thread Re: Printer Question in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Printer Question

pelotonpaul — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 21:38:01 GMT

I have 2 Star TSP143 ethernet thermal receipt printers. I have been printing order tickets to the printers from an Android tablet through Square POS app. This week Square stopped being able to "see" the printers all the time - only for a moment or so until they are no longer visible in the POS app. I am able to print maybe 10% of the time. I can print to the printers from several different Linux workstations that attach to them via the printers' IP addresses on port 9100.

How does the Square POS app find printers on the network? Can someone explain what the app does to search for printers and attach to them? Maybe something is happening at either my router/switch or wireless access point that I can modify to make them "see" each other again.

Re: Printer Question

AdamB — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 21:39:05 GMT

That's pretty strange that it works some of the time but not always, @pelotonpaul. My first thought would be some kind of wifi issue, which is the first set up troubleshooting steps in our printer troubleshooting guide. Are your work stations connected via ethernet and not wifi?

Re: Printer Question

pelotonpaul — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 23:45:57 GMT

Workstations are all connected via same wifi access point. I'm using an Ubiquiti AP AC Pro and apparently with the latest update of that device there was a setting for mesh networks (which we don't use - just one AP) that was enabled by default and after disabling that feature tablets are now connecting to printers reliably. Not sure how having Ubiquiti's mesh network protocol (?) enabled would cause issues with Square/Android tablets/Star printer... I'm just glad everything works again.

Hopefully the multiple hours of troubleshooting and banging my head against a wall will help someone else out there down the line.

As always, thanks for the reply!