Android POS and USB thermal printer

paultraynor — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 12:51:38 GMT

Hi,

I have an Epson TM-30m thermal printer that I wanted to use to print order tickets. I run Square POS on Android (Samsung Galaxy Tab A8) and after inititally assuming I could jsut Bluetooth it, I found out that Android doesn't support Bluetooth printing (but iOS does? Grrr). My network setup is just a 5G sim card dongle, so no ethernet support into that so I tried to connect via USB using a USB-C OTG adapter.

After plugging everything in, Square recognised the printer (hooray!) but on every test print/order ticker print it craps out half way through printing either mashed together letters or random special characters and then giving me a "check printer network connection" error.

I've run every USB Anroid and Epson printer diagnositic/troubleshooting method in the Square Hardware guide, but no dice.

Does this just not work or is the OTG adapter maybe rubbish? I've never encountered a cheap USB accessory that didn't actually work though, they all seem very reliable!

Appreciate any help, can provide more info if needed.

Re: Android POS and USB thermal printer

Sam_400º — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 20:35:05 GMT

Not sure what adaptor you're using?

But as the Epson doesn't have a host hub the cable to use would be a pretty standard USB C to USB B cable directly into the printer (port 3 in the diagram below). Is that how you'e all set up?

thread Android POS and USB thermal printer in Payments Troubleshooting

Android POS and USB thermal printer

Re: Android POS and USB thermal printer