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TX-870 - intermittent printing problems
Hi
Wondering if anyone can help.
I've recently down-sized my coffee shop, and since moving have had problems with the KP deciding sometimes to print, sometimes not!
In our old shop, we had two TX-870's and two Uniwell TP-832's connected via ethernet. All worked fine, even when we removed one of the TX870's from the network (which was several years ago).
The new setup is one TX870 linked straight to one TP832 with one of the ethernet cables used in the old setup. To start with, nothing would print earlier in the day and I would get a KP Error message, but later in the day the printer would come to life. Now we are getting nothing.
I've tried swapping to the spare printer, and swapped the cable but to no avail. Printer Test won't do anything. Tried reinitialising IRC as well.
Because of the change in networking connections, could this be causing a problem, or is it more likely to be an aging till (now 8 years old)?
Any help would be appreciated, and maybe even a free drink if whoever comes up with a solution is in my area
If you are connecting the till direct to the printer then you need a cross-over cable, or put the Ethernet switch back in between the two devices.
Thanks for the advice Simon.
Tried using a network switch as it should do the same job as a crossover lead, but made things even worse as I wasn't even getting a KP Error message, it just locked up totally so had to reset the till.
Put everything back in place, all reconnected as before (with a straight patch lead, and low and behold it printed. I'm gonna try digging out the other till form my garage tonight and see if that behaves itself, if so I shall attempt to transfer till setup from "faulty" one onto the other.
Can't see it being anything other than internal fault with the TX870, so my next thought being problems with the ethernet board in the till, so next question is has anyone had similar problems?
Ta in advance!
The obvious things to check - they would be on my check-list if I was in-site looking at this;-
IP Addresses / subnet masks correct and matching - e.g. 192.168.1.200 for Till ID 1 and 192.168.1.100 for KP 1
IRC ID is set to 1 & 1 on the till.
KP ID is set to 1
IP Information - make sure there is an entry in the MAC Address field. Sometimes these can get wiped out as they are only held in software on these machines (the hardware Burnt-In Address isn't read automatically and so you have to configure it by hand). Resets can sometimes lead to this becoming a field of zeros instead.
'Wiggle' the Ethernet cable, both in the back of the TX and the printer to see what happens to the LEDs. It's not exactly unknown for the solder pins on the port to dry out after a few years and they can become disconnected from the PCB - then they work perfectly with the cable in one position, but not in another.
You were using two tills and two printers before? Check that when you try the 'spare' one (till or printer) you configure the IRC & IP stuff the same as the first ones or you will possibly have different problems when trying to trouble-shoot.
I've had problems before with ethernet TP printers, similar to what the previous reply said. Check the LED on the back of printer when its connected on the network, also try moving the cable near the port to see if the LED goes off. If it does, it could be the cable not fitting into the printer port properly, then you'll have to either try another cable or pull out the side grip pin inside the printer ethernet port so that the cable hooks on tight. Check this on the till too.
Also you mention TP832? are you sure or is it a TP922/ 932?
TP832 from my knowledge is not an ethernet printer it uses serial cabling, i.e. it need to be terminated i.e. at a junction box and works like a ring connection. Also check KP base in SP201 and change the printer ip to reflect this.
Also is there anything else on a the network i.e. wifi devices that may be picking up the same ip. Connect your printer to a PC and ping it using ping (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) -t from command prompt. If all fails then you could have a faulty printer, and may have to replace it or use the one you removed and set it up the same. You could do this anyway and see if you still get problem.