The CashlessConnect Unit from Aardvark Embedded Solutions Ltd. (AES) has been developed as an easy to use solution of the problem faced by programmers who wish to connect a Cashless Payment Terminal to their computer.

It provides the following:

• Full, easy to use, Application Programming Interface.
• Standard USB 1.1 Connection
• Hardware compatible with any computer / operating system.
• Peripheral Device support
  • An MDB connection that connects to any Cashless Payment Terminal that follows the protocol described in the NAMA standard manual "Multi-Drop Bus / Internal Communication Protocol" Version 4.1
  • A low power 12V 200mA power supply, taken from the USB connection, that is sufficent to power the majority of the Cashless Payment Terminals on the market.

Facilities, in Detail:

Device independent Application Program Interface:
The CashlessConnect Unit comes complete with an API that makes the life of a programmer easy. All the functionality of a Cashless Payment Terminal is exposed to the programmer, all the detail of achieving this functionality is "hidden" within the system.

After the CashlessConnect Unit is plugged into a USB slot, the firmware on the CashlessConnect Unit communicates with the AES supplied interface code. Your application communicates with this firmware using the supplied DLL / Shared Object.

Full Software Development SDK:
The provided code supports the Application Program interface (API) that has been defined to communicate with the CashlessConnect Unit board and hence its external peripherals. You can simply download from this site all the resources needed by a programmer in order to use this interface, including a number of sample programs to make clear its operation and to allow the functioning of a system to be proven before the application development is started.

Standard USB 1.1 interface:
The CashlessConnect Unit plugs into any USB port on your computer. As none of the conventional ports are used to communicate with the device, the full facilities of the computer are still available to the system designer.

Hardware compatible with any operating system:
The CashlessConnect Unit uses the industry standard USB interface and, as a consequence, any operating system can be easily supported. At present drivers are available for the “Windows” family of operating systems released after (and including) Windows 7, and for any Linux operating system for kernel versions 2.6 and later.