Aloha 98 to xp upgrade including hardware

[abcpb]

This is my first post so I apologize if just jumping in is inappropriate.
My 98 stations are dying so I am replacing them with XP Pro.
Everything was going fine but then I tried to print a ticket to the Epson TM-U200PB receipt printer...it crawled even slower than crawled. So I played with the settings in Aloha ver. is 6.2.12 and found that as a windows printer it printed great. Then I tested the cash drawer...it won't pop it, not even a click. Switched the printer back to the U200 and it still won't pop it. I tested the cash drawer on the 98 station hooked it to the printer and it popped the drawer just fine.
What do I need to change to get it to pop the cash drawer when using the windows printer in Aloha? I know some of you are using XP pro so it has to be possible.
Thanks for any help, I appreciate it!

 

[SwampGas]

Is the printer serial or parallel port driven?

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MegabyteCoffee.com

 

[abcpb]

Parallel and has an rj11 port for the cash drawer.

 

[SwampGas]

I thought so. The Aloha application does not support parallel port printing in XP and higher. We use to use parallel receipt printing years ago, and had to change because of this.

I have an email from one of the developers at Radiant that explained why and all, but bottom line, it's not going to work for receipt printing, and the RFC was closed after I agreed.

What you can do is swap out the parallel port with a serial or USB port and go from there.

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MegabyteCoffee.com

 

[abcpb]

By swap out the parallel port I'm guessing you don't mean a parallel to serial or usb adapter? What printer do you use now?
Thanks for your help.

 

[SwampGas]

The Epson U-200 printers, have interchangable connections on the bottom. You can remove the parallel port and install a serial port in that printer, or USB, or ethernet. All of the newer Epson printer that I know of do this now.

---
MegabyteCoffee.com

 

[pasupport]

You can get serial cards for your Epson printers from CDW for about 35 bucks. But you will also need a serial cable that is 25 pins on the printer side. The problem is that the pinouts on terminals vary so a standard cable my not cut it. I make my own with a 9 pin serial adapter that goes to a CAT5e cable and use a 25 pin adapter on the printer side.
You can get these from trianglecables.com look for DB9F-RJ45 and DB25M-RJ45.

You should be able to check one of your line printers if they use the same type of adapters for the correct pin outs if not try one of these pin outs, one should work for you but you need to try both.

For the 25 pin connector try this

2 orange
3 black
7 green
20 yellow

or this

2 green
3 yellow
7 red
20 brown

Straight through db-9 female


1 Blue
2 Orange
3 Black
4 Red
5 Green
6 Yellow
7 Brown
8 White
9 ---------

On the BOH you will need to change the port to a com port.
Also on the terminal itself check the settings on the com ports to make sure FIFO is OFF


--
Visit my website site a pasupportsolutions.com for cool tips and tricks

 

[abcpb]

Thank you both very much I will try it this week, with such good information I am sure it will be a success!
Thanks again.

 

[posrescue]

If your terminal has standard RS232 com ports (9 pins) just use a NULL modem cable for your reciept printer once you have installed the serial interface card.

Also you will need to change the dip switches in the bottom of the printer. Typically on a TM200 that will be 3,4,6 & 7 on on bank 1 and only 2 on on bank 2.

 

[abcpb]

Serial interface card is installed. I changed the dip switches to match the serial printer in the kitchen, sw1 # 3,5,6 on, sw2 2 & 4 are on, and using the serial to ethernet adapters that were being used for the kitchen printer and an over the counter ethernet cord. I had success in getting it to print. But it will not open the cash drawer when asked via the open drawer button or a closed sale.
Using the same cabling I mentioned above I tried the dip switches suggested by posrescue and it started printing S's, 3's and $'s and kept going until I turned it off.
I tried a 9 to 25 serial cable but it must not be null modem since it did not work, Aloha shows printer as offline.
It is apparently opening the cash drawer on some queue because when I came in this morning it was open.
I will look for a null modem cable today, however we do not have the computer stores like cities have.
Please let me know if you can see anything I am missing.

 

[SwampGas]

With the serial card installed, run a printer self test and match the serial port settings on the printer to the COM port settings for that printer on Windows. Reboot and should start working. Also, make sure you are using a serial printer cable (Null modem cable).

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MegabyteCoffee.com

 

[abcpb]

serial card is installed, ran the self test and matched the settings on the com port to what is on the printer. Hooked up the null modem/serial printer cable and rebooted. It prints but won't open the cash drawer. The cable I found said it has full handshaking. The cash drawer setting in Aloha is set to printer. I am pretty much at a loss on what to try now. Any thoughts.