topic Re: Re : Re: Labview driven USB Label printer in LabVIEW

Labview driven USB Label printer

HaemoPhil — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:25:56 GMT

Dear Labview user,

I'm looking to implement a USB Label printer into my Labview application, this printer should print out some parameters that where used in the running application.
Does someone of you know if there exemple exist for such USB communication system or did some one already experienced USB communication with Labview and a third part device like a printer.

Thanks in advance

Regards

HaemoPhil

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

rolfk — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 08:05:33 GMT

@HaemoPhil wrote:
Dear Labview user,

I'm looking to implement a USB Label printer into my Labview application, this printer should print out some parameters that where used in the running application.
Does someone of you know if there exemple exist for such USB communication system or did some one already experienced USB communication with Labview and a third part device like a printer.

Unfortunately USB is not just another communication interface with an according API to program like you are used with serial or GPIB. USB is just the lowest level of the electrical specification and protocol for an interface and the actual data transfer is then managed in a differnt protocol level that is highly device specific.

VISA does allow to communicate with USB devices on raw level which means you have to implement the higher level protocol yourself. But without the exact protocol specification used by the device you can't do that and many devices especially in the consumer area do not really specify the exact protocol they use or use one of the predefined protocol classes all modern OS do already have some protocol support for.

As such it is difficult to give a generic advice that would fit all USB devices. Printers I would expect to be handled by the Windows printer manager and should be accessed through the standard Windows printer interface. Label Printers are somewhat special as they do not fit well into the page oritented printing system Windows and most other OS's are using so they usually have their own application that controls them. This application accesses the label printer usually over a proprietary protocol interface. While the protocol itself is almost never disclosed the interface API sometimes is and that can be either a DLL interface or an Active X Automation Server interface (and newer versions probably .Net).

Depending on what interface is provided AND documented you will either have to use the Call Library Node to access the interface API DLL or the Active X (or .Net) functions to get the according interface running. Trying to talk to the device on USB raw is no option IMHO eventhough the protocol may be documented (which is highly unlikely).

Rolf Kalbermatter

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

Brian_Beal — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 18:47:59 GMT

I have used the Brother PT-9500DX with Labview and USB. Brother has an SDK, called B-PAK, that uses com objects to control the printer.

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

HaemoPhil — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:24:21 GMT

Brian,

Thanks for information, the Brother SDK looks much more complete as the one we where looking for from Seiko...

Would it be possible for you to send me an example of your Labview implementation as I am really new and not familiar in such programing methodes...

Thanks in advance...

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

Brian_Beal — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 10:58:48 GMT

Here is an example. You need to create a label template using the regular Brother software. You can then run your Labview program to change the data in the template, and print your label.

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

HaemoPhil — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:15:55 GMT

Brian,

Thanks a lot that's exactly what I need for my application...

Regards

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

JB — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 13:42:08 GMT

We use different label printers from Citizen. We have developped a driver for the serial port and for USB.

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

zeb — Tue, 29 May 2007 17:14:42 GMT

Awesome Brian, that code worked perfectly. How did you know to use that DLL? I found it at C:\Program Files\Brother bPAC SDK\Samples\VBNET\bin\Interop.BrssCom.dll. Also, how did you redistribute this, just printer drivers and this DLL or did you somehow use their redist files?

Thanks again,
zeb

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

Brian_Beal — Tue, 29 May 2007 21:28:50 GMT

The details are a little foggy, but I think I just followed the instructions that came with the SDK download. They were geared towards VB, but the made sense for Labview. I don't know if I ever had to redistribute these. You will probably need to install both the driver and SDK on a target machine.

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

ssilk — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:50:11 GMT

I use Zebra TLP-3844-Z's (usb interface) with great results, I just load them on as the windows default printer then use the easy text report vi to pump the text data to my default windows printer. I have about 15 of these running in a production environment printing anywhere from 60 labels per hour to 300 labels per hour. The only fallback is the fact that you rely on windows to get your label there in a timely manner which depending on your program load on the cpu could cause some lag in the print.

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

Oldi — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:43:16 GMT

I have Zebra TLP3844-Z on USB and with easy text report I always get error "Invalid printer name" even with the Default printer name found with Query available printers.

I want to print barcode label define with zpl .txt file and DOS print command to printer on LPT port work great, but I must use 2 printers and target PC haven’t any LPT port.

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

MeghanK — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:58:52 GMT

The error that you are receiving might have to do with the margins that you have set. Please see this article for more details on troubleshooting this error, thanks!

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

Oldi — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:03:09 GMT

Problem is that I must send only data, nothing elese, no margins, page format... nothing and these is a problem, how to do that in Windows. With DOS Print file command these can be done, but only if printer is on LPT1.

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

ssilk — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:23:00 GMT

If you are using the TLP-3844 then you also have the serial port option. I am now up to about 35 of these and all of them so far have all three communication options (RS-232, USB, LPT) standard. You should be able to use the included software with the printer to layout your barcode and then serially send your text. Zebra has very good serial suppport and I think it should work for you, although it is definitely harder than lpt or usb default printing. and if you have to go USB then go with a USB to serial converter.

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

Gelb — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:21:10 GMT

Hi JB,

Will you be able to share your driver and use with a Citizen printer.

I am to use a CBM1000 USB printer. Thank you.

Re : Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

JB — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:57:36 GMT

Hi Gelb,

There is a lot of work and knowledge behind this driver and therefore I'm not willing to share it on this forum. Please give me your email so I can contact you privately.

Have a nice day

PS : Gelb --> do you speak german ?

Re: Re : Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

Gelb — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:13:09 GMT

Hi JB,

Ja ich spreche ein bischen deutsch aber nicht gut. Spricht du aus?

Mine email is gelbvonn@yahoo.com

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Cheers,

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

Coq_Rouge — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:01:45 GMT

On of my customer has made a request for label printing with barcode. I have done some research and came over this free tool for making barcodes in Labview. http://code.google.com/p/lvbarcode/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/lvbarcode. Using this and a label printer it should not be to hard to make a small frontpanel and print it via standard printer driver. I know the Dymo label printer behaves like a standard printer. So the task is only to fit the fontpanel size to the label. As for now my project is put on hold. But maybe someone in this forum can use this information

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

lmontoya — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:58:17 GMT

Do you make this Driver? is ease to do it in serial or parallel port but in my case I need it in USB because I have 3 test station with two printers each.

Any Idea?

thank you

Re: Labview driven USB Label printer

rolfk — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:13:17 GMT

lmontoya wrote:
Do you make this Driver? is ease to do it in serial or parallel port but in my case I need it in USB because I have 3 test station with two printers each.

Any Idea?
thank you

Which driver of the about 5 discussed in this thread do you mean?

Rolf Kalbermatter