Printing, counters and screens

Pair a counter or screen with a 6-digit code, set up Server Direct Print over Wi-Fi, kitchen stations, and how bills and tickets print themselves.

Everything on this page is set in Maska HQ, on the outlet’s own page. Open Organisation → Outlets, press the outlet, and use its tabs: Counters & printers, Kitchen & floor and Billing. A new outlet shows the same settings inside its setup steps.

Two words run through this page:

• A counter is the POS tablet that takes orders and bills.
• A screen is a kitchen screen (KDS) or a captain tablet.

Pairing a counter or screen

Pairing tells Maska which outlet a counter or screen belongs to and gives it a name. It takes a code, not a password.

1. On the counter or screen, open Pair this counter (on a counter) or Pair this screen (on a kitchen screen or captain tablet). It is in the menu after you sign in. The screen shows a 6-digit code.
2. In Maska HQ, open the outlet’s Counters & printers tab and press Pair by code.
3. Type the 6 numbers. Give it a name if you like, or leave it empty and Maska names it, like Counter 2 or Kitchen screen 1.
4. For a counter, tick Make it the main counter if this is the one that takes cash and closes the day.
5. Press pair. The counter or screen shows its name in a few seconds.

The code changes every 2 minutes, and each code works once. Use the one on the screen now. After too many wrong codes, wait 15 minutes and try again.

Pairing is optional. A counter or screen that is not paired still signs in and works. Pairing is what lets a counter print at its own printer and be the main counter.

Counters paired earlier with a token keep working. You do not need to pair them again.

Renaming, printers and removing

Each counter and screen is listed on Counters & printers with its name and a status: Live or Revoked. Per counter you can set a name, a printer, a paper width, and whether the receipt prints by itself. Revoke removes a counter or screen. It stays in the list for the record.

Server Direct Print

An Epson printer on your venue’s Wi-Fi can fetch bills from Maska by itself. No cable, no driver, no laptop in the middle. That is what makes an iPad counter possible.

The printer asks Maska every few seconds whether there is anything to print, and prints it. You never add a printer by hand: it registers itself the first time it asks.

Setting one up

1. Get the printer onto the venue Wi-Fi and note its IP address from its own status sheet (hold the feed button while switching it on).
2. In Maska HQ, open Counters & printers and copy the Server Direct Print address with its copy button. Paste it somewhere you can reach from the browser you will configure the printer in, a note or an email to yourself. Never retype it by hand: the address ends in a long code and a single wrong character means the printer knocks forever and is never let in.
3. Open the printer’s configuration page and find Server Direct Print. On an Epson TM-m30 series printer the exact clicks are below.
4. Set Server Direct Print to Enable. Paste the FULL address into URL 1. Set Interval 1 to 5 seconds. Put a short name of your own in the ID field, such as frontcounter. The ID is the printer’s identity and it is not optional: a printer polling without one is ignored and never appears in Maska HQ. Leave the password field blank.
5. Save, then restart the printer once.
6. Within about fifteen seconds it appears in Maska HQ as Online.
7. Press Use for bills on the printer the counter should print at.
8. Raise a bill. It prints by itself.

On an Epson TM-m30 series printer. The configuration page lives at https:// followed by the printer’s IP address. Note the s: the plain address often shows only a status page. Accept the browser’s certificate warning, and sign in as user epson with the printer’s serial number as the password (it is on the sticker under the printer and on the status sheet). In the left menu, open TM-Intelligent, then TM-i Settings. Server Direct Print is on that page.

Copy the address when it is made. It is shown in full once. Afterwards only its first few characters are shown, and the only way to get a full one again is to make a new address, which means pasting it into every printer. Making a new address cuts off every printer still on the old one.

If it does not come online

• Nothing appears in Maska HQ. The address in the printer is wrong or incomplete. Re-paste the whole address; if it was made a while ago, make a new one and paste that.
• Still nothing, and the address is right. The ID field on the printer’s Server Direct Print page is blank. Give it a short name and restart the printer.
• It printed, but the card shows an error or a bill reprints. Do not keep restarting the printer: a restart clears its memory of what it already printed, which is the one thing that can turn a hiccup into duplicate slips. Leave it running and check the card’s error text.
• Avoid restarting the printer during service for the same reason. Restart it when the queue is empty.

The printer list

Each printer shows its name, badges saying whether it does Bills or Tickets for a station, a line with its id, its polling interval and when it was last seen, and a status of Online, Offline or Switched off. A printer with a problem shows its own error code unchanged, so it can be looked up.

Per printer you set the paper width (80 mm or 58 mm), its role (Receipts or Station), and for a station printer, which station. You can rename it, switch it off, and press Use for bills.

Maska HQ warns you when no printer is set for bills yet, and when bills have failed to print or are waiting on a printer.

What prints by itself

Bills. With a printer set for bills, raising the bill prints it, with no prompt and no second tap. It happens exactly once, so raising the same bill again prints nothing more. Comped and zero-value bills still print. A printer problem can never delay or stop the bill itself.

Kitchen tickets. A printer given the Station role and pointed at a station prints that station’s tickets the moment lines fire. One ticket per station, so an order for the grill and the bar is two slips in two places. One printer per station at most. A station shown on a kitchen screen, or with no printer, simply prints nothing, and that is not a failure.

Kitchen stations

These are on the Kitchen & floor tab. A station is a place in the kitchen that tickets go to: grill, tandoor, bar. Each has a key, a name, an optional emoji, an optional printer and an order.

Which station a dish goes to is set on the dish itself, in the menu. Until it is set, the dish shows as unrouted.

Kitchen timing sets when a ticket on the kitchen screen turns amber and when it turns red, in minutes, and whether a chime sounds when one goes red. See The kitchen display.

Bill details

On the Billing tab: your legal name, address, GSTIN, FSSAI licence, SAC code and place of supply, as they print on every bill. Receipts print a placeholder until this is filled in, so set it before you issue real invoices.