OpenbravoPOS Hardware Installation

Overview

This tutorial provides an easy way to understand how to configure hardware in Openbravo POS version 2.20 and higher.

General Hardware Configuration

Configuration panel

To set up any hardware in Openbravo POS you need to go to System -> Cash Register. In the section Cash register you configure the parameters of the hardware connected to the terminal. All of these options are stored in local and each machine stores its own system configuration.

Openbravo POS configuration

The properties related to the register cash panel are:

Name

is the name of the cashier.

Skin

provides a few themes which change the look and feel of Openbravo POS.

Screen

sets if the application should be in a fullscreen or just in window mode.

Tickets

sets in which mode Openbravo POS works. At the present day the following are available:

simple, standard or restaurant.

Customer Display

sets the way how a customer should see the last ordered item.

Printer

is the main printer.

Printer2

is an additional printer that could print something additional i.e. an

order in a kitchen or in a bar.

Printer3

is an additional printer that could print something additional i.e. an

order in a kitchen or in a bar.

Scale

sets scales to weigh products.

Scanner

sets a barcode scanner to read barcodes.

Reports Printer

is a printer that prints reports.

Touch screen

Touch screens simulate a mouse. When a user touches the screen the system receives a mouse click in the point the user touches. There is nothing to configure in Openbravo POS. The preferred size and screen resolution for Openbravo POS is 15 and 1024x768. Most popular touch screen systems are developed by ELO TouchSystems and they are very well supported in Windows and Linux.

To test just press the touch screen and see how the mouse moves.

Barcode scanner

Barcode scanners simulate a keyboard. When a barcode scanner reads a barcode, it types the barcode read as a keyboard would do. There is nothing to configure in Openbravo POS. Most popular barcode readers are provided by Metrologic, like Metrologic 9520 Voyager. To test the barcode scanner just open a text editor and read a barcode. The value from the barcode must be displayed in the text editor.

Customer display

Openbravo POS supports text customer displays of 2 lines and 20 columns. The recommended customer display is Epson DM 110 with a serial or a parallel interface. The supported customer displays are:

Screen

This is a customer display on a screen that can be used for debugging purposes. To see a customer display on the screen go to System -> Printer.

Window

A new window is created and is used as a customer display. Useful if you have two monitors.

javapos

A customer display with a javapos driver installed. To install it follow the provider instructions and configure the ID of the customer display in Openbravo POS .

Epson, Id200

And other types of ESC/POS customer displays.

The Epson type is the most compatible, but you must be sure to configure the display to ESC/POS mode.

The customer display and a receipt printer can be connected in mode bridged. The customer display is connected to the computer and the receipt printer is connected to the customer display. In this case both share the configuration using the same port. Do not install any driver, because Openbravo POS connects directly to the printer. If a serial connection is chosen, the configuration must be: bauds: 9600, data bits 8, stop bits 1 and parity none.

Surepos

This option is for the customer display integrated in the IBM Sure POS 500 series model.

Receipt printer and cash drawer

Openbravo POS supports several receipt printers connected to the same terminal and you can configure up to 3 receipt printers in the configuration panel. Cash drawers are connected to the receipt printer and open with a printer command. The recommended receipt printer is the Epson TM88IV with a serial or parallel interface.

The supported printers are:

Screen

On screen receipt printer for debugging purposes. The on screen printer is on Printer under System.

Printer

A regular printer used as a receipt printer. Limited support.

javapos

A receipt printer with a javapos driver installed. To install it follow the provider instructions and configure the printer ID and the cash drawer ID in Openbravo POS.

Epson, Tmu220, Star, Ithaca

And other types of ESC/POS printers.

The Epson type is the most compatible, but you must be sure to configure the display to ESC/POS mode. Only the Epson type supports graphics.

Do not install any driver, because Openbravo POS connects directly to the printer. If a serial connection is chosen, the configuration must be: bauds: 9600, data bits 8, stop bits 1 and parity none. At the present day USB printers are not fully supported. Under Windows share the printer and use a file connection.

To test the printer connected to the first serial port type:

in Windows

type test > COM1:

in Linux

echo “test” > /dev/ttyS0

Surepos

This option is for the receipt printer integrated in the IBM Sure POS 500 series model.

Scale

Openbravo POS supports scales connected to the serial interface. Do not install any driver, because Openbravo POS connects directly to the scale.

There are two protocols supported:

1. Samsung
2. dialog1

If you want to sell products by weight but you do not own a scale you can use the screen scale. This option shows a dialog to enter the weight. The scale is used in the sales panel to introduce automatically the units of a product. Products that use the scale must be marked as scale in the properties tab of the Products panel.

Data collector

Openbravo POS supports a portable data collector: Scanpal 2 provided by Metrologic.

The Scanpal 2 connects to the terminal using a serial interface. The products catalog is uploaded to the Scanpal2 in the Products panel and the inventory of the Scanpal2 is downloaded in the Stock maintenance panel.

IBM SurePOS 500 Series

This guide is for the IBM SurePOS 500 Series and the operating system openSuse. All the points should also work with the logical differences with other GNU/Linux distributions

Operating system

Follow the installation steps of openSuse and select the preferred configuration you need. If you need help to install openSuse, read the openSuse installation documents.

If for somereason the X server does not start, open the xorg.conf file and replace the driver name of the graphic card by vesa.

Touch screen

Edit the file xorg.conf file and in the ServerLayout section add the line:

InputDevice "SerialEloTouchScreen" "SendCoreEvents"

Near the other InputDevice sections, add a new section that looks like this:

Section "InputDevice" 
    Identifier "SerialEloTouchScreen"
    Driver "elographics"
    # The touch screen is internally connected to ttyS4
    Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS4"
    Option "screenno" "0"
    Option "MinX" "1"
    Option "MaxX" "4000"
    Option "MinY" "100"
    Option "MaxY" "4100"
    Option "UntouchDelay" "3"
    Option "ReportDelay" "1"
EndSection

If the serial port of the touch screen is not detected by the kernel add to the kernel options in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file the following option:

8250.nr_uarts=6

Receipt printer and cash drawer and customer display

To allow the Operating system user to access to the serial ports the receipt printer and the customer display are connected, add this user to the group uucp

To make the cash drawer work connect it to the receipt printer, not to the computer.

At the end to configure the receipt printer, cash drawer and customer display in Openbravo POS, go to the configuration panel, and select surepos, mode serial, and the port where the receipt printer and the customer display are connected.

Magnetic swipe reader

The magnetic swipe reader must be configured in keyboard mode to work with Openbravo POS. To do this put the microswitch of the magnetic swipe reader in the position keyb, and in the BIOS, in the external devices section and in the field MSR, select keyboard.

In this mode, it may be necessary to have connected a PS/2 keyboard at boot time to make it work properly.

Additional help

If you need additional help during installation please use the Openbravo POS community support forums.