Physical POS Setup

Pizza Shop Talk POS, Software, and Technology Discussion
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I have purchased an Elo touchscreen and Point of Success software and now am working on getting peripherals purchased to complete the system. I am getting a little hung up on what port selection to choose in ordering the printers and cash drawer.

Our setup is as follows:

We will be starting with one workstation at the front desk, which will also function as the managers computer. I plan on having the touchscreen, cash drawer and thermal printer on the desk and the server underneath the desk and will also have a dot matrix printer in the kitchen. Based on the “Discussion on Ports” section on the Point of Success website, it sounds as though my options for a kitchen printer are serial, ethernet or USB (with usb hub) port since the parallel cannot go farther then 9-12 feet. It seems to me that we shouldn’t go with a serial since it sounds as though most computer usually only come with one serial port. Any thoughts on the superior choice between the USB or ethernet? The length of wire between manager computer and kitchen printer will probably be around 25 feet.

What is your current setup in relation to server to peripherals?

Any other suggestions you may have about making this process easier, please suggest away! Thanks!

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Here’s a Q&A I had with Jeff via PM. This may help.

Me: … How does the printer and cash drawer hook up? Ideally, I’d like to have a receipt printer and a kitchen printer but I honestly have no idea how to set that up.

Jeff: POS printers can connect with serial, parallel, USB or Ethernet, just like any other Windows printer. The customer receipt printer should be a USB type, the kitchen printer can be USB if it is closer than 15’ to the computer. If not, Ethernet works the best. By the way, prep tickets can also be printed on the receipt printer and handed to the kitchen. This can save you a little money if you’d prefer to get the kitchen printer later. The cash drawer connects to the back of the printer.

Right now, I run everything off the one Epson thermal printer. It is right by my station and is USB. The I had to verify that the cash drawer could plug into the printer before I bought it.

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Thanks a bunch, great info!