Connecting a Printer
This guide walks you through adding a thermal printer to Fuze Store. Pick the section that matches how your printer connects: Bluetooth, Network (TCP/IP), USB, or Serial.
You need the Manage Printer permission (or be the store owner) to add or
edit printers.
Before you start
- Make sure your printer is powered on and has paper.
- Have the printer's manual nearby — you may need details like the MAC address, IP address, or USB vendor ID.
- For network and USB printers, make sure your POS device and the printer are on the same Wi-Fi.
Connect a Bluetooth Printer
Bluetooth is the easiest setup for mobile POS, food trucks, and single-printer stores. Bluetooth printers work directly with the Fuze Store mobile app — no extra software required.
Bluetooth printers only work on the mobile app (iOS and Android), not on
web browsers. For web printing, use a Network or USB printer with the LAN
Bridge.
Power on the printer and put it in pairing mode (check the printer's
manual — it's usually a long press of the feed button).
On your POS device, open Store → Printers and tap Add Printer.
Give the printer a clear name like "Front Counter" or "Kitchen". This is
what staff will see in routing rules.
Select Bluetooth as the connection type.
Enter the printer's MAC address. You can find it printed on the
printer's self-test page or in the manual. It looks like
AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF.
Choose your paper width: 58mm or 80mm. Wrong width = clipped or
half-empty receipts.
Tap Save. Then open the printer's detail page and tap Test Print to
confirm the connection.
Most ESC/POS thermal printers from Epson, Xprinter, MUNBYN, Goojprt, and
generic 58mm/80mm Bluetooth brands work out of the box. If your printer
prints garbled text, see the Troubleshooting
guide.
Connect a Network (TCP/IP) Printer
Network printers stay in one spot and connect over your store's Wi-Fi or Ethernet. They are reliable for high-volume restaurants and retail.
Plug the printer into your network (Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi setup as per the
printer's manual).
Print a network self-test page from the printer to find its IP address.
It looks like 192.168.1.100.
On your POS device, open Store → Printers and tap Add Printer.
Give the printer a name and select Network (TCP/IP) as the connection
type.
Enter the printer's IP address and port. The default port for
thermal printers is 9100 — only change this if your printer's manual says
otherwise.
Pick your paper width (58mm or 80mm) and encoding (use UTF-8 unless
you need Chinese, Japanese, or Korean — see the encoding tip below).
Tap Save, then Test Print from the printer detail page.
The printer must be on the same network as your POS device. If your
store has multiple Wi-Fi networks (e.g., a "guest" and a "staff" network),
the printer and the POS must be on the same one.
Connect a USB Printer
USB printers connect to a computer in your store, and that computer relays prints to the rest of your devices. This needs the LAN Bridge running on the connected computer first.
Install and start the LAN Bridge. Follow the LAN Bridge Setup
guide before continuing.
Plug the USB printer into the LAN Bridge computer.
On your POS device, open Store → Printers and tap Add Printer.
Give the printer a name and select USB as the connection type.
Tap Discover USB Printers. Fuze Store asks the LAN Bridge to scan
for every USB printer plugged into it. A dialog appears with the
discovered printers, showing each printer's name, Vendor ID (VID), and
Product ID (PID).
Select your printer from the list. The Vendor ID and Product ID
fields are filled in automatically. These are hex identifiers that
uniquely identify your printer model — you don't need to change them.
Choose your paper width (58mm or 80mm) and tap Save.
Open the printer's detail page and tap Test Print to confirm the
LAN Bridge can talk to the printer. The test page prints directly
through the LAN Bridge.
The Discover USB Printers button is only active when your device is
connected to the LAN Bridge. If the button is grayed out, check your Local
Server settings under Store → Preferences → Local Server and make sure
the connection badge is green.
If discovery doesn't find your printer, you can type the Vendor ID and
Product ID manually. These are 4-character hex codes (e.g. 04b8 and
0202) — you can find them in your printer's manual or by running
lsusb (Linux/macOS) or checking Device Manager (Windows).
Connect a Serial Printer
Serial printers are older or industrial models that connect via RS-232. Like USB, they need the LAN Bridge running on the computer they are plugged into.
Connect the serial printer to the computer's serial port (or a USB-to-Serial
adapter like an FTDI FT232).
In Fuze Store, open Store → Printers and tap Add Printer. Choose
Serial as the connection type.
Enter the device path (Linux: /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyS0,
Windows: COM3) and the baud rate (usually 9600 or 19200 — check
the manual).
If your printer prints the first half of a receipt and then stops, or
shows garbled characters, open Advanced Serial Settings and enable
Hardware Flow Control (RTS/CTS). Industrial kitchen printers almost
always need this.
The Advanced Serial Settings panel also lets you change data bits
(default 8), parity (default none), stop bits (default 1), and
toggle software flow control (XON/XOFF). Most modern thermal printers ship
with the defaults (8-N-1, no flow control) — only change these if the
printer manual or the vendor's receipt comes out garbled.
Encoding tip
The default encoding is UTF-8, which works for English, Spanish, French, and most Latin-script languages. If your receipts show garbled or square characters:
| Language | Recommended encoding |
|---|---|
| Chinese (Simplified or Traditional) | GB18030 or GBK |
| Japanese | Shift_JIS |
| Korean | EUC-KR |
| Older / US-only printers | CP437 |
You can change the encoding any time on the printer's edit page.
Naming printers well
Good names make routing rules easy to read later. Try names like:
- "Front Counter Receipt"
- "Kitchen Hot Line"
- "Bar — Drinks"
- "Take-away Labels"
Avoid generic names like "Printer 1" — when you have three printers in a busy kitchen, you'll be glad you used descriptive names.
What's next
- Routing Rules — tell Fuze Store what to print and where.
- Print Queue & Status — see what happens when a printer is offline.
- Troubleshooting — fix common issues.