User Manual
V1.3 - 202301
Page 16 of 43
5.
Modes of operation
Machine Interface
The Apollo terminal family support several different interfaces to connect to your machine.
Choosing an interface will largely depend on the interface that is supported by your machine, and
the preferred method of powering the terminal. Table 1 gives a summary of available options.
Interface
Mode
Description
Remarks
MDB
The Multi Drop Bus is an industry standard interface for vending
machines. If your machine supports an MDB - Cashless Device, then
this will require little effort to reach a working solution, provided that
the MDB standard is correctly implemented in your machine. An
advantage of MDB is that the interface also supplies power to the
terminal, requiring no additional power supply.
PSP
This message based protocol provides basic functionality for machine
to payment terminal communication, over an RS232 or TCP/IP
connection.
Cloud
This API provides methods to manage payment sessions on Payter
terminals, in this mode of operation the terminal is slaved to the Payter
Cloud API.
Potential
Free Pulse
Contact
A configurable potential free pulse contact is available to signal your
application that a payment transaction was successfully processed. In
addition, an input port is available to enable/disable the terminal, if for
example the machine is out of order.
Although a Potential free pulse contact interface is widely used, there
is no standardization, and requires attention to electrical details before
it can be used.
Require Accessory
Table 5.1
–
Available Host Machine interface modes.
For detailed and in depth information about the various interfaces, please check the Payter
website for documentation or ask your Payter account representative.
MDB mode
MDB stands for multidrop bus. Since the 1980, the multidrop computer bus has been used by
vending machine controllers to communicate with the vending machine's components, such as a
currency detector. It is now an open standard of the National Automatic Merchandising
Association (NAMA).
The Apollo series terminals are classified as MDB Cashless Devices and support levels 1 to 3 of the
MDB specification v4.2, including the always idle mode. For a detailed description of the MDB
interface, see the MDB v4.2 specification documentation.
MDB or Power supply
1
VDC
2
GND
3
Master_TX
4
Master_RX
5
ISO GND
VDC = 12..24V
P = 18W max.
