PcCredit 9 Board

PcCredit9 Board is designed to easily attach Coin Mechanisms, Bank Note Validators and Magnetic Stripe Card Readers to a Personal Computer via its RS232 Serial Port.

"How it works"

How The Hardware Works

The PcCredit Board needs a stable +12 Volt Smoothed DC Supply (does not need -12V) capable of supplying a current of 3 Amps. We recommend you use the PcCredit Power Supply from Brent Electronic, Part number 83000041 priced around £15 http://www.markscotford.com/pccpsupic.html The 12V DC power supply is wired into the PcCredit Board by one of three methods. 1.   Two-Way Screw Terminal, connecting the positive to the + terminal and the negative to the - terminal. 2. Using the PC Power Supply, (assuming it has enough spare capacity for the 3Amps required) using the 4-Way Disc-Drive type connector. 3. Using the 2.1mm Power Supply connector, the TIP being the positive terminal. We advise that the power supply connection to PcCredit has a 2A Slo-Blow Fuse in line with the 12V supply.

Using a standard 9-Way D Connector Serial Lead to connect the PC Serial port to the Serial Port connector on the PcCredit Board.

PcCredit has been specially designed to work with a reasonably wide range of Note/Coin/Card Validators, here is a list of such devices. Note Readers such as the "Smiley" NV2/4/7/8 Bank Note Reader by Innovative Technology. 12V Coin Validators such as Mars Electronics Models MS111 range, ME111 range and Cashflow range (with Dual Polarity, Parallel 17W Interface) and Coin Controls Sentinel, C220 and C435 range (Use the 17W SIL Header), C120 range, NRI G13 (Non Totalising models) Jofemar T40 Classic (Use the 10W DIL Header), Alberici AL 05-7, also other makes and models which support the Gaming machine or G13 style interface. 5V TTL Output type card readers, such as the Omron V3 or Neuron card readers. We have designed the PCB so that in most cases, the Validators/Readers can be connected to the board, with simple "Mirror-Image" looms i.e. pin 1 connected to pin 1 and so on.

There are five LED lights on the PCB. A red "12V" one, indicating that the 12V DC Supply is present and a red "Error" one, to indicate an invalid serial communication etc. A green "Coin" one, which flashes everytime a Coin/Note/Card is validated, a green "Serial" one, to indicate everytime a serial communication takes place, and a Green Inhibit LED which lights when the PcCredit9 is ready to accept Coins/Notes.

How The Software Works

"PcCredit" is designed to take out all of the hard-work of wiring a Coin Mechanism, Note Validator or Card Reader to a PC via its Serial Port. PcCredit does not act like a credit board as such, but instead is used to communicate the messages coming out of the Validators/Readers, to the PC, when asked. The communication is in the form of a Protocol, which has extensive Error checking etc. The PcCredit does do not try to tell the PC the value of the Coins/Notes or Cards that have been accepted, simply because different Validators will have different value Coin/Notes/Cards programmed into them. Instead PcCredit tells the PC which channel of the Coin/Note Validator last accepted a Note/Coin. So that the host PC does not have to constantly monitor Coin/Note/Card acceptance, PcCredit stores Coin/Note/Card channel information, and communicates back to the PC the information on the channels activity since last being asked by the PC, this saves the PC from wasting time constantly monitoring its ports so as not to miss a Note/Coin or Card.

Notes

PcCredit can be used in two ways, "Multi-Credit-Mode On" means that multiple Notes/Coins can be accepted one after the other and stored in PcCredit or "Single-Credit-Mode" means that as soon as a Note or Coin has been accepted, PcCredit will automatically turn off any further Note or Coin acceptance until coin acceptance is turned back on again by the Software. When in "Multi-Credit-Mode", PcCredit will hold up to 16 lots of Note/Coin accepted information, once the limit of 16 has been reached, PcCredit will automatically Inhibit any further acceptance of Coins/Notes and will not switch on acceptance again (even if asked) until enough credits have been cleared from memory, and less than 6 lots of Note/Coin information remain.

Please note that the "Escrow" function is not available on NV7/8 note readers.

After power up, at some point you will need to tell the PCB to turn on acceptance of Notes/Coins, because the PCB defaults to Inhibit Note/Coin acceptance after power up.

The Serial link is fully handshaking at 9600 Baud Rate, No Parity. 8 Data Bits and 1 Stop Bit. We advise only very light use of the Inhibit Note/Coin acceptance command, this is because of an inherent design fault of some makes of Validator.

Serial Lead Connections - Do Not Use Null Modem Cable

Lead available in the UK from Maplin Electronics, Part Number VD73Q

Lead also available in the UK from CPC Plc, Part Number CSLEAD76

If you need extra COM ports for the PC you are using, Fairline Distribution Limited based in Kent, UK, sell a serial card which gives you an extra two RS232 ports and has an extended IRQ switchable range, so as not to conflict with other devices within your PC. Their UK phone number is 01622 716688 The card sells for about £25.00.

http://www.fairline.co.uk

Please note that we offer this as helpful advice only, we cannot offer technical support for the above product.