DavidHartley.com

I've been professionally building and supporting PC hardware since the very first Taiwanese PC clones could be built from parts bought from non-English speaking Taiwanese people who sold the parts out of the garages of their homes in the San Francisco bay area.

Well over 20yrs.  

I've built and sold thousands of PCs, and currently build generic POS hardware systems, network fileservers, gigantic network storage arrays (my desktop PC has a 9TB [a terabyte is 1000 GB] doubly redundant RAID6 array that is blindingly fast and can be built for $1.5k plus cost of enclosure)..

= less than the cost to the cost of a crap-celeron IBM terminal from some of the POS software "authorized dealers !"

Back 1983 or so, when I got my hands on my first hard drive (5MB .. less than the amount of RAM in the cheesiest cellphone today) ..  the computers had serial ports.

SADLY, most POS software has technologically buried its head in the sand.

(POS ... rhymes with DOS  =;-)

For DIY, and for anyone who wishes to be able to self-support  OR FARM OUT support to a reasonably priced I.T. support professional (vs. the insane $250/hr - $800hr rates charged by many of the POS dealers !)

RULE # 1

DO build or buy GENERIC (not cheap crap, but definitely avoid IBM and other "POS terminal" JUNK. I would avoid EEPC also, as it it not generic, and only serviceable by Asus)  Generic means, standard replaceable RAM, CPU, plug-ins commonly available such as extra I/O ports, video cards, EASY to implement RAID (can keep system up & running even if a hard drive stops working) .. a mainboard that can be ordered off the Internet & shipped same day for $100 -  etc.

Rule # 2

DO purchase only Ethernet or USB devices wherever possible (you may want to purchase PCs or mainboards to build them which have 4, 6, or more USB ports, though an external powered Hub is another option.)  

RS232 serial interface has been OBSOLETE in the rest of the computer world for mmm... around 10yrs or so (!) and many new PCs will not even have an RS232 serial (com1) port,
as serial has joined the floppy disk at it's well earned place in the computer museum.

Inspecting the code of some of the POS software out there reveals Frankensteinian mish-mosh of ancient DOS subroutines with a thin veneer of Windoze GUI.   

This is the only reason for any recommendation to use long-obsolete RS232 Serial ports.

USB devices are much easier to set up; equally available; and will work BETTER than serial ports with software which was written in THIS DECADE as opposed to ancient moldy code which is hanging together with rubber bands & other myriad "patches."

Rule # 3

Do demo as much POS software as reasonably possible AFTER attempting (not easy..  lots of obfuscation even bordering on prevarication in the POS industry !  If you sense they may not be telling you the whole truth, you're probably RIGHT !)

.. after attempting to verify that the software has been  designed (re-designed 2nd choice) from the ground-up to be WINDOWS software.

 (unless you're a LINUX guru, and want to go 110% DIY with opensource freeware)

.. (speaking of which there ARE "open source POS" software projects for Windows as well, just google it if you're wanting to go entirely DIY .. and ready to take on the whole project with little or no support.)

Rule # 4

Do insist on as much written or PDF documentation as you can get your hands on .. either PRIOR TO the sale or as a CONTRACTUAL condition of the sale ... 'cuz after the sale you will get ZIPPO, as once you're "ON THE HOOK" with most of these companies, the will want to bleed $100 bills out of you for every few minutes of "support" ... and a lot of this software seems designed to require support;  "user manuals" are NOTICEABLE IN THEIR TOTAL ABSENCE in many if not MOST cases.

Rule # 5 

Get used to the fact that most of the software vendors DON'T EVER want to hear from you;

most of them are part of the oldskool technomafia mindset, where information is power, and they want you to have exactly NONE.  

If you can find a software that you can purchase DIRECT from the software vendor TOGETHER WITH reasonably comprehensive written support materials ...  you are a better man than I.    In any other industry, this is "THE WAY THINGS ARE DONE" .. in POS, there is still this way of "doing business" where the POS industry is a LEECH hanging on your leg, sucking blood ALL THE TIME.

Failing the seemingly impossible (well documented POS software that any computer savvy guy with 10 or 20yrs experience would EASILY be able to setup & maintain  :-)

FIND an "authorized dealer" who'll be willing to work with your "DIY" angle (many of them will simply ignore you if you don't appear to be an excellent leg-target for them to fasten their leeching hooks into.)

Please feel free to flame me via email, as I'm not into checking forum PM's

email  dh_AT_davidhartley.com   (you know what to do with the _AT_   hopefully =:-)

Any info gratefully accepted on software vendors who might operate according to a model in which a tech-savvy DIY guy could minimize, according to his abilities, need & cost for excessively expensive (anything over $100/hr is nutzo imho) tech support.

Any info related to documentation on any POS software which you may be wiling to share, trade, or sell could be of interest. (pls no offers of copyright infringements)

Anyone interested in forming a loose-knit online group of non-brand-specific POS support people, perhaps with an ultimate view toward standardizing on some OPEN-SOURCE software to which we could "add value" ..  drop a line.