Connecting your POS

Connect your POS to the kitchen display

The kitchen display can pretend to be a network receipt printer. Your POS adds it the same way it would add a kitchen printer, and dockets appear on the screen instead of on paper. There is nothing to integrate and no menu to sync. Before you start - The display and the POS must be on the same network. - Virtual Printer needs the installed app — Android or Windows. It does not work in a web browser, which is why the setting shows Requires the KDS app there. - You will need a manager PIN, because Virtual Printer is a manager-level setting. Step 1: Switch on the Virtual Printer 1. Tap the gear icon in the sidebar to open Settings. 2. Open the Virtual tab. 3. Turn on Enable Virtual Printer. The status box turns green and reads Running, and shows the address to use, like 192.168.1.50:9100. If you cannot see the Virtual tab, you are signed in as staff. Tap Unlock all settings and have a manager enter their PIN. Step 2: Add it in your POS as a printer Add a new printer in your POS with these details: | Setting | Value | |---|---| | Type | Network / Ethernet / Wi-Fi printer | | IP address | The address shown on the display | | Port | 9100 | Then route the kitchen categories to it, exactly as you would for a physical printer. Detailed steps for particular POS systems: - Connect a Uniwell MGP POS - Connect a Uniwell AX or HX POS Step 3: Send a test order Ring up a test order and send it to the kitchen. It should appear on the display within a couple of seconds. Step 4: Tell the display which POS you use This step is optional but strongly recommended — it is what turns a docket into a properly structured order. In Settings → Virtual → POS System, pick your POS from the list. Order numbers, table numbers, items and modifiers are then read far more accurately. Leave it on Auto-detect (no template) if your POS is not listed. Systems marked (image only) send their dockets as pictures rather than text. Those still display correctly, but individual items cannot be pulled out of them. Give the display a fixed address The POS finds the display by its IP address, so that address must not change. Give the device a static address, or a DHCP reservation on the router — the same discipline as a network printer. If it changes, the POS quietly stops being able to reach it. Done Orders arrive on the screen within a second or two of being sent. The VP indicator in the sidebar shows a green dot whenever the Virtual Printer is running.

Connect a Uniwell MGP POS

MGP has built-in kitchen video support and can send dockets to up to eight network printers, so one site can run up to eight screens. Menu wording varies a little between MGP versions. On a multi-terminal site, do all of this on the Server machine — kitchen printers are disabled on clients, which share the Server's. Step 1: Set the printer charset to ASCII This is the setting that catches most sites out. Go to Configure → Receipt → Printer charset and choose ASCII. Uniwell's own manual puts it plainly: when using a kitchen video display system, select ASCII. With Unicode, the docket is converted to graphics and the kitchen video system cannot read it. With the charset on Unicode the orders still arrive, but they show as a picture of the docket — no order number, no separate items, no modifiers, and nothing you can strike off. Unless you are working in a non-Latin language. Arabic, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese cannot be read in text mode at all. For those, Unicode is the right choice: the docket arrives as a graphic and displays correctly in any script, at the cost of structured items. Step 2: Add the display as a kitchen printer 1. Go to Configure → External Device → Config Kitchen printer. 2. Choose Network (Ethernet or WIFI) as the interface. 3. Tick one of the #1 – #8 kitchen printer slots. 4. Tap the IP address area beside that slot and enter the display's IP address. 5. Set Paper width to match your docket layout — 58 mm or 80 mm. MGP's port is fixed at 9100, which is the display's default. There is nothing to change on either side. Step 3: Name it Tap the #x Description area and give it a clear name, such as KDS Hot Kitchen or KDS Bar. Step 4: Route items to it Assign departments and PLUs to the kitchen printer number you just set up, using Department → KP and PLU → KP. Anything routed to that KP number now appears on that screen. For more screens, repeat steps 2 to 4 with a different slot and a different IP address. Step 5: Check the kitchen print options Under Configure → System options → KOT (Kitchen Print Options): | Option | Set to | Why | |---|---|---| | Ticket for Kitchen printer (per PLU per cut) | No | If this is on, every item is sent as its own ticket — so one sale becomes several separate orders on the screen instead of one | | KOT with real time print | Your preference | Whether items go as they are rung up, or when the sale is finalised | | KOT machine No. print, KOT print clerk | Your preference | Both appear on the docket if enabled | Step 6: Set a fallback Route rules if NA decides what happens when a kitchen printer cannot be reached. Set it to Route to 1st valid KP or Route to receipt printer so nothing is lost when a screen is off. One setting to leave alone Leave the display's Connection timeout at 0 (keep alive). MGP pings its printers, holds the connection open with a heartbeat and reconnects by itself — the keep-alive default suits that behaviour, and shortening it causes dropped orders between sales. Done Ring up a test sale and send it to the kitchen. It should appear within a couple of seconds, with the order number, items and modifiers listed separately. If it arrives as a picture instead, go back to step 1.

Connect a Uniwell AX or HX POS

Uniwell AX and HX Series systems send text-based dockets, which the display reads into structured items and modifiers. Set it up 1. In the POS configuration, add a new network printer. 2. Enter the display's IP address and port 9100. 3. Route your kitchen categories to it as you would any kitchen printer. 4. Send a test order. Select the template On the display, open Settings → Virtual → POS System and choose Uniwell AX/HX. This matters more than it looks. Uniwell prints modifiers as reverse text — white on black — and that is how the display tells a modifier apart from an item. With the wrong template selected, modifiers may be read as items in their own right. Uniwell MGP is a different product with its own template. If you are on MGP, use Connect a Uniwell MGP POS instead. Done A test order should show its order number, items and modifiers as separate lines, with modifiers indented under the item they belong to.

Run more than one kitchen screen

A second screen needs no server and no extra infrastructure. It is another printer as far as the POS is concerned. How it works | Route in the POS | Goes to | Address | |---|---|---| | FOOD | Hot kitchen | 192.168.1.50 | | DRINKS | Bar and coffee | 192.168.1.51 | | DESSERT | Pass | 192.168.1.52 | Setting it up 1. Set each display up on its own device, following Connect your POS to the kitchen display. 2. Give each one a different fixed IP address. 3. In the POS, add each as a separate printer. 4. Route the categories you want to each printer. Every screen needs its own licence, and all of them must be on the same network as the POS. Naming them Name each printer in the POS after the screen it drives — KDS Hot Kitchen, KDS Bar — rather than leaving it as Printer 2. Routing becomes far easier to follow later, especially for whoever has to change it next. If a screen is off Most POS systems let you set a fallback for when a printer cannot be reached. Point it at another kitchen printer or the receipt printer, so that kitchen information is never silently lost when a screen is switched off or drops off the network.