System Requirements

The amount of computing power you will need depends upon how much work you intend to ask the computer to do at one time.

Generally, the computing demand can be measured by how many planes a drop zone uses. So we have categorized the system requirements along those lines.

We're A Single-Cessna Drop Zone
We Have a Caravan or Porter and some 182s
We Are a Destination Drop Zone with Several Turbine Aircraft
Optional peripheral hardware

We're A Single-Cessna Drop Zone

Odds are good that you will have fewer than 5,000 customers in your database.

We Have a Caravan or Porter and some 182s

You will probably wind up having between 5,000 and 10,000 customers in your database after a couple of years.

If you want your drop zone to continue to grow, plan on having at least two computers networked together. Depending upon how long you want to save your data, you may want to purchase SQL 7.0 desktop edition from a nearby software vendor. It works a little faster than the free version.

If the drop zone is your means of income, it would be wise to configure two computers identically so that you can fall back to using one computer in the event of an outage.

We Are a Destination Drop Zone with Several Turbine Aircraft

You will probably have over 15,000 customers in your database. Depending upon how long you save your data you will need a lot of computing power to optimize performance.

This scenario definitely calls for SQL Server 7.0 Standard or Enterprise edition. We know of no drop zones that warrant the expense of Enterprise edition at this point. These versions of SQL Server must run on Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000.

The neat thing about these versions is that they take advantage of multiple processor computers to enhance speed. You may also want a custom installation of the application to partition different kinds of data on different physical disk drives. Partitioning the data on different drives can improve data access performance by avoiding disk contention. OK, some geek words slipped in there but you will probably need a skilled technician to configure things anyway.

You will want a computer to act as your database server and as many smaller computers for staff workstations as you need to run your business the way you wish. If your budget allows, you may want one of the workstation computers to serve as a backup server just for contingency purposes.

Server
The operating system should be Windows NT 4 with service pack 4 or later or Windows 2000 Professional or Server.

Workstations
The workstations can be configured with Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000 desktop.

Optional Peripheral Hardware

Barcode Scanner
A barcode font (3-of-9) is distributed with the application. The author of this font is Paul Andre LeBlanc. The font is distributed per the conditions of the read-me file distributed with his font.

You can take advantage of the barcode features or ignore them and use the keyboard to enter the information.

Barcodes can be used for retrieving a customer for manifest, payments and counter sales. The items that you sell can also be scanned into a special box either in manifest or in counter sales.

Tickets can be printed with a barcode font that you choose. All information that is printed as a barcode is also printed in normal text. That gives you the opportunity to use the keyboard if your barcode scanner fails.

The choice of which barcode scanner to use is totally up to you. However, we can share some ideas with you that you might overlook.

• A hands-free scanner reduces the workload of the manifest staff. In fact, if you are using tickets, the manifest position becomes more of a supervisory roll. That is because the person with the ticket can place their ticket in front of the scanner. The ticket knows who they are and what was purchased. It will look up their weight, reserve pack date, waiver date, and more if you have chosen to check those elements at manifest time. Once a ticket is used, it cannot be used again.
• Consider if the scanner's reading distance is adequate for your environment.

Receipt Printer
We chose a thermal receipt printer for testing various receipting within the application. It is quiet, fast and does a partial cut between each receipt, label or identification card. It has just under a 3-inch printing width.

It was used to test the printing feature for single identification cards, counter sales receipts, tickets and single labels. It also has the capability of opening a cash drawer when the receipt begins to print.

Consider your climate before choosing a thermal printer. Remember that heat and moisture may limit the usable life of what you have printed.

The model used for testing was an Epson TM-T88II. It was somewhat difficult to acquire the correct data to send to the printer to make the cash drawer open. The information posted on the web site for the product was incorrect so we had to work with their technical support to build the correct information.

NOTE: The printer must be turned on prior to the open-drawer command being sent to the printer. Otherwise the program will sit and wait until the printer is turned on.

Cash Drawer
You probably already have a cash drawer and open it by yourself just fine. Or, perhaps you use your pockets. It all depends on the drop zone. But if you want the computer to open the cash drawer for you, we have provided a way for that to happen through a receipt printer.

The cash drawer we tested with is a "Logic Controls CR3000 Cash Drawer with Epson RJ Connect". It is a low-end drawer because we only used it for testing.

The open signal that is sent to the cash drawer is stored in a file on the computer. That way, if you have a different cash drawer, you can supply the open commands in a file of your own.