Need help with POS devices

Jaylllo

Senior member
Aug 13, 2002
457
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Hi,

I'm trying to help my brother in law upgrade his POS receipt printers, right now he uses Star Micronics, dot matrix printers. He would like to use a brand that has windows drivers so the system can be moved to a less proprietary system.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks.
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
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StarMicronics printers don't need proprietary drivers. They can use the common Epson (Esc-P) command set that has been included in Win at least as far back as Win95 if not earlier (selectable by dipswitch settings). All POS printers I know of can use either Epson or IBM standard Win dot-matrix drivers (Epson MX-80). But here is a link to their driver page for those who are apparently unable to use web search engines :roll: and want their driver to be listed as StarMicro rather than Epson: SM Drivers

User Manuals and Programming Manuals are available from the same page.

Other well-known brands I'm aware of are Ithaca, IBM and Citizen. You can get them in thermal or standard dot-matrix versions - they all offer Win drivers but can run from standard Epson ESC-P or IBM dot matrix drivers.

Theoretically thermal should have more longevity as the only moving parts are in the paper feed assembly/cutter. The roll paper is higher cost for thermal, but you won't need to replace ribbons, just keep the thermal head and feed rollers cleaned. OTOH, you can't use duplicate (NCR paper) rolls with thermal.

.bh.
 

Jaylllo

Senior member
Aug 13, 2002
457
0
0
Originally posted by: Zepper
StarMicronics printers don't need proprietary drivers. They can use the common Epson (Esc-P) command set that has been included in Win at least as far back as Win95 if not earlier (selectable by dipswitch settings). All POS printers I know of can use either Epson or IBM standard Win dot-matrix drivers (Epson MX-80). But here is a link to their driver page for those who are apparently unable to use web search engines :roll: and want their driver to be listed as StarMicro rather than Epson: SM Drivers

User Manuals and Programming Manuals are available from the same page.

Other well-known brands I'm aware of are Ithaca, IBM and Citizen. You can get them in thermal or standard dot-matrix versions - they all offer Win drivers but can run from standard Epson ESC-P or IBM dot matrix drivers.

Theoretically thermal should have more longevity as the only moving parts are in the paper feed assembly/cutter. The roll paper is higher cost for thermal, but you won't need to replace ribbons, just keep the thermal head and feed rollers cleaned. OTOH, you can't use duplicate (NCR paper) rolls with thermal.

.bh.

Thanks.