Re: Apple II's as kiosk machines.

[cheer@i.hate.spam (Christopher D. Heer)]

It was Mon, 10 Mar 1997 22:31:33 -0500.  I was reading instead of working.  And 
Rob Chadwick  <chadwick@shopdoor.com> said:

>I'm working on a project where we'll need to put together initially 10,
>and as many as 50 kiosk machines to provide printable information on
>local resources.  These machines will be placed in high traffic public
>places, so reliability is definitely an issue.  Here's what I envision,
>& I'd appreciate any feedback:

>Apple IIe's or IIc's yanked out of their case and built into an
>attractive box with limited keyboard input (probably just some arrow
>keys & an enter key rigged up), along with some sort of small
>point-of-sale sized printer (Didn't sekiosha make these for a while?).

It's an interesting idea.  Certainly ought to be doable.

>Ideally, we'd like to go with color monitors.  I think composite color
>monitors might work, but RGB would probably be preferable.  I know the
>IIe did not come with an RGB interface, does the IIc have one built in? 

Nope.  I think for cost/availability reasons you might want to avoid the RGB 
solution.

>We'll only need one floppy, which will be locked inside the box.  Given
>that the floppy is inaccessible, and only arrow keys and enter will be
>accessible, I don't think there's really any way someone could crash the
>machines.

Assuming you do all the right things with respect to trapping keyboard input, 
etc.  :)  Nah, shouldn't be a problem.

>My biggest concern at this point is the printer.  I'd like for the
>printer to be very compact & ideally have a paper cutter so that the
>user doesn't need to tear the output off of the printer, which could
>cause paper jams.

Your best bet is to investiate not Apple-ish products but POS products.  There 
are a slew of vendors that specialise in this -- Nimax in San Diego, 
California, is one that I've dealt with (http://www.nimax.com).  They're a 
distributor, but all you need is a resale license to buy from 'em; otherwise, 
they can refer you to one of their resellers.  They have all kinds of receipt 
printers, POS printers, barcode printers, etc., designed for just this type of 
environment.  I'm sure they come in both serial and parallel flavours.

Let me know if any of this helps, and drop me a line if you have questions for 
me.
-- 
          Christopher D. Heer - cheer at us dot oracle dot com
     My opinions are my own and do not reflect those of Oracle Corp.
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