Printer Settings

This guide covers setting up and managing receipt printers on the Orda Express kiosk: connecting printers, deciding what prints where, customizing receipt content, and troubleshooting.

Supported printers: Star Micronics mC-Print3 (80mm, recommended) and mC-Print2 (58mm), connected over the local network (LAN/Wi-Fi) or Bluetooth.

1. Opening the printer settings

1. On the location screen (the "Select your location" page), tap the ⚙ Kiosk Settings button at the bottom.

2. Select the Printer tab.

The colored dot on the tab shows printer health at a glance:

🟢 Green - All enabled printers are online

🟠 Orange - At least one enabled printer has a problem (offline, paper out, cover open)

⚪ Gray - No printers configured yet

2. Adding a printer

Network (LAN) printers

1. Connect the printer to the same network as the iPad (Ethernet or Wi-Fi).

2. In the Printer tab, tap Search for printers.

3. The first search asks for Local Network permission — tap Allow. (If it was denied, enable it later in iPad Settings → Orda Express → Local Network.)

4. Found printers appear with their model, connection type, and address. Tap Add.

Bluetooth printers

1. First pair the printer in iPad Settings → Bluetooth (hold the printer's pairing button until it's discoverable).

2. Back in the app, tap Search for printers and Add it when it appears.

After adding, tap Test on the printer's row — a test receipt with the Orda logo confirms everything works end to end.

Multiple printers are supported — add as many as you need (for example a front-counter receipt printer plus a kitchen printer).

3. Managing printers

Each printer in My printers shows its live status — Online, Offline, Paper out, Cover open, or Online · paper low — refreshed automatically in the background (faster while this screen is open).

• Enable switch — turn a printer on/off without removing it. Disabled printers are skipped entirely.

• Test — prints a test receipt immediately.

• Configure — opens the printer's own settings (next section).

Per-printer configuration (Configure)

Printer name — rename it to something operational, e.g. "Kitchen" or "Bar".

Category routing — choose which menu categories print on this printer:

• All items (default): every order prints here in full.

• Or select specific categories (e.g. Drinks → Bar printer, Food → Kitchen printer). Only matching items print on this printer, and orders with no matching items skip it entirely.

Checkout fields — choose which customer details appear on this printer's receipts: Customer name, Phone number, Order notes, Eat in / To go, Pickup time. Typical setup: a kitchen printer keeps notes and Eat in/To go but hides the phone number; a customer receipt shows everything.

Diagnostics — live status, connection type, last successful print time, number of queued receipts, and the last error. Use Print test receipt here too.

Remove printer — forgets the printer and clears its pending receipts.

4. Printing settings (apply to all printers)

Reliability

Setting

What it does

Smart printing (recommended: on)

Failed receipts are queued and retried automatically in the background — e.g. after a paper refill or a network blip, they print by themselves. Duplicate prints are prevented, even across app restarts.

Retry count

How many attempts before a receipt is marked failed (default 3).

Connection monitoring

Checks each printer in the background so status and the tab dot stay current, and queued receipts print as soon as a printer comes back.

Show printer errors to customers

Off (default): printing problems are only visible to staff, in diagnostics. On: customers see a printing-failure message.

Block checkout when printing fails

Off (default): checkout finishes normally and printing retries quietly. On: after payment, the kiosk shows "Printing your receipt…" and holds until the receipt prints (or the customer continues past a failure). Use only where a printed ticket is mandatory.

Printing

• Receipt copies — 1–5 copies of each receipt.

• One receipt per item — kitchen-slip mode: every line item prints as its own ticket (no totals section).

• Font size — Normal or Large (large print, fewer characters per line).

Receipt content

Toggle what appears on receipts: Order number, Date, Time, Device/kiosk name, Item prices, Subtotal, Taxes, Tips, Total, Promo codes, Loyalty rewards.

• Kiosk name — a label printed in the header (e.g. "Front Counter Kiosk") when its toggle is on.

• Footer / branding text — the closing line, e.g. "Thank you for your order!".

Order numbers are sequential per kiosk (#001, #002, …) and reset each day. All copies and all printers show the same number for one order.

5. When do receipts print?

Automatically, right after a successful payment (card or zero-total). Items are grouped by category on the receipt; weighed items show their weight. Each enabled printer prints only the items routed to it.

6. Testing without a printer (Simulate)

Turn on Simulate printer at the bottom of the Printer tab, then Search for printers — a "Simulated printer" appears. Add it and use the full flow (configure, test print, real orders); its receipts go to the developer log instead of paper. Its Configure screen has a Fail next print button to watch the retry queue recover. Turning the toggle off removes the simulated printer.

7. Troubleshooting

Search finds nothing (network printer)

Printer powered on and on the same network as the iPad; Local Network permission allowed (iPad Settings → Orda Express); printer isn't on a guest/isolated Wi-Fi.

Search finds nothing (Bluetooth)

Printer paired in iPad Settings → Bluetooth first; printer in range and not connected to another device.

Printer shows Offline

Power, cables/Wi-Fi, same network. Queued receipts print automatically once it's back (with Smart printing on).

Paper out / Cover open

Reload paper / close the cover — printing resumes by itself.

Receipt didn't print after an order

Check the printer's Configure → Diagnostics: queued receipts count and last error tell you what happened. Verify the printer is enabled and the order's items match its category routing.

Same receipt printed twice

Shouldn't happen — duplicates are blocked even across restarts. If it does, note the time and last error in Diagnostics and report it.

Old receipts printed after turning the kiosk on

Receipts older than 30 minutes are discarded on startup, so only recent unprinted orders come out.

Wrong items on a kitchen ticket

Review that printer's Category routing — items print wherever their category is selected (or everywhere a printer is set to "All items").