Second-hand POS stuff

Sparks

Folks,
Anyone know of an Irish crowd that sells second-hand Point-Of-Sale hardware? Specifically things like barcode readers, magnetic card readers, or even those fancy-shmancy touchscreen things?
Thanks...

WexCan

Are ya setting up shop? I'm pretty up to date on my ePoS technology so I'm more than willing to lend some advice should you need it. Second hand equipment is hard to find in Ireland - you'd probably be best on eBay/Buy & Sell etc - I got a thermal receipt printer for nothing from the US.

Anyway, if you've got any questions or anything jus send a PM

Chris

Sparks

It's not for a shop, but for a sports club that keeps track of the people showing up at the club. It's just that PoS stuff is precisely what we'd use - but since it's a college club, it'd have to be cheap
(If it could be used with linux, even better...)

WexCan

So basically you need a barcode scanner and some software? Barcode scanner can be found on eBay for hardly anything. Software for your kind of application could be expensive and I haven't seen anything Linux based

If you had the software and a scanner, you could keep track of members checking in by having the scanner on a desk and getting them to scan the barcode on their card (A lot of gyms use this system) - magentic stripe readers can be tricky to set up etc etc, and card stock would be cheaper with a scanner - have some thin card ready made with the details of the club and then just print out barcodes on labels, stick em on the back and laminate them.

The only problem is with the software

Chris

Sparks

WexCan wrote:

So basically you need a barcode scanner and some software?

The only software I'd need would be the device driver for linux, the rest is custom-written stuff.

WexCan

Ah righty kk - well a keyboard wedge barcode scanner does what it says on the tin. The cable from the scanner forms a Y connetion between the keyboard, scanner and terminal so anything scanned is entered in plain text. Like you can literally plug it in, open a text editor, scan any barcode and it'll be entered into the editor.

MorningStar

This is just the same as typing the number in yourself. How many members do you have that this is way too much hassle?
There are tons of barcode readers floating about on ebay as Radio Shack gave them away free.

Sparks

MorningStar wrote:

This is just the same as typing the number in yourself. How many members do you have that this is way too much hassle?

Up to 400 per year, with up to 24 showing up per night. But as this is a college club, they've all been issued with ID cards already so swiping the card would be a faster, less-error-prone method.

There are tons of barcode readers floating about on ebay as Radio Shack gave them away free.

*begins ebay search*

MorningStar

Sparks wrote:

Up to 400 per year, with up to 24 showing up per night. But as this is a college club, they've all been issued with ID cards already so swiping the card would be a faster, less-error-prone method.


*begins ebay search*

I design POS systems make sure you get a wedge scanner the drivers on POS stuff is a nightmare. I really don't think it is worth the hassle for 24 a night. You are better with an alphabetical search facility for members a lot easier and more practicle for ID verification. Scanning is for heavy turnover

Sparks

The swiping isn't so much for the speed as for the authentication though, the speed is just a nice side benefit. We do the alphabetical search already (by printing out the member list and pinning it to a wall ), but just taking the card and running it through the scanner would be much easier!

johnjay

dont confuse barcode scanners with mag-strip readers - they are totally different things

Jees - I never knew there were so many of us EPOS techies on boards! :eek:

Sparks

Indeed johnjay, I wound up ordering both a mag-strip reader and a barcode reader (there's both a magstripe and a barcode on the card). The idea being to see which works better in practise. Anyway, problem solved!

WexCan

maybe we should push for an epos forum lol

snappieT

And an subforum of EFT@POS

MorningStar

My office is having a clean out so there might be a barcode scanner being thrown out I 'll keep you in mind. It will be probably a week or two though.

johnjay

Sparks wrote:

Indeed johnjay, I wound up ordering both a mag-strip reader and a barcode reader (there's both a magstripe and a barcode on the card). The idea being to see which works better in practise. Anyway, problem solved!

I'd go for the barcode myself, its better and you can squeeze em onto a keyring as well as a card.