Welcome to EpoS Wizard!
Wow awesome forums. Andy-the-diver = my hero.
The long and short of it. Family owned restaurant business with multiple locations.
One store needs to add a till for lunch overflow. Another location needs to basically retire their well used broken journal machine. (Potential $ opportunity for me)
Owner eBay'd a used till with the exact issue discussed HERE
Our initial cash register supplier has been out of business for about 3 years now.
With the manual I have taught myself how to basically tweek the initial programing. (Adding PLU/disabling return and void keys/tax/discount %)
Short story..... I have volunteered to program the tills. The least I could do to repay the owners son for posting bond on recent arrest. 
Back to the till. I just fixed a junk dell laptop and installed XP.
Went to radio shack and priced a serial to USB cable.
These next steps are where I need some guidance.
1. I need to back up each store's till programming. To have just in case/quick till reprogramming.
2. If I can't get the till o connect to PC. Can I have it print out the current system variables?
3. PC software.... this is coming out of my pocket., I read about a program utility and Sam something. Where and what version do I need? Can I retain both arm and leg once its all said and done?
4. Aside from the name on the thing... I have no idea where to identify what version or revision I am currently using. Where do I find that info? I'm sure the next response will be requesting this.
The till is pretty simple and I want to try and program one manually. I look forward to learning and challenging my self. But i know my boss. He has the patience of diarrhea. So I need to get a quick save good->format used>load good> done..... for the first till. That should buy me a week or so with the second till.
Also. Are there any low cost solutions or replacements for worn out silicone keypad mats?
Andy to the recue 
lol [never been anyone's hero before 
]
ok last thing first
can try clingfilm and sellotape but it wont last
the wetcovers are not that expensive when you put into perspective the cost of replacing the keyboard if it fails due to not using correct wetcover.
secondly, remember that the usb to serial cable is just that and you will need to purchase/make a cable to go between the rs232 converter and the rs232 port on the till.
next [and by far the biggest] issue........
Different aged tills will have different software versions loaded and as such will need different versions of the programming utiity. Getting the wrong version of utility to pull the data corrupts the product file data
then theres the loading multiple versions of the programming utility on a single laptop/pc:-
Whilst possible, you need experience in installing programmes in non default locations.
that said, what you cant do is choose where the utility saves its data - its all going in the same folder
if you open the data with the incorrect version of the utility - you WILL corrupt the data!
if it were me doing it, id look across all the sites for the till with the latest eprom version [alternatively look for the most prolific distribution of an eprom version ] and convert all the tills to the same version. - the downside to this is that all the data will be lost when you update the eprom.
see? not a hero - just pointing out the pitfalls lol
I see... When installing the utility programs, are you able to choose different directories? Or does it default to C:? If i were to partition the HD and dedicate/segregate a directory for each installed eprom. Will that help to prevent accidental corruption?
The d-9 pin configuration and creating a bridge/crossover. I was under the impression that was for a serial to serial connection.
You are saying after purchasing a usb to serial cable. I then need to fabricate another link that has the correct pin to pin assignment?
I figured that since it was serial out to USB, there was a way to change the properties of the COM port in windows or dos.
I must study more...
Back to the till. It was VOID MODE press any key get PLU NO DATA ERR across all functions. Tried 'Inital Clear' and got a *power failure* print out.
Now displays VOID MODE CLOSED. Same PLU error if another key is pressed. Also tried the 4 corners memory dump. Not sure if the battery had enough juice to properly clear RAM. I never got an OK!/NP.
I am guessing that the till sat without power for a few years. So i now have it plugged in.
I will wait for your response on that you think i should try to tackle first. In the meantime I will be reading and expanding knowledge. Still my hero.
only way back from void mode
fully ram clear 4 corners is great but did you start the sequence in s mode and holding down the correct button as you power up?
if till has sat for years the battery may have corroded the logic board beyond repair
at best it will need replacing.
the battery does not need any "juice" at all to effect a ram clear - just dont interrupt the powersupply lol.
you still need to fabricate a crossover comms cable otherwise you end up connecting inputs to inputs and outputs to outputs
pinouts are posted on this forum for sure not got access to book at present but its something like 2 to 3, 3 to 2, 4 to 6 , 5 to 5 6 to 4 DO NOT TAKE THIS AS CORRECT - IT NEEDS CHECKING AGAINST DEFINITIVE INFO PREVIOUSLY POSTED - I REPEAT - THIS IS FROM MEMORY AND MY MEMORY IS RUBBISH
In terms of installing on a partitioned drive - each partition would have to be made bootable as the program can be installed anywhere at your discretion, the data is always placed in a folder on route c:
I followed the steps in the manual.
How long does the clear take?
Check ur pm.
