Talking to a Zebra
John Bond
Posts: 369
Hi Guys
We're using a Stamp BS2 to confirm 6 inputs then print a label to a Zebra TLP2742 label printer.
Coms is apparently 9600, 8 Bit, no parity·or a Baud Mode of 84 and the label string should look something like this:-
N
Q352,24
A170,20,0,1,2,2,N,"HESTO (Pty)Ltd"
A170,50,0,4,2,2,N,"82141-0Z080-J"
A170,100,0,1,2,2,N,"Cust.Level:""2"
A170,130,0,1,2,2,N,"Cust.Level Date:""16.01.2005"
A170,160,0,1,2,2,N,"Wire Instrument Panel"
P1
(There is a hidden character ASCII·10 at the end of each line)
Nothing is happening at the Zebra Printer. When we print to an old Epson dot matrix, eveything works just fine! When we print from notepad, the Zebra puts out garbage. Local suppert for the Zebra is very poor.
Does anyone have an idea of what we're missing?
Kind Regards from Kwa Dukuza
John Bond
We're using a Stamp BS2 to confirm 6 inputs then print a label to a Zebra TLP2742 label printer.
Coms is apparently 9600, 8 Bit, no parity·or a Baud Mode of 84 and the label string should look something like this:-
N
Q352,24
A170,20,0,1,2,2,N,"HESTO (Pty)Ltd"
A170,50,0,4,2,2,N,"82141-0Z080-J"
A170,100,0,1,2,2,N,"Cust.Level:""2"
A170,130,0,1,2,2,N,"Cust.Level Date:""16.01.2005"
A170,160,0,1,2,2,N,"Wire Instrument Panel"
P1
(There is a hidden character ASCII·10 at the end of each line)
Nothing is happening at the Zebra Printer. When we print to an old Epson dot matrix, eveything works just fine! When we print from notepad, the Zebra puts out garbage. Local suppert for the Zebra is very poor.
Does anyone have an idea of what we're missing?
Kind Regards from Kwa Dukuza
John Bond
Comments
Are you handling the 'DTR' signal? Most printers using serial connections use this signal to indicate when they are out of paper, need a new ribbon, or their buffer is full.
The Zebra printer is set to 9600, 8 bit, no parity, hardware handshake and prints this out if you hold down the ready button as you switch the printer on.
I think the cable may be the problem. We are using a standard printer cable and I don't know what happens to CTR, DTR and all those other pins in this cable.
Thanks for the pointer and kind regards from Kwa Dukuza
John Bond
www.zebra.com/SS/27xxSeriesUsersGuide.pdf
I know the printer requires a generic text printer driver. That is good news for you. The generic driver ensures asci text is sent a opposed to it being bitmaped.
I also remember there being a dump mode for diagnostics.
Are you sure there is not a RX/TX flow control issue?
Jack
We have finally solved the printing problem!
1. The Zebra uses an odd protocol to select print position, font size etc. This is in their manual. Don't leave any character out or nothing happens. It is totally unforgiving.
2. It uses a standard RS232, 9600, 8 bit, no parity, hardware protocol. No problems here.
3. It won't print anything until you send a label feed command.
4. It doesn't use the CR (ASCII13) character to end each line. It uses the less common LF (ASCII10). If you don’t use LF, nothing happens.
It was the LF command that confounded us and this does not appear to be documented in their manuals.
My recommendation is to avoid Zebra's in your Stamp projects if you can. This applies to the animal as well as the printers. They both appear to be stupid, obtuse, obstinate and quite skittish. The product matches the animal.
Kind regards from Kwa Dukuza
John Bond