Coin Vend control for Printing (into Doc Filing Folder)

[hammer]

Hi Guys, I have a query that I hope one of you can help with. We have installed an MX5112 into a school that uses coin vend/student cards for copying. They also want to use this system for print control by having the students print to a specified folder. Access to this folder (or Doc Filing) would only be granted by insertion of the student card to the vend machine. I'm getting a few conflicting reports; some saying it can be done, and some that it can't be done. It appears the guy that knows how to do it is up a mountain in Tibet, along with his Knowledge Does anyone have any suggestions?

[TheOwl]

Re: Coin Vend control for Printing (into Doc Filing Folder)

In any case such as this, I would turn my attention to PaperCut MF. It accounts for anything copied, printed, scanned, faxed etc.

[bilyahn]

Re: Coin Vend control for Printing (into Doc Filing Folder)

In any case such as this, I would turn my attention to PaperCut MF. It accounts for anything copied, printed, scanned, faxed etc.

We will be installing a vend using student cards and Papercut MF sometime in the future (only been working on this for about 6 months now). Did not go with the coin op as it depends on the supplier of the coin op system. If you get everything from one vendor it seems like it will work fine but if you use a pre-existing PaperCut account and then add the coinop/print function it may or may not work (on Sharps it appears that the coin op disables the print control software when it is plugged in). Vendor could not say why this was, we would just have to try it to see if it would work. Unless you do a lot of these it does not seem worth the time and effort to set up and administer. Will let you know if we ever get it set up.

Good luck.

Bil

[oldschool]

Re: Coin Vend control for Printing (into Doc Filing Folder)

The coin vendor is most likely connected to the Sharp vend connector. There isn't any output on the vend connector to account for printing. Most MFPs pass print jobs through regardless of the vend station. I have seen this set up on a couple of other manufacture's MFPs so there may be an option to disable prints as well as copies on the Sharp. It would also need to output a signal to the coin vendor that a copy was made. On other models it's usually an administrator setting. Other MFPS also require the print job to be a secure print job. This password protects the job to keep patrons from printing a job that belongs to someone else and puts it in a secure inbox. I don't think the Sharp Vending Interface has this capability.
Another solution could be a third party software like Envisionware's LptOne. The coin vendor would need to be able to connect to a PC and to Sharp's vend connector. The patrons go to one PC to release jobs printed from the client PCs. The software charges for the prints before they are even sent to the Sharp. We have put solutions in like this in the field and they are working well. It can also be set up to have different pricing for b/w vs. color copies/prints. I don't know which coin vendor or card types you have so I don't know the capabilities of that model.
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