Diagnosing an MX Credit Card Device

Owned by Jason Reel (Deactivated)
Last updated: Jul 09, 2021
3 min read








Problem

There really are three distinct parties involved in troubleshooting (Elavon, Devnext, and IT) and we have to be very specific about the exact issues in order to determine where the failure is happening so that we know which party is able to help. For example:

  1. Sometimes transactions will fail using the swipe or chip but will process successfully if manually keyed into the MX device. This would be an issue with the configuration of Elavon's Simplify software on the credit card terminal itself. Neither Devnext nor IT would have any control over that.

  2. Other times there is a TCP/IP message on an MX terminal screen. That implies a network connectivity issue between the MX Device and Elavon. Neither Devnext nor Elavon has control over that since it's likely a network or firewall issue at the Kroc Center.

Solution

The following is just some basic high-level information that might help during troubleshooting.

  • The kiosk computers have an ethernet connection to the THQ network that is used by Devnext software to communicate to central servers. This connection is NOT used for processing credit card transactions.

  • The MX915 credit card terminal has a separate ethernet connection that it uses to connect to Elavon.  Look at the kiosk logs to see if there are indications that this was NOT working in some cases.

  • Communication between the Kiosk software and the MX device uses the USB connection only.  Check logs to confirm this connection DOES appear to be working.

  • The Devnext software on the kiosk simply tells Elavon's Simplify software on the MX device (via USB) how much money to collect, and awaits a success or failure.

  • Everything else that goes on on the MX terminal itself (swipe vs chip vs manual entry as well as the actual processing and approval/decline of the card) is handled by Elavon's Simplify software on that device, which communicates to Elavon directly via the MX device's own separate ethernet connection.

  • Since the kiosk and MX terminal each have their own network connections, each needs a working ethernet connection, IP address, etc.

  • Because the MX communicates to Elavon directly via its own ethernet connection, the firewall must be configured to allow traffic to Elavon in addition to the normal THQ network used by the kiosk.

The high-level diagram below shows the connections described, with the black line being the USB connection, the blue being the kiosk network connection to THQ, and the red being the MX device ethernet connection to Elavon.

 

The screenshot below shows that the USB (RS232) connection through which the kiosk and MX communicate is ready, but the ethernet (TCP/IP) connection through which the MX communicates to Elavon failed. This normally indicates a bad network connection to the MX or a firewall blocking communication from the MX to Elavon. Either of those would be things likely to be addressed and corrected by IT.

Hopefully, the information in this article gives us a good point of reference to investigate the specific problems experienced on each kiosk.

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