Cabling for Redundancy

[DTSMAN]

Still some POS dealers run remote printers from the kitchen and bars dircetly to terminals. This does not provide redundancy as if the driving computer fails so does the remote printer that it drives. Here is a bmp of a cabling layout diagram we use and give to contractors when we sub out our cabling jobs. It looks better in Visio, but photobucket will not let me upload that one.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g196/bospruell/Cabling_2LayoutStandard-1.jpg

Bo

Kentucky phone support-
"Mash the Kentrol key and hit scape."

 

[alohaakamai3]

I assume these are IP printers then? That's a big selling point for having those.

Another solution I have heard (but am not overly familiar with) is a serial commmunications box (like a hub for serial devices) made by a company called Systec. They are not cheap though.

With Redundacy as good as Aloha's, I don't blame you for trying to take it to the next level and be fully redundant. There were many times we had terminal go down on a client on a Friday night at 4pm, who might have been able to live without the terminal until Monday--but could not live out with kitchen printer that it was running.

 

[DTSMAN]

No they are not IP printers.. They are serial, we utilize the DB25 to rj45 adapters on the printers and use cat5 patch cables for everything. We also have DB9 to rj24 adapters on the serial ports of the computers. All cables on our sites are Cat5 patch cables and color schemed. And the serial is not limited to the network length limit of 300 feet. I have pushed it quite far without any issues.

Blue - network
Red - remote printer uplink to wall
Black - local printer


Bo

Kentucky phone support-
"Mash the Kentrol key and hit scape."

 

[DTSMAN]

Correction DB9 to rj45 adapter for the computer not rj24.

Bo

Kentucky phone support-
"Mash the Kentrol key and hit scape."