Quick answer: On Hike's desktop setup, the cash drawer is not opened by Hike at all. It is opened by the printer driver, configured to fire the drawer at End of Document — so it pops while the receipt is printing. Hike's own guidance: the drawer will be triggered to open when you finish a cash or cheque sale, while the receipt is being printed.
This has a consequence worth knowing before you buy: the drawer is configured in Printing Preferences → Peripherals on the Windows printer. So your printer's driver has to have that settings page. Get the printer right and the drawer is the easy part — our NBCD-460 (460mm) and NBCD-410 (410mm) are standard RJ11/RJ12 units, matched to the printer's voltage when you buy them together.
Where the open-drawer instruction actually comes from
On most POS systems the chain is: POS sends an ESC/POS “open drawer” command → printer converts it to a voltage pulse → solenoid throws the drawer. The POS decides when.
Hike on desktop runs in a browser, and a browser cannot send ESC/POS commands. So the job is delegated one level down. Hike's setup guidance configures the drawer inside the printer driver:
- Connect the RJ12 connector cable from the drawer to the printer.
- Open Devices and Printers from Control Panel.
- Right-click the printer → Printing Preferences → Peripherals.
- Change the peripheral unit type to Cash Drawer.
- Select End of Document and click Open for both Cash Drawer #1 and #2.
Read step 5 carefully. The trigger is End of Document — the end of a print job. The driver is told: whenever you finish printing something, fire the drawer.
What that design means in practice
These are our conclusions from how the setup is documented, not statements from Hike — but they follow directly, and they affect what you should buy.
- The drawer is tied to printing. It opens because a receipt finished, not because Hike decided a cash sale happened. A sale that prints no receipt has nothing to trigger the drawer.
- Your printer driver must have a Peripherals page. This is the important one for specification. Vendor drivers from the established receipt-printer brands have it. A generic or minimal driver may not — and if that settings page does not exist, this method of opening the drawer does not exist either.
- It is configured per Windows printer, not per user. Unlike the browser print settings, this one lives with the printer, so it survives a new Windows user profile. That is a small mercy.
So when you specify the printer, specify the driver. If you are buying from us for a Hike deployment, tell us — we will confirm the driver exposes a cash-drawer peripheral setting before you order, rather than after.
Voltage: still the thing that decides whether it opens
Independent of Hike, independent of drivers, this is the specification that most often produces a drawer that will not open.
Drawer solenoids are built for a voltage, usually 12V or 24V. Printer drawer ports output a voltage, usually 12V or 24V. The connector is the same either way, so anything plugs into anything.
| Combination | Result |
|---|---|
| Matched (12V→12V or 24V→24V) | Opens crisply, every time |
| 12V printer → 24V drawer | Usually will not open, or opens while the spring is new and stops weeks later |
| 24V printer → 12V drawer | May open, running the coil over its rating — risks overheating over time |
The middle row is the one that generates support calls months after installation, because it degrades rather than fails outright.
RJ11 or RJ12?
Hike's guide says RJ12; most of the industry says RJ11; the cable in the box is the same cable. The connectors are the same width — the difference is how many of the six positions are wired. Cash drawer cables are conventionally 6P6C, which is strictly RJ12, and almost everyone calls it RJ11 anyway.
Practically: if the cable that came with the drawer fits the printer's drawer port, you have the right cable. The thing to avoid is plugging it into the printer's Ethernet port, which is wider (8P8C) but close enough to invite the mistake on a dark counter.
On the iPad register
The driver-based method above is a Windows arrangement. On Hike's iPad app there is no Windows driver and no Printing Preferences dialog, so the drawer is handled by the app and the printer it is paired with — which is another reason Hike publishes a recommended-hardware list for iPad and why we would tell you to stay on it there. If your tills are iPads, confirm the drawer arrangement with Hike for your specific printer model before ordering drawers in volume.
Sizing: 410mm or 460mm?
460mm is the standard full-size drawer and the right default for a retail counter handling a normal mix of notes and coin. 410mm suits genuinely tight counters — kiosks, coffee bars, market stalls — with fewer note compartments, which matters more in currencies with many denominations in circulation.
NETBYE models
| Model | Width | Note |
|---|---|---|
| NBCD-410 | 410mm | Compact, for a tight counter. 4- or 5-position bill trays, 8-position coin tray. Rated to 1.5 million cycles. |
| NBCD-460 | 460mm | Standard full size. Up to 6 bill compartments, single- or double-row coin tray. |
Both have the standard drawer port and a manual key override. Browse cash drawers.
Ordering advice for Hike: buy the drawer with the printer so we can match voltage, and tell us it is for Hike on Windows so we can confirm the driver has a cash-drawer peripheral setting. See the Hike receipt printer guide for the browser print settings that also affect whether the receipt cuts.
Frequently asked questions
How does the cash drawer open in Hike?
Through the printer driver. The drawer is set as a peripheral on the Windows printer and triggered at End of Document, so it opens while the receipt is printing after a cash or cheque sale.
Does the drawer connect to the computer or the printer?
The printer, by RJ12/RJ11 cable into the drawer port. Nothing connects the drawer to the PC.
My drawer will not open.
In order: does the printer print? Then is the peripheral unit type set to Cash Drawer with End of Document selected in Printing Preferences? Then is the cable in the drawer port rather than the network port? Then is the voltage matched?
Can the drawer open without printing a receipt?
Not under this arrangement — the trigger is the end of a print job. If you need a no-sale drawer open without a receipt, raise it with Hike, and consider a USB-trigger drawer, which is a different product with its own controller.
My printer's driver has no Peripherals tab.
Then this method is unavailable with that driver. Check whether the vendor publishes a fuller driver for the model. This is exactly why we suggest confirming the driver before ordering for a Hike deployment.
Will any drawer work with any printer?
Physically yes, electrically no. Match 12V to 12V and 24V to 24V.
A note on this guide. The drawer side above — solenoid behaviour, drawer-port wiring, voltage matching, RJ11 versus RJ12, cycle ratings — is what we know from the products we supply. The Hike-specific configuration, including the Printing Preferences → Peripherals steps and the End of Document trigger, is drawn from Hike's published help article for configuring a receipt printer on Windows. The consequences we draw from that design — that the drawer is tied to a print job, and that the driver must expose a peripheral setting — are our reading of it, not statements from Hike. Confirm current details with Hike, and if something here did not match your installation, tell us and we will correct this page. We would rather publish something accurate than something impressive.
Get pricing
NETBYE supplies distributors, system integrators and retailers worldwide. Our cash drawers are built by our partner factories in Shenzhen and sold under our own model range — we handle specification, quality control and support, so you deal with one supplier rather than several factories. Direct wholesale pricing, low MOQ on first orders, and OEM/ODM covering branding and tray configuration.
Tell us which printer you are pairing it with, whether the tills are Windows or iPad, what quantity and which country, and you will get an accurate quote in one reply — with the voltage already matched. Request a quote.
Related guides
These guides form a set. If you are specifying a complete till, the other hardware for Hike POS is covered here:
And if you are comparing across POS software, the same hardware for other systems: