TECHNET SOLUTIONS

TechNet PisoHub
Owner's Manual

Coin-powered Wi-Fi and phone rentals.

Everything you need to set up a unit, run it every day, collect your money and fix problems. Written for the owner and operator, in plain steps. Print it (the page is made for A4 or Letter) or keep it on your phone.

How to read it: new unit? Start at chapter 3. Running a shop? Chapters 6 to 9. Something broke? Chapter 13. One page of the essentials: Quick reference.

1. Meet the system

TechNet PisoHub is one coin box that runs two services: PisoWiFi (customer Wi-Fi sold by the coin) and PisoPhone (rental phones, with prepaid time cards for regular players). A unit has three parts that work together:

• The coin box (an ESP32 board with the coin slot). It counts coins, runs the countdown for every phone and serves the dashboard at http://10.0.0.10.
• The router (OpenWrt). It makes the Wi-Fi networks, gives internet and shows the customer login page.
• The rental phones (Android). Each is locked as a kiosk. A customer inserts a coin and the phone unlocks for the time they paid for, then locks itself again.

The three Wi-Fi networks

2. What you need

• Your assembled TechNet PisoHub coin box unit and its 12V/5V power adapter.
• The configured OpenWrt router and an Ethernet cable connecting the router's WAN port to your internet modem.
• The rental phones (Android), factory reset and charged.
• Your phone or laptop to access the management console and dashboard on the shop Wi-Fi network.
• Your admin QR code (see chapter 14) to access owner settings.

3. Setting up your shop

Each TechNet PisoHub unit arrives pre-configured and ready to run. Setting up takes about 5 minutes.

1. Connect the router to internet. Plug an Ethernet cable from your internet modem into the router's WAN port. Power on the router.
2. Power the coin box. Plug the power supply into the ESP32 coin box. The box automatically links to its dedicated hidden router network.
3. Open the management console. Connect your phone or laptop to the shop Wi-Fi and open http://admin.hub (or http://10.0.0.10).
4. Change the admin password. Sign in using the default credentials and set your shop's private admin password in Settings.
5. Add your rental phones. Follow chapter 4 to enroll each rental phone as a kiosk.

4. Set up the rental phones

Do this for each phone, starting from a factory-reset phone.

1. On the setup program's Phones step, choose the slot number. It makes a link filled in with this unit's key.
2. On the rental phone's first welcome screen tap the same spot 6 times. A QR reader opens.
3. On your own phone or laptop open the link, tap Show the setup code, and scan it with the rental phone. It joins the Wi-Fi, installs PisoPhone and locks itself.
4. When the phone says One last step, follow it: usually Open the setting and switch on Allow display over other apps. Android Go phones have no such switch: plug the phone into a computer, tap Allow on "Allow USB debugging?" and use Finish over USB on the setup page (Chrome or Edge).
5. Open the coin box dashboard (http://10.0.0.10), go to Overview and tap Pair… on that slot.

The slot's status turns from Offline to Locked. Repeat with the next slot. A box handles up to 10 phones.

5. First-day checks

Before you open for customers, do these five checks:

The longer test list is docs/REAL_WORLD_TESTING.md.

6. The coin box dashboard

On a device on the router's network open http://10.0.0.10 and sign in with the admin password. There are four tabs and a Sign out button.

Overview

• Stats: Revenue, Phones (x of the slots this box has unlocked) and Wi-Fi signal.
• Phones table with a row per slot: Phone, Status (Renting, Locked or Offline), Time left and Battery. Buttons: Pair…, Locate (the phone rings for 1 minute), Unpair, Set up.
• Add or remove time: choose one phone or All phones, type minutes, tap Add time or Remove time. Use this for refunds, freebies and fixes.
• Player accounts: see chapter 8.

Talking to a renter (voice messages)

Every paired phone in the table has a mic button, whether the phone is online or offline. Hold the mic and speak (up to 15 seconds; it stops by itself at 15). When you let go, the mic becomes a paper plane showing how long the message is: it is recorded and ready. Tap the plane to send it to that phone, which plays it at once with a “Message from the shop” banner, even on the lock screen. The little cross beside the plane throws the recording away. A tap that is too short to be a message is ignored.

• Nothing is kept. The recording stays in your browser until you tap the plane, and the box only passes it on; it stores no message. If you close or reload the page, an unsent recording is gone. The phone plays a message once, and does not keep it.
• If the phone is off or does not answer, the page says so and the plane stays: tap it again when the phone is back. A message is never held back to be played later.
• A greyed mic means the app on that phone is too old: update the app. Empty slots and phones waiting to be paired have no mic.
• Messages do not touch the time left or any money. The shop's “voice off” setting and quiet hours do not stop a message, but a phone whose volume is at zero stays silent.

One-time setting for recording. Browsers only let a page use the microphone if it is opened with https://, and the box page is plain http:// on your shop network. So once, on each phone or computer you use as the admin, in Chrome:

1. Give the box a fixed address in your router (a reserved address for the box), so the address never changes. The setting below names that exact address.
2. In Chrome open chrome://flags/#unsafely-treat-insecure-origin-as-secure.
3. Type the box page address exactly as you open it, for example http://192.168.1.50, set the option to Enabled and press Relaunch.
4. Open the box page again and hold a mic; allow the microphone when Chrome asks.

An iPhone cannot record on this page (its browsers have no such setting): use a computer or an Android phone. The box page shown inside the router console (the Rental phones tab) cannot use the microphone either: use the link under it to open the box page on its own.

Settings

Tap Save changes after editing.

Tools

• Phone slots manager. Add, rename or remove slots.
• 1v1 match mode. Two players each put in stake minutes; the loser's stake goes to the winner. Cancel or end moves no time.
• Firmware update. Check for an update, then Update > Install update (see chapter 12).
• Maintenance. Relay test, Restart box, Factory reset.

Vendor

Owner-only. It is locked until you scan your admin QR code. See chapter 9.

Banners you may see

7. How your customers use it

Renting a phone

1. The locked phone says "Insert a coin to unlock all applications for a N-minute session."
2. The customer taps READY FOR COIN. The phone arms the slot (up to 20 seconds) and shows WAITING FOR COIN.
3. They insert coins. The screen shows Coins inserted: N.
4. They tap the green DONE button. The phone unlocks and the countdown starts.

While playing, a small floating pill shows the time left. Tap it to open a panel:

• Battery and memory, brightness and volume sliders.
• BOOST frees memory. (The TURBO chip is just a label.)
• HOME goes to the launcher. CLOSE APP needs a second tap and closes the running apps.
• ADD TIME (DROP COIN) adds minutes without waiting for the end. It says ESP32 OFFLINE if the box is not reachable.

The phone speaks warnings at 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 1 minute and 10 seconds, then counts down the last five seconds and says "Time expired". It then locks itself. A notice reminds the customer to save their work and sign out of accounts.

Using PisoWiFi on their own device

1. Join PisoWiFi. The login page opens by itself.
2. Pick a plan, tap Insert Coin and drop coins. They show with a countdown.
3. Tap Done (or wait 15 seconds with no coin). They are online, with their time left.

Before they insert a coin the page asks Use now (the default) or Get a voucher code. With a voucher the coins are counted and priced exactly the same, but nobody is connected: the customer gets one code worth the minutes the coins bought, on the plan they picked. They type it under Have a voucher? on the same page, now or within 30 days (a code works once). The page shows the code large with a Copy button, offers a small file to keep (Save voucher file; opening it later brings the code back to the page, and the customer still taps Redeem) and suggests a screenshot, because some phone sign-in browsers do not allow downloads. If the page is closed, the device's start page lists its unused codes again for 30 days. The coins of a voucher are in your sales as soon as they are counted; using the code later adds no income. Switch the choice off in the console under Settings, or with piso-setup voucher-choice off: the page is then as before. The console's Vouchers page lists the vouchers issued (when, minutes, plan, used or not, expiry) and lets you cancel an unused one. There is nothing to print any more; vouchers you printed with an earlier release still work until they expire or are used.

Pause

A customer whose session has paid ₱10 or more in all (top-ups and vouchers add up; PAUSE_MIN_PESOS, 0 = any amount) can pause once per session (PAUSE_MAX); below that the button is hidden and the page says how many pesos more unlock it. A customer with time left can tap Pause time on the coin page: the clock stops and the time is kept for a day. A paused device is not taken off the Wi-Fi; it is slowed to 1 kbit/s (set by PAUSE_KBPS in /etc/coinslot.conf), which is too slow to use but keeps the page, its buttons and its scripts working, and it gets only 2 MB of data for the whole pause (PAUSE_QUOTA_KB, 0 = no limit): when that is used up, openNDS takes the device off until it taps Resume, so nobody chats for free while the clock is stopped. Resume time puts the device back at its plan's own speed and starts the clock again. The console's Customers page marks a paused device as paused. If openNDS ever refuses the slow grant, the device is simply taken off, as pause worked before this release.

Sending a file to the owner

The coin page can show a Send a file to the owner button. It opens a small page (in the same window; the page has a Back link) where a guest picks a document or picture and sends it; no coins, no login. The sign-in window of some phones cannot open files: the page then shows the address to open in the phone's normal browser. The file lands in the Inbox bar of your print server's admin page (Print tab), where you open it for printing or delete it. Nothing is printed by itself. The router only passes the file on (it stores nothing) and the guest never connects to the print server. Limits: 10 MB per file (SEND_MAX_MB), 5 files an hour per device (SEND_PER_HOUR), and the print server's own file-type list and inbox limits; files are deleted from the inbox after 24 hours.

A switch for sites that do not offer printing: in the console under Settings, Send a file to the owner is On or Off. Off hides the button for customers at once (open pages follow) and refuses uploads; the button is also hidden when the key file below is missing, so a site without a print server never shows it.

To turn it on: after installing the print server (release 2.2.0 or newer), copy the content of /etc/webprint/send.key on the print server to /etc/coinslot.d/send.key on the router (one line, mode 600). The button appears within a minute; delete the file to turn it off. If the print server is not at 10.0.0.95, set SEND_HOST in /etc/coinslot.conf.

Only one customer can have the coin window open at a time. The router picks the best combination of plans for the coins paid. Default plans (pesos : minutes), changeable in /etc/coinslot.conf:

8. Time cards (player accounts)

A time card is a printed QR code that holds a customer's minutes, so regulars can bank time and use it on any phone of your unit.

On the phone

1. On the lock screen tap Have a PisoPhone card? Scan it and hold the card up to the camera. (Switch cameras with Use front camera / Use back camera.)
2. A new card asks for a name (up to 16 letters or numbers) and says "Welcome! <time> added to your new account."
3. A returning card says "Welcome back, <name>!" and shows the time on the account.
4. To stop, the player taps SIGN OUT twice in the pill panel. The unused time is banked and the phone locks.

If the screen stays off 120 seconds while signed in, the player is signed out automatically (a voice warns 30 seconds before). Their time is kept.

Making and selling cards

1. On your computer make the unit's card key with make_card_key.py, then print cards with make_cards.py. The dashboard's Player accounts section shows your Box ID for printing.
2. Sell a card for the minutes you wish. Add the time on the dashboard: Player accounts → + Time. Use – Time to remove, Delete to remove an account.
3. The table shows each card's number and when it was last used.

9. Collecting your revenue

The Vendor tab shows your takings. The amounts stay hidden unless you unlock them with your admin QR code.

1. Open the dashboard, tap Sign out if needed, and on the login page tap Scan admin QR. Photograph your QR code with your phone's camera.
2. Open the Vendor tab. The revenue unmasks for a 5-minute window.
3. Open the coin box and take out the money. Count it.
4. Tap collect to record the collection. The counter restarts, the lifetime total is kept, and the entry goes into the collections history.
5. Use the split calculator if you share the income with a partner or a host.

If the count and the cash do not match, check Orphaned payments on the dashboard before you worry.

10. Admin on a rental phone

Opening the admin console

• Locked phone: tap the shield icon at the bottom of the lock screen (Security Vault).
• Unlocked phone: press and hold the floating pill for 5 seconds. A buzz confirms.

Enter the Master Admin Password. There is no factory PIN: it is your box's admin password, sent to the phone when it pairs. After 5 wrong tries the phone locks the PIN for 60 seconds, doubling after each further miss up to 15 minutes. A phone that never paired cannot be unlocked.

What the console offers

Tap Exit Admin Console when done.

Maintenance window

A timed window (15 minutes normally; 5 minutes for the bypass) in which Settings, Play Store and the package installer work and Wi-Fi settings can be changed. While it is open the lock screen and pill are hidden so the admin apps can be touched. It ends when the timer runs out or the phone locks. Opening a new one never shortens one already open.

Recovery

The PIN dialog has two recovery options:

• SYSTEM RECOVERY & ADB HUB (needs the PIN): shows USB debugging and Device Owner status; can re-enable USB debugging, exit kiosk lockdown, open developer options, or de-provision the phone so you can uninstall without a factory reset.
• SCAN A RECOVERY CODE (REMOVE APP) (no PIN): scan a signed recovery code from the owner. It removes PisoPhone from that phone. Codes expire.

The phone's kiosk Wi-Fi name and password are set during provisioning and cannot be edited on the phone.

11. The router and alerts

The router console (instead of the router's own pages)

Open http://10.0.0.1:8081 on a device on the router's network and sign in with the router password. The screens are listed down the left side in three groups: Overview (Overview, Sales), Management (Customers, Rental phones or Coin box, Vouchers) and System (Branding, Settings); Advanced (the router's own pages) and Sign out are at the bottom, and the sun button at the top right switches between light and dark. On a phone the list is behind the menu button at the top left. It shows what matters:

• Overview: customers online, money today, the internet line (down and up speed and a short graph), coin box and records health.
• Customers: every PisoWiFi device with its name, plan, time left, data used and current speed, busiest first. Disconnect sends a device back to the payment page; its paid time stays.
• Rental phones: each slot, its status, time left and battery.
• Money: today, this week, all time and the last seven days.
• Sales: per day: coins that bought time, coins that bought voucher codes (with how many were issued, redeemed and are waiting), and a CSV download.
• Vouchers: the codes customers bought: issued time, minutes, plan, used or not, expiry. Cancel an unused one.
• Branding: make the customer page yours: your shop name, colours, layout, texts in English and Filipino, and your logo (see "Your shop's own look" below).
• Settings: the voucher choice at payment, on or off, and the Prices: the price list of HyperSpeed and Endurance (pesos to minutes, up to eight lines each), the minutes each extra HyperSpeed peso adds, and the Endurance speed limits. A change applies at once to the next payment (one already started keeps the prices it began with) and the customer page shows the new list. Each plan needs a 1-peso line so every coin counts. Go back to the settings file forgets the console prices.

To make it the front page at http://10.0.0.1, run piso-setup console on on the router. The router's own settings page (LuCI) then moves to http://10.0.0.1:8080 and stays reachable as Advanced; piso-setup console off puts everything back. If the console does not come up, console on puts everything back by itself.

Your shop's own look (Branding)

In the console choose Branding. Type your shop name, pick a palette and, if you like, your own accent colour (the colour of buttons and highlights; a colour that would be hard to see is made lighter for you), choose a layout, and write your texts: a tagline, a welcome line, a promo banner (shown before a customer pays), house rules, a contact line and opening hours. Each text can be written in English and in Filipino; where there is no Filipino text, customers who choose Filipino see your English one. A small preview shows the page as customers see it, and it follows what you type.

• What you type is saved as a draft. Customers see nothing new until you press Publish. Press Restore the standard TechNet look to go back to the usual page; your draft is kept.
• The coin button, the plans and the prices look the same in every layout and colour, and texts are shown exactly as you type them (no links or formatting). A small "by TechNet Solutions" line always stays at the bottom.
• Your logo comes as a brand pack: one small file that TechNet makes for you and signs. In Branding choose the file under Logo and picture; or, from your computer, scp it to the router and run piso-setup brand-pack <file>. A file that is not a genuine pack is refused and nothing changes. Then press Publish.
• Customers get a language button at the top of the page. The choice stays on their phone.
• Your branding is kept when the router software updates, when the router's firmware is upgraded, and in piso-setup export backups.

Backups and small routers

• piso-setup export writes a private backup (settings, keys, revenue ledger) to copy to your computer; piso-setup import <file> restores it after a reset or on a replaced router. A firmware upgrade of the router now keeps these by itself.
• piso-setup space shows what PisoPhone uses, the flash chip and what is free, and warns when under 2 MB is free (the same lines are in the setup summary). The setup file is kept in the router's memory while it installs and deleted after a good install; piso-setup forget-summary deletes the saved summary (it holds passwords).
• The portal program is built for five CPU families: mipsel (MT7621, MT7628: the 360T6M), mips (older TP-Link), aarch64 (newer Wi-Fi 6 routers, Raspberry Pi 4), armv7 (Qualcomm IPQ40xx) and x86_64 (mini PCs). Check yours with cat /etc/openwrt_release (the DISTRIB_ARCH line). The installer picks the right file by itself; on a CPU with no build the setup stops before changing anything and says so. You want OpenWrt 23.05 or newer, 16 MB flash or more, and 128 MB RAM or more. Only the 360T6M has been tried on real hardware so far.

Joining the hidden PisoKiosk network

Scan the QR on your Wi-Fi join card with a phone camera, or add the network by hand with the name, WPA password and "hidden network" ticked. The card also has a QR that opens the coin box page.

Commands

Log in with ssh root@10.0.0.1, then:

Telegram alerts message you when the unit needs attention. Set them up once with piso-setup telegram.

12. Updates

13. Troubleshooting

When asking for help, send the output of piso-setup diag and the phone's Diagnostics copy.

14. Keeping it safe

• Admin QR code and its key file (~/pisophone-superadmin.key): anyone with either is super admin on your boxes. Keep them on your own computer and phone; never email or upload them. Back up the key file somewhere private: it is the only copy.
• Make the QR with python3 scripts/make_admin_qr.py. The first run also writes a public key file; commit that and update every box once.
• Lost or leaked QR: run make_admin_qr.py --new, commit the new public key, update every box. The old QR stops working once a box is updated.
• Passwords: one set per unit. Keep the setup sheet and Wi-Fi join card in a safe place; they hold passwords.
• Never share the PisoKiosk or PisoCoinBox passwords with customers.
• Backups: keep the saved summaries from the setup computer (Documents/PisoPhone).

Glossary

TechNet PisoHub is a product of TechNet Solutions.