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1. What is a presenter and why does my kiosk need one?
A presenter is a mechanical device that stays between the print mechanism’s paper cutter exit and the kiosk paper exit or bezel. The presenter holds a ticket that is being printed and presents it to the customer only after the ticket has been completely printed and cut. A presenter adds reliability to your solution because the customer does not have to pull or hold a ticket while it is being printed, accidentally (and sometimes intentionally) causing a paper jam. |
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2. Are Bematech kiosk printers able to retract untaken tickets back into the kiosk printer?
Yes, some Bematech kiosk printers are equipped with a presenter, which is able to activate the retracting mode andthus remove untaken tickets left by a Customer. The retractable function is turned off by default. However, if you need to turn it on, your host must send an “enable retraction” command to the printer before sending tickets. |
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3. After retraction is turned on, how long does it take before a ticket is retracted?
Ticket retraction times are, by default, 10 seconds. However, if you need more or less time this can be adjusted by sending a “program retraction time command”. The retraction time can vary between 1 and 255 seconds. |
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4. Can I use the presenter as a ticket take-out sensor?
Yes – by selecting paper retraction and programming the retraction time as zero, the presenter will never retract the paper but also never print until the previously printed ticket is removed from the presenter. |
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5. What can the concept of modular kiosk printer do for my project?
Bematech Kiosk printers such as KF-6580, KC-1800, KB-1800 and KC-4112 can be assembled in 3 different configurations plus 3 different positions for the parallel/serial port and key-panel. This means that flexibility is taken to the extreme, giving you 9 possible configurations to choose from when ordering your kiosk printer with no implication in any redesign of the product. |
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6. But what if I need to redesign an existing kiosk printer? Or even further, what if I need a brand new kiosk printer to be created since its conception?
This is Bematech’s core business. Please have a general look at our website in the section “Company”, followed by “Customize”, where you can find all necessary information about our expertise in customized solutions. |
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7. Is Bematech kiosk printer paper near end sensor capable of giving the amount of paper already used at different stages?
All Bematech kiosk printers support connection to a PNE (paper near end) sensor. This optical sensor can be manually adjusted so that different stages of near-end-paper can be detected. The paper near end sensor allows for adjustments at a range of approximately 6 mm from the paper roll core. For a paper roll with a 1-inch core this means there will be about 5 m (16 ft) of paper left before the end of the roll. |
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8. What is the maximum printing speed allowed by a Bematech kiosk printer?
The printing speed of Bematech kiosk printers varies from 50 mm/s to 100 mm/s. For further details see the respective product specifications. |
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9. What are the limiting factors for printing speed?
The most obvious item is the thermal mechanism printing speed as mentioned in the question above. However, the combination of speed of the communication interface and the type of data sent has a huge impact on printing.
For instance, plain text or graphics printing – to fill up a whole print line in text mode you might only need 48 characters (or 48 bytes) to be sent to the printer. Graphics printing requires 1728 bytes to fill up a single line. A parallel or USB communication interface is much faster than a serial communication interface. A serial interface at a standard 9600 bps baud rate is able to transmit only 1200 bytes per second.
A printer with a serial interface would be able to receive a full graphic line with a height of 3mm in about 1.5 seconds, plus the time to process data and print it so your real printing speed would be 2mm per second, even though the mechanism can print 50 mm per second. For a text mode a full line could be received in 0.04 seconds, so the printer could really reach its top speed of 50 mm or 100 mm per second.
Summing up – if you need to use a serial interface avoid printing graphics. If you need to print graphics, use a parallel or USB interface. No wonder other graphic printers such as laser or inkjet are only parallel or USB! |
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10. How do I send graphics to a Bematech kiosk printer?
You can send graphics with three different methods: a) by sending “bitmap line” commands directly to the printer; b) by using the Windows Spooler Driver and c) by using the “bitmap printing” function of the Bematech 32-bit API. |
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11. What type of graphics can I print with a Bematech kiosk printer?
Bematech kiosk printers can print graphics with a resolution of 203 dots per inch (8 dots / mm). Due to the monochromatic nature of thermal printing there will be differences between the image you see on a computer screen and the image you see printed. If you use the Bematech Windows Spooler Driver you will notice that color (8-bit or 16-bit, for instance) or grayscale (8-bit) images will be simulated by the use of dithering while monochrome (1-bit) images will be reproduced as you see them. So before you send an image to a Bematech printer, or any thermal printer, for that matter, try converting it to monochrome (1-bit) format – if it looks good on monochrome you can expect it to look the same way on thermal paper. |
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12.
What are the contents of the Windows Driver package?
The Windows Driver Package contains the following components:
• BemaInstaller: this program provides users and developers with a convenient way of installing Spooler Drivers in your Windows system. You just have to select the Bematech printer model you want install, the communication interface you are using to connect the printer to the host and the type of spooler driver you need (regular or scalable) and BemaInstaller does all configuring for you.
• API: API stands for "Application Program Interface". It's a Windows library (a DLL file) that allows developers to easily program their applications to send specific data to a Bematech printer, such as barcodes or special control commands like the presenter retracting function time, disabling sensors etc as well as receiving specific statuses from the printer. A customized application sends high-level commands to the API, which converts the commands into low-level printer commands and sends it to the printer. The API is not used by end-users but by application developers who need their programs to have access and control of all printer data and all printer advanced functions. The API Manual provided with our driver package contains all information that developers need to use the API.
• Test Application: the test application program is provided as an easy way for end-users and application developers to quickly test if their printer/host software and hardware configuration is working properly. The Test Application allows you to send data to (or gather status from) Bematech printers using both the Spooler Drivers or the API. The Test Application Manual contains details of the use. |
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13.
What is a Spooler Driver?
A Spooler Driver is by definition a program, a software layer that operates in the background of all other programs, storing data to be printed and sending it to the printer connected to you host. This printing method is used by the vast majority of standard Windows applications. For instance - if you are using an Internet browser and you print a webpage, the data to be printed is sent first from the browser to your spooler driver, then from the spooler to your printer through the communication interface, which leaves the browser free to continue operating while printing is being handled and performed by the spooler. |
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14.
What is the difference between a "Regular" and a "Scalable" Spooler Driver?
A "Regular" spooler driver prints images and information on the size and scale as it was originally intended, and the information to be printed will be limited in size to the paper width used by your Bematech printer. For instance, if you have an image formatted to be printed with a width of 100mm, only the first 80mm from the left of the page would be printed. On the other hand, if you configure your document and application to use the "80mm" paper width you will print exactly what you see on screen.
A "Scalable" spooler driver reduces the information you see from its original intended size to a smaller size. This is specifically useful with applications that have no image or information resizing options. The "scalable" spooler drivers will reduce the original print information on a 25% or 50% scale. For instance, you imge originally sized to a width of 100mm would print with a 50mm width or a 75mm width using the scalable drivers. The reduction scale (25 or 50%) can be chosen using the Advaced options of your printer spooler driver. |
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