Star Printer - OPOS - Open Drawer WIthout a Receipt

I had the same strange problem, Scott. I *swear* it was working while just plugged into the serial port of the computer. Then I changed my OPOS scanner and it stopped working.

I beat my head against the wall for a while, and then remembered that I had previously gone to DOS and successfully sent a text string to the drawer to pop it (something like ECHO "asdf" >COM3). I [wrongly] concluded that the serial port was bad.

Then I decided to plug the phone connector into the computer's modem, and voila, it worked. This may be unrelated to your problem, but I thought I'd give the whole story in case it helps someone out there...

Now, to answer your question, I downloaded the the OPOS drivers from Star. The SP500 does not appear in the list of printers, so I selected SP542MC. It seems like this works fine.

Use the same name you created in the OPOS driver in the Database/Registers/Register List, select the properties for the correct register,Cash Drawer 1 tab.

The drawer should pop before the POS asks you to print a receipt.

Hope this helps! Jason

"Scott @ Shuffle & Cut Games" wrote:

You also want to make sure that you have the correct cable for your drawer. I am assuming that you are plugging the drawer into the printer's kick-out connector. Each printer manufacturer uses a slightly different connector pin-out so your drawer's cable must have been ordered to match the printer you are using. In other words, a drawer with an Epson cable usually won't work if plugged into a Star printer.

Just something to consider and verify if things don't seem to be working.

He may be using a serial cash drawer like mine - a Posiflex. This drawer has a hardwired cable with a 9-pin serial connector and an RJ-11 connector pigtailed at the end. This wouldn't wire into the printer in an OPOS scenario. Correct me if I am wrong, but mine works just plugged into the serial port with the OPOS drivers.

Jas> You also want to make sure that you have the correct cable for your

I wonder if it is with the cable. I have the Star receipt printer, but the end of my cable says Epson - seems wrong to me. :( When it's on Windows mode, the drawer will pop when I print a receipt and not when I don't. When I put it in OPOS mode, I can't get the drawer to pop at all. Would this be indicitive of me having the wrong cable? Would it pop in Windows mode and NOT OPOS?

Thanks!

Scott

Scott,

To setup an OPOS cash drawer using Star's drivers, go into the folder that was created after you installed the OPOS driver and go into the Cash drawer setup in the Cash drawer folder.

If it opens in Windows mode then it probably isn't the cable. A drawer that has a bad cable will typically not open at all (or at least will not be able to report open/close status back correctly). As far as opening the drawer and NOT printing a receipt, this is probably not going to work in OPOS if it doesn't work in Windows mode. I don't know for sure but it sounds like the application just assumes that if you print a receipt you also want to pop the drawer. And if you don't print a receipt it probably won't pop the drawer regardless of how you configure it (OPOS or Windows mode).

The big question is: why wouldn't you want to print a receipt when the drawer is opened? On many other POS systems I've worked with the system will not only force a receipt to be printed if the drawer is opened with the key, but it will also void a transaction in progress and automatically ring a no-sale. It is considered to be a major loss prevention issue to allow the draw to be opened with nothing to show for it. But that's just my two cents.