HI I’m new to SambaPos and am trying to set up my system. Have been looking through the community threads and couldn’t find the answer to my question. I’m running Windows POS Ready on an atom based computer at the shop and have the 5.1.62 installed. I’m trying to install 4 tablets two for the waiters one for the Bar and one for the kitchen as a kitchen display.
We are a sit down restaurant. Could some one please point me in the right direction. I’m sure this question has been answered before but I couldn’t find the solution to it.
Firstly you are going to want a server or rather better spec machine acting as a server an atom based epos machine will struggle to host DB for multi terminal setup.
You’ll also need either Windows tablets or or there is tablets and an RDP server or multiple PCs for tablets to RDP to.
Or you wait for the android/iOS apps to come out or take a look at PMPOS / the samba API and make a web app.
As have reconmended in past if RDP is preferred solution then cheaper option on purchase (not electricity in long run) is multiple small form factor PCs.
I will be using iPads with RDP untill PMPOS or IOS app is final and will use a small form factor dell PC (arround £50-60 on eBay as a headless RDP host machine - one per iPad)
I use these machines for my terminal tills aswell.
Dell Optiplex USFF 780 (3Ghz C2Duo 4GB RAM and small HDD)
There are other options but like these machines as small with intergrated PSU and easy to repair/maintain.
I would have to disagree with RDP being an expensive solution considering that rdp wrapper tool is legal which its been brought up multiple times and it doesn’t break any terms of use for Microsoft.
Thats not that much different to having several SFF PCs. But momentaraly ignoring the question of legality a single might spec machine costing more up front would save on electrisity in the long run.
Personally I am partial to the multiple SFF PC structure for increased redundency over putting all your eggs in one basket (although yes there is only one SQL server in my setup a problimatic RDP PC would effect a single tablet rather than all of them - plus I have about 2 dozzen Dell USFF 780s from a job lot I bought last year for tills etc they are everywhere I go, at home, my print shop, my media pc, my CCTV and PBX machines, hehe, is great whenever there is an issue as can chop and change parts etc and all being the same model I can clone the HDD and havnt had to install windows from scratch in the last 18 months which is a nice change LOL
LOL you use a single machine for each tablet? We thought about that initially but the extra space needed, electricity costs, noise, extra cable, etc simply makes it not worth it for us. Restaurants we deal with have very limited amount of space.
Also I dont see how my setup would cost more upfront then buying a dedicated computer for each tablet. Considering just pc costs:
A Lenovo Server $390
120GB SSD $80
8gb DDR3 Ram $80
A windows 7-8 license which you can probably find under $20
All that is brand new and can probably support over 8 tablets simultaneously. And also is very quite and is server quality hardware that is made to be on 24/7. What were planning on doing is buying a bunch of servers, so incase of any emergency issues we just plug in clients old ssd into new tower and theyre good to go!
Also on top of all that, I also host SQL Server on it which works out well since it allows me to use SFF Shuttle fanless pc’s for all the stations.
The machines I use are refurbs but reliable. and on average are arround £50 each usually with 4gb ram and normal hdd which is fine for single rdp.
Im not arguing but tend to agree with kendash on the ‘legality’ although not used your wrapper have used the patch in a pintch before but given a decent network has a centeral point like at hotel we have a network cipboard where i have 3 PCs running for various tasks, cabling is not an issue and sound either. Electrisity is a trade off but a cost of business and these machines are pretty low on power consumption…
Played with virtulisation which would be another option.
We only have a couple of tablets which is more than enough.
Not saying its best solution but a solution all the same.
The debate over legality can go any direction. The fact is Microsoft can and will protect their investment if they feel the need and I highly doubt they would lose in a case of someone using that wrapper. The wrapper does not modify termserv.dll but it does rely on it and that is clearly not intended use by Microsoft. So the problem lies not in the software itself but in the usage. The actual wrapper itself is probably not breaking any laws but the usage of it certainly could be left up for interpretation.
Anyway regardless I really couldn’t care either way I just typically like people to know what they are getting into. The GQL solutions will be our ultimate savior for tablet environments. It probably wont be much longer.
When I tried that kind of tablet setup, my issues were not necesarily it being slow but rather freezing bugs when left idle overnight. Also think I was having printing issues. I used a pretty solid $250 router that is working perfectly with rdp.
The tablet in that video is running latest win 10 home with most UTD release. 2gig ram intel Atom Z3735F cpu and 32gig storage. That was sambapos over wifi connecting to SQL Server on my main dev machine.
I purchased a used Surface Pro 3 on ebay for $350. I installed SambaPOS and have been using SambaPOS via WiFi for three months. I have not had any issues whatsoever. I believe good hardware does make a difference, but I only have one in production, so it not a valid test.
they are everywhere I go, at home, my print shop, my media pc, my CCTV and PBX machines, hehe, is great whenever there is an issue as can chop and change parts etc and all being the same model I can clone the HDD and havnt had to install windows from scratch in the last 18 months which is a nice change LOL