Looking to buy Aloha terminal

[Tyler121515]

Hey guys,

I am looking to put another Aloha terminal behind the bar at my restaurant, but dont want to spend the money for a brand new terminal. What would you guys recommend for around $400-700 (not including software key)? I don't really know where to begin to look.

thanks in advance,

Tyler

 

[Circle9]

I would suggest looking on eBay. I got a Posiflex TP-5815 for about $700 with shipping. It works great! My Aloha dealer took a look at it and said it was in mint condition. There are some really great deals on eBay. Check it out!

 

[bcconsultin]

Check with your provider about refurbished equipment. Some dealers back it up with a warranty, and e-bay is a good place to look. The beauty of Aloha is that it can work on almost any sort of equipment. Depending on version, OS, etc. A 700 terminal is a good buy, but always refer to what you pay for is what you get. Spending a little more money in my opinion is the best way to go.
Also check with your dealer about what equipment is Radiant certified. Moving out of that scope, could result in driver issues, images incorrect, etc. I have ran into this numerous of times, and resellers use the escape that is not certified equipment, and you now own the problem, and getting the right stuff, could double your expense. 700 terminal, 700 in parts and images, whereas you could buy a new one for about 1700 or less.

Brad C.

 

[RosemarysBaby]

IMHO after buying 2 Radiant terms at $1700 ea., I'm convinced they're not worth it. I went back to my roots that got me far more reliability (maybe some luck). Either I build small form factor PC's with parts from Newegg or I look for quality built small form factor PC's on Ebay. One time I bought a lot of 5 for $300 total and these were clean, quality machines. Then I go with Elo touchscreens almost exclusively on Ebay, anywhere from $150 (decent used to around $350 (new or very close to). I can't break these machines. They're 6 years old and I wish they'd die already.

The big question is: Are you a DIY type and enjoy the thrill and benefit of learning and troubleshooting? If not, you'll find plenty of reasons on this forum to steer away.

Another consideration is asthetics. The Radiant looks good. Separate PC's and touchscreens can be cluttering. Fortunately we have some very talented master carpenters on staff so we can make things look good.

1 last thought if you go the Newegg route (or any other online vendor). I buy Small barebone PC's, they're very inexpensive, $180 or so. Only get them with quality components; Intel chipsets, Socket LGA775. Intel CPU will cost about $62 for a Core 2 duo (don't do Celeron). Just ad memory and HD. Cost about $325 total. You can get a real OEM XP for $99 or I like to use W2K on my terms. Building PC's has gotten really easy these days. Motherboards all come with very simple driver installs on a CD. A child can do it.

My Radiants are less than a year old and I've already had trouble with one. I don't expect to ever see the kind of life or reliability that I've gotten from my PC/touch combos. Time will tell.

 

[Tyler121515]

You guys know anything about or have experience with those IBM "all in one" terminals? I've seen them at several other restaurants that use aloha, and they look pretty clean, but I don't know what they are called. If I decide to buy any terminal off ebay, what are some things I need to verify? I don't want to buy something and have it missing key components. The terminal must have the same version of Windows at my store already embedded, right?

Thanks again,

tyler

 

[Circle9]

Those all-in-one terminals are called the IBM SurePOS 500.

 

[RosemarysBaby]

I bought an IBM for my bar terminal about 10-11 years ago. The thing was solid as a brick. Touchscreen was water proof, scratch proof and this think lasted a good 7 years. It came with win95, I eventually put W2K on it. Only downside was the touch interface. Slow because it was IR and not capacitive or resistance. So staff that were used to entering orders on the resistive touchscreen hated the slower touch rate of the IBM, slower by maybe 1/10 of a second.

What model, year and o/s are you talking about?

As for Aloha and the O/S, you can mix the environment but things can get quite tricky. There is great talent on this forum that can guide you much better than me.

If I were in your shoes, using mixed older hardware, I would just try to make certain everything is W2K capable and run with W2K exclusively for simplicity and share issues. Just my opinion.

 

[alohaakamai3]

Like any DIY project, you're rolling the dice. And that goes double for used stuff.

Some of my customers do it and get away with it, others end up buying it and then calling us to get it going (or worse, we tell them why they can't use it) and it ends up costing them double. Just be prepared for that, as I see it regularly.

Also, you're budget is on the low-end, maybe not too outlandish for refurb, but I can tell you that $700 is less than dealer cost on the cheapest equipment we can buy at dealer cost by several hundred dollars (and that's on the most affordable equipment, even more for all in ones).

Though I agree all in ones look neater, there is something to be said for 2-piece legacy equipment, especially if you're going to get into the DIY realm for the future. One defect in the all in one unit, even a mag card reader, means losing all components instead of one, either by way of junking it or sending it out for repair.

Just the other day, we had a client take a power hit on a Radiant machine that seems to have cooked the motherboard (likely the screen was fine). If this was a two piece unit, he'd just be looking at a new booksized PC. Now he is looking at replacing everything, since it's really not worth repairing.

No, you generally don't need to have the same version of windows on the terminals-and I have several environments that run both full versions of Windows and embedded statins as well, with some different settings, but they can work together fine.

My personal advice in this case. You've got to call the dealer for the license anyway this time around, I'd consider just paying them to put in a new unit and get the 3 year warranty.

I think RosemaryBaby is right on the money- if your generally curious as to how this stuff works, don't mind some trial and error, possibly a little downtown with this terminal (maybe with the network), and are fairly computer literate, than this may be something you want to pursue. It depends the restaurant too... I've seen some places with 4 stations not bother replacing stuff until they got to 2 working stations, they make due. I've seen places that have 11 stations go into a panic when the touch screen calibration is off on one screen.

On the other hand, if your only motivation for doing this is saving money, and you for the most part, just want the darn thing to work without hassle-I'd let the dealer do it.

 

[xayk]

What a timely thread. My two cents & bonus questions!

If you've seen one of my previous threads, I've had a boatload of trouble with IBM 533's. I think I'm up to seven dead motherboards in the last three months or so, spread over three restaurants (I just had one die on Friday.) I generally like the IR touchscreen, but there's no way I can justify them any longer. Three died at just under three years, three died at just over three years, and the most recent was at about 16 months. One year warranty on all, so there's that joy.

Now, I've still got a number of IBM 531's humming along, some close to six years now. K6-2 400mhz's; I'm upgrading their hard drives and memory to run XP as part of a move to Aloha 6.4 (which sounds tenuous, but my test machine runs very well.) I've still (barely) got two Javelin's in service, close to eight years. They've needed some service and some parts swapped from dead machines, but they get the job done.

The Javelin's are mercifully getting replaced, again as part of an overall upgrade to 6.4 in the near future. But this has lead me to a crossroads. I've done IBM eBay before, and I've got three "DIY" toushcreen/cpu's out in the field. All four are doing fine, about two years into service. Two years @ $800 or so (give or take) vs. the cost and performance of the IBM's, as well as three Radiant 1510's RMA'd (one under warranty, two out of warranty) has made me really think of what I want to do. Without seeing invoices in front of me, I know I'm not paying $1700 for Radiant's hardware, and I'm only on a one-year warranty. A three-year warranty and/or a lower cost on Radiant hardware would make me feel better and lean towards purchasing from my dealer.

I've got a *generally* good relationship with my dealer, but I'm not getting nearly those prices; I'm not entirely sure I'm even getting those prices on refurb'd equipment (pre-edit: I just looked, and I'm not.) I can certainly ask about an extended warranty, but I can't say as though it's ever been extended to me previously. Can someone enlighten me about dealer cost flexibility (and I don't need hard numbers) and the warranty? Does the vendor get it through Radiant, or are individual vendors offering it themselves?

 

[Circle9]

You said you were going to upgrade to Aloha 6.4. When will my dealer in Minnesota get this software version? What are some new features in 6.4?

I also have an IBM 531 and it has been a very good system for me. I've had it for about three years and haven't had any major problems. I bought the system from eBay for about $800. It's been a great system for me.

 

[xayk]

I know my dealer has 6.4, but I'm not quite sure when I'm getting my hands on it. A week or so, I'd wager? The big 6.4 upgrade has to do largely with a bunch of pci compliance issues, but also with an ostensibly new tip-out procedure that's supposed to make accounting's life easier. In theory.

 

[RosemarysBaby]

Xayk
Bought brand new Radiant 1510 in Nov. 07. Paid 1703.67 and that included 2 RJ dongles for the printers, so take away maybe another $25. I'm a retail customer. But a tight one!

 

[Keyservicesmw]

Tyler what are you currently running your aloha system on.

 

[Keyservicesmw]

xayk (MIS)

I see you have some 533 boards that are non working, I sell NEW boards and can repair the old ones.

 

[Tyler121515]

Keyserv,

I am currently running Aloha on Windows XP