The Star TSP100 LAN & Star TSP143 LAN offers retailers around the world an Ethernet solution for printing out fast and efficient receipts for customers.

As a cost-effective solution for your printing needs, the TSP100 & TSP143 connects to your Mac using a LAN ethernet cable, and is completely compatible with your Hike POS.

Here, we’ll go through exactly how to connect your Star TSP100 & TSP143 printer to your Mac, but first you must ensure that you have:

• Power Cable
  
• Receipt Paper – 80mm receipt rolls. Load your receipt rolls by opening the latch on the top-right of the printer, place the roll inside, and pull some of the paper through before closing the lid.
  
• Ethernet Cable
  
• Cash Drawer (Optional)
  

Note: The instructions are identical for both Star printers, but for the purposes of this article we will refer to the TSP143 LAN only, going forward.

Testing out your Printer

Before we begin to install the drivers required to setup your TSP143 printer with Mac computers, we’ll need to first test out the printer and the receipts.

You can perform a hardware self-test on your printer by:

1. Turning the printer OFF.
   
2. Holding the FEED button down, and turning the power back ON at the same time.
   
3. Releasing the FEED
   

This process will print out two test receipts.

Look at the second receipt that was printed out, and look at the bottom where it says Current IP Parameters Status.

Ensure that you hang on to this page, or make a note of the IP Address, as you will need it later.

Note: Your IP address will be different to the one listed in the picture above.

Downloading your Star TSP143 LAN Printer Driver

Next, you will need to download the latest printer drivers for your Mac. These drivers are software, designed to help the Star TSP143 LAN printer working correctly on your computer.

First you will need to visit the Star Micronics Support Database which can you do from this link:

http://www.starmicronics.com/support/manual.aspx?printerCode=TSP100

Search for the Printer Driver from the settings as below:

Once you have filled in the relevant fields, scroll down to the Manual section. Click on the Drivers tab to the left of Manual, where you’ll see a list of Recommended drivers and previous versions of the driver.

Select the Recommended driver futurePRNT V6.0 Lite - which will begin to download the file.

Once this download has been completed, open the file and extract it.

Note: Your downloaded files will appear in your Finder folder. You can either select Downloads from the Finder screen, or click on the arrow that appears at the bottom of your browser, once it has finished downloading, and select Show in Finder.

Next, open the extracted folder and navigate to Mac -> CUPS -> Documents, and double-click the ‘startcupsdrv’ file.

Note: You will need to have CUPS Printer Interface, first enabled on Mac. Find out how to do so here

This will then create a new folder. Open this folder and go to Drivers. Double-click the .pkg file here, and then follow the install guide instructions.

Installing your Star TSP143 LAN Printer on Mac

Once you have completed the installation of the driver, you will need to install the printer on your Mac.

Navigate to System Preferences and open Printers and Scanners.

Click on the + icon on the bottom left corner, and select Add Printer or Scanner.

When that has been selected, it will open a new window where you’ll need to put in some information. Select IP along the top, and follow these instructions to fill out the form.

1. Address:This is where you need to put in your printer’s IP address. You will find this under Current IP Parameters Status, located on the receipt your printed out during the testing stage.
   

   
   

2. Protocol: Select Line Printer Daemon – LPD from the dropdown box.
   
3. Queue:Leave this field blank
   
4. Name:This is an optional field but if you’d like to customize the name of your receipt, put it in here.
   
5. Location: Leave this field blank
   
6. Use:Pick Select Software… from the dropdown. This will open a new window. Search for Star in the top right, locate ‘Star TSP100 Cutter’ and click
   

Once you’ve completed all the relevant fields with the correct information, click ADD. Your printer should now be ready to print out receipts with Hike POS!

 Printing a Receipt on Hike POS with Star TSP143 LAN Printer

Now that your Star TSP143 LAN Printer has been added to your list of printer devices you can now print receipts on it.

Simply draw up a sale on your Enter New Sale screen, and conduct the payment transaction as you would do normally.

Once you have completed the transaction, you will be given the option to either Email or Print the customer a receipt. Select Print.

Note: You can also test a receipt print by looking at your Sales History tab in Hike POS, and printing a receipt from a previous transaction.

This will take you to the Print Preview screen. If the Star printer that you’re using is not your default printer, select Change from the Destination field, and select the correct printer from the list.

Ensure also that you have:

• Unticked Headers & Footers
  
• Set Paper Size to 72mm – 2000mm
  
• Set Margins as None.
  

Note: If you set your paper size to 72mm – 2000mm without disabling headers and footers, the printer will not auto-cut the main receipt.

When done, print out a receipt to check whether it’s to your liking. Of course, if you want to change your receipt template, you can do so in Hike POS as well.

Setting up your Cash Drawer

Once you have your printer connected with Hike POS, you may also want to link up a cash drawer. The cash drawer will connect to your receipt printer, and will be triggered to open when you finish a cash or check sale, while the receipt is being printed.

Tip: You can manually open the cash drawer by clicking on Open Drawer on the Enter New Sale screen.

To connect the cash drawer, plug in the RJ12 connector cable (it looks like a phone line) from the cash drawer into the receipt printer.

Then, head to the following URL:

http://localhost:631/printers/

This will take you to CUPS. CUPS is a networking printing service used by Mac computers. It will allow you to setup your printers on a network, and customize options such as cash drawer setup.

Note: If you receive the following screen (below), you will need to enable CUPS on your Mac computer.

Click here to learn how to enable CUPS for your computer

Once in CUPS, select your printer model from the list.

Then, select the drop-down menu Set Default Options.

From here, select Cash Drawer Control, choose Open Drawer 1 and 2, under Cash Drawer, and click the Set Default Options button below. 

Your cash drawer should now be ready to go!