Help me outsmart a dumb terminal

August 1, 2008 12:05 AM

Help me setup an old Wyse Terminal.

A point of sale system I want to setup has support for dumb terminals. I got a hold of a Link MC5 terminal that seems to be compatible with the software I have.

My problem is I don't know how to set it up and I haven't been able to find a manual for it on the internets.

If I turn on the terminal, all I get is some text that reads "*FDX Main".

The terminal is connected to the correct serial port of the PC (which is running windows xp). What am I missing?

posted by edmz to computers & internet (7 comments total)

It's not a dumb terminal (though it's pretty dumb by today's standards, sure). There's probably a setup screen you can get to.

"*FDX Main" - in the status line? - probably means, full-duplex, main serial port (it has two, for some reason).
posted by hattifattener at 1:10 AM on August 1, 2008

Heh, old school!

I used to have a Wyse-60 as a serial terminal for my Linux box for a while. It got me out of a few holes, but took up too much space, so I donated it to the finance department of Oxford University who found themselves in need of one...

Does any of this help?
posted by pharm at 2:40 AM on August 1, 2008

Also, this manual looks helpful, although it's not for setting up a POS system.
posted by pharm at 2:42 AM on August 1, 2008

You're POS system, which is running under Win XP, needs a serial communications (RS232) protocol which matches the Wyse Terminal. From pharm's instruction page you get the setup line across the bottom of the terminal screen by clicking Shift-Select keys simultaneously. Once you have the protocols matching you should be able to see the POS system communicating with the terminal by printing text onto the screen.
posted by ptm at 5:59 AM on August 1, 2008

On a related note, WYSE support used to be fantastic. I called once about getting my hands on a manual and the CSR just answered my questions on the spot, without even checking to see if I was a customer.
posted by vkxmai at 7:15 AM on August 1, 2008

Find out what speed and error correction settings the XP machine is using and set the terminal to use those. Something like 9600,8,n,1.

It's also quite likely the POS system needs to be set up to allow the terminal to work with it. Including the possibility that the POS system will want another "seat license" sort of thing.
posted by gjc at 7:25 AM on August 1, 2008

thanks everybody for your suggestions, I will try them in a couple of hours and let you know if they worked
posted by edmz at 8:17 AM on August 1, 2008