Aloha Printer Group Question, pleeeze help

[RosemarysBaby]

I had the an Aloha dealer on site to try and figure out what should be a simple task, no luck. Here's what we'd like to do:
Say we have 3 kitchen printers, A,B & C. During the day we only want A & B to print. After 4pm (obviously an event) we want C to print as well (without spitting out all the tickets of the day as if it were simply powered off). That's it.
Now we had this scenario working correctly for the last 8 years, except that at 4pm each terminal would report a "Loop Error" at each 1st touch of the screen. So I know I could put this event back the way I had it, But I would love to do it without the "Loop Error" message. Any thoughts?

 

[DTSMAN]

Create a dummy printer that does not really exist. Use an event to reroute the c printer to it and then reroute it back to itself at 4pm.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

 

[RosemarysBaby]

Thanx Bo
I implemented the event today but I believe that the event log is read at the creation time of the trans.log. Do you know if this is true?
The event I set up seems true and logical but right now at lunch time, printer "C" is firing (while the event is routed to "no print").
I did do a refresh, but I think the event won't take place until tomorrow. Is this the case?

 

[RosemarysBaby]

The printer event triggered and the "loop error" is back.
Event setup like this:
Daily 10:00 Reroute Printer from "C" to "No Print"
Daily 15:00 Reroute Printer from "No Print" to "C"

At 15:00 Printer "C" will print, but "Loop Error" occurs at every touch on every terminal, everytime.

Not critical but very annoying. What am I missing or doing wrong?

Thank you.

 

[DTSMAN]

Create a printer group. Do not put a printer in it.

Events:
10:00 Reroute printer group c to no print
15:00 Reroute printer group c to c

This will not generate screen messages that a printer is offline.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

 

[RosemarysBaby]

Bo
I'm not sure this would work if you look at this from the item level. Let's say I have a Lasagna (item) and it's assigned to printer group Kitchen All (Printer A,B & C).

Now at lunch time I need only Printer A & B to print this Lasagna.

After 15:00 I need Printer "C" also to begin firing (along with A & B).

So I'm not sure I understand how I can create a no print "group" when the lasagna has to print somewhere at any given time.

I hope this makes sense.

Thank you.

 

[DTSMAN]

Fine, we wil do it your way..


Create a fake printer. Call it fake or dummy.
Do not attach it to a terminal, just create it.

Events:
10:00 Reroute printer c to fake or dummy
15:00 Reroute printer c to c

This will not generate screen messages that a printer is offline.



Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

 

[RosemarysBaby]

O.K. Bo
I did do the config in your last post. I've had it this way before and I have it that way right now. No "loop error messages". However, at 3pm all the tickets for the day start coming out of the "C" printer.

I guess the "no printer" dummy printer will still try to spool the info, then fire when rerouted in events.

Do you have any idea to what else I might have wrong?

If not, we'll let this one die for now. Thanx for your input.

 

[ddudley]

Try creating 2 printer groups. The first will all 3 printers "All" and the second with only the 2 "two" or something. Then you can create an event to change the routing for the printer group you have running to the other.

 

[RosemarysBaby]

The 2 printer group scenario is exactly the one that I've had in place for the last 12 years. It works in that the 3rd printer turns does turn on and off as needed via events. However at 3pm (all printers on) event, all the touch terminals report "Warning printer reroute loop error" contact manager immediately.

It seems like a no brainer to get this message to go away. I've tried al the suggestions (much appreciated) here, but no proper results.

I don't know if there's something in my data that is causing this not to work correctly. I wonder if anyone here has successfully implemented this exact reroute scenario.

I even had the Aloha dealer (a very big one), on site looking at this 2 weeks ago and whatever they tried caused the 3rd printer not to fire at all on a Friday night. It was tragic and all attempts and refreshes to get it to fire were futile until the next days new trans.log.

Anyway I guess I'm just venting now but if anyone has anything new to try, I'll try it. But I've tried all the above. Perhaps the problem is low level in tht I have to look at my entire Items database and how I put each and every Item to a particular printer group, rebuild from the bottom up. Thanks mucho.

 

[awbbar]

I think you have identified the problem.
Maybe things are getting confused in the logs.

The two print group should work.
All items printing in kitchen going to 1 printer group.
Rerouted to another printer group at 15:00.

Try setting it up first thing in the morning.
Then delete(backup first)printer/mirror/trans logs
Refresh.
You can test it manually before its needed by rerouting
printer groups on FOH , then place order.