Software loading system for a currency scanner

A software loading system for a plurality of currency discrimination machines each having a central processing unit for evaluating a stack of currency bills, each of the machines having a resident memory containing an initial software code to be executed by the central processing unit in evaluating the currency bills, the software loading system comprising:

• a flash card having a flash card memory containing a second software code, the flash card being electrically coupled to and removed from a number of the machines to accomplish a number of software changes, the flash card memory including a counter for limiting the number of software changes said flash card may accomplish, each of the software changes accomplished by the flash card causing the resident memory of one of the machines to erase the initial software code and store the second software code.

A software loading system for a currency discrimination machine having a central processing unit for evaluating a stack of currency bills, said software loading system comprising:

• a resident memory containing an initial software code to be executed by the central processing unit, said initial software code including a first set of master characteristic patterns corresponding to the bills to be evaluated by said currency discrimination machine;
• and
• a flash card having a flash card memory containing a second software code, said second software code including a second set of master characteristic patterns corresponding to the bills to be evaluated by said currency discrimination machine, said flash card being adapted to be removably electrically coupled to the currency discrimination machine, said central processing unit being adapted to execute said second software code in response to the flash card being electrically coupled to the currency discrimination machine, said central processing unit being adapted to execute said initial software code in response to the flash card being thereafter removed from the currency discrimination machine.

A method of loading software changes in a currency discrimination machine having a central processing unit for evaluating a stack of currency bills, said currency discrimination machine having a resident memory containing an initial software code to be executed by said central processing unit, said initial software code including a first set of master characteristic patterns corresponding to the bills to be evaluated by said currency discrimination machine, said method of loading software changes into the currency discrimination machine comprising the steps of:

• storing a second software code in a flash card memory contained within a flash card remote from said currency discrimination machine, said second software code including a second set of master characteristic patterns corresponding to the bills to be evaluated by said currency discrimination machine;
• and
• electrically coupling said flash card into the currency discrimination machine to cause said central processing unit to execute said second software code.