Overview of the gate
Within each Site there will be at least one gate which will either be controlled by an instance of the Ticketing system or a logical gate within the CS Service running on an application server. This gate could either be attended or unattended depending on the business requirements.
Gate Zone
The Gate Zone is made up of a number of different hardware devices that can be controlled by Mandalay CS when managing a transaction.
Hardware Layer
The hardware layer is the term used for the combination of software and hardware devices that are used to provide input to the controllers in the Ticketing software and to allow the Ticketing software to control devices like boom gates and traffic lights. The key component to this layer is the Device Manage which is the Mandalay Software. It knows how to communicate with the various hardware devices. The software in the controller layer communicates with the Device Manager either locally on the same computer or over a local network.
Relay Control
Devices such as Boom Gates and Traffic Lights are control through a relay control board that is network enabled. Mandalay CS will then use these devices to communicate to drivers about when they can either leave or enter the Gate Zone
Serial Hubs / MESH
The serial hub is used to connect multiple serial devices to the local network making these devices available to any computer with network access. In standard Mandalay deployments the Weighbridge and Electronic ID readers (Dallas Tags, RFID etc) are connected to one of these devices. This method provides the best fail over possibilities if a ticketing host is no longer functioning.