I am trying to get an Epson TM-U220 Parallel POS printer
(http://pos.epson.com/products/TM-U220.htm) to work with a Indiana Cash
Drawer SOP serial cash drawer (http://www.icdpos.com/tech/SOP.stm). Neither
the cash draw or the printer came with any documentation.

I have Googled both and only come up with limited results. A phone call to
Indiana Cash Drawer was pointless as they know nothing!

I am pretty sure that since the printer has a parallel interface and the
cash drawer has a serial, I have to use the RJ11 jack on the printer to
trigger the cash drawer. I am assuming that this jack is a trigger out,
although as I stated I cant even find a instruction manual on the Net.

The cash drawer has an RJ11 jumper from the serial interface to the back of
the drawer. I tried connecting this to the printer but it didnt open the
drawer. There is a bank of DIP switches on the cash drawer that is
documented here http://www.icdpos.com/tech/sopdip.stm. There are also DIP
switches on the printer. I have not found any documentation on these.

Anyone have any ideas on how to open the drawer when the printer prints?

TIA

Usually the cash drawers have a 12 or 24v relay to trigger the drawer open
function. This usually is sent acress the RJ11 link between drawer and
printer via software.

Hope this helps


"Jerry" <N@NE.nothing> wrote in message
news:OywEd.57543$ld2.19822295@twister.nyc.rr.com.. .

Jerry came up with this:

The cashdrawer is SERIAL, you'll need to connect it to a COM port. The
software you're using has to be capable of sending data to the COM port
the cashdrawer is connected to when the cashdrawer needs to be opened.
From the site you mentioned:

Be sure drawer lock is not engaged.
Exit your system to a DOS prompt. Type the following commands (substitute
the correct com port for com1):
c:\>mode com1:300,n,8,1
c:\>echo "000000000000000000000">com1
The cash drawer should open.

About the cashdrawer RJ11 connection on the printer: You can connect any
solenoid driven cashdrawer to this port. The port uses pin 2 and 4 for
the voltage output, which is normally 24V on Epson receipt printers.
Sending a specific ESC character (every POS software should be capable of
doing this) to the printer will be recognized by the printer and the
printer puts 24V on the 2 pins mentioned for 300ms and voila, the drawer
opens.
--
-John Holmes-

"It ain't much, if it ain't Dutch..."

Jerry came up with this:


In addition to my previous post: you don't really want the drawer to be
opened when the printer prints. What if the customer pays by EFT? The
drawer should stay closed. What if you want to open the drawer for say,
changing money? There's no need to have the printer print something then.



--
-John Holmes-

"It ain't much, if it ain't Dutch..."

Thanks for your reply.

I have a serial cable connected to the cash drawer. I can open the cash
drawer with the computer using the test program DL from Indiana Cash Drawer.
The software which is even less documented then the other two items can be
set to send any characters to the printer before the print data. There is no
option to send serial data X and Print data Y.

Since the printer is parallel and the drawer is serial think I have to use
the RJ45 to trigger the cash drawer. Any idea what ESC code has to be sent
to the printer to activate the RJ45. Any documentation on this printer?

Thanks


"John Holmes" <nospam@13inch.cjb.net> wrote in message
news:Xns95DAAF0F5E795johnanonymouscunt@192.168.0.1 01...

Jerry came up with this:

<topposting corrected>

Jerry,

I only know the standard cashdrawer controls for Epson receipt printers.

Decimal: 27 112 48 55 121
Hexadecimal: 1Bh 70h 30h 37h 79h
ASCII Char: ^[ ("Ctrl+[") p 0 7 y

I have no documentation for the printer mentioned, but I'm pretty shure
that the above should work, with a standard solenoid driven cashdrawer
connected to the RJ11 port on the printer.

But as I said before, since your cashdrawer is a SERIAL one, you'll have
to connect it to a COM port and configure your POS software to send a
string of data (this can be anything, 0000000000 or XXXXXXXXXX will do
the job) to the COM port on which the cashdrawer is connected to open the
drawer.

I also know, that not all POS software is capable of handling this. If
your software can handle it, you should get it working this way. If your
software can't be configured in sending a string of data to the COM port,
I'd suggest you ditch the serial drawer and get yourself a standard
solenoide driven one which you can easy connect to the printer (it also
frees up the COM port). Here in Holland, they are under 80 quid and
cheaper than the serial types (no serial interface in the drawer).
It's quite easy to send a print job, containing the characters I
mentioned before, to the printer.

HTH

--
-John Holmes-

"It ain't much, if it ain't Dutch..."