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Standard reader disconnect and reconnect during tarnsaction

I am an artist doing outdoor shows. I have the square app running all day in a fixed location. If there is a low in selling activity and I now have a sale come in, while keying in the item I am disrupted by the card reader reconecting, I am guessing because it has been sitting for a while it disconnects. It is very frustrating because it is a little slow but I also loose my keyboard from being on top so I have to bring it back up and then place the cursor back where it left off. Is there anyway to stop this from happening? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Scott

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Hello @SFA

 

When you aren't using the Contactless and Chip Card Reader it will go into sleep mode to conserve power. It will wake itself up out of sleep mode when you get ready to make a sale.

 

The only way to keep this from happening is to have a USB connection to the reader. Which would require a Square Stand and the dock for the Contactless and Chip Card Reader. 

 

If you still have questions please feel free to reach out to me. I'm always happy to help out. 😀

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Thanks Chad, your help is very much appreacited. Yes, I do not have the chip reader. I have thought about the stand and reader in the past. My problem with having the stand is it only has positive stops for swival at 180* and I am not setup for that to be comfortable, my customers are off to the side. If the swival was stiffer I could probably make it work. I use an Ipad4 for my outdoor sales. Instead of using it and the stand could this be done using Bluetooth or getting a Lightning cable to USB adapter to run the reader? Would either of those make the reader stay alive?

 

Thanks Chad for your help. 

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Sorry Chad, I was thinking you could swipe cards also using the chip card reader and dock. After doing a little bit of reading I see the swipe part of this is only in the stand. Looks like I will have to look into the stand. If I get just the stand and not the chip reader and dock would this solve my issue and keep the reader active?

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Hello @SFA, lets back track for a moment. Originally I thought you were using our Contactless and Chip Card Reader which connects which connects wirelessly, I now realize you're using the Magstripe Reader. Sorry about the confusion! 

 

So if your iPad locks, or you exit the Point of Sale app it will take a second for the Magstripe Reader to reconnect. To avoid this you could adjust the Ipad's settings to where the screen never locks. But on the flip side you have have an un-secure iPad. 

 

Alternatively you could use the Square Stand to have a secure magstripe connection. The stand will run off the battery life of the iPad, but that could be an issue since you're doing outdoor shows and might not have access to a reliable power supply. 

 

Let me know what you think! 😀

 

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