parking_solution/wiki/entities/rongta-printer.md

type, tags, sources, updated

type	tags	sources	updated
entity	parking hardware printer device		2026-06-14

Rongta 80mm thermal printer

The chosen ticket/receipt printer: a Rongta RP-series 80mm network thermal printer (and the many ESC/POS-compatible OEM clones that share its firmware). Driver rongta in packages/devices implements device-adapter-pattern.

Transport & protocol

• ESC/POS over a raw TCP socket on port 9100 (the JetDirect/RAW convention). The driver opens the socket, writes the ESC/POS byte stream, waits for flush, closes.
• No authentication on the print socket — anyone who can reach port 9100 can print. Like every other field device it must sit on the isolated device VLAN (network-isolation). There is no real HTTP/control boundary on the device (same posture as dingtian-relay).
• Health check is a TCP connect probe to 9100. The print socket exposes no status protocol we rely on; the print itself is the real reachability test (failover attempts the print).
• Live status comes from the device's own web page http://<host>/prn_stat.htm (port 80), which decodes Cover Open / Cutter Error / Paper End / Paper Near End / Off-Line into Yes/No. We scrape that rather than hand-decode DLE EOT — this clone's DLE EOT reply bytes do not match the canonical ESC/POS bit layout (verified on hardware), so trusting the device's own decode avoids a false-healthy. Implemented as readStatus(); see printer-status-monitoring.

Deployment (this site)

• First printer verified reachable at 10.0.10.6:9100 from the host (TCP connect OK, 2026-06-14).
• Two printers configured (as of 2026-06-18), by role — see printer-roles-failover:
  • entry-dispenser — 10.0.10.9, outside at the lane; the driver takes the entry ticket. This unit is a Cashino, not a Rongta: it prints the same ESC/POS stream but serves no /prn_stat.htm status page, so it runs on the cashino driver (reachability PING only, no paper/cover status) — see printer-status-monitoring.
  • booth-receipt — 10.0.10.10, inside the booth; receipts, AND the backup that prints the entry ticket if the outside dispenser is offline. This unit is a Rongta (rongta driver, full status-page monitoring).

Ticket rendering

printTicket(TicketData) builds ESC/POS: ESC @ init, centered/bold/double-size header, lane, ticket id, issued-at, feed + partial cut (GS V B). CP437/ASCII subset. The entry ticket encodes the id as a 1D Code128 barcode (GS k).

printSubscriptionCard(SubscriptionCardData) (added 2026-06-18) renders a 2D QR of the subscription code via ESC/POS GS ( k (model 2, EC level M) — firmware-rendered, no bitmap dependency — plus the code as text + holder/validity. Used for the auto-printed + reprintable subscription card. (Verified: the GS ( k store/print byte sequences + the embedded code appear on the wire against a TCP capture.)

Status

Driver written and compiles; entry-ticket layout is a first pass; live status monitoring is implemented and verified (printer-status-monitoring). The receipt/exit layout and the cash-drawer kick (ESC/POS ESC p) are not yet implemented — they arrive with the exit/payment flow. Replaces the generic "Epson TM / Citizen" booth-printer line in bom.