Receipt Printer

[ProDeZigner]

Has anyone tried this printer? It's a no-namer, but has lots of options and it's LPT based:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Parallel-Interf ... 118wt_1156

Just trying to piece my POS together and need cheap gear (drawer and printer).

[daleadmin]

When purchasing a receipt printer you have to consider if you can attach and control a cash drawer from it. What type of port does the printer have to which you can plug in the cable from the cash drawer? Can you find a cash drawer that has that type of cable? Most important, do you have the control codes for that printer that will make it send a signal to the cash drawer. Are the codes for that printer listed here http://keyhut.com/popopen.htm

You mention that the printer has a lot of features. Are those features supported by DHPOS? DHPOS basically just sends out text. For example, if your printer can change the font but DHPOS will not send the codes to the printer to change the font (it won't) then you cannot use the font feature.

Also make sure that if the printer works fine, but will not work with DHPOS or your cash drawer, that you can send it back. Some folks will only let you return the printer if it is not working and then only for an exact replacement. Does the printer work as described but will not work with your software or hardware, too bad, you're stuck with it.

Dale

[ProDeZigner]

Well, it connects via LPT (Parallel Port) and it also has a RJ11, I'm whole new to the "whole" POS system, so in terms of what it does, I'm clueless, I just know it has those two ports, looks nice, has drivers available, is compatible with ESC/POS print commands.

That's why I was asking cause it's less than 100 dollars and I'm going for cheap. OR if anyone has any recommendations on cheap, that'd be great too.

[small]

The only problem that I can see is that it is coming from Hong Kong. There is a lot of fake stuff coming out of China. I have ordered a couple times from China and received fake flash drives and jewelry. Just because you order through eBay and use PayPal to pay does not protect you, if you file a dispute on the item if it is bad, PayPal and eBay usually rule in the sellers favor.

I'm not saying all sellers from China is bad, but 90% are. Just use caution when placing orders from China


NEVER ORDER THROUGH alibaba.com

[ProDeZigner]

So no recommendations on printers less than 100 bucks?

[daleadmin]

ProDeZigner,

Well, no recommendation for a new one for less than $100 USD. However there is always EBay for a used one.

I would suggest you get one of the printers listed on this page http://keyhut.com/popopen.htm unless you have some other way of obtaining the "open cash drawer" code for some other printer.

I would also suggest that you do not cheap-out on the receipt printer. Unlike the other POS hardware, the receipt printer has a whole pile of moving parts. A monitor, pole display, scanner, and cash drawer, do not. (A cash drawer only has 2 moving parts, the drawer itself and a solinoid to kick it open.) This means that the first thing to wear out will be the printer. I think it is therefore a good idea to get one that will last.

Dale

[brucef2112]

Do not buy the above china printer. It uses 58mm (aprox 2.25in) width paper. Most real receipt printers use 79mm-83mm (3in~3.25in) width.
On the smaller paper the 40 characters width will be very small and/or condensed.

My advice is stick with the known workhorse printers like epson, star (micronics). If you can't afford new, then look for a used one. Look for a listing from a someone who actually owns the printer and knows how old it is. ie a mom&pop store listing their printer for sale cause the 2yr old business failed. I wouldn't believe the dealer types whose listing used printers as referbs.

You may even want to start off with a USED Dot matrix printer for starters. They are much cheaper. They are a bit slower but if you get a Star or Epson they are known to go the distance. I once bought a pallet of 60+ Star Micronics SP300 Dot Matrix Printers for a dollar each. Most of them had tech notes as broken/damaged. However most of them just needed the print head taken out and cleaned of all the paper dust accumulation. After cleaning them they worked perfect. I've been using one of them in my store for more than six year now. Ribbons can be found cheap on ebay (get the purple ink. they last longer. about $1.25) and the receipt paper can also be found cheap on ebay too(about $1 each for 2-ply. even less for single ply).

Some more info about the Star Micronics SP300. Some come equipped with a 'take-up' spool for printing on 2-ply paper. (white copy comes out and is the customers, the yellow gets rolled up in the printer and can be saved as a printed journal.). Mine is like that. If you just want to print on single ply paper then any model of the sp300 will work for you. If you think you may want the journal feature be sure to check the listing/photos to see that it has the journal spool assembly AND VERY IMPORTANT make sure that it has the journal spool.(the part that the journal will roll-up on and has a gear on the end to engage the take-up motor. THIS IS A HARD PART TO FIND, IF MISSING! So shop carefully. See printer with journal spool assembly installed The journal spool assembly/gear motor can be seen on the very back part of the printer (shown on left side in photo); metal plate with ON/OFF switch for journal and white gear.(The Take-up spool is not shown.)

As of 2.13.2012 there are a bunch of sp300's listed from $50 to 250 dollars. I could not find any sp300 on ebay that specified they had the journal spool assembly included. I also noticed that there are some listings as 'unknown' working condition. There is a self test built into these printers. Of course if you educate the seller how to do the self-test and they see it is working they may rethink the selling price and relist it for more. : | In any case if they have a ribbon and some receipt paper (even cut down a 3in strip of regular paper) the printer can be tested by first turning the power switch off (located on the front of printer), next hold down the power button, while holding down the power button turn the power switch on. If working OK it will start printing out its character set built into the printer. The test continues to run until the printer is turned back off. You can then examine the test print to see if all pins are printing correctly. ie the characters are not missing any dots in their formation on the paper. See Test Print Here This is from one of my $1printers after I took it apart and cleaned the print head.

And as you know, make sure you get one that has the parallel port. Some do come serial..

[ProDeZigner]

So I managed to find the manual for that el-cheap'o printer. Here's what it has for the cash drawer section:

ESC p m t1 t2
[Name] Generate pulse for drawer
[Format] ASCII ESC p m t1 t2
Hex 1B 70 m t1 t2
Decimal 27 112 m t1 t2
[Range] m=0,1,48,49; 0≤t1≤255; 0≤t2≤255
[Description] This command is to generate pulse for controlling the cash drawer.
• The pulse ON time is [t1 x 2 ms] and the OFF time is [t2 x 2 ms].
• If t2 < t1, the OFF time is [t1x 2 ms].

Obviously the formatting is off, but it does have an RJ11 connector... I think I may bite the bullet, because if this thing works decent, it could be VERY helpful to the community for cheap equipment. Now I just need a cheap cash drawer...

[small]

here is a cheap cash drawer that has the phone type receipt printer hookup and less then $100.00.


http://www.buy.com/prod/mmf-cash-drawer ... 49675.html

[ProDeZigner]

Alright, so I ordered the cheap receipt printer and a decent cash drawer (Wasp WCD-5000). They both come in tomorrow (Amazon Prime FTW!) and I'll post my results. Or ask for help... one of the two... LOL

[small]

If you ordered the printer that you posted about, it won't be in tomorrow. it takes 20 to 30 days for shipment from china.

[ProDeZigner]

I ordered it from Amazon, it'll be here tomorrow because it's shipping as one package from Amazon itself.