Access the NFC Module for communication to Wristbands

Developers
#1

How is it possible to access the NFC Module to communicate to Wristbands or NFC Cards in a closed loop transaction mode?
We’re trying to build a cashless environment. People are purchasing online and using NFC to accommodate cashless payments;

cheers
christian

#2

Hi Christian - not right now. In this release we are focussing only on the payment CL cards but we do have plans to offer reading non-std payment applications through NFC.

For the BOPUS (buy online and pick up in store) use cases like yours, the best you can do is to create an Order in Poynt system using Poynt REST apis and mark it as externally paid. All orders created for the merchant get sync’ed with the device and the merchant can access the information locally when the customer walks in. You could build an app on Poynt terminal that can scan a QR code or take your order Id and display the information too.

Hope that helps.

cheers,
Praveen

#3

Praveen,

thanks for the answer. The reason why I am asking is that we are trying to organise some big music festivals in Switzerland with more than 200.000 visitors this year. And we are seriously evaluating the possibility to use your device in kind of a closed loop setup doing the entry control and also the POS/cashless system without the credit card payment or apple pay.
We would probably buy a few hundreds of your devices if we decide that your device would fit our needs. It could also be a huge showcase for your company since we have such a big crowd and other important people from that business attending the festivals.

Having said that…the frustrating part is that nobody from your company seems to be interested. I have sent E-Mails to info@poynt.com, Tony Miranz and filled out the form on your website.
I have explained our project and asked to get in touch with engineers and sales people for a more detailed discussion.
I got no answer so far.

Are you guys not interested in doing business? Should I rather look at a different company as supplier?

Best Regards
Christian
CIO Starticket

#4

Got it - so we do not support closed loop payment systems through NFC. As I said we do have plans to do it in the future but no specific time lines yet. Our focus is primarily US and Brazil. Apologies for no response from our teams.

We are integrated with a bunch of acquirers and integrating with more. That would keep us quite busy at least until mid year this year. So if you are looking for a solution before that supporting your NFC closed loop setup - you would have to find a different way. I’ve heard of NFC readers with USB interfaces (though I’ve never tried one) that you can potentially connect to Poynt Terminal over USB to read closed loop NFC cards. - of course if such solution works for you.

Hope that helps. Sorry again for lack of communication.

#5

Praveen,

yes that is definitely a solution for us…connecting an NFC Reader to the USB Interface. We know such devices.
Since time is short until the summer festivals I would like to starting working on that solution.
As a said we are looking at using 300-400 of your devices at those festivals. That requires some serious planning.

Would it be possible for you to hook me up to the right people at your company? I need someone to talk to in personal.

Best Regards
Christian

#6

Hi Christian,

I see that you have already been in touch with Tony who shared the phone you can use to get in touch with him. If you need to have a business discussion he is the right person to talk to. If you would like to talk to someone to access technical feasibility of the integration I am happy to chat with you over the phone this week.

Thanks,
Dennis

#7

Hi Dennis,

yes. I would like to talk to you on the phone. Are you available tomorrow?

Thanks
Christian

#8

Yes. Will send you an email shortly.

#9

Praveen,

If we would hookup an external Bluetooth Device or RFID Reader through USB…which port would or could we use? The Micro USB or the one on the docking station?

Regards
Christian

#10

You could use either one. If you use the port in the dock the terminal will obviously have to be on the dock to be able to communicate with that device.

#11

Hi dennis,

a Colleague from Christian here.

We attached our RFID Reader to the dock USB connector, which leads to the “select device” screen to pop up. The device would normally show up as serial device, which is no option on the screen.

How can I communicate with the device? How can I trigger the creation of the serial port?

logs from the android console:

03-21 13:58:52.068 1398-1398/? D/BootUpReceiver:  received intent Intent { act=android.hardware.usb.action.USB_DEVICE_ATTACHED flg=0x10000010 cmp=co.poynt.accessory.manager/.receiver.USBReceiver (has extras) }
03-21 13:58:52.069 1398-1398/? D/BootUpReceiver:  INFO UsbDevice[mName=/dev/bus/usb/001/009,mVendorId=4292,mProductId=60000,mClass=0,mSubclass=0,mProtocol=0,mInterfaces=[Landroid.os.Parcelable;@41a00f08]
03-21 13:58:52.069 1398-1398/? D/BootUpReceiver:  INFO interfaceCount:1
03-21 13:58:52.070 1398-1398/? D/BootUpReceiver:  INFO interface:UsbInterface[mId=0,mClass=255,mSubclass=0,mProtocol=0,mEndpoints=[Landroid.os.Parcelable;@41a00f98]
03-21 13:58:52.071 1398-1398/? D/BootUpReceiver:  INFO interface id:0
03-21 13:58:52.072 1398-1398/? D/BootUpReceiver:  INFO interface endpoint:UsbEndpoint[mAddress=129,mAttributes=2,mMaxPacketSize=64,mInterval=0]
03-21 13:58:52.072 1398-1398/? D/BootUpReceiver:  INFO interface endpoint:UsbEndpoint[mAddress=1,mAttributes=2,mMaxPacketSize=64,mInterval=0]
03-21 13:58:52.072 1398-1398/? D/BootUpReceiver:  INFO interfaceCount:1
03-21 13:58:52.073 1398-1398/? W/ContextImpl: Calling a method in the system process without a qualified user: android.app.ContextImpl.startService:1487 android.content.ContextWrapper.startService:494 android.content.ContextWrapper.startService:494 co.poynt.accessory.manager.receiver.USBReceiver.onReceive:35 android.app.ActivityThread.handleReceiver:2407 
03-21 13:58:52.080 1398-10667/? D/AccessoryService:  onHandleIntent received: Intent { act=android.hardware.usb.action.USB_DEVICE_ATTACHED cmp=co.poynt.accessory.manager/.service.AccessoryService (has extras) }
03-21 13:58:52.081 1398-10667/? D/AccessoryService: device attached: UsbDevice[mName=/dev/bus/usb/001/009,mVendorId=4292,mProductId=60000,mClass=0,mSubclass=0,mProtocol=0,mInterfaces=[Landroid.os.Parcelable;@41a06da8]
03-21 13:58:52.083 1398-10667/? D/AccessoryService:  INFO serial number; 0001
03-21 13:58:52.088 1398-10667/? W/ContextImpl: Calling a method in the system process without a qualified user: android.app.ContextImpl.startActivity:1028 android.content.ContextWrapper.startActivity:311 co.poynt.accessory.manager.service.AccessoryService.showAccessorySelection:295 co.poynt.accessory.manager.service.AccessoryService.onHandleIntent:161 android.app.IntentService$ServiceHandler.handleMessage:65 
03-21 13:58:52.089 1398-10667/? W/ContextImpl: Calling a method in the system process without a qualified user: android.app.ContextImpl.startActivity:1040 android.app.ContextImpl.startActivity:1029 android.content.ContextWrapper.startActivity:311 co.poynt.accessory.manager.service.AccessoryService.showAccessorySelection:295 co.poynt.accessory.manager.service.AccessoryService.onHandleIntent:161 
03-21 13:58:52.090 936-1375/? I/ActivityManager: START u0 {flg=0x10000000 cmp=co.poynt.accessory.manager/.ui.AccessorySelectionActivity (has extras)} from pid 1398

tia,
roland

#12

Hi Roland,

As you have seen our accessory manager does not have an option for RFID reader, something we should be able to add down the road. For now if you don’t want this screen to popup on every boot you can select any of the existing options. I believe you should be able to communicate with your device using one of many existing usb serial libraries.

#13

Hi Dennis,

thanks for your reply.

Do you see any chance in getting the Serial with the NDK working? We are porting a quite complex Software for (beside others) manipulating RFID Datacarriers based on various ISO standards written in C(++).

Of course we can call the corresponding java functions, but because of the complex timeout handling and the need of low level hardware control I would prefer use the well tested code currently used in various devices on various OS.

tia, roland