Kiosk hardware and barcode scanners

Overview

ThreadReady runs in a web browser. The kiosk needs a tablet (or a touch-screen computer) on your counter, and the register needs a staff screen to look orders up. A receipt printer, a barcode scanner and a label printer are all optional.

We haven't tested any tablet, stand, printer or barcode scanner with ThreadReady yet, so this page names no models. It says what to look for instead. Before you rely on a device, set it up as below and place a few test orders: print one, scan it, and finish it at the register.

What a counter usually has:

• A kiosk tablet on a stand, where customers design and order.
• A staff screen at the register (a computer, tablet or phone signed in to ThreadReady), where you scan or look up the order and take payment.
• A barcode scanner on the staff screen, or that screen's camera.
• A receipt printer on the kiosk tablet, only if you want paper receipts. Receipts are paperless by default.

The kiosk tablet

Tablet and browser

Any tablet or computer with a current browser can run the kiosk: an iPad with Safari, an Android tablet with Chrome, a Chromebook, or a Windows touch screen with Chrome or Edge. There is no app to install; you pair the browser with a one-time code (see Pairing a kiosk tablet).

What to look for:

• A screen big enough for the stitch preview. The kiosk works on a phone, but on the counter a 10-inch or larger screen gives customers room to see their lettering. It works in either orientation.
• Enough speed for the preview. The design screen draws every stitch as the customer types. Try a long name in a large font on the tablet before you buy several.
• A camera, if customers will scan. Customers can finish a saved design by holding its QR code up to the kiosk's camera (Scan with camera). That button appears only where the browser has a built-in barcode reader: Chrome on Android and ChromeOS have one, Chrome and Edge on Windows don't, and other browsers vary. Open the kiosk on the tablet and look for the button; without it the customer types the short code instead.
• Camera permission. The browser asks the first time the camera is used. Allow it once on the kiosk tablet so the next customer isn't asked.

Add the kiosk to the home screen

The kiosk can be added to the tablet's home screen like an app, and then opens full screen without the browser's address bar. On an iPad, open the kiosk in Safari and use Share → Add to Home Screen; on Android, use Chrome's menu and Add to Home screen (or Install app).

Pair the tablet from the home-screen icon, not from a browser tab: on an iPad the home-screen app may keep its pairing apart from Safari. If you change your kiosk address, add the icon again from the new address.

A reliable connection

The kiosk needs the internet for every step: loading designs, pricing and placing the order. It saves nothing to send later. If the connection drops, the kiosk shows an "offline, ask staff" message, keeps what the customer typed, and won't submit the order until it is back online. Put the tablet where your Wi-Fi is strong, and keep it charging.

Settings → Kiosk → Kiosk devices shows each paired tablet as Online or Offline, so you notice when one drops off.

Lock the tablet to the kiosk

A customer shouldn't be able to leave the kiosk and use the tablet for something else. Use the tablet's own lock, set up on the tablet:

• iPad: Guided Access (in the Accessibility settings) keeps the tablet in one app until a passcode is entered.
• Android: screen pinning keeps one app on screen; a kiosk launcher or a managed-device setup goes further.
• Chromebook: a managed Chromebook can run one site as a kiosk.
• Windows: a kiosk or assigned-access account runs one app full screen.

Turn off auto-lock or set a long sleep time, so the screen is on when a customer walks up. The kiosk clears itself between customers (see Session settings).

A stand or enclosure

Look for a stand that holds the tablet at a comfortable height for standing customers, keeps the charging cable connected, leaves the camera uncovered if customers will scan, and, if the tablet is left out, locks the tablet in place.

Receipt printer (optional)

Most shops don't need one. Receipts are paperless by default: the screen shows the order number, the total and a QR code, and the customer can email the receipt to themselves (see Paperless receipts). With no printer, the customer shows the screen or tells you the order number at the register, and you scan or search it.

If you do print, see Printing receipts and labels to turn it on. What the printer needs:

• The tablet's browser can print to it. The kiosk prints through the browser's own print dialog, like printing any web page. There is no ThreadReady printer driver. On an iPad that means a printer the iPad can print to; on Android, ChromeOS or Windows, a printer added to the device.
• The print dialog. When the customer taps Print receipt, the browser shows its print dialog. On an iPad it always does. Chrome on Windows can print straight to the default printer without the dialog if it is started with the --kiosk and --kiosk-printing start-up options, and managed Chromebooks may have a setting for it. That is set up on the tablet, not in ThreadReady.
• Paper size. The slip is a page up to 640 pixels wide with no paper size of its own, so the print dialog fits it to the paper. That suits an ordinary page or a wide receipt roll. Check how it prints on 80 mm and 58 mm thermal rolls before you buy: the text and the picture of the design shrink to fit, and the QR code must still scan from the paper. Pick the roll size in the print dialog, and turn off the browser's headers and footers so the page address isn't printed.

Barcode scanner at the register

A scanner opens the order the moment you scan the customer's receipt. It goes on a staff screen at the register, not on the kiosk: the kiosk doesn't listen for scans (a scanner can only type into its Finish a saved design code box).

What to look for:

• It reads QR codes (a 2D scanner). The receipt, on the kiosk screen, on paper and in the emailed receipt, carries only a QR code. A 1D-only (linear) scanner can't read it. It can read only the Code 128 barcodes on garment and bag labels and the Barcodes sheet, which are off unless you turn on labels.
• It reads codes from a screen, if customers will show you the receipt on their phone, as well as from paper.
• It types like a keyboard (often called keyboard mode, HID or keyboard wedge), over USB or Bluetooth. No driver or app is needed.
• It presses Enter after each scan. Most scanners do this out of the box.
• It types quickly. ThreadReady tells a scan from typing by its speed: at least eight characters typed in a fast burst, then Enter. If scans don't open the order, set the scanner to send at full speed.
• Its keyboard layout matches the staff computer's. The receipt code contains / and :, which come out wrong when the layouts differ.

Where scans work

Scan on any staff page while you aren't typing in a box: the order opens. Owners, admins and members can scan; viewers can't. Scans aren't taken in the design editor, so unsaved work isn't lost. You can also scan into the box in the scan panel (the Scan button, bottom right), or use Open the scan screen there for a counter screen that only scans. Under After scanning, a scan can also mark the order paid, start production or mark it ready or picked up; see Managing Orders.

The page beeps on each scan, apart from the scanner's own beep. Turn off Beep on scan in the scan panel to silence it.

No scanner? Use a camera

The scan panel has Scan with camera on a phone or tablet whose browser has a built-in barcode reader (the same browsers as above). It reads the receipt's QR code and the labels' Code 128. Where the browser has no reader, the button is hidden. You can always type or paste the order number or receipt code instead.

Label printer (optional)

Garment and bag labels and the Barcodes sheet are off by default (see Garment and bag labels). Today they print as cards, two to a row, on ordinary paper, from the staff screen's browser, so any printer that computer can use works. Sizes for label printers and sticker sheets are planned. Labels carry Code 128, so print a sheet and check your scanner reads it before you rely on it.

Before you open: a test run

1. Pair the tablet the way it will run (home-screen icon or browser), and lock it to the kiosk.
2. Place a test order on the kiosk. If you print, print the receipt.
3. At the register, scan the receipt from the paper and from the screen. The order should open.
4. Turn the Wi-Fi off for a moment: the kiosk should show the offline message and keep the design.
5. Cancel the test orders in Orders.

Related articles

• Kiosk Configuration
• Printing receipts and labels
• Paperless receipts
• Managing Orders