Populate Aloha Printer list

[flashspatula]

I have a Star tsp 700 receipt printer that I have on Lpt1, on my aloha pos 5.3.21 terminal. It prints incredibly slow. I checked the connections and printer by printing a test through windows and it flies. I can't seem to run it as a window's printer within the program on the terminal. Aloha has many older versions of the Star printers to use, and I currently have it configured to the Star TSP 400- with cutter. How do I add this printer (700) and driver to the aloha dropdown printer list? Or is there another printer on the list that might emulate my printer?

 

[AkamaiAloha]

The printers that you see in the drop down list are your only options. There is no way to add or edit those included with your version of Aloha. If you're not getting communication errors or random characters printing, odds are Aloha is "OK" with the printer type you declared it as in the back office, and the speed is unlikely to get any better no matter what you do.

Unfortunately, parallel (LPT) printers are just plain slow. I forgot how slow, until a client of mine recently decided to order them himself, and accidentally bought LPT. Even after being properly setup, they were unbearably slow. He decided they were good enough for him to open his new business with, but wanted to replace them as soon as possible.

About your only other option is to see if you can buy a serial interface for that model. We don't do a lot with Star printers--but I know with Epson, you just remove two screws, and parallel interface can be swapped for serial one. Then all you'd have to do is change the dip switches, and you'd be ready to roll. Maybe you have an old Star lying around? If you have other working Star printers, I might consider keeping this as a spare. You can still use it as a back up, and when one of those other Stars finally dies, you can possibly just swap that piece out, and have a fast serial printer.

Hope this helps.

 

[posrescue]

Your spped issue is probably caused by a combination of Aloha, the OS (XP, 2000 or NT) and parallel. Aloha does not like parallel with the Windows secured operating systems.
You can
1. Switch interface to serial
2. Install the printer as a Windows printer and assign it as such in Aloha
3. Clip wire/pin 31 in the cable. (printer end)

 

[Aloha1]

Plain and simple, Aloha will print out of the LPT port like a dinosaur. The only way you can increase the print speed is to configure it for OPOS.
Otherwise go serial. Aloha was built around the use of serial printers. OPOS over LPT will increase your speed a bit over plain LPT, but you will never see serial speeds.

 

[AkamaiAloha]

No question. There are two kinds of LPT printing in Aloha: SLOW and REALLY SLOW. Neither is all that much fun. I doubt any amount of tweaking is going to make you much happier. Go serial, or GO home