[restaurant] Device to input order and send to printer?

[littlebigman]

Hello,

I know someone who started a small restaurant without much money so is currently using one of those calculators with a printer.

Problem is, the bills just show a list of numbers so customers don't know what each line refers to, which is not fun for groups that go Dutch (ie. everyone pays what they owe instead of just splitting the bill equally).

The full-fledged Point of sales (POA) devices I've seen seem a bit pricey, so I was thinking of using a small, light device to input the order, and then a basic thermal printer to print the bill.

To avoid having to connect/disconnect the tablet to the printer through USB and possibly break it, going wifi could be a better idea but I don't know if those entry-level printers can receive data through wifi, or if they're limited to USB/Ethernet.

If someone's been there already, would you recommend using a tablet for this? If not, what other device in the same financial ballpark should I use to input the order?

Thank you.

[Hattori Hanzo]

Nice idea, but you're facing some troubles.
If you want to save costs, I'd think about getting some older used slates, like the ST series from Fujitsu or one of the Motion models. Then use Linux and Open Office for the input. Depending on how complex the menu is, a solution with drop down lists etc should be ok and not too complex to make.
The big deal will be batteries and battery management.

If you want non Windows/Linux stuff, good luck. Idk if much has changed in the last couple of months, but printing in any way is nothing those things were made for. So you'd need a lot of tricks, workarounds or a maybe existing special software for just printing out the bills.
With some Java and their Wifi capability this is definitely doable, but you need a bit of programming...