Troubleshooting a Stimare Ticket Printer

This article is for Spektrix users who use Stimare Ticket Printers to print tickets or card receipts. It will help you troubleshoot issues you might encounter while using Stimare SML, CMP or CLS Printers.

In this article, you will troubleshoot a range of issues with Stimare Ticket Printers, such as your printer not installing, tickets not printing, the printer issuing blank tickets or tickets printing upside down. This article will help you identify whether the issue is with hardware, printer drivers, the Box Office App, your Spektrix system, or your ticket design.

If you're using a BOCA Ticket Printer, read Troubleshooting a BOCA Ticket Printer.

Before you read this article make sure you’re familiar with:

You can work through this article in order, or go to the section most relevant to your issue:

I can’t get my printer to install
My printer doesn’t show up correctly in Windows or is greyed out
My Printer isn't printing any tickets
Printing is delayed or tickets print too slowly
Tickets are printing the upside down
Extra blank tickets are printing
My Ticket Design is not aligned correctly
The font is not printing correctly on tickets

Before you troubleshoot, start with the following initial checks. These can often save you time.

Initial Checks

Is the printer’s USB cable and power lead connected?
Is the printer switched on?
Is ticket stock inserted the correct way round?
Is anything blocking the printer?

Regular cleaning will help minimise problems such as ticket jams, or sensors not reading the ticket notch.

WARNING: Always disconnect your Ticket Printer from mains power before opening or cleaning the printer. Remember to reconnect to mains power once you've finished.

Refer to these Stimare support guides for information on how to maintain/clean your printer:

Once you have completed these checks, next, check that the Spektrix Box Office App is running.

Checking the Box Office App

Once you’ve completed your initial checks, make sure the Spektrix Box Office App is running. The app icon is green when connected.

When hovering your mouse over the icon, it should show Connected to Spektrix as seen in the video below:

Note: this video uses Windows 10 Pro. Your screen layout may vary depending on which version of Windows you use.

If the Box Office App isn’t connected, read Troubleshooting the Spektrix Box Office App before proceeding.

Check settings in the Box Office App

Once you’ve checked the App is running, make sure the Stimare Printer has been added to the App.

To print tickets from Spektrix, you will need to Install the Spektrix Box Office App. Once you have installed the App, follow these steps to add your Stimare Printer:
1. Right-click on the Box Office App icon in the system tray and click Open. You will see a Printers tab, with a list of available printers.
2. Select the ticket printer under Available printers on the left side, then click the > (right arrow) button to add it to Spektrix printers on the right side. An Add/Edit Printer screen will pop up.
3. Add a printer name so that you can identify the printer in Spektrix. This cannot be left blank. In the video below, the printer has been named Box Office STIMA 1.
4. Click OK to add the printer.
You can watch these steps in the following video:

Note: this video uses Windows 10 Pro. Your screen layout may vary depending on which version of Windows you use.

Check Local Settings in Spektrix

Once your printer is showing in the Box Office App, check the printer is selected in your Spektrix system:

Log into Spektrix and select Control Panel > Change local settings.
On the Select BoxOffice App screen, look under Select your printer. Highlight the printer you want as the default printer for that Spektrix account. Click OK.
Log in to each user’s Spektrix account and repeat these steps to change the default printer in Local Settings.

Errors during installation

You may occasionally see an error screen when installing Stimare Ticket Printer drivers. The two most common error messages are shown below:

You can follow the same steps to resolve both these errors:

Click Cancel to exit the installation
Leave the printer switched on and connected to the PC
Follow the steps in Manual Printer Install for windows

If you are still can't install the drivers after following these steps, contact Stimare Support.

Seeing Ticket Printer greyed out in Devices and Printers

If your printer is greyed out in the list of Devices and Printers on your PC, check all cables and ensure it is plugged in, turned on and has ticket stock inserted.

If this doesn’t resolve the issue, check your printer connection by following these steps:

Open the Control Panel by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar. From the search bar, type Control, then click Control Panel. Some Windows 10 users may see a search bar without needing to click the Windows/Start button first.
Underneath Hardware and Sound, click View devices and printers (this may look different on some versions of Windows).
An icon for your printer should appear:
Right click on your printer and you'll see a menu: a yellow exclamation mark next to Troubleshoot indicates a problem. Click Troubleshoot and follow the Troubleshooting prompts:
If you are unable to complete troubleshooting or the printer is still greyed out in Devices and Printers after troubleshooting, Uninstall and Reinstall your Stimare Ticket Printer.

Errors during printing

If you’ve completed initial checks and are sure your printer is correctly installed and connected, you should be able to print normally. If you continue to experience problems, read this section for more help resolving the most common printing errors.

Click on the following links to understand why each issue occurs and how to fix it.

If your printer isn’t printing any tickets, first complete a test print from Windows. This will determine if there’s a problem with the printer or with its connection to the PC:
1. Open the Control Panel by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar. From the search bar, type Control, then click Control Panel. Some Windows 10 users may see a search bar without needing to click the Windows/Start button first.
2. Underneath Hardware and Sound, click View devices and printers (this may look different on some versions of Windows).
3. An icon for your printer should appear:
4. Right click on your Stimare printer and select Printer Properties.
5. In the Properties window that appears, click Print Test Page:
If a test ticket prints, this means the connection between the PC and the printer is working.

If you can’t print a test ticket, this suggests an issue with the printer’s connection to Windows. To resolve this, you will need to uninstall and reinstall the printer.

If you’re experiencing delays in printing, the Poll Period setting may need changing in Spektrix. The Poll Period setting controls how frequently the Box Office App will check for print jobs. If the Poll Period is set too high, it can delay printing.

Change the Poll Period by following these steps:
1. In Spektrix, go to the Settings Interface by clicking Control Panel > Settings
2. Click Configuration > Box Office App
3. Click the name of your PC in the Name column:
4. Change the Poll Period setting by entering a minimum value of 2000:
5. Click Save Box Office App for the changes to take effect

Read this section if tickets print with different fonts than specified in your document design.

The Printing Mode in the document design template must match the printer setup in your Spektrix Box Office App for fonts to appear correctly

If you’re using a Stimare SML, CMP or CLS in Generic Printing mode, follow these steps to check and change Printing Mode:
1. In Spektrix, click Control Panel > Admin
2. Find the template that needs to be changed under Document Designs > Tickets and click the Edit button
3. In the Edit Document Design window, click the Document Properties button
4. Change Printing Mode to Generic
5. Click Save
6. Right click on the Box Office App in your system tray and select Open
7. Select your printer from the list and click Edit Printer
8. In the Add/Edit Printer screen, untick Print using FGL, if ticked and click OK
9. Click OK to exit the Box Office App
WARNING: FGL mode can only be used with Stimare CLS printers. If you are using Stimare SML or CMP printers, you must untick this box.

If you’re using FGL mode, you won’t be able to use Windows custom fonts on your Document Design

If you’re using a Stimare CLS in FGL Basic or FGL Extended Printing mode, follow these steps:
1. In Spektrix, click Control Panel > Admin
2. Find the template in Document Designs > Tickets and click Edit
3. In the Edit Document Design window, click Document Properties
4. Change Printing Mode to FGL Basic or FGL Extended
5. Click Save
6. Right click on the Box Office App in your system tray and select Open
7. Select your printer from the list and click Edit Printer
8. In Add/Edit Printer tick Print Using FGL:
9. Click OK to exit the Box Office App
After making any changes, perform a printer reset for the changes to take effect. Next, make sure the font is installed on the PC you are printing from by following these steps:
1. Download the font you want to use (this may already be in your PC’s downloads folder)
2. Locate the font, right click and select Install
3. Contact Spektrix Support to request that the font is added to your system
WARNING: Only TTF (True Type Fonts) are supported. Make sure you have permission to use any fonts you’re installing.

Check with your IT team if you’re unsure.

Finally, add the True Type Font to your printer by following these steps:
1. Power off your printer
2. Press and hold the FF button on the rear panel while switching your printer on, to place the printer in Mass Storage Mode
3. Go to My Computer/This PC and double click on the Flash Drive (this may have a different drive letter for your version of Windows)
4. Copy and paste your font from wherever it is installed on your PC into the Fonts folder in your FLASH DRIVE:
To return to printing mode, follow these steps:
1. Click the back button or click on Flash Drive in the address bar
2. Double click on SETUP.INI
3. Scroll down and look for USB Class = 1, change this to USB Class = 0
4. Select File and Save to save your changes
5. Wait for the printer to restart
6. Reset the printer for these changes to take effect

If your tickets are printing upside down, this suggests the following possibilities:
- Ticket stock is inserted incorrectly
- An incorrect setting in the Box Office App
- An incorrect setting in the Ticket Template design
First, check your ticket stock is inserted correctly.

On each ticket you will see a notch (a black square on either the front or back of the ticket, or a black band across the width of the ticket).

The printer uses these notches to determine the end of one ticket and the start of the next.

You should feed the ticket into the printer, notch end first. The thermal side of the ticket (the side you print on) should always face up.

If the problem is limited to one printer, you may need to change a setting in the Box Office App on that PC.

Follow these steps:
1. Right-click on the Box Office App icon and select Open. You will see a list of Spektrix printers on the right side of the App.
2. Select your printer and click Edit Printer.
3. Tick the Print reversed box, then click OK:
4. Restart your computer for changes to take effect.
5. Once your PC has restarted and the Box Office App is connected, try printing again.
Next check the correct Orientation is selected within the ticket design. To check the Ticket Template design follow these steps:
1. In the Spektrix Admin interface, go to Document Design > Tickets
2. Find the ticket design you’re trying to print and click the Edit button
3. In the Edit Document Design Window, click the Document Properties button and switch the orientation between Landscape and Reverse Landscape:
4. Click Save and try printing again

Read this section if blank tickets are printing with orders.

This suggests a Ticket Design Template is set to the incorrect size in Spektrix. If a ticket template is slightly too large, the printer may try to print across two tickets, leading to blank tickets printing.

To resolve this, follow these steps:
1. Check which ticket from the order printed before the blank one. This will indicate which design needs changing.
2. In Spektrix, click Control Panel > Admin.
3. Find the ticket design that needs to be changed under Document Designs > Tickets and click the Edit button.
4. In the Edit Document Design Window, click the Document Properties button.
5. Check that the width and height of the design is no bigger than the stock you are using. If they’re the same size, try reducing each dimension by 1mm.
6. Click Save and try printing again.
TIP: The Document Design may not necessarily be a Ticket design, but could be a Gift Voucher, Address Slip etc.

If this hasn’t resolved the problem, the form settings in your Print Server Properties may be incorrect. Read Creating a Ticket Stock Form in Print Server Properties for information to resolve this.

If tickets aren’t feeding into the printer, this can indicate several things:
1. The printer is not switched on or connected to your PC with the USB cable
2. There is something blocking the paper path (you may need tweezers to remove partially torn tickets)
3. Sensors are misaligned or need to be cleaned
After checking that the printer is switched on, check that the paper path is clear. Stuck tickets will need to be cleared from the paper path before a printer can resume printing. You may need tweezers to remove small fragments of any torn tickets.

Next, check the sensors for dust or debris.

WARNING: You should only use a can of compressed air to clean sensors.

Your ticket stock will have black notches. If the printer’s sensors can’t detect these, tickets will not feed though correctly.

Inside a Stima SML printer, the sensors look like this:

WARNING: The notch sensors are delicate and easily damaged. You should only use a can of compressed air to clear any dust or debris.

If you need to adjust the Notch Position Sensor there is a small plastic tab to help move this. You can move the sensor along the horizontal track using your fingernail or small blunt object. Do not press the sensor directly.

If you still can’t feed tickets into the printer after cleaning/adjusting the sensors, try uninstalling and reinstalling the printer by following these steps:
1. Open the Control Panel by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar. From the search bar, type Control, then click Control Panel.
2. Underneath Hardware and Sound, click View devices and printers (this may look different in some versions of Windows).
3. Right click on your printer and select Remove Device.
4. Unplug the printer from your PC, then follow the steps in Setting up a Stimare Ticket Printer.

If your tickets drift out of alignment when printing, this suggests incorrect form size settings. The form size setting tells the printer what size your ticket stock is.

NOTE: you may need Administrator permissions on your PC to perform any system changes. To check your form size settings, follow these steps:
1. Open the Control Panel by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar. From the search bar, type Control, then click Control Panel.
2. Underneath Hardware and Sound, click View devices and printers (this may look different in some versions of Windows).
3. Right click on your printer and select Printing Preferences.
4. Click the Advanced button and make a note of the name of the form as it appears in the Paper Size field.
5. Head back to Devices and Printers on your PC. Highlight your printer and select Print Server Properties from the top menu bar.
6. Scroll down the list of form sizes until you find the correct one then select it. This will reveal your form measurements at the bottom of the page.
7. Click OK until you return to Devices and printers, and leave this window open.
  
  You can watch these steps in the following video:
8. Measure your ticket stock and compare the form measurements to make sure they match
Once you have checked your ticket stock and form measurements match, make sure the form is selected in the Paper Size setting for your printer.

To check this, follow these steps:
1. Re-open Control Panel > Hardware and Sounds > View Devices and Printers
2. Right click the printer and select Printing Preferences
3. Click the Advanced button; confirm the correct form name is in the Paper Size field and press OK
4. Right click the printer again and select Printer Properties
5. Click the Advanced tab, select Printing Defaults and click the Advanced button
6. Check the correct form name is selected in the Paper Size field and press OK
You can watch these steps in the following video:

Note: this video uses Windows 10 Pro. Your screen layout may vary depending on which version of Windows you use.

TIP: In Print Server Properties, the Height setting is the long edge of the ticket. In Spektrix, within the Document Design editor, the long edge is the Width.

If you can’t see your form in the Paper Size dropdown, check your ticket dimensions have been entered correctly. Swap the Height/Width figures and try again

If you’ve made any changes, reset the printer and perform a test print.

If your Ticket Design still drifts out of alignment, next, check your notch settings.

On each ticket you will see a black notch. This is a small black square on either the front or back of the ticket, but can also be a band running across the width of the back of the ticket.

The printer uses these notches to determine the end of one ticket and the start of the next.

The notch is at the leading end of the ticket. You should feed this end into the printer first. The thermal side of the ticket (the side you print on) should always face up.

Notch settings

Notch settings tell your printer the distance between the leading edge of the ticket and the start of the notch. You can change the notch settings by editing the SETUP.INI file stored in the printer’s memory.

To edit the SETUP.INI file, first set the printer to Mass Storage Mode as follows:

Press and hold the FF button on the back of the printer (SML) or the front of the printer (CLS or CMP) while powering on.
On your PC, go to My Computer/This PC and double click on the Flash Drive (the drive letter may vary for your version of Windows).
Double click on SETUP.INI to open the file.
Scroll down to Notch/B.Mark Min.Width.
Change this setting to 0 (for 0mm). The printer will now look for any black notch bigger than 0mm.
Check the Notch Distance is correct by measuring the distance between the leading edge of the ticket and the notch.
To exit MASS STORAGE MODE on the printer, in the SETUP.INI file, look for USB Class = 1. Change this to USB Class = 0.
Select File and Save.
Wait for the printer to restart.

TIP: If any of the notch settings are incorrect, the printer may ignore the notch altogether. This will prevent tickets printing correctly.

Printing using FGL

FGL is a special printing language mainly used by BOCA printers but which can also be used with Stimare CLS Ticket Printers. It cannot be used with Stimare CMP or SML printers.

When creating ticket designs in Spektrix, you can choose between three printing modes:

FGL Basic
FGL Extended
Generic

Using either of the FGL options means you will only be able to use a small number of predetermined fonts. The Extended mode has the most to choose from of the two.

When using FGL with the Stimare CLS Printer, tickets may print more quickly, and you will have more control over when the printer cuts tickets as they are being printed.

With the Generic mode you may see slightly slower printing, but will have a much wider range of fonts and formatting choices.

You can check your ticket designs in the Spektrix Admin Interface > Document Designs > Tickets. Click the Edit button next to one of your current designs, and then click the Document Properties button:

If the Printing Mode is set to either FGL Basic or FGL Extended you will need to tick the Print Using FGL check box in the Box Office App for the CLS printer you are installing. If the Printing Mode is set to Generic, leave this box un-ticked.

WARNING: A Stimare CLS ticket printer can print QR codes, but only in Generic mode.

Switching the Printer to Mass Storage Mode

To amend any Notch settings, you will need to temporarily place your Ticket Printer into Mass Storage Mode. This enables the printer to function temporarily as a flash drive, so that you can make any changes to Notch settings.

TIP: When in Mass Storage Mode, printing is disabled. When in Printing mode, Mass Storage Mode is disabled.

To place the printer into Mass Storage Mode, follow these steps:

Press and hold the FF button on the back of the printer (SML) or the front of the printer (CLS or CMP) while powering on
Go to My Computer/This PC and double click on the Flash Drive (this may have a different drive letter for your version of Windows)
Double click on the SETUP.INI file to access the configuration settings and make any changes
To exit MASS STORAGE MODE on the printer, in the SETUP.INI file, look for USB Class = 1, change this to USB Class = 0
Select File and Save to save your changes
Wait for the printer to restart

Resetting your Printer

If you need to reset your printer, follow these steps:

Unplug the printer at the mains (turning it off at the off switch is not enough)
Take the ticket stock out of the printer
Plug the printer back in, switch on and wait for it to restart
Feed the ticket stock back into the printer
Restart the PC the printer is plugged into

Uninstalling and Reinstalling your Ticket Printer

If you need to uninstall your printer, for example if the drivers are corrupted or haven’t installed correctly, you will need one of the following:

Administrator permissions on your PC; or
Access to your Administrator Password (ask your IT team); or
A member of your IT team to complete the uninstall on your behalf

TIP: During installation you may see a Windows User Account Control screen pop up asking Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device? Click Yes to proceed with the uninstallation.

Follow these steps to proceed:

Open the Control Panel by clicking the Windows/Start button in your taskbar. From the search bar, type Control, then click Control Panel.
Underneath Hardware and Sound, click View devices and printers (this may look different in some versions of Windows).
Right click on your printer and select Remove Device.

To reinstall your printer read Setting up a Stimare Ticket Printer

Contacting Stimare Support

If you have completed all troubleshooting steps in this article and need to contact the manufacturer, you can fill in the support form on the Stimare website, or send Stimare an email. A Stimare engineer will respond to you. In most cases the engineers will arrange a remote session to resolve the issue.

If you need to return your Stimare printer, first create an account on Stimare’s RMA portal. Then, submit a request for an RMA (Return Material Authorisation) and the Stimare team will guide you through the returns process.

You now have the information and resources required to troubleshoot any Stimare printer issues.

Manual Install for windows.pdf400 KB