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Video (revised): A Talking Cash Register (Patreon)

Published:
2026-09-18 22:17:27
Imported:
2026-09

Content

This should be the final version, so feel free to leave comments. I added some on screen notes (replicated in the video description) based on feedback on the initial post; should be releasing this on Monday. Thanks again, everyone!

Files

A Talking Cash Register

Sometimes you see a thing on eBay and know that if you don't buy it, it's going to end up in the trash without anyone realizing what they threw away was special. This is one of those things. Some onscreen notes are paraphrased below, to hopefully be screen-reader accessible. They will be "spoilers" of sorts. 07:40: To be clear, not everyone with visual disabilities uses Braille, but those who do are a much larger market than the audiences we're discussing in this video. 12:28: After further research, I've found at least one example of a braille calculator, the Original-Odhner from the 1950s or 60s. I can't find an MSRP, but I bet it wasn't cheap. 15:38: Captek sold 8-10 calculators a year, not 2-3, but both numbers are too small to support a business. 20:15: The gate array datasheet I found describes Sharp's LZ9C series, which includes a Z80 CPU core. The register has an LZ9A, which (as far as I can tell) only includes gates, no CPU, but this illustrates that gate arrays *can* be much more sophisticated. 25:14: I said "CPDK" out loud several times instead of "CKDC" and I have no idea why. 38:21: I misspoke. There *ARE* ADA requirements for employees, and I knew that, but the ADA regs are written fairly vaguely and, as far as I know, don't provide many *specifics* on what must be made accessible. So while employers are required to provide "reasonable" accommodations, if the market doesn't provide readily available solutions, it creates a chicken-and-egg problem: Nobody makes the tools, so they aren't "reasonable" accommodations, but with no demand, nobody chooses to begin making the tools. It sucks. Blame capitalism. Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cathoderaydude Tip me: https://ko-fi.com/cathoderaydude Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:07 The register 03:30 Voice feature 06:37 History of Captek 16:40 Teardown 25:25 Operating theory 31:50 Small business thoughts 36:37 Fate of cash register 39:44 Outro

Comments

James Courteau

"nice. a boring video about a cash register to fall asleep to" Ten minutes later... "I'm not crying. You're crying"

NateG

Call me a bit dense (because I am) but why did a 9 dollar charge only give 10 bucks back as change for a 20? Tax?

Omega47 (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-22 01:00 Bit offtopic folks but is the discord server still available for joining?
2026-09-19 06:01

Chris Jeter

Well, that was unexpectedly fascinating. Thanks for the deep dive! As always, don't fuss about the rate of video production. We're here for you and your vids are so information-dense that I feel like one video is 6 month's worth of content anyway! The new studio set looks great, love the blinkenlights gizmo on the shelf behind you - almost looks like a mini Imsai or similar? Whatever it is, I need one...

Urja

Based on the "1.00" onscreen and the line on the receipt it printed, there was already $ 1 item (department 01) entered beforehand.

NateG

Boy I hope somebody got fired for that blunder

cathoderaydude

nope, i decided quite a while back that i don't want to run a Community anymore, it's too much stress.

Pietro Gagliardi

Excellent. As a visually impaired person I do admit to feeling a bit uncomfortable about the questioning of Benham's means in finding people to help read things for him, I also can't fairly judge what was available to him at the time, since I only had access to what I had in the 2000s, which -- as someone who can still see (just reduced vision) -- is no doubt a lot more. This is absolutely a person who more people should know about, from what they described. And yeah, the market is extremely niche and the devices can be costly, but especially now there are support services who will just .... give them to you, so I have to wonder how many people actually paid for even these later Captech devices. As for what aids I personally needed, other than enlarged photocopies of worksheets, I had a camera with a tablet for looking at the blackboard while I took notes, and before that I had a dedicated aide who worked for the school that read stuff off the board for me as well. There were also a handful of shared accessibility devices, but we're moving far away from relevancy at this point and I can feel myself rambling aimlessly so perhaps another time...

Karolina Bielnik

I love your cash register series. You might be interested, that in some countries with VAT (I'm not sure if all, but for sure in Poland) cash register also have an additional function: it's a tax man office on your desk. They have to be equipped with "fiscal memory" - a module of WRITE ONLY memory (from user perspective) where data can not be removed or ever read if you're not a tax office. Every receipt also has a hash printed on it, confirming your purchase was recorded in fiscal memory.