This installation guide is for Continental-Girbau Washers without a Serial daughter board (typically on washers manufactured before 2015).
The reader uses Pulse communication to emulate a Coin Drop.
This guide does NOT cover L-series Washers, for those machines, follow our Continental-Girbau L-Series Washers article.
If your Washer does have the Serial/COM daughter board, follow our Continental-Girbau: Washers (Serial) article.
Required Parts
Card Reader Kit
The reader board type MUST be "Generic Relay" - Part #: ASSY-02-02-11:
Card Reader Wiring Harness (Part #: 02-06-55)
Installation Summary
"Generic Relay" Card Reader board type must be used
Direct plug-in reader harness for coin drop emulation (no splicing required)
Machine Side settings: Configure the machine to start from 1 pulse
Installation Steps
Step 1: Turn Machine Power Off
It is always recommended to power the machine off before install the card readers.
Step 2: Remove Coin Drop if present
The Card Reader will be mounted in the area where the Coin Drop has been removed.
Step 3: Number the Card Reader using the reader's DIP switches:
In order to configure a Card Reader to report as a specific Washer or Dryer number, you need to set the reader's DIP Switches to specific positions. These DIP Switches ONLY affect what the reader will display as for it's machine type (Washer/Dryer) and it's machine number:
Review our: Reader DIP Switch settings article for details on how to set the Card Reader's Machine Type, and Reader Number.
You need to do this BEFORE mounting the Card Readers onto the machines, as accessing the back of the card reader is required.
Step 4: Card Reader Pulse and Power Connection
Connect the Card Reader's 4-wire connector to the machine's Coin Drop header:
This connector provides both reader Power and the Pulse signal to the machine.
Step 5: Activate the Card Reader
Proceed to secure the reader into the place where the Coin drop was removed (Secure the reader to through the slots intended for the Coin drop) and power ON the machine.
Then Activate the card reader using the Activation Card for this specific location:
Note: you MUST use the Activation Card for THIS SPECIFIC LOCATION,
or else the card reader will not appear on the LaundroPortal for this location.
This will activate the reader and programs the reader with the location's specific Support and Location IDs.
The Card Reader will then automatically connect to VAC01's wireless network and once connected, will be visible on the LaundroPortal where you can configure it's vend prices.
Setting Vend Pricing
Vend Pricing for the Card Reader is set via the LaundroPortal.
Note that the reader, is emulating a coin drop, and ONLY sends one pulse to trigger the machine to start, so you need to configure the machine to start a cycle off of this ONE pulse.
The Card Reader has no way of knowing what cycle option is being selected, therefore all cycle option prices must be set to the same amount.
For additional information about machine vend pricing, review our Configuring Card Reader/Machine Vend Prices article.
Troubleshooting
Below are problems commonly encountered during the installation of readers on these machines specifically.
For more general Card Reader troubleshooting, see the Card Reader Troubleshoot section of our Help Center.
Issue | Explanation and resolution |
Reader takes money, but machine cycle does not start | The Card Reader will only sends ONE pulse to the machine, so ensure that the machine is configured to start off of one pulse. If the machine is only deducting 25cents from its displayed vend price, when a Laundry Card is used, then the Card Reader is installed correctly, but the machine side settings need to be configured so it starts from 1 pulse (the machine is currently registering the pulse, but only as a 25cents payment instead of the entire vend price). Therefore, inside the MACHINE's configuration settings, you can either:
In either case, the one pulse from the reader would satisfy the machine's vend price and trigger the machine to start it's cycle. |
The machine starts, but once the cycle is over the Card Reader continues to display "Busy" | The Card Reader's Cycle Time (mins) setting is out of sync with the machine actual cycle time of the machine: 
Pulse communication Card Readers are NOT communicating with the machine directly, so the only way the Card Reader knows how long a wash cycle lasts for is based on the amount of time programmed into the Card Reader's Cycle Time (mins) setting.
Regardless of what's actually happening with the machine, once the reader takes a payment, it starts a timer based on this setting, and the reader will display "Busy" until it's internal time has expired. |