Field Operation
 The
short answer to what the WR88 Wicket Reader is doing at any moment is answered
by the illuminated face color, and is summarized by the graphic
to the right. This graphic is also conveniently placed on the back side of every
Customer Wicket. Below is a summary of typical operations
that may be preformed by a customer or by service personnel.
Program A Wicket
Reader: In the field, a
Wicket Reader must know a.) which Wickets are yours so that only
they are accepted, b) how much to debit from a Wicket to startup
the equipment, c) how much to incrementally debit after the
startup amount has been take, d) what the pulse duration and pulse
value is if the output is to be pulsed like a coin acceptor, or e)
what the protocol is if it is a serial data interface. This
information is set by you in the
Wickets
Administrator Reader Programming screen. The data is then
written to a Reader
Programming Wicket and then you must take that Wicket around
to each installed WR88 Wicket Reader that is to operate with those
parameters and have each of them read in the data from the Reader
Programming Wicket by tapping it slowly on the face of the WR88.
It will blink green if the data has been successfully read and
accepted. This process must be repeated for each class of
equipment that operates with different pricing or has different
interface requirements. When a WR88 arrives from the factory,
unless it has been pre-programmed by the factory according to your
request, it arrives in a "virgin state" having no idea of how it
should operate. It will blink purple to
indicate it is in the virgin state and will reject all
Wickets presented to it - except for a Reader Programming Wicket.
The SiteID of this first read
Reader Programming Wicket will be permanently imprinted in the
WR88 and it will hence forth only accept Reader Programming
Wickets having this SiteID.
Read A Wicket:
The RF energy field extends out of the face of the WR88 Wicket
Reader about 1/2" in sufficient strength to be received by the
RFID inlay with a Wicket and
provide power to its circuitry so that it may communicate with the
Wicket Reader. Thus, in order to read the data contents of a
Wicket, the RFID inlay must be brought within 1/2" of the Wicket
Reader face. The center location of the RFID inlay is indicated on
the Wicket by the location of the circle-W icon on the front face
of the Wicket. We recommend a simple slow tap of that portion of
the Wicket on the face of the Wicket Reader as the easiest way to
physically read the Wicket. If the Wicket is
accepted, it will blink green for a second. If the
Wicket is rejected as invalid, it
will blink red for a second. It will
blink yellow to indicate it is unable
to complete the transaction for cases such as when there
are insufficient funds.
Debit A Customer Wicket:
When a Customer Wicket is presented to a WR88 installed on service
equipment, the WR88 first checks to see if it is a valid Wicket,
if the SiteID matches, and if it is a Customer Wicket that is
being presented. If any of these is incorrect, the Wicket is
rejected and the WR88 face blinks red. Then it checks its
programmed Start Amount against the
Account Balance and Bonus
Balance stored in memory on the Wicket. If there is
insufficient balance between the two of them the WR88 face blinks
yellow to indicate it is unable to process the transaction. If
there is sufficient balance, the Start Amount is debited from the
Wicket and the WR88 face blinks green. Value is first debited from
the Account Balance (real money), and then from the Bonus Balance
(promotional credits) when none remains in the Account Balance.
See The Wicket Balances:
There are three ways in which a customer can find out the Account
Balance (real money), Bonus
Balance, and Loyalty
Points Balance on his Wicket: a.) with the
Redemption Station,
b.) when the service equipment uses and IDX display timer and the
CardDisplay interface,
or c.) by bringing the Wicket into your office to be read with the
Wickets
Administrator Wicket Reader.
Refund A Customer Wicket:
When a customer has a few dollars left in the Account Balance
(real money) of his Wicket and wants to have his money refunded,
the transaction must be executed through the
Wickets
Administrator Refund/Redeem screen using its Wicket Reader.
Here you can read the Wicket, clear its Account Balance, adjust
Loyalty Points down accordingly, and account for the cash
transaction with the customer.
Redeem Loyalty Points:
Customers accumulate one
Loyalty Point for every dollar purchased and put in the
Account Balance of their Wicket. Loyalty Points that are available
for redemption are calculated by subtracting the Account Balance
from the Loyalty Points Balance. There are three ways that Loyalty
Points can be redeemed. First, the
Wickets
Administrator Refund/Redeem screen can be used to redeem them
manually. What the owner/operator provides in exchange can be
anything of their choosing. Second, at the
Redemption Station the
customer can automatically redeem his Loyalty Points any time of
the day or night for a fixed number of
Bonus Bucks that are
automatically added to the Bonus Account on his Wicket. The ratio
of Bonus Bucks per Loyalty Points is determined in the
corresponding Setup screen within the
Wickets Turbo Accessories
software that runs the Redemption Station. Third, a Wicket Reader
can be programmed to start your "bonus equipment" by directly
deducting Loyalty Points for the Wicket.
Equipment Failure Refund:
If the service equipment uses the WR88 in the
Pulse Output mode and the WR88's
Service Sense input line is connected to monitor an available
signal from the service equipment, then the WR88 can confirm that
the service equipment actually does turn on and function. The
details for setting up this mode of operation are found on the
Wickets
Administrator Reader Programming screen. When the Debit
Lockout feature is enabled and the WR88 fails to detect activity
on the Service Sense input line for 10 minutes, the WR88 will
conclude that the service equipment has failed. When this occurs,
the WR88 face will continuously blink red to indicate equipment
failure has occurred. No further Wicket debiting will occur in
this condition. If a customer had earlier debited his Wicket by
some amount in an attempt to start the failed equipment, then when
Debit Lockout is triggered the customer may read in his Wicket and
automatically get a refund from the WR88 of any amount taken
earlier in the transaction. When a successful refund has been
given, the WR88 will blink green. If the fault is later
cleared and other customers have since used the equipment, that
refund amount will still be held by the WR88 and will be waiting
to be refunded to that same Wicket when it next is read.
Vending Machine
Transaction:
Vending machine transactions are transacted a little bit
differently from those on timed service equipment. The usual
procedure is one in which coins or bills are first deposited, or a
credit/debit card is first read. The customer then makes his
selection. When the item is vended change is either given from the
original cash deposit, or the card transaction for the amount is
then transmitted to the clearing house. In the case of a Wicket,
the transaction is again started by reading the Wicket. The
customer is prompted to make a selection, and then again prompted
to read in his Wicket again to complete the transaction by
debiting the price of the selected item from the Wicket so that
the item may be dispensed. The WR88 will blink green if the debit
transaction is completed satisfactorily. If the item then fails to
vend from the machine, the vending machine controller will attempt
to refund the amount to the customer's Wicket. When a refund is
being attempted, the Wicket Reader face will blink white to
indicate a transaction is pending. When the customer then (or at
some later time) returns to read the same Wicket, the refund
amount will be credited back to the Wicket and the Wicket Reader
face will blink green. The WR88 uses the MDB Vendor protocol for
vending machine and Revalue Station
applications.
Ban A Wicket From
Use: If you have cause
to ban one of your registered Wickets from further use you must
first create a Banned List
Wicket using the
Registration Management module of
Wickets Turbo Accessories.
Once you have created the Banned List Wicket, then you must take
it around to each WR88 Wicket Reader installed on your service
equipment so that each can read the contents of the Banned List
Wicket in order to identify and reject these Wickets in the future
should the be presented. If a banned Wicket is then later read,
the WR88 will permanently disable it.
Gather System
Report Information:
Wickets Administrator supports the use of a
Systems Report Wicket
for use in gathering data from each of the WR88 Wicket Readers in
your establishment. When a WR88 recognizes a System Report Wicket
has been presented, then it quickly writes a summary of its
transactions onto the System Report Wicket for use with the
Wickets Administrator
Reports screen. Each WR88 is identified with a group of other
WR88's having the same configuration and which all report as a
single group. |
General
The WR88 requires only 5VDC to operate and has an input/output interface that can be
