From a bare router to a machine that earns

01Before you start

One AJKFi machine is a router running AJKFi, a coin acceptor, and a small ESP8266 board that connects the two. You will need:

02Flash your router

Flashing is the only step that is different from router to router: each model has its own file and its own way in. Pick your router below for its own page - the file, the exact steps, which socket is the internet side, and how to rescue it. Everything after that is the same on every machine.

03First boot & router setup

1. Join the Wi-Fi. Every radio broadcasts AJK PISOWIFI, open, no password. A cable in a LAN port works too.
2. Sign in to the admin. Open http://10.0.0.1:8080 (note the :8080). User admin, password admin.
3. Change the admin password now. Settings → Admin Account. Anyone on the Wi-Fi can reach this login page, so admin/admin in a store is an open door.
4. Put the dashboard on your phone. Open http://10.0.0.1:8080 on your phone. Android (Chrome): menu ⋮ → Add to Home screen. iPhone (Safari): Share → Add to Home Screen. It gets the AJKFi icon and opens straight to the Dashboard.
5. Connect the internet. Plug your line into the WAN port. Network → Internet Connection: DHCP for a plug-in modem, PPPoE for a bridged modem (username and password from your ISP), or Static. Leave VLAN ID empty unless your ISP gave you a number. The same page has an "If PPPoE will not connect" checklist.
6. Activate the licence. A new router opens the activation page and only lets you reach it and Network until a licence is active. Follow Activate the router, then come back here.
7. Name your Wi-Fi. Network → Set Default SSID (all radios) names 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz together so phones move between bands without losing time. Add extra SSIDs below it, each with its own radio, password, hidden and isolation options.
8. Set your prices. Rates. The starting tiers are ₱1 = 12 min, ₱5 = 2 h, ₱10 = 5 h, ₱20 = 12 h, ₱30 = 24 h. Change them freely, in minutes, hours or days. Each rate can carry its own speed cap. Want time to expire if it is not used? Turn on Expiry in Rates.
9. Go through Settings. Portal Appearance (theme - Daylight, Midnight, Big Coin or the seasonal Christmas - plus name, sounds and buttons, or your own design under Custom Portal), Coin-Insert Security, Auto-Pause on Disconnect, Internet Monitoring and Bandwidth Limiting.

04Coin slot: flash, pair, wire

The order builders use: flash the board, pair it with the router, wire it, then put it in the box. The ESP8266 board keeps the coin acceptor locked until the router asks it to open for a customer who tapped INSERT COIN. Each coin slot makes its own secret token the first time it starts and hands it to its router by itself when it joins - nobody sees or types it. From then on the router only accepts coins from that board: a copied or fake board cannot fake coins on your machine.

1. Flash the ESP8266 board

Plug the board into the PC with a USB data cable - a charge-only cable will not work. Open the flashing tool (the one most builders have, named NodeMCU PyFlasher or NodeMCU Flasher) and set it up like this:

2. The coin slot's own hidden SSID

Made for you when you tap Pair coin slot (next step): 2.4 GHz, hidden, with its own password - different on every machine, so a board never joins the machine next door. A router that already has its own hidden coin slot SSID keeps it and uses that one.

3. Pair the board (coin slot 2.9 + AJKFi 3.81)

1. On the router tap Pair coin slot in Settings → Coinslot Hardware. Pairing stays open for 10 minutes.
2. Power the ESP8266 board. It finds the machine by itself and pairs. Within about a minute the router shows Paired. No phone, nothing to type.
3. Lock wiring: AJK's acceptors need Active HIGH. Set it in Settings → Coinslot Hardware → Coin acceptor wiring and tap Save to coin slot. Pulses per ₱1 stays 1.
4. On the router, Settings → Coinslot Hardware says Paired, with the coin slot firmware version, and the live status turns online. Arm window 20 seconds is a good start.
5. Hotspot: find the coin slot's device, whitelist it and label it COINSLOT, so it never needs to pay or gets paused.

4. Wire it

All four wires from the acceptor go to the base board - the expansion board with the DC socket that the ESP8266 module plugs into. Nothing is soldered to the module itself.

One 12 V adapter runs the whole slot. Its plug goes into the base board's DC socket, and the acceptor's red and black go to that same socket. The base board makes the lower voltage the ESP8266 needs, and because everything hangs off one adapter the grounds are shared already. Use an adapter of 2 A or more, and set the acceptor to one pulse per peso.

Optional: power-cut wiring with a relay module

Instead of the SET (lock) wire, a small 5 V relay module can switch the acceptor's 12 V on and off. The acceptor then has no power at all while nobody is buying: it cannot be fooled with a string or a fake coin, it does not stay warm all day, and it also works with acceptors whose SET wire does not lock properly. Same board, same D6 and D7, no new firmware.

On the router, Settings → Coinslot Hardware → Coin acceptor wiring: Lock (D7) Active HIGH, Coin signal (D6) Active LOW. Tap Save to coin slot.

5. Test it and put it in the box

1. Prove it. On a phone open the portal, tap INSERT COIN, drop ₱1, see the credit, tap DONE. Then drop a coin without tapping INSERT COIN: it must come back out. If it is taken, the lock setting is wrong - switch it the other way in Settings → Coinslot Hardware → Coin acceptor wiring on the router (see the note below).
2. Mount the board and the acceptor in the box, in their final position, and test one more coin after closing it up.

05Buy a licence

Every AJKFi router needs its own licence. Without one it shows only the activation page and its portal sells nothing. There is no free trial.

Buy online with QRPh

Pay with GCash, Maya or any bank app that supports QRPh. The licence goes straight into your AJKFi account - no waiting for us, no code to copy.

1. Create a free AJKFi account on this site, with your email or with Google. Confirm your email by opening the link we send you - buying waits until it is confirmed, because your licence code is emailed to that address.
2. Open Buy a licence (or the Buy online button on the home page). If you are signed out, sign in first.
3. Choose how many licences - one per router, up to 5 per order - and press Continue to payment. Check the order on the next page and press Pay.
4. Pay on the secure PayMongo page. It shows a QRPh code and the amount. Open GCash, Maya or your bank app, choose Scan QR, scan the code and confirm. Paying on the same phone? Take a screenshot of the QR code and choose the upload-from-gallery option in your app's QR scanner.
5. Wait for "Payment received". Keep the page open until it comes back to our site. Your order reference is shown there (it starts with AJKFI-).
6. Your licence appears under Your licences within about a minute, and the code is emailed to you as well. Now activate the router.

Other ways to buy

1. Need more than 5, or prefer to deal with someone directly? Open Settings on this site - your Account ID is there, sixteen characters shown in four groups like K7MP-3QTR-9XYZ-4BCD, with a Copy button.
2. Message our Facebook page to buy, and send your Account ID or the email you signed up with. That is all we need. It only names your account - it cannot be used to sign in.
3. The licence appears under Your licences. Nothing to type. From there you register routers, see each licence's status and last check-in, and move it if a router dies.
4. Given a licence code instead? It looks like ABCD-EFGH-JKLM - keep it private, it is the licence. Add it under Your licences, or type it straight into the router.

One licence runs one router at a time. Using one code on several routers is not allowed and gets the licence withdrawn.

06Activate the router

The router must be online (Network → Internet Connection) while it activates. Sign in to http://10.0.0.1:8080; the activation page shows the router's Machine ID - 12 characters, 0-9 and A-F, unique to that router.

What happens after

• The router checks in by itself in the background. It keeps working for weeks without reaching our server, so our outage or your internet outage never stops it earning.
• Reflashed the router? The licence is kept - it is tied to the Machine ID and the router's database survives a flash. After a factory reset, type the same code again and it comes back.
• Router died? In your account open the licence → "Free this licence" (possible once the old router has been off for 3 days), then register the new router. Your supplier can do it sooner.
• Licence withdrawn? (a code used on several routers) The machine stops selling new time, but customers keep every minute they already paid for.
• Passing it to someone else? Open the licence in your account and use Send to another account - you type their email or Account ID, we show you whose account it is (name and email), and it moves. The router keeps running; only who manages the licence changes. Selling several at once? Tick the free ones on your licences page and send them together.
• Your supplier's name and number show on the router's licence page, so help is a message away.

07How the system works

What each feature does and where to find it in the router admin.

08Updates & reflashing

09Looking after a machine

• Keep the admin password private and change it if someone else has seen it. Customers on the Wi-Fi can reach the login page.
• Keep the coin slot SSID hidden with a real password. Anyone on that network can talk to the coin slot.
• Check "coins seen while idle" on the coin slot's setup page now and then (hold its FLASH button 3 seconds, join AJKFi-Coinslot-Setup). Above zero means coins went in while the slot was locked - the wiring is loose or someone is working the acceptor.
• Router storage is small (a few MB). Old records are trimmed automatically, and System → Sales Records & Storage shows what is using it (database, update copy, add-ons such as ZeroTier). Erase sales there clears a whole month by hand - note the figures first, there is no undo.
• Install updates when System → Software Update shows one. Fixes reach you there first.
• Give each machine a name in My machines (Rename) - "Sari-sari store" is easier to find than a Machine ID when you have several.
• Keep your EEPROM backup and licence code somewhere safe, labelled with the router.
• Use a stable power supply. AJKFi recovers from brownouts, but a failing adapter causes restarts no software can fix.

10Troubleshooting

11Report a bug

Send reports to our Facebook page. A report we can repeat gets fixed fastest: what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead.

1. One message per problem. Separate problems get separate fixes.
2. Copy the template below and fill it in.
3. Add a screenshot of the screen where it went wrong. For coin problems, add a photo of the wiring.
4. Send it to facebook.com/ajkcomputerrepairservices.

MACHINE ID : (System > License)
FIRMWARE   : (System > Software Update)   COIN SLOT: (setup page)
WHEN       : 2026-09-15 14:20
HOW OFTEN  : every time / sometimes / once

WHAT I DID
  1.
  2.

WHAT I EXPECTED

WHAT HAPPENED INSTEAD

ATTACHED: screenshot / photo of the wiring (coin problems)

Report on Facebook

12Quick reference