If you have arrived here and you don’t know about the Aardvark Paylink product line, then you should know that if you have a computer and want to connect it to money handling equipment, such as bill validators, recyclers, coin acceptors and hoppers, then the Paylink system is exactly what you need. You can read more about it here.

If you know about the Paylink system and are interested in a cheaper alternative to the standard Paylink unit (APCUSBXX00001, APCUSBXX00007 or APCUSBXX00008), then don’t miss this opportunity to get the best deal on the market for money handling equipment connectivity. This smaller and cheaper version of the Paylink system, the Paylink Lite V2 or MDB Paylink Lite, is available to buy now here.

The Paylink Lite series fully supports all the features and functionality of the Paylink system, but with only a single peripheral connection. You can choose from three variants of the Paylink Lite: cctalk, MDB, or RS232, depending on your needs. Each variant has a different connector and power supply, but they all work seamlessly with the Paylink system.

When you implement a Paylink Lite system the main unit is a small box which supports a single peripheral connection, allowing you to use either a collection of cctalk units, a collection of MDB units or a single RS232 unit, alongside 4 low power digital outputs and 4 digital inputs.

As well as this single connection for peripherals you can then connect peripherals with a direct USB connection with nothing further needed.

If you do require more connections and want to avoid the standard Paylink, we also supply auxiliary Paylink Lite units to support adding on MDB and RS232 units.

Paylink Lite 2C (ccTalk)

A ccTalk Paylink Lite unit is completely plug compatible with the cctalk connectivity on a standard Paylink. It has exactly the same USB connector, 6 pin cctalk connector and 12V connector, with exactly the same auto-resetting fuses on the 12V line and the 24V cctalk line.

The digital I/O is different from the standard Paylink, and features a 20 way connector which provides the following 5 groups of 4 pins:

• 4 digital inputs which are each the same as one of the 16 digital inputs on a standard Paylink
• 4 pins connected to ground for use with these inputs
• 4 digital outputs which are each the same as the 8 low power outputs on a standard Paylink; connecting the pin to ground when driven from Paylink.
• 4 pins which are pre-wired for an LED, featuring a resistor connecting the pin to the 5V USB supply; so an LED requires no additional circuitry and can just be connected from here to an output pin – there is no equivalent of these pins on the Standard Paylink.
• 4 pins connected to the 12V supply, for convenience when using higher power outputs – these are equivalent to the pins on a Standard Paylink.

Paylink MDB Lite

Rather than the limited 3 pin connector of standard Paylink, the Paylink MDB Lite electronics are re-designed from the ground up to support MDB in an easy, cost efficient way.

The unit is fitted with the standard 6 way MDB connector, so that peripherals can be plugged directly into the unit without using any additional cabling.

A high power barrel connector is fitted to the unit, to easily provide power to these MDB peripherals without any extra cabling. This matches many generally available power supplies, e.g. the 65W, 24V Powerpax SW3784-B.

This connection is totally isolated from the rest of the unit and is not necessary for the communications to function. In conjunction with the opto-isolation used on most MDB peripherals, this results in a very low noise system with no ground connection between the PC and the peripherals.

The 20 pin digital I/O connector on the MDB board is the same as the cctalk unit, except that there is no access to a 12V supply, so the supply for these pins is replaced by direct connections to the USB 5V supply, through an auto-resetting 500mA fuse.

Paylink Lite 2S

Available only on special order for a system with no cctalk or MDB peripherals, an RS232 Paylink Lite V2 is available, with the same 20 way I/O connector and a 4 pin microfit connector for the serial connection.,

Paylink Lite Aux units

For configurations that require more than one connection, but where it is desired to still use the Lite system, auxiliary units are available which can be used in the following ways:

(An Aux RS232 connection is handled by a specially programmed USB / RS232 converter, an Aux MDB is a specially programmed MDB Lite, with no I/O)

If you use high power outputs, a lot of I/O, or the SEC meter, then I’m afraid Paylink Lite is not for you. For everyone else it is surely worth a look.

Why use Paylink at all

Because you are looking for a simple and affordable way to connect your money handling equipment to your computer.

Because you want to avoid the hassle of writing and maintaining complex communication protocols.

The Aardvark Paylink system is a revolutionary solution that lets you communicate with any money handling device from any computer, using any programming language . It supports a wide range of protocols from different manufacturers, such as ccTalk, MDB, RS232, and more. It also has a user-friendly API that allows you to monitor and control your devices with ease.

Simply put, you will have no peripheral interface software to write. An ordinary developer with no peripheral experience will be up-and-running with your chosen peripheral set in less than half a day.

The API of Paylink is flexible and adaptable. It supports any money handling device that uses one of the supported protocols, such as ccTalk, MDB, RS232, and more. It also supports any computer that runs on Windows or Linux operating systems. It can work with any programming language that can access the Paylink Application Programming Interface (API), which provides high-level, device-independent control of the devices and digital I/O signals. You can use the user interface of Paylink to develop your own software applications that interact with the Paylink system.

In order to use money handling peripherals, the computer is required to implement a serial communications handler, sometimes using RS232, but also proprietary electronic systems such as MDB or cctalk. This handler has to implement a protocol, which is described in a protocol definition document for the particular device, in order to control the peripheral device and monitor what is happening. Writing one of these handlers is not easy, so you should use Paylink and you will have no interface software to write.

Paylink is not just the Milan Lite Interface unit. Although technically it is a simple "level shifter" providing the electronic RS232 or ccTalk interface, it include the entire Paylink library of mature, thoroughly tested protocol handlers which means it offers unparalleled ease of connectivity for peripherals from a wide range of manufacturers.

Paylink Lite units runs on any PC computer; Windows systems, any PC based system running a modern Linux distro and the Raspberry Pi.

Unfortunately as the software runs on the host machine, the current releases do not include the ability to run on non PC systems apart from the Raspberry Pi. We are however continually enhancing the software, so don't let this put you off contacting us if you have such a requirment.

Milan / Paylink Lite supports many protocols from many manufacturers; the following table will give you an idea of the breadth of the facilities:

But that’s not the full story. If you change manufacturer allegiance, add peripherals or have different build variants, then your application does not need to change at all. Paylink simply accepts the newly connected peripheral set and presents them all to the application through the same high-level, device-independent interface.

And the Paylink code base has now been evolving for a full fifteen years. It is completely stable and reliable and new devices are being supported with every passing year.

You want to upgrade a bill validator to a bill recycler? With Paylink it could not be easier. Simply disconnect your bill validator and connect your recycler. Note dispensing becomes seamlessly added to coin dispensing with no change to your application.

Note that completely apart from the money-handling system, Paylink Lite also provides 4 digital inputs and 4 low power digital outputs.

The standard API provides a very simple interface for programmers writing in C, C++, C#, VB, Java and Delphi. And there is example code included with the SDK in each of those languages. If your team are skilled, high-level programmers, then they are free to concentrate on what they know best, without having to descend into serial communications and low level development.

Full support is already provided for high-security, state-of-the-art peripherals today. As new devices become available, then we provide support for these new devices.

To summarize things, Paylink gives you:

• Cost effective and resource efficient integration of money handling peripherals
• Frees up the application programming, development and manufacturing staff to concentrate on core applications
• Product Speed to Market
• Plug and Play
• Designed for use with low-cost, USB-only computers
• Decouples core applications from the monetary peripherals, allowing simple peripheral upgrades
• Multi-protocol availability means no additional communications software to be written
• Comprehensive diagnostics and error logging
• Future proof – state of art peripheral access with new device upgradeability