How to troubleshoot bus farebox problems before delaying the route

Farebox trouble on a bus can turn into a delay fast because everybody is staring at the operator while the schedule is already tight. I try to separate a real equipment fault from a small setup issue before calling it in, but I do not spend ten minutes fighting the box at the stop. The first thing I check is whether the operator login, run, route, and trip are correct. A farebox that is on the…