The RWAP Interceptor (S)

The RWAP Interceptor forms a companion unit to the Retro-Printer.

Created in response to customer enquiries, the RWAP Interceptor (S) is software based. The Interceptor module runs on the Banana Pi M1+ and Odroid C1/C1+ / C2 single board computers and uses a special version of the Retro-Printer software to capture and log data being sent to a USB printer.

This may seem an unusual application, but the software acts as a type of USB printer emulator.

The RWAP Interceptor can be used to electronically capture till receipts or transactional data for example, as well as allow a third party device to insert additional pages (such as advertising) into the middle of a USB print stream.

The Interceptor is connected inline between a POS Machine or other device and a connected USB printer, and mimics the parameters of the printer so that the connected equipment does not identify that a new USB device has been connected.

In order to minimise the delay between information being sent and the printout being generated, the Interceptor simply stores the captured data and only performs minimal amounts of data conversion. It can add a short delay to allow a third party device to insert an additional page if required; but generally would not unduly impact on the speed of printing.

The Interceptor does not perform any of the conversion on the captured data, which is generally in either PCL or ESC/POS format.  Whilst PCL data can quite easily be converted to PDF (for example) using a range of Windows based tools, there are currently limited options for converting ESC/POS data.

To date, the RWAP Interceptor has been used for capturing electronic copies of receipts and also for allowing an offer voucher to be inserted into a till receipt. 

If the RWAP Interceptor may be of interest in one of your projects, please do not hesitate to contact us – we will also look to develop our own ESC/POS to PDF convertor if there is sufficient interest.