Files
parking_solution/wiki/concepts/printer-status-monitoring.md
julian 1efa77bf56 devices: pool-of-spaces model — drop lane, per-relay direction
A parking lot is one pool of spaces with a flexible set of entry/exit
points — no "lane". Direction is a property of each RELAY inside an access
controller; readers/cameras bind to a controller relay and inherit it.

Schema:
- drop `lane` from ledger_events, device_events, sessions
- rename lane_devices -> devices (no lane/direction columns)
- access config.relays=[{relay,direction,button?}]; reader/camera
  config.controllerId+relay binding
- fresh 0000_baseline migration (history reset; dev data was throwaway)

Signed ledger:
- remove `lane` from canonicalize(); bump signer keyId sw-hmac-v1 -> v2
  (v1 events won't verify under v2 — intentional, gated per-event by keyId)

Server:
- new device-resolve.ts (replaces lane-map.ts): relayForButton,
  relayForDevice, firstRelayByDirection, devicesByDirection
- entry-flow: button terminal -> its relay; exit/permit: reader's bound
  relay; dispatcher resolves the bound relay + inherited direction
- camera snapshots fire by direction site-wide, async, never block open
- DeviceConfig widened to nested JSON for relays[]

Web:
- wizard: no lane selector; add controllers (relay map + entry-button
  terminal) first, then bind readers/cameras/printers to a controller relay

Wiki: new entry-exit-points.md (replaces lane-direction); reworked
entry-exit-readers, parking-session, first-run-setup, device-registry,
append-only-event-chain, device-events; removed stale lane/LaneMap mentions.
2026-06-16 20:29:38 +02:00

3.7 KiB

type, tags, sources, updated
type tags sources updated
concept
parking
printer
device
monitoring
reliability
2026-06-14

Printer status monitoring

The booth must know a printer is in trouble before a driver presses the entry button and no ticket comes out. So the system polls each printer's live status (paper out, cover open, cutter jam, off-line) and pushes changes to the operator UI. A reliability control, like printer-roles-failover — not a threat-model one.

Where the status comes from (the safe-decode decision)

The raw print socket (TCP 9100) is write-only for us — it returns no paper/cover feedback. ESC/POS printers expose status via real-time queries (DLE EOT n). On the rongta-printer clone we probed, DLE EOT replies do NOT follow the canonical ESC/POS bit layout (the spec's fixed validation bits were wrong, verified on hardware 2026-06-14). Decoding those bits ourselves risked a false-healthy — reporting "paper OK" when it's empty — which is the dangerous direction for an entry lane.

Instead we scrape the device's own status web page (http://<host>/prn_stat.htm). The board decodes the bits itself into labelled Yes/No rows (Cover Is Open, Cutter Error, Paper End, Paper Near End, Printer Off-Line). We trust the device's decode over hand-decoding an undocumented clone.

This is captured as a device capability: MonitorableDevice.readStatus(): PrinterStatus in packages/devices. The Rongta driver implements it; the monitor is device-agnostic via isMonitorable(). A future printer with a different status mechanism just implements the same interface.

Status mapping (fail safe)

readStatus() maps to ready | degraded | offline:

  • status page unreachable / times out → offline (same signal as a dead printer; never throws),
  • page reachable but a recognised field is missing → degraded ("unexpected status page") — we do NOT claim "ready" off a page we didn't fully parse,
  • any fault flag true (paper end, cover open, cutter error, off-line) → degraded + a detail string ("paper out", …),
  • all five clear → ready.

The monitor (server)

PrinterMonitor (apps/server/src/printer-monitor.ts):

  • reloads the monitored set from devices each tick (so a newly-assigned printer is picked up without a restart), keeping only enabled, monitorable printers;
  • polls every PRINTER_POLL_MS (default 5000ms), never overlapping ticks;
  • caches the latest status per device id;
  • emits a printer-status event on the device bus only when status changes (deduped).

API / live UI

  • GET /api/printers/status — cached snapshot of all printers (no device round-trip).
  • GET /api/printers/status/stream — Server-Sent Events: full snapshot on connect, then one event per change. The booth SPA subscribes for real-time paper-out / offline indicators.
  • Any authenticated role may read (operational, not a setup action).

Verified on hardware (2026-06-14)

readStatus() against 10.0.10.6 → ready (all flags false); against an unreachable host → offline with "status page timeout" (no throw); bus emits on change and suppresses unchanged reads. Full repo typechecks.

Open / not yet done

  • Fault-state capture: we've only observed the all-clear page. The exact label text for an active fault (e.g. does "Paper End" flip to "Yes"?) should be confirmed by physically removing paper / opening the cover, to be 100% sure the scrape catches it. The parser is built to match Yes/No and degrade on anything unexpected, so this is a confidence check, not a blocker.
  • Tying a degraded/offline entry-dispenser into printer-roles-failover failover and the (not-yet-built) entry flow's all-printers-down policy (device-input-flow).