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Tommy Chapman

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Brainboxes go from strength to strength.

Published On: 12 January 2016By 5.3 min readCategories: Serial Adapters, UncategorizedTags: , , ,

I recently chatted with Stephen Greer of Liverpool based Brainboxes about the equipment that they offer to the retail industry, and I thought I would share with you the insightful information I found out about Brainboxes and their products.

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  1. What are the products and services that Brainboxes offer retailers?

A. Brainboxes products are used in a wide variety of retail environments such as stores, restaurants and bars. Much of the point of sale equipment used in these locations (barcode scanners, credit card readers, cash drawers etc.) connects to a PC using an RS232 serial port or an RS232 powered serial port. Brainboxes products provide up to 8 serial ports from a single PCI slot. Some of the products can also allow the equipment to be powered from the same port, rather than needing a separate power source.

We also offer a range of Industrial Ethernet products – Switches and Remote I/O devices that can be used in HVAC, Lighting and Access Control.  One in particular uses devices to trigger ANPR cameras monitoring a barrier-less car park in shopping malls.

2. Which products provided by Brainboxes are particularly popular and helpful for those in the retail industry?

Brainboxes RS232 powered serial port

A. Point of Sale (POS) serial cards are used to connect point of sale hardware such as LCD displays, barcode scanners and printers to the main point of sale system. Brainboxes point of sale devices are used extensively throughout retail including major retail stores, DIY chains and supermarkets

3. How does the Brainboxes range of products combine with retail EPoS systems?

A. Major retail chain store names found in every high street are benefiting from the reliability, connectivity and lifetime guarantee of Brainboxes RS232 serial cards in their point of sale transactions.

Brainboxes specially adapted UC-420 three port serial cards were integrated into a customised EPOS solution by a leading UK system integrator as part of a major roll out across all UK and selected overseas branches.

A leading Express Travel Company uses Brainboxes Serial Cards in their nationwide ticketing operations.

Customised Brainboxes Serial Cards are used by a leading UK system integrator to provide an additional four RS232 ports to individual ticketing terminals in a substantial build- to- order roll-out. This proved an extremely cost-effective method of building more functionality into the existing system.

Our new range of Ethernet I/O modules have been used in a retail environment to remotely switch off retail store lighting saving time and energy https://rmspos.co.uk/Serial-Adaptors/Ethernet-to-Serial/

4. On the hardware provided by Brainboxes what is the warranty for retailers?

A. Brainboxes offer various warranties on their products, a full list can be found here: – http://www.brainboxes.com/terms-and-conditions

5. What is included in Brainboxes lifetime support guarantee?

A. The support guarantee information can be found also be found here: – http://www.brainboxes.com/terms-and-conditions

6. How are Brainboxes able to offer a lifetime guarantee on their products?

A. Our own in-house design and manufacturing gives us exceptional quality, reliability and the confidence to offer our customers product lifetime warranty and free technical support for all serial devices from purchase.

7. Do Brainboxes offer software and services for retailers as well as the hardware range?

A. Our software is often designed in the form of drivers and applications to be used in conjunction with our hardware products. Our in-house Research and Development and Manufacturing facilities also allow “Custom Design, Perfect Fit” devices tailored to suit your application in addition to the wide range of standard products we produce.

8. What testing does Brainboxes carry out on their hardware devices?

A. We use continuous automated testing of our in-house drivers and software Continuous testing ensures that when you install one of our devices ‘it just works’. Our software allows hassle free installation, configuration and monitoring via our easy to use webpage. The software gives local COM ports that are backwards compatible enabling legacy applications and the device to work with a myriad of different 3rd party software. We make all our software versions available to download from our website.

9. What industry standard regulations do Brainboxes adhere to for their hardware products?

A. All our product ranges are extensively tested by qualified external test houses to meet all relevant standards, including EMC, CE and safety (UL/METL). They can be safely supplied into every market where these approvals are accepted. We can assist in obtaining specific Country Approvals where needed. All of Brainboxes products are fully RoHS compliant. To verify supplier declarations on RoHS compliance, fully built products were sent to an external test house for X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing on components, using the Fischerscope X-Ray system XDAL. This technique is capable of determining percentages of different elements and is accurate to 0.1% Wt. Brainboxes is fully compliant with the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) 2002/96/EC directives which tackle the increasing waste stream of electrical and electronic equipment and complements European Union measures on Landfill and incineration of waste.

10. How do Brainboxes support services work?

A. Customers can register for lifetime support here:-http://www.brainboxes.com/lifetime-guarantee

11. How does Brainboxes unique industry knowledge allow them to design manufacturer and support devices?

A. Our In house expertise enables us to offer perfect fit custom design solutions. If a product doesn’t quite fit with a customer requirement then we have all the core technology and skills at our fingertips to give the customer exactly what they want.   Retail POS systems often have unique power requirements and we have assisted companies such as ICL, Fujitsu, Wincor Nixdorf & RMS to provide connectivity as well as power through our cards.

12. How long have Brainboxes been assisting retailers in the UK?

A. Our first Retail POS solution was supplied around 1990 supplying Keyboard Wedge barcode scanning solution. Soon after that we started designing Serial port cards and we supplied ICL with a 4 port powered Serial card which enabled them to supply POS systems to the entire M&S estate which provided huge cost saving and removal of power banks from under the counter.

If you would like to find out more about Brainboxes adapters and how they can assist you with connecting peripherals then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Freephone us on 0800 138 0050 or fill out our enquiry form.

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