Is this possible? printer to open a till

Hobbsie · 21 Feb 2017 at 12:27

Hi all hope this post is in the right section?
Ok a bit of a weird one maybe and im not even sure if this can be done.
Is there a way of opening a USB till via a printer or some other way?
Basically we have a new product inventory system that has a really bad EPOS system, there is a print button that will open up a print command to select the printer.
I was wondering if i can have a fake printer that actually sends a command like open till?

Hope someone may be able to pour some light onto this for me.

Thanks

smogsy · 21 Feb 2017 at 12:30

which epos is it?

nightmare99 · 21 Feb 2017 at 20:56

Is the cash drawer USB and do you have a thermal receipt printer

Hobbsie · 24 Feb 2017 at 08:25

Hi sorry forgot to say, theres no epos software running on it at the moment it was sales stream.
Yes its a usb drawer and a use thermal printer but printer not worried about.
Im sure there is some kind of command that can be sent to simply open drawer. hopefully

Thanks

Nikumba · 24 Feb 2017 at 10:12

When worked in retail, the cash draw connected to the printer, then the printer config software on printing a receipt would pop the cash draw

Hobbsie · 24 Feb 2017 at 11:03

Hmmm i shall investigate into this, so technically it could be easier than im thinking as a print to the printer may automatically open the drawer anyway.

izzop · 24 Feb 2017 at 18:44

What is the model of the printer?

You should be able to send some "escape characters" to fire the attached draw.

Although, I've never used a USB Cash Drawer before, only ones with an RJ cable.

nightmare99 · 25 Feb 2017 at 10:06

I know Epson thermal printers have settings in the driver where you can tell it to kick out an RJ11 connected cash drawer after printing.

Amraam · 25 Feb 2017 at 11:19

nightmare99 said:
I know Epson thermal printers have settings in the driver where you can tell it to kick out an RJ11 connected cash drawer after printing.

Yup, that's how we did it in the public libraries, here in Newcastle

Deleted member 77746 · 27 Feb 2017 at 07:28

Look on the bottom of the till. Most tills have a leaver you press and the cash draw opens lol.

Or are you actually wanting to run software live to kick it open?

Or just use the key?

Orcvader · 27 Feb 2017 at 14:14

The POS program or the printer actually needs to support the till in some way, such as actually recognising it and sending the right command to open it. Any idea what model the till is? There should be some documentation somewhere to help but it may not be possible from the sounds of it.

I'm IT support for a chain of restaurants and we have tills using 6P6C connected to an Epson printer, but the POS program we're using is pretty old and only sends the right command when the printer is connected via parallel/serial. When connecting via USB the open till command is different so had to do this to get it working.

Amraam · 7 Mar 2017 at 11:01

mrbell1984 said:
Look on the bottom of the till. Most tills have a leaver you press and the cash draw opens lol.

Or are you actually wanting to run software live to kick it open?

Or just use the key?

Not ideal in a shop with cash though. Keys can be left in by mistake; customers can press said lever/button.

Deleted member 77746 · 8 Mar 2017 at 08:10

Amraam said:
Not ideal in a shop with cash though. Keys can be left in by mistake; customers can press said lever/button.

The. Why not just buy another cash draw. Or change the lock on the till?

To be fair the 'no sale' button might already be programmed to kick it open. Depends what till software it uses.

Hobbsie · 20 Mar 2017 at 19:41

Hi all sorry been away going to drag this back to life again if ok..
So our Epsom receipt printer that had an rj11 port for the kick to the drawer is no good for us we need to us a 4" wide label, we have an Zebra LP 2844 thermal printer that has DB9/ Serial and USB on the back.
The drawer is a box standard RJ11 drawer, i was wondering if i can use a DB9 to RJ11 adapter?
I'm trying to find the pin outs of the RJ11 lead to see what the drawer actually needs to kick open.
Failing that i guess buying new hardware will just be easier?
At the end of the day a couple its not going to break the bank.

Thanks

Orcvader · 22 Mar 2017 at 12:14

Having a look at that printer, it doesn't have the right connections for the till drawer. Looking at the manual shows there's no commands for any cash drawer either. All the connections at the back just seems to be for connecting to a PC.

How flexible is the POS software? One work around is to set up the Epson printer just to control the drawer, and maybe if the software offers it, set the drawer to the Epson and the labels to the Zebra.

Had a look on the Epson site but I can't see anything doing 4"/100mm wide, just mostly 80mm.