How to use IoT devices in Point of Sale

Pos IoT links the hardware on a paired IoT box to one specific till of the Point of Sale: its receipt printer, its barcode scanners, its scale and its customer screen. One box can serve several tills in a shop, and each till uses only the devices that were named for it, so the hardware of one till never gets in the way of another.

Who	The Store Manager sets up each till; the Cashier sells with the devices; the IT / Maintenance Technician watches boxes and devices.
App	Pos IoT (with Point of Sale and Internet of Things)

Before you start

The IoT box is paired and its devices are connected: follow Set up and manage IoT boxes. Do it before anything below.

Who uses Pos IoT

Role	What they do	Access right to assign
System Administrator	Installs the module, chooses which people hold which access right, and may set up a till from Settings.	Administration / Settings
Cashier	Sells at the till: scans products, weighs products sold by weight, prints receipts and shows the order to the customer.	Point of Sale / User
Store Manager	Sets up each till: chooses the IoT box and the named printer, scanners, scale and customer screen, and links preparation printers (kitchen, bar) to devices.	Point of Sale / Administrator
IT / Maintenance Technician	Watches boxes and devices, and checks which till uses a device when something stops answering.	Internet of Things (IoT) / User

The roles are the people who typically hold these jobs; in your company one person may hold several of them.

How do I install Pos IoT and give the access rights?

Pos IoT needs Point of Sale and Internet of Things (IoT). Viindoo installs it by itself when both are installed. To check, or to install it directly:

1. Open Apps.

2. Remove the Apps filter from the search bar and search for Pos IoT.

3. Click Activate if it is not installed yet.

Then give each person the access right of their job:

1. Open Settings ‣ Users & Companies ‣ Users and open the person.

2. Give each person the access right of their job:

   • the cashier: Point of Sale / User;

   • the store manager: Point of Sale / Administrator;

   • the IT technician: Internet of Things (IoT) / User.

3. Click Save.

Point of Sale / Administrator brings Internet of Things (IoT) / User with it, so the store manager can see the boxes and devices to choose from without a second right. A cashier needs no IoT access right: once the hardware is assigned, it is simply there when the shift is opened.

If you uninstall Pos IoT, Point of Sale / Administrator no longer brings Internet of Things (IoT) / User with it, but the people who already hold it keep it. Remove it by hand from those who no longer need it.

How do I choose the IoT box and the devices of a till?

Open Point of Sale ‣ Configuration ‣ Point of Sales and open the till. The IoT Box block holds the pickers (tick IoT Box first if it is not ticked):

• IoT Box - the paired box this till talks to. Its address is filled in and cannot be typed over once a box is chosen.

• Receipt Printer - the printer on the box that prints this till’s receipts.

• Barcode Scanners - every scanner on the box that feeds scans into this till.

• Customer Display - the screen of the box that shows this till’s order. Set the customer display of the till to Another device to use it.

• Electronic Scale - the scale this till reads weights from.

• IoT Devices - opens the devices of the box.

The pickers only offer the devices of the chosen box. A barcode scanner or a customer screen can be named for one till at a time; Viindoo stops you when you pick one that another till already uses. A receipt printer and a scale may be shared by several tills.

Do it from Settings

Setting up a till is the Store Manager’s task. If you hold the Settings right, you can do it from Settings ‣ Point of Sale too: Viindoo only lets people with the Settings right open that page.

Settings ‣ Point of Sale has the same pickers under Connected Devices ‣ IoT Box. Choose the till at the top of the page, then the box and its devices, and click Save once: the box and its devices are saved together, and the pickers list the devices of the chosen box right after you choose it. Changing the box clears the four device pickers, so a till never keeps a device of another box.

Two tills can share a box and still keep their own devices: give each till its own scanner and customer screen of that box. A till that shares the box but has no named customer screen never drives another till’s named screen.

A till that only shows its page on a display (a display-only till) needs the IoT Box option ticked so the till page can reach the screen.

To print kitchen and bar orders through the box, see How to print kitchen and bar orders through an IoT box.

How does the cashier sell with the devices?

A cashier opens Point of Sale, then clicks Open Register on the till’s card (an open till has its own button there). No IoT access right is needed.

Scan products

Every barcode scanner named for this till sends its scans straight into the current order. The scanner belongs to one screen at a time. When something stops the scans from arriving, the till shows a notice that stays on the screen until the problem is gone:

• Barcode scanner unreachable - scans are not received until it is back - the till cannot reach the scanner. Check that the IoT box is switched on and on the network. The notice disappears by itself when the scanner is back.

• Barcode scanner in use by another screen - touch this screen to take it back - the same till is open on another screen (another browser tab or a team leader’s computer) and that screen holds the scanner. Touch your own till screen to take the scanner back. A scan is never entered twice.

Weigh a product sold by weight

1. Click the product. The weighing window opens and shows the weight read from the scale.

2. Wait until the weight is steady. Every refresh of the window is a new reading of the scale.

3. Click Order to add the line with the weight and its price.

If the scale cannot be read, the till says why: The scale cannot be reached. Check that its IoT box is on and connected., The scale did not answer. Check the scale and weigh again. or The scale could not be read. Check that it is connected and working.

Print the receipt

After Validate, the receipt prints on the receipt printer named for this till. Click Print Full Receipt to print it again. The cash drawer opens only if the Cashdrawer option is ticked for the till; it is a manual option.

If the printer cannot be reached, the till shows Connection to the printer failed right away. Check that the printer and the box are on, then click Ok to print with the web printer or Cancel to stop.

Show the order to the customer

When the till is set to use a named customer screen (the Another device option), that screen shows this till’s order and no other. Open the till menu (the three-line button at the top right) and click the screen icon to show the till page on the customer screen again, for instance after the screen was switched off. The till tells you whether the screen was refreshed. If the box restarts, the screen gets the till page back by itself.

How does the technician see which till uses a device?

Open IoT ‣ Devices. Devices are grouped by box, and a green Connected or a Disconnected label shows each one’s state. A device shows its Device Name when one was set, with the name the device reported below it.

Open a device and click its Point of Sale tab to see the tills that use it. The list is read-only; use it to find out where a device went when it stops answering on the till you expected. It is filled only for people who also hold a Point of Sale right, such as the store manager: with Internet of Things (IoT) / User alone the tab stays empty, so ask the store manager which till uses the device.

A box that stops reporting shows Disconnected, with its devices, once it has been silent for two minutes and the next check has run; the check runs every minute. Nothing is flagged in the first two minutes after the server restarts. The wait can be changed by the Administrator with the system parameter viin_iot.box_presence_grace_seconds (never shorter than 90 seconds). The logs of a box can be read from Viindoo without going to the box.

Common errors

What you see	What to do
The till says the barcode scanner is unreachable	Check that the box is on and reachable. The notice goes away by itself when the scanner is back. Meanwhile, type the code in the search field.
The till says the scanner is in use by another screen	Touch your own till screen to take the scanner back, or close the other screen.
The weighing window says the scale cannot be reached or did not answer	Check the scale and the box, then weigh again once the weight is steady.
Connection to the printer failed	Check the printer and the box. Click Ok to use the web printer, or fix the printer and click Print Full Receipt again.
The customer screen stays blank	Open the till menu and click the screen icon. If the till says the box of the screen is offline, check the box.
A device is listed as connected but does not answer	A device unplugged while the box was off line can still show as connected until the box reports again. Reconnect it and wait for the next report.
A barcode scanner or a customer screen cannot be picked on a till.	Another till already uses it. Free it from that till, or from the Point of Sale tab of the device.
After changing the IoT box of a till, the printer, scanner, screen and scale are empty.	That is expected: the pickers are cleared so no device of the old box stays on the till.
The pickers of the till are empty.	Choose the IoT box first. The pickers list only the devices of that box; if the box has none, check that it is paired and reporting.

Good to know

• A value travels from the box to the browser and then to the server. A person who is allowed to use the till could, with technical means, submit one invented value for one request they opened.

• A till that types the box address by hand without choosing the box is not protected from driving the box’s default screen. Choose the box in the picker.

• If a till screen loses its network at the very moment another screen takes the scanner and the box restarts before the first screen is told, the first scan after the restart can be acted on by both screens once.

• A browser may refuse that a secure Viindoo page talks to the box on a private network address and ask you to allow it.

FAQ

Does a cashier need an IoT access right? No. The Point of Sale / User right is enough.

Can one box serve several tills? Yes. Each till has its own named scanner and customer screen; a printer and a scale can be shared.

Next steps

• How to print kitchen and bar orders through an IoT box: print kitchen and bar orders through the box.

• How to troubleshoot an IoT box: when the box itself does not answer.