Printer & Cashdrawers

[ronaldrwl]

Escape Commands for Generic Text Driver

Epson printers:
Open Drawer: <1B><70><30><3C><78><00>
Open Drawer: <1B><70><00><19><64> (MMF drawers)
Cut Paper: <1B><56><30>
Double Width: <1B><21><20>
Normal: <1B><21><01>
Reverse Feed: <1B><65><02>

Star Printers:
Open Drawer: <07>

Citizen Printers:
Open Drawer: <1B><70><00><32><FA><00>

Samsung Printers:
Open Drawer: <1B><70><00><19><FA><00>
Cut Paper: <1D><56><42><00>

For Windows XP & 2000:
1) Open the Control Panel.
2) Double click on Printers and Faxes.
3) Right Mouse click on the Generic Text Only driver.
4) Select Properties.
5) Click on Printer Commands.
6) Enter the escape sequence in the Begin Print Job just as it's shown with the angle brackets.

For Windows Windows 7:
1) Open the Control Panel / Hardware and Sound / Devices and Printers.
2) Right click on the printer icon and select Printer Properties.
3) Click on Printer Commands.
4) Enter the escape sequence in the Begin Print Job just as it's shown with the angle brackets.

Also set the Paper Source:
1) Click on General tab.
2) Click on Printing Preferences... button.
3) Click on Paper/Quality tab.
4) Paper Source: Cont. Feed - With Break

These are for cash drawers that are connected to the printer. There are variations where this commands will not work.

[ronaldrwl]

From Peter Moore at Barcode Index:

 
I registered with http://epsonexperts.com, located the manual for the TM88lll, went to page 2 of the users manual, it shows the dip switch table settings for serial connection printers.
(2) I then unscrewed the bottom metal plate underneath the printer (It has 2 dip switches 1 and 2), under dip switch 1 - I set it according to the transmission speed settings on the manual which states dip switch 1 - button 7 and 8 should be switched on, and that should increase it to rate 38400 from 9600

I then switched the printer back on with the feed button depressed, which confirmed that the dip switch settings had changed. I then went back to the port settings, changed the baud rate to 38400 and restarted the computer and printed off a test page at least 10 times faster than before

[ronaldrwl]

To make the Epson TM88III serial print faster, cut the paper after each print and open the cash drawer.


Follow the previous instructions to increase the baud rate sent on 11/28/05 at 05:05 PM, then go to the printer properties, and under the general tab click on printing preferences. Under the Main tab, change the print resolution FROM (180 x 180) TO (90 x 90). This has printed alot faster with the EZPOWER epos on every occassion.


To cut the paper and open the drawer, go to the printer properties, and under the general tab click on printing preferences. Under the Operation tab, go to Start of document - Open drawer option - choose open drawer 1 or 2 depending on your connection either via the receipt printer or via a serial connected drawer.


To cut the paper, set the paper cut under the Operation tab - Start of Document to manual. DO NOT tick the feed to cut position before cut.


Then go to End of Document button, and set the paper cut option to Partial Cut. Do not make any changes to the Start of Page or End of Page options, and this will not affect the paper cut function.


The main reason as to why the paper or open drawer function can disable itself, is due to setting the paper cut option to partial or open the drawer in more than one setting. You have 4 Setting options / buttons: At the Start of the Document, Start of Page, End of Page and the End of Document. The printer needs to know what to do at each of these 4 stages. If you ask it to cut the paper or open the drawer in more than one of these stages, it will automatically reset the request as it can only carry out the function of cutting the paper and opening the drawer ONCE, which must be during one of the 4 stages above. You can ask it to open the drawer at the beginning of the Document, and cut the receipt paper at the end of the Document, but ALWAYS make sure you leave the other settings inactive.

Any questions please forward to this forum. Thanks

[ronaldrwl]

Serial Print Fast & Open Drawer

If your serial printer is slow you can use two drivers, one to print fast and one to open the drawer. Thanks to Tim for this suggestion.

OK. Here is a perfect workround for me any anyone using Epson integrated tills.

Download and Epson T88ii driver
Add a new printer using the Epson driver downloaded
Add a second printer - Generic text found on Windows Operating system
Start EZPOS
Set Cash Draw to open using Epson Opus
Choose Printer 1 - Epson T88ii and set No of receiptsto print to "0" ZERO
Choose Printer 2 - Generic Text Printer and set No of receipts to print to "1" ONE

Providing printers are set to same COM port, the printer will print at lightning speed and the cash draw will open.

I hope that saves some trial and error time for anyone having the same problems as I have had.

[Fitzy]

Just setting up a TM88-III (Parallel) printer and while the character line length (sent to the printer is 40 characters) it is not printing beyond 37-1/2 characters on the right side. (So the cents are missing).  

If I print an example to an A4 sheet printer all is well.

In the driver, there is no margin setting (other than than the incremental movement of the whole  left/right/up/down). But if I shift the lot left it loses part of the leftmost as well as part of the the rightmost characters.

I have tried 90x90 rather than 180x180 (no difference to what prints) and if I print all text as graphics and scale it down, the r.h.s. is still missing even though the lot is now smaller and the rhs margin is wider but no more characters print than before.


Tried a True Type substitution but need to stay with the fixed width fonts.

Have run out of ideas..  
Driver (which took a bit of finding) is Install Version APD Ver4.06
Which is "EPSON TM-T88III ReceiptE4" Version 5, 0, 7, 0
(EPSON Status API Version 4, 2, 7, 0)

P.S. - Didn't get a book with the (new but totally unused for years) printer.

[ronaldrwl]

Open the Settings / Printer Options.  Change the "Roll Width in Inches" setting.  Make it smaller.

[Fitzy]

Re TM-T88III Printing Speed.

I changed mine over from Serial to Parallel Port (with an optional EPSON Interface)
and found it is still much slower than the TM-88IV Parallel I have on the other register.

With dip switches set to the optimum settings and printing a JPG logo at the top
it takes 8 seconds to print a 5" long receipt. Changing to 90x90 resolution makes
the logo look terrible and with a small increase in speed so I've made it "all text"
(without logo) and 90x90 then is much faster at a barely acceptable 3 or 4 seconds.

I'll next try fooling with the paper cut & draw opening settings mentioned.

If you have a choice I'd recommend the models IV or V as much better options.

[ronaldrwl]

You can increase the baud rate of the printer and the computer port.  That will speed it up a lot.

[thecaptive]

Sorry to bother you but after upgrading my software my cashdrawer isn't opening after a sale.  I have a Citizen CT-S300, serial.  I have downloaded an updated driver and installed it.  The printer is printing just fine.  The drawer opens if I click on Open Drawer.  When I looked in the settings the new driver doesn't show up in the drop down list.

Thank you

Craig

[ronaldrwl]

Open the Settings / Payment Methods and make sure the Open Drawer check boxes are set.  Also, check the Settings / Printer & Equipment.  It should say Drawer: Open Connected to Printer.

[Lee]

Hello again,

Which drivers are needed in Windows 7 to get the Bematech cash drawer (connected to a Bematech printer) to open with the "Open Cash Drawer" command in POS13? 

Thanks, Lee

[ronaldrwl]

We used to sell Bematech printers.  Their own driver should work fine.  The Generic Text Only driver also works.

[ronaldrwl]

I talked to the tech support at Bixolon about printers not working when the computer is idle.  They said to change your power saver settings on the computer.  It's OK to use Hibernate but don't use Sleep.

[peter@wolftackle.com]

What brand and model of POS hardware would you prefer to support?
Assuming most of your customers are tight wads, what would you settle for supporting?
Printer?
Cash Drawer?
Pole Display?

[ronaldrwl]

Really any brand of printer is fine.  I don't know of anything that's a problem with printers.  It must work with Windows.  As long as the cash drawer connects to the printer, that's not a problem.

The pole display must connect to the serial (COMM) port.  We have tested 2 line displays from Epson and Logic Control.  And many pole displays will emulate Epson.  Many nameless brands from China have worked but it's more risky.

Obviously we would like to support the ones we sell.