Using star sp300 serial interface

[arg0488]

I am using a Star sp300 serial printer with a cash drawer connected to the printer via rj11. I know that the serial approach isn't the best. but the printer was free to me. I am using aprint2. When it prints a receipt, it cuts off the right side totals, and kicks the cash drawer several times and i haven't set any kick drawer codes. The printer also makes brakes in the lines where it should be printing but don't. Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks

[daleadmin]

A serial printer huh? Your masochistic tendencies are showing, you should seek professional help.

But as far as the printer is concerned try setting a smaller font in APRINT2.EXE. In the "Printer setup" feature of the POSCONFG.EXE program set "Forced line feed" to "YES."

This might help, but probably not. What will help a lot is to chuck the serial printer off the nearest cliff and get a parallel printer port receipt printer. But since you are still trying to get the serial printer to work I guess that your frustration level has not yet reached the point where the cliff thing will not only seem good idea but will make you feel really, really good.

Dale

[RollerBall]

Why are you using Aprint??

If set up correctly I would expect this printer to print directly. Just recently I bought a SP200 serial thinking it was parallel and thought after all the serial bad press I'd wasted my cash. But after setting it up it worked beautifully with DHPOS.

I'd expect the SP300 to have similar settings to the SP200 but unfortunately I can't get my hands on the machine right now. When I can and if you're still having problems I'll post the settings I used.

[arg0488]

Thanks rollerball..... i would apreaciate it.... I couldn't figure out how to get it to work that way...kept getting a print error

[IAN]

a few things i found when running windows was that windows takes over the com ports and doesnot allow dos programs to use them so if you have a small bootable hdd in dos set the port speed right and set up the dhpos and all should / will work, the other obstical i had was an incorect serial printer cable theres that many out there its best if you can get the manual and make your own cable.

i got serial working perfect in dos but windows and dhpos wasnt having it in serial

[CBL]

Here's a tech tip for those with serial docket printers and running Windows - in most instances, when a DOS program is run in Windows, any output meant for LPT1 will be redirected to the default Windows printer.

The following information will be useful to you if the docket printer is the only printer connected to the computer.

Firstly, install a generic text only printer and make it the default. Print a test page (from the printer properties in Windows) to make sure it is working properly. It doesn't matter so much if the test page looks pretty or not (the docket printer will probably truncate or wrap it), provided you get the output.

Then, in DHPOS, set the printer to be connected to LPT1 (Windows will pick up the print jobs, and send them to the correct port). If your cash drawer is connected to your docket printer, set DHPOS to send the codes to the printer.

This should get the printer going in most instances. This should also work with USB printers, but you will need to install the correct drivers.

[RollerBall]

Sorry about the delay. These settings work perfectly for a SP200 with DHPOS running in a DOS environment.

COM1, 1200, 8 Data Bits, 0 Stop Bits, BIN mode

Then set the printer 'Ready' code to 79 and in the printer setup make sure you force Line Feeds.

Good to go!

Oh yeah, and a receipt printer with RJ11 will also pop open perfectly so long as you set the correct drawer codes (see Dale's list)