R&R equipment switch

[dmadej]

We are looking to switch from R&R to AutoMate. they are telling me R&R 'chips' its printers to only work with R&R equipment. has anyone switched from R&R to another DMS and retained the printers purchased from R&R without a problem?

[CALLBOB]

I was able to use some Lexmark Laser printers with another computer system (not Automate). The F&I printers (AMT I seem to recall) had a chip or a card of some kind and I could not use them with out buying a different card and I did not want to throw good money after bad. The ones that I replaced them with (Epson LQ2080)were around $600 each compared to the old R+R ones at $2,400 each. They were quite heavy incidentally but I did not need a boat anchor. I recouped some of my "investment" with RR by selling some of the equipment to a company in Iowa - they run an ad in Automotive News offering to buy used equipment. The best thing is like you I got away from the high monthly fee from R+R. The "investment" in R+R equipment was like many investments today unfortunately. Thankfully I can still make money selling cars and do not have to depend on "investments" for a living. PS. this was a couple, make that almost 3 years ago so who knows what might have changed since then.

[jdaniel]

I've recycled several old Lexmark lasers into our Windows (non-Reynolds) network sucessfully. We have a handful of AMT-535s attached to PCs for Reynolds EraLink (terminal emulation) that also print from Windows programs, so it can be done. Getting everything to line up and format properly for forms might be tricky though.

Good Luck
Jack

[Elaine]

It is true that R+R and ADP do have specific chip sets in their printers but that doesn't mean you cannot use them on other systems. For example the AMT535 on a R+R system can be converted to an ADP 80LQ or a forms printer for an open platform by simply switching the intellicard for less than $600.00. The ADP400 printer must be exchanged for TI8920 which can be used on a R+R system by changing the existing internal emulation to a TI880 upon setup. And both of these can be used on an open platform by downloading the drivers, for AMT go to www.amtdatasouth.com and for any older dot matrix just use the generic print driver.
Regarding "ROI" the best investment you can make is a few minutes of your time, by going through your monthly maintenance bill from your DMS provider. Often you will find you are still paying maintenance on equipment and support you no longer use. While you're at it, add up the total you are spending on printer and terminal maintenance, it's less expensive to buy a spare and drop the maintenance and you can depreciate equipment. Lexmark Optra printers that were on PIF boxes can be used as slave printers on PC's or can be shared by installing a network card. There is a company in RI listed in the suppliers page on this web site under "computers" that can help you out, give them a call. Regarding which system to choose, do you really want to change your entire infrastructure or just get the most out of your system and reduce expenses?