Quick answer: Qashier terminals ship with a receipt printer built in, so an external printer is an addition, not a replacement — a kitchen printer, a second counter, or a faster machine for a busy till. Qashier supports external printers over USB, Wi-Fi and LAN, and publishes setup guides for each.
For a kitchen or a second station, the NBTP-8080 (80mm, auto cutter, USB + LAN) is the standard choice; the NBTP-8040 adds Wi-Fi where running a cable is impractical. If the printer will sit away from the terminal, order the LAN or Wi-Fi version — and give it a fixed IP address.
You already have a printer. What is the second one for?
This is the first thing to be clear about, because it changes the specification.
Qashier's terminals — the QashierXS and QashierX2 — are Android smart terminals with an integrated receipt printer. Out of the box, a small shop needs nothing else. So when merchants come looking for an external printer, it is almost always for one of four reasons:
| Reason | What to specify |
|---|---|
| Kitchen or bar printer — orders print where they are made | 80mm, LAN or Wi-Fi, auto cutter. Distance from the terminal is the deciding factor. |
| Second till during peak hours | 80mm, LAN. Same network, its own IP. |
| Faster printing at a high-volume counter | Higher speed model; an integrated printer is built for convenience, not for a 200-covers lunch rush. |
| Wider receipts than the built-in unit produces | 80mm gives 48 characters per line against 32 on 58mm. |
The kitchen case is by far the most common, and it is worth saying why it is not optional in a restaurant: a printed ticket at the pass removes the walk, the shouted order and the mishearing. It is the single hardware change that most reliably speeds up a kitchen.
How an external printer connects to an Android terminal
Qashier supports three routes, and the right one is decided by where the printer sits.
- USB — direct cable to the terminal. Simplest, but ties the printer to arm's length. Note that on a smart terminal, the number of usable USB ports is limited; if you also need a scanner and a cash drawer trigger, an expansion hub becomes part of the plan.
- LAN (Ethernet) — printer plugs into the router, terminal reaches it over the network. The most reliable option for anything more than a metre away, and the right answer for a kitchen.
- Wi-Fi — same as LAN without the cable. Correct where cabling is genuinely impractical; it inherits every weakness of your wireless network.
Qashier publishes step-by-step guides for connecting a Wi-Fi kitchen printer and for additional printer setup over LAN. Follow their current instructions for the pairing steps — what we can add is the part that decides whether the installation still works in six months.
The one thing that will break it: a changing IP address
If you take one piece of advice from this page, take this one.
A network printer normally asks the router for an IP address, and the router hands out whatever is free. After a power cut, a router reboot, or simply enough time, the printer can come back on a different address — while the terminal is still looking for the old one.
The symptom is distinctive and always sounds mysterious when it is reported: printing worked for weeks and then stopped overnight, with nothing changed.
Fix it at installation, in one of two ways:
- DHCP reservation in the router — tie the printer's MAC address to a permanent IP. Usually cleaner, because it is managed in one place.
- Static IP set on the printer — choose an address outside the router's DHCP pool so nothing else is ever assigned the same one.
Five minutes at installation. We ship units with a static IP pre-configured if you tell us your network plan when ordering — for a chain rolling out multiple sites, that is worth asking for.
Two related failures worth knowing, both common in F&B venues:
- AP isolation. Many business Wi-Fi systems stop wireless clients talking to each other — sensible for customer Wi-Fi, fatal for a terminal that needs to reach a printer. Symptom: terminal has internet, printer has a valid IP, they cannot see each other.
- Different networks. A dual-band router presenting separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz names, or two access points. Both devices have internet; they are not on the same local network. Check that their IP addresses share the same first three groups.
Keep customer Wi-Fi on a separate guest network. That is the right structure anyway, and it is not the network your equipment should be on.
Kitchen printers: heat, grease and paper
A kitchen is a hostile place for electronics, and this is where cheap hardware reveals itself.
Practical points from supplying into Southeast Asian F&B:
- Mount it away from the heat line. Thermal paper is heat-sensitive by design — a roll stored above a grill will darken in the box. Beside the pass, not above the range.
- Auto cutter, not manual tear. Kitchen staff have full hands. A manual tear bar produces ragged tickets and slows the pass.
- Expect the paper to yellow faster in a hot humid kitchen than it would in an office. This is the paper, not the printer. Store spare rolls sealed and out of direct sunlight.
- Cable beats wireless in a kitchen if you can run one. Stainless steel surfaces and heavy equipment attenuate 2.4GHz badly, and a printer sitting low behind a counter has far worse reception than the terminal at head height.
80mm or 58mm?
80mm at 203dpi prints 48 characters per line — enough for item name, modifiers, quantity and price in readable columns. It is the standard for a kitchen ticket, where legibility across a hot pass matters more than paper cost.
58mm prints 32 characters. Fine for a queue number or a short drinks docket, cramped for an itemised receipt with modifiers. Where it wins is footprint and paper cost.
For a kitchen printer, specify 80mm. A ticket that has to be squinted at is a ticket that gets misread.
NETBYE models for Qashier
| Model | Paper | Speed | Cutter | Interfaces | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NBTP-8080 | 80mm | 160mm/s | Auto | USB / USB+LAN | Kitchen or second counter — the default |
| NBTP-8040 | 80mm | 200mm/s | Auto | USB / LAN / RS232 / Wi-Fi / BT | Where cabling is impractical |
| NBTP-8050 | 80mm | 200mm/s | Auto | USB / Serial / Ethernet | High-volume checkout |
| NBTP-5880 | 58mm | 90mm/s | Manual | USB / Serial / Ethernet / BT | Queue tickets, short dockets |
All are 203dpi direct thermal with ESC/POS support — 576 dots per line on the 80mm models, 384 on the 58mm — with a 72mm print width on 80mm paper. Browse the full range of thermal receipt printers, or narrow to 80mm.
Ordering advice for Qashier: specify LAN for a kitchen printer, and specify an RJ11 drawer port if you intend to run a cash drawer from the printer rather than from the terminal — see the Qashier cash drawer guide, because that decision is less obvious than it looks on this hardware.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a third-party printer with Qashier?
Yes — Qashier supports external printers over USB, Wi-Fi and LAN, and maintains its own documentation on external printer compatibility. Confirm your specific model with Qashier before ordering in volume; we can supply a sample unit for that purpose.
Do I need an external printer at all?
Not for a single-counter shop — the terminal has one built in. You need one when printing has to happen somewhere else (a kitchen), at the same time (a second till), or faster than an integrated printer manages.
Printing worked for weeks and suddenly stopped.
Almost certainly the printer's IP address changed after a router reboot or power cut. Set a DHCP reservation or a static IP.
The terminal has internet but cannot find the printer.
Usually AP isolation, or terminal and printer on different networks. Both need to be on the same segment with client isolation off.
Will printing work if the internet goes down?
A LAN or Wi-Fi printer is reached over your local network, so it stays reachable as long as the router has power — the terminal does not go out to the internet to reach a printer three metres away. What the Qashier app itself does during an outage is a question for Qashier. Keep the router on the same backup power as the till.
Can two terminals share one kitchen printer?
With a network printer this is the normal arrangement, and it is a strong argument for LAN over USB.
A note on this guide. The hardware and networking guidance above — interfaces, IP addressing, AP isolation, line widths, thermal paper in hot kitchens — is what we know from the products we supply, and it holds for any Android terminal printing over a network. Qashier maintains its own documentation on external printer compatibility and setup, and that is the authority on which specific models it has validated and on current menu paths; we have described the hardware principles rather than their software. 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 across Southeast Asia and worldwide. Our printers 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, packaging and firmware defaults — including units shipped with a static IP already configured for your network plan.
Tell us which models, what quantity, which country and where the printer will sit, and you will get an accurate quote in one reply. Ask for a sample if you want to validate it against your terminal first — that is a reasonable thing to want, and we would rather you did. Request a quote.
Related guides
These guides form a set. If you are specifying a complete till, the other hardware for Qashier POS is covered here:
And if you are comparing across POS software, the same hardware for other systems: