How to: Set Up KDS Printers

The advantages of using KDS Printers

To change the display station setting

To specify a fallback printer

To define a new printer for the KDS

To map the Display Station to a Device Role

To map the Device Role to the printer

To show KDS Printer Status on the POS

If you are using printers to print orders in the kitchen, you can set them up as printer stations with Display Station Type KDS Printer. The Kitchen Service (KDS) handles the printing for KDS printers and frees the POS system of waiting for orders to print on printers.

The advantages of using KDS Printers

  • Speed of the system - If the KOTs are printed to many OPOS printers, this can cause delays on the POS if it has to wait a long time for the printers to finish printing. One way of reducing the waiting time is to change the printers to Windows printers. Another way is to use the Kitchen Service to handle the printing. Doing so, the POS is released very quickly and the Kitchen Service is left to wait for the printers.

  • Synchronized printing - When the kitchen printing is handled by the KDS service (printers are KDS printers), the KDS service takes into account Time Offset for Showing for each printer station. The KDS service synchronizes the printing: an item with a long production time, routed to printer station A, is printed on printer station A before another item with a shorter production time, in the same KOT, routed to printer station B, is printed on printer station B. The aim is to have these two items ready at the same time. If there are more than one items routed to the same printer station, the item with the longest production time is used in synchronizing the production end between stations.

Setting up and configuring the KDS is described here.

To change the display station setting

  1. Click the icon, enter KDS Display Station List, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click the relevant station in the list to edit.
  3. On the Display Station Card, locate the Display Station Type field, and select the KDS Printer option from the drop-down list.
    If the printers and device roles are already defined correctly, this should be enough. Note: The printers must be defined as OPOS or WinPrinter printers and use the Hardware Station for printing.
    Starting with version LS Nav 11.05, the contents of the KDS Device Roles and Hardw. Profile KDS Printers tables are updated automatically when a station is set as a printer.
    If a new entry is put automatically in the Hardw. Profile KDS Printers, the card for it will pop up and the user can enter the correct Device ID.
  4. When the Display Station Type KDS Printer is selected, the field KDS Print KOT Layout becomes enabled. The default value is BC PrintBuffer which is the standard method of sending the KOTs information to the KDS.
    The additional options are for fixed printing layouts in the Kitchen Service itself. Layout 1 and Layout 3 can be used if the system uses Customer order queue number. Dot Matrix was specially made for Dot Matrix OPOS printers.

Tip: You can see a preview of the layouts in the FactBox.

To specify a fallback printer

In case a printer becomes unavailable, for example when the paper is out or the printer is open, it is possible to direct the KOTs to a different printer. To enable this, you can define a backup printer. The field for that is KDS Fallback Printer ID on the KDS Display Station Card.

  1. Click the icon, enter KDS Display Station List, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click the relevant station in the list to edit.
  3. In the General FastTab, locate the KDS Fallback Printer ID field, and select the printer that should handle backup printing. Note: This only applies when printing is handled by the Kitchen Service (KDS Printers).

To define a new printer for the KDS

  1. Click the Printing - POS Printer List action in the KDS Display Station List page. Create a new record or edit an existing one. You must set these fields:

    ID A unique ID for the printer.
    Printer The type of the printer. This must be set to OPOS.
    Printer Device Name The device name of the printer. If the printer driver and Hardware Station are installed on the same server as the Dynamics Business Central client, the correct device name is shown in the drop-down list. If the driver and Printer Station are installed on a remote server, the name must be entered manually. An example of a device name could be 'TM-H6000II'
    Description A descriptive name of the printer (location and purpose).
    Hardware Station Host The server name and port number of the host where the Hardware Station is running.

To map the Display Station to a Device Role

  1. Click the Printing - KDS Device Roles action in the KDS Display Station List page. Create a new record or edit an existing one. The fields that must be set are:

    Type Set this field to PRINTER.
    Role Set this field is set to KDS.
    Sub Role Click the down arrow to see a a list of all available display stations. Select the display station you want to match with the printer definition.
    Description A descriptive name of the role.

To map the Device Role to the printer

Click the Printing - Hardw. Profile KDS Printers action in the KDS Display Station List page. Create a new record or edit an existing one. The fields you must set are:

Profile ID This can be left blank.
Device Type This is set to PRINTER.
Device Role This is set to KDS.
Device Sub Role In the drop-down list, select the appropriate role (display station) from the KDS Device Roles list.
Device ID Select the correct printer from the POS Printer List. This maps the printer to the display station.

To show KDS Printer Status on the POS

See KDS Printer Status.