Printing to Star TSP printer from Dashboard / laptop?

[Cool_1861]

Hi-o, getting switched over to Square from our previous POS and need some direction in terms of what's possible, and how.  I have my Star TSP100IV receipt printer successfully connected to the iPad I use for actual point of sale.  Now I'm trying to figure out how I can use my laptop and Square Dashboard to print estimate tickets to the same printer.  Printer is hooked up to LAN and tablet prints to it over wifi.  

Seems like this should be possible, but I might just be dumb with PC setup in general.  Any help?  I've just downloaded and installed the driver, but can't pull up this printer in my Windows (10) setup menu.  Input the IP address and still it couldn't find it.  

Grateful for any clues!

[Cool_1861]

Adding to this:  In my device management within Square, the TSP shows up green as "connected."  But when I am in Estimates and go to print one, the TSP does not appear in the dropdown for "destination."  Help, confused!

[ryanwanner]

Hello @Cool_1861 !

Those star printers aren't really designed for use with laptops unfortunately. You can find and install the drivers for that printer on your windows machine, but I've never had luck making it work reliably. And since windows machine look for full sized paper printers, the printout always looks wonky at best. Your best bet would be to grab a regular printer for your laptop.

This is also what's causing the issues with printing the estimates. From what I can tell, there isn't a way to use the Star printer in this manner either. If the printer you pick up for your laptop is a wifi printer, your tablet can see it and you can print your estimates and invoices to it from your tablet.

Star printers are usually used for order tickets and in person receipts versus estimates and invoices, at least here in the Square world.

Hope this helps!

[Cool_1861]

Thanks Ryan, so I'm wondering: what's the best workaround? I run a bike shop, and key for me is to be able to quickly tag incoming bicycles with owner information.  When we go to work on a project we refer to the computer, not the tag.  If I have a customer's last name on a bike, that's basically all I want (ref number of some sort would be great).  With Lightspeed I could print out a little receipt with basic info and it was faster and easier than putting a piece of blue painter's tape and scribbling with a Sharpie...and of course more professional looking.  

We've got different businesses, but wondering if you or someone else has an approach that would still allow me to use the receipt printer.... Thanks!

Zach

[Cool_1861 · Accepted solution]

I've been able to solve my issue by connecting my laptop directly to the Star printer via USB. Not sure why it can't handle printing over the air via LAN, but oh well...this is functional, at least.  It won't be ideal or workable for everyone, but I wanted to check back in and say it can at least work this way.  So now my tablet at point of sale can print receipts AND the laptop can print estimate tags for the bikes when they get checked in for service.  I had to go into preferences (for the Windows computer, not just for Square) and set margins to 72mm x A4.  Prior to that I got an endless ribbon of paper shooting out of the printer.  Now it works though, which is great.