Setting up Thermal/Impact Printers

Clubspot supports both thermal and impact printing within the POS application. This article aims to provide guidance on the requirements to get the printers connected to your network and Clubspot’s POS.

We recommend the thermal printer Star Micronics TSP100III Ethernet. You can find and purchase this printer here and here. If your workflow requires impact printers, you can use the EPSON TM U220B Model M188B (which can be found here and here). It is vital that both models have Ethernet connectivity.

If your workflow includes a sticker printer for adhesive tickets, we are compatible with Star’s mC-Label3.

The vast majority of the printers we have set up are connected to our server through port forwarding (typically on port 9100, 9101, 9102 etc). If you have specific requirements that will not allow a port forward on your network, let us know and we’ll try to work with you on alternative setups.

Setting up the port forward will depend on the club’s specific router, but should be as simple as logging into the router, and setting up a forward from our print server’s IP addresses: 35.169.197.221 and 34.139.36.184.

to the internal network address of the printer. The internal port configured should be 9100 and the external port can be set to 9100, 9101, 9102 etc. incremented per printer. Please send Clubspot the following detail:

1. Public, static IP address, or DDNS domain name to direct our traffic towards:

2. The external port numbers used and the corresponding name of the printer like the following:

If you have any questions on how to do this, do not hesitate to reach out to us!

We recommend the cash drawer Star Micronics CD3-1313. You can find and purchase this printer here

Clubspot strongly recommends ethernet connected printers since printers do not stay as reliably on wifi networks as other devices. If you do need wifi printers for your use case then the following information is important to note If you plan on setting up multiple printers, you will need a router capable of translating the external port to a different internal port (eg. accept inbound traffic from port 9101, send to internal printer IP at port 9100).

If you are using a STAR TSP100III printer, please note that this printer will not work on a Smart Router or Mesh Router system. The TSP100III models will not work with these devices, and only work on a 2.4GhZ Band router with the 2.4gHz and 5gHz bands split out to separate networks.

The printer also does not support WPA/WPA2 or AES/TKIP combo settings. Please contact your network administrator or router manufacturer if you have questions or concerns about these security settings.

We recommend using a dynamic DNS service on your router. This allows clubs to provide Clubspot with a domain name to which to direct all print traffic. In the case of a network failover to a different ISP or a cellular backup, the dynamic DNS service can ensure that traffic is routed to your new IP. Services like No IP can be used to configure your dynamic DNS.

The STAR TSP100III can be connected either via WPS or Access Point mode, please see documentation here for connecting your printer to your network.

To add a printer in Clubspot, simply navigate to the “Point of Sale” left menu item, and the “Printers” sub-menu item. Click to add a printer, give it a descriptive name, and enter the printer’s IP address and port (eg. 192.168.0.15:9100). The IP address provided here is for your use only, and will not impact our ability to communicate with the printer if incorrect or not provided.

Once the printer has been added, it will be in a pending state until you reach out to us so we can set the printer up on our print server with the correct drivers and the network’s external IP address. We will ask to set up a call with someone at the club to make sure our servers can communicate with the printer, and that the formatting of the tickets/receipts is correct.

1. Google how to connect your printer to the network. This will depend on the printer’s make/model. The STAR TSP100III docs can be found here.

2. Once the printer is connected to your network, you will want to assign it a static IP address.

3. Finally, you will want to set up a TCP [port forward](https://www.hellotech.com/guide/for/how-to-port-forward#:~:text=To forward ports on your router%2C log into your router,you might have to upgrade.) in your router to forward traffic from our print server IP 35.169.197.221 and 34.139.36.184 to the internal IP address of the printer (read your printer’s manual to find out how to get this address).

If you have any questions or need help, shoot us and email at support@theclubspot.com!