Printer output in Aloha

[oshma]

Greetings, all.

I'm brand new here and although I've been an IT professional for 20-odd (some of them _very_ odd) years, I am new to POS systems. Please be gentle!

A friend of mine has an Aloha system in his restaurant, and he wants to move his unused bar printer into the kitchen, so his assistant can get orders for items that don't involve the grill.

Is there a way in the system to specify to which printer any given item should print? Also, is there anything configuration-related I should be aware of before moving the physical printer?

I very much appreciate all insights and comments.

Thanks for your help.

Mary O'Shaughnessy

 

[AdamDR]

oshma,

Welcome the the wonderful world of POS (sarcasm!). In item maintenance, choose the item that you want to print to the newly positioned printer. On the first tab on the right side you will see a button that says "print" with a drop down menu. This is where you would choose the print "group" that you want to print to.

I take it that you are goint to re-configure the printer under hardware maintenance to reflect which terminal and what port the printer will be running from. If you need help with that just let us know!

Also under hardware maintenance is a section called "Printer Groups". This is where you assign a printer(s) to a printer group.

Hope that wasn't too vague of an explanation for you!

Adam

 

[oshma]

Thanks, Adam. It's a very clear explanation.

Now, maybe I'm truly dreaming here, but is it at all possible to use a wireless method to connect this printer? I can pull cable through the ceiling and down the wall, but I'd _really_ prefer not to. (I'm not delicate, just out of shape!)

Your comments are much appreciated.

Mary O'S

 

[AdamDR]

Well, if one was very much against running wire, you could do it wireless. Granted it would be fun to try it, I don't see it as viable option.

You can get an ethernet card to put in your epson printer. Then get a wireless adapter to plug it into. Have a WAP for it to connect to. Then set up Aloha for an ethernet kitchen printer.

Like I said, fun to set up, but probably a pain in the a$$!!

Hey, it's friday!!!

Adam

 

[AkamaiAloha]

We got real close to doing what Adam said--ordering a ethernet card for an Epson that was in a difficult location to cable, in an older building, where the system had been in place for a while. My feelings were much the same as his--wireless was a last resort for us. Although wirless technology has come a long way in the last few years, it's still a little unreliable and unpredictable for an industry like POS, where it needs to work non-stop.

I am not saying it's not possible--we've done wireless stuff and have had no problems. The disheartening this was, we've taken the exact same configuration into other environments, and ended up with nothing but problems. When you buy expensive equipment designed for that environment (like handhelds, for example), that's one thing--but that's usually not in your average restaurants budget.

We always cable the critical components like termials and kitchen printers. And just when we think wirelss is our only option, we think some more. Usually, we find an acceptable "cabled" solutiuon when we didn't think there was one, but sometimes not. Then, and only then, will we implement wireless.

Just my two cents.

 

[oshma]

I really appreciate all the input.

Really, what I'm looking at is maybe 40 more feet of plenum cable up into and across 25 feet of dropped ceiling. I just don't want my friends to have to spend into high three digits to have someone come in and do this. I'd do it myself but I don't have the cable available, and I can't find it for sale in lengths under 1000 feet.

MaryO

 

[AkamaiAloha]

Mary,

True, but you can get a box of 1000 feet for under $60 at home depot. With a drop ceiling, you can probably have that banged out in an hour. This will definitely be cheaper than the cost of adding the wireless printer interface, a wireless AP, and configuration. Don't quote me on this, but I want to say those Epson wireless interface cards were pretty pricey--like $150 or more.

 

[DTSMAN]

There are wireless serial solutions available. Do a web search on that and you can avoid all the issues that will come with setting up wireless ethernet printers. Haven't used them but heard that they work ok.

Bo

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

 

[oshma]

Thank you all for the input. Yesterday we moved the printer and added a drop (well, a rise, since the office is below the kitchen).

I am bemused by this. The Aloha installation (Table Manager?) at this site doesn't seem to have access to the hardware maintenance module for whatever reason. The machine also does not have high speed Net access, so I can't post here with exact descriptions of what I saw (or rather didn't see).

Is it common for an installation to have a very limited, ASP-like set of rights for maintenance?

MaryO

 

[posrescue]

The user you are looging in with is obviously not set for full access. Assuing you see all areas of Aloha Manager but some of them are "grey" and not accessible?

You can use the Alt-X back door built into Aloha to gain full access.

 

[oshma]

Hm. There are only 2 user accounts on this installation, and apparently neither has God rights.

Alt-X? Do tell, do tell...

(Thank you!)

 

[AkamaiAloha]

I think you're going to find people reluctant to post this command on an open forum, Mary. I don't even have any affiliation with Aloha and owe them nothing, but this command gives super user rights to anyone who can access the back office PC. I think it would be irresponsible of us to post it publicly, since a dishonest user could get into the system and do things that they're not supposed to.

I am sure a number of us would be willing to help you privately, via email. Unfortunately, Tek-Tips does not allow you to post email address. If you look through a few of our olds posts, however, you will see some addys, prior to the days when many of us were warned by TT not to do it anymore. That said, identify yourself to one of those inviduals (myself included), and I am sure they would be happy to give you a hand with it.