Kitchen printer - Printing half the ticket

[Hugove]

My Kitchen printer only prints the header and a couple of lines that contains table information then stops...

Weird. Any ideas?

[JohnS]

Post your Kitchen Template. Probably a wrong tag used or something that is interrupting the print job.

[Hugove]

Hi John,

It only does it sometimes and with selected products. It prints the header and stops half way through the time tag.


Header:

<EB>
<T>{TABLE USER}
<F>-
<F>-
<L00>Date:{TICKET DATE}
<L00>Time:{TIME}

<F>-

[<C01>Note
<L>
{NOTE}
<L>]
<DB>


Line template:

<L>
<L21>{QUANTITY} x {NAME}
        * {PROPERTIES}

Void line temp:
<L>
<L21>**VOID**{QUANTITY} x {NAME}
        * {PROPERTIES}
<L>

Footer:
<EB>
<F>-
<L>
<L00>Waitron:  {TICKETTAG:Waitron}
<L00>Table No: {TABLE}
<L00>Guests:   {TICKETTAG:Guest Count}
<DB>

[JohnS]

If it is an issue only with selected products, then maybe a product name is the problem.
You could try removing the {TIME} tag and see if you can reproduce the issue.
The template looks OK.

[Hugove]

John,

Now I am a well confused. The offending products are printing again... I didnt remove the {TIME} tag, because some of the tickets printed.

didnt really change anything???

Weird

[Hugove]

Problem still exist. Its not product specific, I notice some users it works for and some users printing some products still only prints just the header.

There are too many variables here to narrow it down. #smh

[Hugove]

So the problem is still here. Lets start from the beginning:

I have two PC's both running windows 7 (server and a waiter station)
3 printers - All Epson TM-T88III (one connected to the server and 2 connected to the waiter station)
One printer connected to the waiter station is a USB printer that is based in the kitchen - USB cable goes through the wall into the kitchen about 2m away from the waiter station which is on the restaurant side of the wall.

The two computers is connected with a cat5e cable and a home group is setup for printer sharing.
The server and the waiter station printers all function very well (Parallel cable connections) no problems at all. They are for printing bills mainly.
Both computers on input of food orders through SambaPOS is setup to print in the kitchen. And this also works from both computers, but intermittently. The main problem being that at some point it only prints the table number at the top of the ticket then stops.

 ...and this is how troubleshooting has gone so far:

I have changes the USB cable - made no difference.
I have swoped the printer out - no difference
I have upgraded the drivers to Epson Version 4 advanced
 
Anyone with a technical background that can help me out with some advice? I dont know where else to look to. This seems to be an Isolated problem as far as I can tell.

Thanks

Hugo

[lemmings]

Can I just check ?

You have three printers, two are parallel and one is usb. All three printers are Epson TM-T88iii. So two printers are connected the waiter terminal.

The usb printer is the shared printer and the drivers have been installed on both the server and waiter PC, so therefore its shared on the server and is directly connected to the waiter station.

The two PCs I assume are connected via a router or hub.

We need to narrow this down, is it a Windows sharing issue or an issue within SambaPOS.

And you can print to the shared USB printer from the server PC through Windows with no issues - ie Windows test pages print in full.

How often does this problem happen as you say its intermittent, have you noticed if it only occurs if the waiter terminal printer is being used.

Sorry for all the questions, Iam an IT Field Engineer and as I cannot physically see your setup Im trying to get an idea of whats happening.

Those printers only have a small data buffer and therefore cannot store very much of the job in memory - which could be the reason why only part of the ticket is printed especially if the PC already has another printer connected to it.

[JohnS]

Does the problem happen from both computers ?

Try adding a duplicate kitchen print job printing to the second printer on the Waiter terminal.
This will help to see if its a printer or print job issue.

Usually when a printer stops, it's what it's about to print that is the issue, but it could still have info buffered which a means its further down the print job.

Can you see any similarities between the half printed tickets? Items, modifiers, Waiters name?

[JohnS]

Hugo,

Can you post a picture of the half printed ticket.

[Hugove]

Thanks for the input:

@Lemmings

You have three printers, two are parallel and one is usb. All three printers are Epson TM-T88iii. So two printers are connected the waiter terminal. -Correct (1 x usb and 1 x Parallel)
The usb printer is the shared printer and the drivers have been installed on both the server and waiter PC, so therefore its shared on the server and is directly connected to the waiter station. - Correct
The two PCs I assume are connected via a router or hub. No - Crossover cable (15m in Lenght)
We need to narrow this down, is it a Windows sharing issue or an issue within SambaPOS.

And you can print to the shared USB printer from the server PC through Windows with no issues - ie Windows test pages print in full. - Correct

How often does this problem happen as you say its intermittent, have you noticed if it only occurs if the waiter terminal printer is being used. - It happened daily often the first tickets of the day. Not sure, going to set up a duplicate test now as John Suggested.
Sorry for all the questions, Iam an IT Field Engineer and as I cannot physically see your setup Im trying to get an idea of whats happening. - I appreciate your help and input.

Those printers only have a small data buffer and therefore cannot store very much of the job in memory - which could be the reason why only part of the ticket is printed especially if the PC already has another printer connected to it. - Is it possible that I can set priorities to printers/Jobs?

Test Results on the Duplicate:

So, As John Suggested, I setup a print job (Duplicate of that of "Print Kitchen Orders") to the waiter station printer. In theory it should now print Kitchen orders at both printers? Right? It still prints in the Kitchen but kicks out the error that we are trying to solve at the waiter station printer. See attached image. This is the problem.

We are now sending 2 jobs to one printer which gives us the same error as presumably when two jobs or too much data are sent to one printer? I am speculating, Ideas?

[Hugove]

@John

Can you see any similarities between the half printed tickets? Items, modifiers, Waiters name?
As per the image above, they all the same bar the table number that is correct everytime

[lemmings]

When the printer fails does it cut or feed the paper or stop ?

[JohnS]

I don't see that this is a buffer issue. The Windows printer driver will control the flow.

I have never seen an intermittent issue like this, but my gut is telling me it could be regional settings.
There seems to be no consistency with the fault. But ticket printers do have a habit of stopping mid print if they cannot process what is being sent.

If both waiter printers are producing the same result, it's not printer or port related. It's the information being printed.

What character set do you have set for the printer in SambaPOS? Default is 857 which is Turkish, I run 437.

As a test move the Date and Time to the very bottom of the ticket.

[Hugove]

@lemmings - It just stops. I press the feed on the printer to get it out. The  bit that prints is so small, it hardly looks like anything has printed at all when looking at the printer, because its inside the printer.

@John - There are three printers and its only the kitchen printer that is doing this. The waiter station printer also did this when I crested a duplicate kitchen order print job to it. The server printer has never stopped once nor has the waiter station printer bar the test above. The character sets on all the printers are 857 but I will change it to see if it makes a difference.