Another Cash Drawer Question

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Thu May 27, 2004 4:24 pm

I am running a Citizen CT-S300 Thermal POS Printer with a CBM Metal CBM 2000 Cash Drawer. For some reason the printer works fine (through APrint), but will not kick the drawer open. I have called Citizen and gotten the codes: 27, 112, 0, 50, 250. I have entered these into the Cash Drawer section of POSCONFIG but still no drawer kick. In fact when I press F4 to test, the program basically freezes and takes about 5-8 minutes to become usable again.

The receipt printer has a partial cutter which works fine, no config required.

Any suggestions?

Doug

chilewillie · Post by **chilewillie** » Thu May 27, 2004 6:26 pm

Hi Doug,

Since you are accessing the printer through APrint, you need to enter the cash drawer information into your windows printer driver. POS sends your print information to APrint which then passes it to your windows printer driver which takes over the process. Therefore, entering the cash drawer code into POS (I think) will have no effect.... this is why your cutter works by default without your having to enter the cutter code into POS...your windows printer driver was apparently preset with the correct cutter code.

If you are using a windows driver provided by Citizen, there should be a place for entering the cash drawer code, or a check box or some other method for enabling the drawer kick. If the Citizen printer driver doesn't have a way to do this, you should be able to find an Epson driver that will work with this printer since it emulates ESC/POS just like the Epson printers. Hope this helps.

Dale Harris · Post by **Dale Harris** » Fri May 28, 2004 7:41 pm

Doug,

A receipt printer should not require APRINT to function as long as it is connected to the computer through the parallel printer port. If your is try loading the "Generic" printer driver from Windows and print through the LPT1 port. That may also solve your cash drawer problem.

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 1:23 pm

I can fire the drawer using a Control font code within WordPad, but am still not able to have the drawer fire when printing a receipt from POS. Does every application I print from have to use/include the Control font? Or am I supposed to be able to send the code once, then have the printer remember it for every other time?

Doug

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 1:50 pm

Here is an excerpt from the documentation regarding the Control font:

"If you are going to use these drivers with an existing Windows application, and you wish to control the printer (i.e. open the cash drawer), please be aware that the application must allow you to 1) select the 'control' font, and 2) send a control character. Both of these steps are necessary to control the printer; you can not skip one. For assistance with configuring the application to select the font and send the character, please contact your software vendor."

Does this mean that the APRINT program needs to send this each time? Or is this something that should be sent one time with WordPad or something similar in order to program the printer?

Doug

Dale Harris · Post by **Dale Harris** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:13 pm

Doug,

First of all we are assuming that your cash drawer is connected to your printer using an RL-11 phone type plug and that it is not connected directly to your computer through one of the serial ports.

If this is true then the code 27,112,0,50,250 must be sent to the printer every time you want the printer to open the cash drawer.

Just last week I had an email from a user who had a problem just like yours. The solution was simple, I had him load the "generic" printer driver from Windows, make it the default printer driver, and then use the "Printer setup" feature of the POSCONFG.EXE to print to the LPT1: port. Both printer and cash drawer worked fine after that.

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:46 pm

Dale,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I may have one issue with that. My printer is a serial interface, which is the primary reason I am using APRINT in order to print via Windows Drivers. Any reason this may or may not work as a result? I understand that a serial interface printer is not ideal for your program. Otherwise I will give it a try.

Thanks again.

Doug

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:49 pm

Dale,

BTW, my printer is connected via COM1 on my PC and the Cash Drawer to the Printer via the standard Cash Drawer interface similar to RJ11, as it is an Epson Compatible cash drawer.

Doug

peewee3ie · Post by **peewee3ie** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 8:52 am

I had the same problem as you. but I can not rember how i fixed it. I am working on it for you and to help others.

What version of windows are you using. Please let me know.

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 1:43 pm

I have found a solution.

As my Cash Drawer is controlled by the printer, I needed a way to send the drawer kick codes to the printer. As I had a serial printer, I was not able to do this via the POS Program (not compatible with Serial if running Windows 2000).

After threatening to return the cash drawer, I was offered the following solution that will interest everyone trying to use a serial printer with the POS program.

Apparently you can re-direct the LPT1 port to COM1 by doing the following:

Instructions on how to setup your Windows 2000 machine to redirect the LPT printer in DOS to the COM port in DOS. As a note, remove ALL drivers which are using LPT and COM in Windows before proceeding.

Below is the two lines you need to paste into a batch file.

mode com1 baud=9600 data=8 parity=n stop=1
mode lpt1=com1

Once you've created the batch file, have a shortcut placed into the Startup group in the Start Menu. This will redirect all LTP1 traffic to COM1.

Now you can switch your DOS POS Application to use LPT1 now

This has worked perfectly since, and I am no longer using APRINT in order print reciepts.

Hope this helps.

Doug

DHES

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