The IBIS Gate Control application can be installed to work with your own gate hardware/scanning devices or you can utilise the IBIS designed scanning kiosks. This article explains how to use the Gate control application.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Gate control kiosk

IBIS can provide a gate control kiosk to manage the scanning of tickets or membership cards at your point of entry. The unit sits on a sturdy metal base and works with your existing hardware to control the opening and closing mechanism of the gate. Inside the protective housing is a Microsoft Surface Go 3 which runs the IBIS Gate Control application. The kiosks were designed by IBIS technicians to be sturdy, low profile and easy to set up and configure. Please talk to our support team if you are interested in having one of these units configured for your business.


Launch the gate control application

The Gate Control Application checks the validity of admission tickets or memberships, controls the open/closing speed of the gates, logs activity and any errors.  


The Gate Control Application is installed as part of the standard IBIS application on the PC enclosed within the Gate. The application should be included in the Windows startup menu so it is always on by default. If required, you can restart the Gate Control application at any time.


If you are using the IBIS Gate Control Kiosk, you will want to insert a blunt object into the power switch hole, pushing in towards the machine. The windows logo will display and the unit will continue to power up and launch the Gate Control application from the Windows Startup menu. If you need to shut down, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and select Shut down from the menu.


Once the startup of the Gate Control Application is complete, the scan screen should be displayed and the unit is ready for scanning.  


The gate controller requires internet connection to communicate with the IBIS server. To setup and run the gate controller for the first time, type “exit” in the command line to close the application. Then configure the machine to connect to the appropriate Wi-Fi network.


Command-line settings

The following commands can be entered into the Gate Control Application command line input box. Commands must be typed in lower case.

  • exit - closes the application.
  • settings - opens the settings screen so you can configure speeds and file paths for logging
  • log - opens a logging screen where you can view all scanning activity on the application


Closing/restarting the gate application

If you exit the application server using the exit command, you can restart it by clicking the spaceship icon or browsing to the installation folder and clicking the IbisNx.GateController Application file.

Restart App


Manage the gate control settings

You can adjust the settings for how the system communicates with your IBIS application and fine-tune the timing of the Gate open/close commands. 


IBIS will assist you with the initial setting configuration. Some settings should not be modified except in consultation with IBIS technicians. Settings you may need to modify are highlighted in yellow, as follows:

  • Caption top padding – the distance in pixels from the top edge of the gate control application to the Display text (default display text ‘Please scan ticket’) 
  • Display image – current options are ‘FaceUp’ or ‘FaceDown’ depending on your gate configuration. 
  • Display text – default is ‘Please scan ticket’ but this can be modified to suit 
  • Gate Name – this is the name given to the gate device. It must be configured in the Devices screen in the IBIS application and assigned a location that is appropriate for the usage and validity rules of entry or membership items. 
  • Open and Close Delay (ms) - The number of ms between the sending of the "Open Gate" and "Close Gate" signals to this gate. 
  • Reset screen fail wait - The number of seconds after a failed scan that the display is reset ready for the next scan 
  • Reset screen success wait - The number of seconds after a successful scan that the display is reset ready for the next scan 


Open the gate from Point of sale

If you are using a gate to control admission access, there will be situations where you need to open the gate manually.  IBIS has two ways of managing opening the gate - using the Open gate function built into the Point of Sale system, or by configuring special cards to scan at the gate. When a gate is opened using either option, the behaviour is as follows:

  • Scan or click open gate once - gate opens and stays open
  • Scan or click close gate again - gate closes


To open the gate from the Point of sale menu, follow the steps below. Note this method relies on the Open Gate function button being added to the Point of Sale menu.

  1. Open the Point of Sale screen and click the Open gate button from the menu.
  2. Select which gate to open by clicking the Open gate # button to do a standard open/close. 
  3. Alternatively, you can toggle the Open/Closed switch to hold the gate open and then repeat to close the gate. This is useful for letting larger groups through.

Open Gate

 

Configure scannable cards to open the gate

You can also set up some scannable cards which staff can use to manually hold open the gate and then close it again. This is useful for getting large groups of people through gates without each one needing to scan a ticket. To enable, you will need to have scannable cards (i.e. some cards with dedicated barcode/QR codes) available for this purpose. 

  1. Open the System settings screen under the System menu.
  2. Under the Gate Control section, fund the setting Stay open cards 
  3. Enter the Card ID for each card you want to use for this purpose (separate multiple cards with a comma e.g. '2B3TDX,4YTCXW,3C6YC9,24JHIL').
  4. Save your changes.