
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sakshisyan

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Hey there, Dunno much about building a pos system but yeah if you need to buy one then i highly recommend possible pos because i am using it here and pretty happy with its performance so its best retail pos system i've been used before.

Thanks and hope it helps...
 
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