CAsh Drawer Kick Code: VBA- Access 2000

[brianell]

Hi

My new POS Terminals have a "CD" port which I assume is a Comm Port. Trial and error will determine which Comm Port it is, as the Terminal has 6.

I am looking for a method to code into VBA a signal to kick open the Cash Drawer.

The Cash Drawer manual states the following:

"Use DEBUG.EXE program under DOS or Windows 98

Command
O 4B8 01 - Cash Drawer Open
O 4B8 00 - Cash Drawer Closed

Set the I/O address 4B8h bit0=1 for opening Cash Drawer by "DOUT bit0" pin control"

Also " Register Location: 4B8h
Attribute: Read/Write
Size: 8 Bit"

All of which means very little to me.....

Hope somebody can assist with this.

Regards
Brian
Mutare
Zimbabwe

 

[RuralGuy]

If it helps, the addresses are not the standard Comm Port addresses. It looks like you just toggle one bit on the port to Open/Close the Cash Drawer. Does this have anything to do with MS Office Access?

 

[brianell]

Hi, Yes is is all about MS Access. The POS system is written on an Access 2000 platform and needs to control the Cash Drawer. Now to find out how I toggle a bit on a port in VBA....

Regards
Brian

 

[RuralGuy]

I don't believe you can do I/O directly from Access. Hopefully some guru will drop by with the solution.

 

[RuralGuy]

How is the Cash Drawer physically attached to the PC? USB? Plug In Card?

 

[DCrake]

You can actually pop the cash drawer from Access, I wrote a POS system a few years age which had a Digipos keyboard (ps2 connection), Telescopic LED display and a till both serial connection. In order for the drawer to open we had to send an escape sequence down to the serial port. This was detemined by the till. If I remember rightly we sent it as a DOS command, but don't quote me on it. I do not access to the code now, so I cannot look at it for you but be confident in the fact that you can actually do it.

We used the telescopic LED to send the cost and product name to the device in much the same way.

David

 

[brianell]

The Cash Drawer plugs into the POS Terminal via a Com Port, by means of a RJ11 plug.

 

[DCrake]

I have sent an email to my old client to see if she still uses the system or has access to it. And if possible let me grab the code from it. I am awaiting her reply. Will get back to you as and when.

David

 

[brianell]

Thanks David, I shall await your response whilst fiddling and searching for a solution. I am now trying a ActiveX module MSCOMM32.OCX which might work. If it does, I'll post the story here.

 

[RuralGuy]

The problem as I see it is that the port for the till is at 4B8h which is not one of the standard addresses. I looked at io.dll to see if it might work but it only references existing standard ports. The documentation shows you all of the ports they work with and that is not one of them.

 

[brianell]

Thanks for the feedback. I am still playing with that MSCOMM32.OCX that I downloaded and found was actually installed on the Terminal before I got it.