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The plug and play kiosk: How organized kiosk building can save you maintenance headaches

November 10, 2011 by Michael Ionescu — President, Ionescu Technologies

When my company was in the process of switching to another kiosk manufacturer for our newer generation of interactive units, we were invited down to the manufacturing plant to take a look at its facilities. One of the first things the company CEO did was open a kiosk of a large 46-inch touchscreen steel kiosk and proudly show off the internal wiring. It was after some time working with the kiosks that I finally realized how important internal organization was when it came to quality kiosks.

When I first saw the inside of the kiosk I was simply amazed at how organized everything was. Every wire was cabled neatly around the inside walls until they ended at a central hub. The central hub consisted of several grooves that fit a steel plate, and on that steel plate you mounted your computer. So literally to install the computer, you mount it on this plate, plug in the wires, and you're all set to go. The computer was housed in a secure location to allow for proper airflow but also to minimize dust collection.

My first kiosks were so disorganized internally that I thought that was the norm. They didn't have secure locations for the wires, which weren't labeled in any way. In order to tell what the wires belonged to we had to unplug them and see what stopped working. On top of that we had two horrible options for the CPU. The manufacturer made its own custom design that was at least a generation or two behind current technology but twice the cost, or we could use our own computers. The only problem with using our own computers was that there were no brackets built to hold them, so when the kiosk moved, the computer was jostled to the point where it often disconnected or needed to be restarted. We could have had the manufacturer build a small bracket that could hold the computer but the design fee was going to be more than the kiosk itself on top of an additional 20 percent increase in cost per kiosk.

Needless to say, we went the cheaper route and got the manufacturer-made computers. Other than having outdated technology, they weren't bad. They worked for a while, and they could have lasted longer, but they were built into the top of the kiosk where they collected dust, which eventually caused them to break.

The problem was that I couldn't replace the components myself with off the shelf computer components because they were all proprietary connectors and parts. I couldn't even salvage parts from my other kiosks of similar model, because every model was built slightly differently from one another, so it was incredibly difficult to find the correct parts. The only way to get a working replacement was to send my kiosk across country for repair for a couple hundred dollars of shipping costs on top of a several thousand dollar repair fee, or buy a new one.

This is just not a functional or acceptable process if you have kiosks deployed over entire regions. With our new kiosks, if we need to replace the CPU, we open the kiosk, unscrew the old one, and replace it with the new one - it takes about as long to do as it does to read about. In one sentence I can explain how to replace my kiosk's CPU versus paragraphs (and hours) of frustration. I always used to think that it didn't matter what things looks like as long as they worked, but working with kiosks has opened my eyes.

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