Whether you are unboxing your printer for the first time or you’re reconnecting a printer that has disconnected from the network, this guide walks you through the mission-critical steps that are part of connecting your printer to your Lightspeed software.
First, look at the model of your printer, find it on the list of compatible models to see which track you should follow:
- APP PRINTING
- BLUETOOTH
- INTELLIGENT
If you have an Element RW973 MKII or an Element RW873, please head to Set up your Element Printer with Lightspeed
What's in this guide?
How-to video | 4 minutes
Prepare the printer | 5 minutes
Set up the printers | 10 minutes
Choose printer settings from POS | 1 minute
Test your printer | 1 minute
How-to video
Before you begin
Get organised and ensure you have everything ready before you begin. Think of this as your mise en place!
You’ll need:
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- A LAN port close by e.g. a router/modem, or a data point in the wall
- A power socket close by
- Compatible printer/s, here is a list of supported models
- The Lightspeed Point of Sale App, downloaded on your POS device(s)
- POS device operating above minimum hardware requirements
- Paper that is compatible with your printer
Check out the infographic below that shows you how to arrange your hardware setup if you are using Lightspeed app printing.
You’ll need:
- A power socket close by
- Compatible printer/s, here is a list of supported models
- The Lightspeed Point of Sale App, downloaded on your iOS POS device
- POS device operating above minimum hardware requirements
- Printer positioned close to your POS device (approx 5 meters but mileage may vary)
- 80mm thermal paper
Check out the infographic below that shows you how to arrange your hardware setup if you are using Bluetooth printing.
You’ll need:
- A LAN port close by e.g. a router/modem, or data point in the wall
- A power socket close by
- Compatible printer/s, here is a list of supported models
- The Lightspeed Point of Sale App, downloaded on your POS device(s)
- POS device operating above minimum hardware requirements
- Access to Google Chrome browser
- A ballpoint pen, or something with a small point
- 80mm thermal paper
For ease, we recommend using a laptop or a desktop computer at the venue to set up an intelligent printer. However, it is still possible to set up an intelligent printer with a tablet.
Check out the infographic below that shows you how to arrange your hardware setup if you are using intelligent printing.
Prepare the printer
- Load it with paper. Check the diagram under the lid for paper orientation
- Connect the power cable from the plug socket to the printer
- Connect the cash drawer cable from the cash drawer to the printer (receipt printer only)
- Connect the ethernet cable from the LAN port to the printer
Near the LAN port on your printer, you should see a solid green light signalling that the printer is connected to your network.
- Load it with paper. The paper should feed from under the roll
- Connect the power cable from the plug socket to the printer
- Connect the cash drawer cable from the cash drawer to the printer (receipt printer only)
Do note: you’ll need to make sure that you have the Bluetooth version of the TM-m30 as there are some models of this printer that look identical but do not function on Bluetooth.
You can easily determine if your printer is Bluetooth-compatible by taking off the cover panel and foot panel. You should see a sticker like this:
There are some printers, however, that don't have the Bluetooth logo on the sticker but are actually Bluetooth compatible. To be sure, check the last three digits beside TM-m30. Below are the models that support Bluetooth:
- TM-m30-211
- TM-m30-212
- TM-m30-242
- TM-m30III-232
- Load it with paper. Check the diagram under the lid for paper orientation
- Connect the power cable from the plug socket to the printer’s DC-in connector
- Connect the cash drawer cable from the cash drawer to the printer’s Drawer kick connector (receipt printer only)
- Connect the ethernet cable from the printer’s ethernet port to your LAN port
You will know if you have been successfully connected to the network if the light near the ethernet port stays solid green.
Set up the printers
Add a printer to Back Office
- Log into Lightspeed
- From Back Office, go to My Site
- Select Printers
- Under the Production Printer Settings, select the Production Printing Method: Lightspeed App
- Hit Save
Connect a printer to POS
- Hit POS from Back Office to head over to your POS
- Select the three-bar menu on the left-hand side
- Select Printing
- The system will search for your printer. You will see the dialogue "Great, we found some printers!", this is confirmation that the printer in the network has been connected to POS.
Connect printer to device via Bluetooth
- The blue Bluetooth status light will flash once when the printer is connected to the power, this indicates it is in pairing mode
- On your device, go to Settings and then Bluetooth
- Turn the Bluetooth off and then on again
- Under the list of Other Devices, select your printer
The name of your printer should look like TM -m30_000000
The Bluetooth light on the printer will stop flashing once it is paired successfully and will become a solid blue light.
Add a printer to Back Office
- Log into Lightspeed
- From Back Office, go to My Site
- Select Printers
- Under the Production Printer Settings, select the Production Printing Method: Lightspeed App
- Hit Save
Connect a printer to POS
- Hit POS from Back Office to head over to your POS
- Select the three-bar menu on the left-hand side
- Select Printing
- The system will search for your printer. You will see the dialogue "Great we found some printers!", this is confirmation that the printer has been connected to POS via Bluetooth.
Get the printer’s IP address
IP addresses are the unique identifier for each device on a network. An example of an IP address is 192.168.0.0 or 10.0.0.0
- New intelligent printers, once turned on, should print an IP address automatically.
If you don’t get the IP address automatically, grab a pen and hold in the status button at the back of the printer for three to four seconds - BUT no more than 5 seconds.
WARNING: Holding the pen in for more than five seconds will factory reset the printer. If this happens you will need to read our guide on Enabling DHCP for your printer
IMPORTANT: If any of your printers printed this IP Address: 192.168.192.168 or if your DHCP says disabled, please go to the enabling DHCP guide before continuing.
Configure the IP addresses of your intelligent printer
- Open a browser on your device. This device needs to be connected to the same network as the printers.
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In the address bar, type in the IP address of your intelligent printer. If nothing happens, to this address, add “/PrinterConfigurationPage” e.g. 192.168.1.200/PrinterConfigurationPage
(Note: The TM-T88VI uses "/webconfig-i" instead) - Press Return key to enter
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For new Epson printers enter the login details:
Username: epson
Password: <printer’s serial number which is located on the sticker of the printer>
If this fails, enter the login details:
Username: epson
Password: epson -
You will be taken to a configuration page. Go to System Settings for TCP/IP which you can find by going to System Settings > Network > Wired > TCP/IP.
If you open TCP/IP under Wired which is under System Settings BUT cannot edit the fields, it means you have gone to the wrong page. - From the System Settings for TCP/IP, change Get IP Address from Auto to Manual
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Change the last three digits of the IP Address to 200 (e.g 192.168.1.200)
- Select Apply
This will prompt the Printer to restart and apply these changes - it will take less than one minute or two to complete this process.
Now press the status button using your pen, double-check that the IP address has updated and is now one and the same as the IP address that you just changed it to, and check that TCP/IP Status, Acquiring: Manual (see below).
WARNING: Holding the pen in for more than five seconds will factory reset the printer. If this happens you will need to read our guide on Enabling DHCP for your printer.
Configure the IP addresses of your secondary (non-intelligent) printers
This must be done for all secondary printers.
- Open a browser on your device. This device should be connected to the same network as the printers
- In the address bar, type in the IP address from one of your non-intelligent printers
- You will be taken to the WebConfig page. Tap on TCP/IP under Configuration
- You will see the TCP/IP Settings menu. Change Get IP Address from Auto to Manual
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Change the last three digits of the IP Address to 201 (for the first secondary printer), 202 (for the second secondary printer), 203 (for the third secondary printer), and so on
- Select Submit
- Select Reset
Connect the intelligent printer to the secondary printers
- Log into the Printer Configuration page by following steps 1-4 from Configure the IP addresses of your intelligent printer
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Under the Device Admin heading, go to Printer
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Fill in the Device ID field with a name for the secondary printer (e.g. Kitchen).
Use underscores for spaces (e.g. Kitchen_pastry) - Select the model of your non-intelligent printer to be registered from the dropdown menu (i.e TM-T82 or TM-T20)
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Enter the new IP address (ending in 201, 202, 203, and so on) of the secondary printer that you set up in Configure the IP addresses of your secondary (non-intelligent) printers
- Select Add
Repeat steps 5 - 8 for each of your secondary printers.
One by one, select Test Print for each of your printers to confirm that the details you have entered are correct.
Add a printer to Back Office
- Log into Lightspeed
- Select My Site, then Printers
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Update each of the Production Printer Settings fields:
Production Printing Method: Intelligent Print Server
Intelligent Printer IP Address: <Enter the IP address of your intelligent printer> -
Select Save
- Under Network Printers in this Site, select Add Printer
- Enter the phrase: local_printer
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Select Add Printer
Repeat steps 5-7 for all your secondary printers - making sure to use the printer names (case sensitive) that you assigned in step 5 of Connect the intelligent printer to the secondary printers.
Connect your printers to the register (receipt printing & cash drawer)
- From Back Office, go to Sites > Devices > Registers
- Select the first register you want to configure
- Select Printers tab
- Under Printing Method, choose Intelligent Print server
- Add the intelligent printer IP address (ending in 200) to the Printer Server URL field
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Hit Save
Repeat steps 2-4 for all registers within the site.
Choose printer settings from POS
Now that you have connected your printer/s to Lightspeed you can designate different tasks to each of your printers: print receipts, open cash drawer, and print production dockets.
- From POS select the three-bar menu on the left-hand side
- Select Printing
- Use the toggles to assign which printer will print receipts, open the cash drawer, and print production dockets.
If you have multiple printers or cash drawers, each register can only have one receipt printer and one cash drawer toggle enabled at a time. I.e one register cannot open two cash drawers, one register cannot print receipts from two printers.
Choose register printer settings from Back Office
If you have multiple POS devices and are using our Advanced Printing feature, Setting up Register-specific Production Printing (Advanced Printing), you can also access your printer settings (per register) from Back Office, to get this set up.
1. Go to My Site > Devices
2. Scroll down to Register Printer Settings
- Printing Method - This will dictate how the register processes its printing tasks. This method should match all other registers as well as your production printing method. Each site will only ever operate on 1 printing method.
- Receipt Printer - You can select from a drop-down list all available printers configured for your site. The selected printer will be used whenever a receipt is printed.
- Cash Drawer - If you require this register to kick a cash drawer as part of transactions, select a printer from the drop-down list which has a cash drawer attached.
- Printer Server URL - This setting will only be relevant if you've chosen Intelligent Print Server in the previous setting. This field contains the IP address of your intelligent printer.
Test your printer
- From POS select the three-bar menu on the left-hand side
- Select Printing
- Use the toggles to test: Print Receipts; Open Drawer; and Print Dockets
- Select Test
If you experience a print delay of more than 15 seconds, we recommend you enable Multicast support for your POS device.
- From POS select the three-bar menu on the left-hand side
- Select Printing
- Use the toggles to test: Print Receipts; Open Drawer; and Print Dockets
- Select Test
If printing is delayed by more than 15 seconds, please select the chat option below to speak to our Support team to investigate the delays.
- From POS select the three-bar menu on the left-hand side
- Select Printing
- Confirm that the IP address matches and that all the printers you added are listed
- Use the toggles to test: Print Receipts; Open Drawer; and Print Dockets
- Select Test
The first test may automatically fail because Google Chrome will block it. If this happens:
- Look for the padlock icon in the address bar
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Click the padlock, then click Site Settings
- Allow Insecure Content, and refresh the POS page
(The reason for this is the printers themselves do not have an SSL certificate for the printing connection. The only data being transmitted is printing data for receipts and this is all carried out over your local network). -
Select Test again, it should now print a test docket from each printer.
What’s next?
Want food orders to print in the kitchen and drink orders at the bar? Or even, grill items to go to the grill chef and deserts to the pastry counter? Start Setting up Production Printing (aka Kitchen Printing).
Whether you operate one small kitchen or manage multiple stations, you can send your orders directly to the kitchen, barista, bar (or other production areas) with a single tap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Bluetooth printers with non-Bluetooth printers?
No. A Bluetooth printer cannot be added to a setup that uses an intelligent printer.
However. if you are using Lightspeed App printing, you may be able to use both Bluetooth and non-Bluetooth printers in your set up if you:
- Only have one register. In this case, you will set up the other printers as per normal with Lightspeed App printing.
- Have multiple registers, you will also need to enable Advanced Production Printing.