Set up a Star CloudPRNT docket or label printer

Settings → Star Cloud Printer. Admin only.

The tab lists every Star printer on your store, and you can add as many as you need — a docket printer in the kitchen, another at the bar, a label printer for cups and bags, a printer for your kiosk, a docket printer with a cash drawer for the POS.

Supported models

The following Star Printers have CloudPRNT capability:

• Star mC print series: Star mC-Print2, Star mC-Print3, Star mC-Label3, Star MCP30.
• Star TSP654II and Star TSP100IV

The printer must be using an ethernet connection for CloudPRNT to work. Star Micronics does not support CloudPRNT over USB. Plug a LAN cable into the printer's LAN port and into your router.

Pictures in this article are from Star Micronics' mC-Print3 / MCP30 manual. Other Star models have the same ports in a different place.

For product labels, use a label printer such as the Star mC-Label3 with a liner-free (sticky) label roll.

Find the printer's IP address

Type the printer's IP address into a browser to reach the Star Intelligent Network Utility.

If you do not know it, print it:

1. Turn the printer off.
2. Hold down the Feed button, press the power button, and let go of the power button.
3. Let go of Feed when it starts printing. After about a minute a second test print shows the IP address in use.

Star's manual: Test print.

Configure the printer

In the Star Intelligent Network Utility:

1. Enable the CloudPRNT Service.
2. Set the Server URL to https://merchant.mypreorder.com.au/services/s/starprint.php
3. Set the polling time: 5 seconds for a printer at a POS counter, 10 seconds for a kiosk printer, and 30 seconds for any other printer.
4. Username and password can be ignored.
5. Note the MAC Address shown on the same page.

Repeat for each printer. Every printer has its own MAC Address.

Add the printer to the portal

In Settings → Star Cloud Printer, select New Printer and fill in:

• MAC Address* — in the form XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, exactly as the printer reports it. Each printer gets its own entry — do not enter the same MAC Address twice.
• Printer Name* — must be unique within your store. To print all orders to a single printer, set to 1. For your kiosk's printer, set to KIOSK. Otherwise pick a short name such as KITCHEN, BAR or LABELS — see Choose which items print where below.
• Prints — Order docket prints the whole order on one docket. Product labels prints one label per item, for attaching to cups, bags and containers.
• Media width — 80mm or 58mm. Match the roll loaded in the printer. Most receipt printers are 80mm.
• Printed by — leave it on CloudPRNT: the printer collects its jobs. With a POS at the counter, the POS can print straight to the printer instead, which is faster: see Print straight from the POS to your printer.
• Status — Active. Inactive printers are ignored — they receive no orders.

Select Save Changes. The printer appears in the list with its name, MAC Address, what it prints — for example Product labels (80mm) — and Active. To change it later, select Edit on its row.

Cash drawer

Plug the drawer's cable into the printer's drawer port: Cash Drawer / Buzzer on the mC-Print3 and MCP30, DK on some other models. Its plug also fits the LAN port, so check which one you use.

Star's manual: Connecting a cash drawer.

If a cash drawer for the POS is plugged into an order docket printer, tell the portal on that printer's entry:

• Cash drawer: tick A cash drawer is connected to this printer.
• Opens for: Any POS device, or one POS device. It only appears when your store has more than one POS device.

It opens for cash sales and cash refunds on the POS, No sale, Paid in, Paid out and closing the till, and never for app, kiosk, EFTPOS or Other orders. Label printers and KIOSK printers don't offer it.

The POS's till slips (X and Z reports) and tax invoices print on the drawer printer for that POS device, or else on the printer named 1. See Connect a cash drawer to the POS.

Choose which items print where

Every menu item has a Printer(s) setting, and it starts as 1. That is why one printer named 1 prints every order without any menu changes.

To send items somewhere else, open the item in Menu Builder, select Show advanced settings, and under Printing enter the printer names in Printer(s), separated by commas — for example 1,LABELS. Upper or lower case does not matter. If you cannot see Printer(s), contact us and we will switch it on for your store.

How each kind of printer uses it:

• A docket printer prints the whole order whenever at least one item on it names that printer. It does not split the order into just its own items.
• A label printer prints labels only for the items that name it. The editor reminds you: "This printer only labels products assigned to it."
• A KIOSK printer prints only orders placed on your kiosk. Online orders never go to it, and you do not need to change any menu items.

Common set-ups

Two traps:

• Keep 1 in the list when you add a label printer. An item set to just LABELS gets a label, but if every item on an order is set that way, no docket prints.
• An item still set to 1 prints nowhere once no printer is named 1. If you rename your only printer to KITCHEN, update every item.

With separate kitchen and bar dockets, an order with food and drinks prints in full at both.

What a label shows

One label per item, so three coffees print three labels. Each label shows your logo, the customer's name, the order number, the item and its modifiers, and the item's price — or REWARD if it was paid for with a loyalty reward. Below that come the pickup, delivery or dine-in table and time, paid or UNPAID, and the time the order was placed.

On an order of more than one item, each label also shows Item 2 of 5 and the order total. The numbering counts the whole order, so if some items print elsewhere the numbers skip — labels 1, 2 and 5 mean the rest are coming from another printer.

A customer's order note prints on its own label at the front of the run, so staff see it before making anything. On a single-item order the note goes on that item's label instead.

The customer's phone number is never printed on a label. A menu item's Copies setting applies to dockets only — labels always print one per item.

Replace or retire a printer

There is no delete. Set Status to Inactive and the printer stops receiving orders. An inactive printer does not hold on to its name or MAC Address, so you can add a replacement that reuses them.

If Save Changes shows an error

• "Printer Name '…' is already used by another printer in this store. Give each printer a unique name." — Two active printers cannot share a name. Rename one, or set the old one to Inactive.
• "MAC Address '…' is already registered to another printer in this store. One physical printer is one entry." — This printer is already in your list. Edit that entry instead of adding a new one.
• "MAC Address '…' is already registered. Please check the address, or contact us for assistance." — The address belongs to a printer on another store. Check it for a typo, then contact us if it is right.

Buying one

The screen links to the Star MCP30 from Officeworks, and to Star's own manuals for the mC-Print3 / MCP30 range. Contact us for other models, or use your existing hardware supplier.