WTB: Broken or out of date EFTPOS machine with thermal printer

Forums › Offers and Wanted › WTB: Broken or out of date EFTPOS machine with thermal printer

graemeh

2075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 228

Subscriber

Topic # 150075 10-Jul-2014 15:18

I am after a working thermal printer for a little project I'm planning.

Ideally it would be about the size of a small EFTPOS printer (like used in the portable terminals). A working power supply would be useful but not essential.

I would pay a reasonable price for it and arrange courier pickup (I would email you a PDF of courier ticket for you to print and attach to the package).

So, does anyone have anything suitable you'd like to sell?

PeterReader

5518 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 248

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1086460 10-Jul-2014 15:18

Hey, have you listed a price, location and how much shipping would be to other parts of New Zealand? Also if you are asking for a PM make sure your Privacy settings allow your account to receive PM otherwise people can't contact you. Also note if you are selling something we ask you to offer to other members first. Links to private sales (including Trade Me posts) aren't accepted anymore and will be removed.

I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

clinty

528 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 100

Reply # 1086504 10-Jul-2014 16:03

Ive got a hypercom unit i think might do

Wont be able to check till tmrw

graemeh

2075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 228

Subscriber

Reply # 1086509 10-Jul-2014 16:07

clinty: Wont be able to check till tmrw

Thanks Clinty, I look forward to hearing from you when you get a chance to check.

I've been looking on Trade Me but the pickings are very slim and the one that I've found looks like they give the gear away for free and make their money on the courier fees.

Dynamic

2397 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 701

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1086521 10-Jul-2014 16:32

I've just bought a couple of photo kiosks that have been taken out of Warehouse Stationary. They seem to have little thermal printers in them. They are without a nice plastic enclosure, as they are designed to sit inside a larger chassis. If these are of interest (I might have up to 5 of these) let me know.

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

graemeh

2075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 228

Subscriber

Reply # 1086524 10-Jul-2014 16:35

Dynamic: I've just bought a couple of photo kiosks that have been taken out of Warehouse Stationary. They seem to have little thermal printers in them. They are without a nice plastic enclosure, as they are designed to sit inside a larger chassis. If these are of interest (I might have up to 5 of these) let me know.

Definitely interested although not having the photo kiosk to go with them may make deciphering the interface a little more challenging, will send you a PM now.

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 77

Trusted

Reply # 1086873 11-Jul-2014 06:59

Check eBay UK in the first instance (quick 7 day shipping from UK), then eBay USA (can be a pain to ship). But don't buy anything from China, shipping takes at least a month and no tracking even when a number is provided (it is just a reference). Our factory has a small desktop label printer that went obsolete 10 years ago, it failed and had no time to design for a different printer so we found one NOS on eBay for cheap. Discussing the issue cost the company more than buying it (and surprisingly they did end up discussing it for some time... until I had enough and ordered it myself). It is a standalone printer with RS232 interface and simple text programming. There are a couple of standard label programming languages, not hard to do, but worth tracking down the manual/language before you buy.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 77

Trusted

Reply # 1086874 11-Jul-2014 07:00

The printers from Dynamic could also be easy, get the brand and model number off the printer and see if you can find the manual. Often it is just a serial or parallel interface.

You can never have enough Volvos!

eracode

2624 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 687

Subscriber

Reply # 1086877 11-Jul-2014 07:25

Dynamic: .... taken out of Warehouse Stationary.

In that case I'm surprised you were able to get them out of there!

graemeh

2075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 228

Subscriber

Reply # 1086923 11-Jul-2014 09:21

Niel: Check eBay UK in the first instance (quick 7 day shipping from UK), then eBay USA (can be a pain to ship). But don't buy anything from China, shipping takes at least a month and no tracking even when a number is provided (it is just a reference).

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely check eBay UK and USA. I will be in UK in August so I could possibly even pick up, or at least get it delivered to UK address.

Don't get me started on eBay sellers from China. I'm just arguing with one now about a fake Hakko soldering iron tip he sold me. He says "it is not fake it is OEM" and to be fair his advert does say OEM. One picture shows the actual product in fake Hakko packaging and the other picture shows a genuine product.

I also bought some sub-c cells from a Hong Kong seller to replace those in a bustduster, they are labelled as 2500mah but I've tested one of them twice now and it comes in at almost exactly 1350mah.

On the other hand I've had good experience buying resistors, switches, LEDs (low power) and PCB connectors etc from Hong Kong and China sellers.

shanes

59 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Subscriber

Reply # 1086953 11-Jul-2014 09:51

Have you seen these ?

https://nicegear.co.nz/electronics-gear/thermal-printer/

A little dearer than some of the second hand units popping up on TM.

graemeh

2075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 228

Subscriber

Reply # 1086969 11-Jul-2014 10:14

shanes:
Have you seen these ?

https://nicegear.co.nz/electronics-gear/thermal-printer/
A little dearer than some of the second hand units popping up on TM.

No I had not but I was looking at a very similar unit http://www.adafruit.com/product/597

I was hoping to salvage one from a broken eftpos machine or similar for a whole lot less $$.

I should also check out the recycling shop at the Happy Valley tip in Wellington, they might have something.

Dynamic

2397 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 701

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1088769 14-Jul-2014 17:26

I have just extracted one of these printers - model np-211-d - and sent you an email Graeme.

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Yabanize

2106 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 525

Reply # 1088772 14-Jul-2014 17:35

How will you control them? with an arduino or similar? How can you find the information about how to control them, I have an old broken ingenico

graemeh

2075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 228

Subscriber

Reply # 1089207 15-Jul-2014 12:24

Yabanize: How will you control them? with an arduino or similar? How can you find the information about how to control them, I have an old broken ingenico

Thanks Dynamic, I've received your email and replied.

@Yabanize, my plan is to use an Arduino, I was going to remove the printer from the eftpos machine and hoped there would be a TTL or serial interface that I could use. This, of course, assumes that the printer itself is not faulty. As long as the printer is printing from the eftpos machine then I should be able to identify the protocol by monitoring the transmissions.

There is a risk with this approach that I might never get it to work as I may not be able to find any documentation on the printer module. I feel that even without documentation I should be able to get it to print plain text.