Communicating with Zebra printer

[jack1]

I have been using the attached vi for several years without any problems on windows XP computers but it no longer functions on the windows 7 computers that I have tried to use it on with 'printer not found' message.

The printer is ZTC LP2844-Z 200dpi which is set up in windows as default printer, so in the vi the printer is not specified. This arrangement worked for XP but although in Windows 7 I can print out using the printer 'test' function it does not work in Labview.

I have read other posts and solutions using the Zebra progarm code but the application I am using just uses text files hence use of report generator so would have thought it would function as a basic printer?

[andres.vargas]

Unfortunately Zebra lists the Service & Support Discontinuation Date for the LP2844-Z as September 2, 2014. This might mean that they would refuse to help with this query but  I would try it anyway since they are likely to be able to help.

Do you know which version of the Zebra driver you are using and if it supports Windows 7? Learning this will likely lead you to a fix by setting your computer up with the right drivers.

If you know what commands the printer expects from your computer, how it is supposed to be connected and what communication protocol it uses then you will be able to generate those commands from LabVIEW and send them to your printer.

Has this ever worked on a Windows 7 computer?

Are you sure your printer and its driver support this version of Windows?

Does this Report Toolkit match your current version of LabVIEW? And did you install it after LabVIEW itself?

What is your end goal here?

[jack1]

Unfortunatly I could not get it to work on any of the windows 7 PC's we use here for development only the windows XP ones.

After another search on the forum I found a solution where the ZPL commands are used and I cannot find the link to this guys work now!!

Basically what he explained was to create a label of the size and text required using Zebra Designer which is a free download. Then save this as a file using the PRN extension in Designer. This gives a text file and the various ZPL commands to communicate with printer and format its output. By using dummy data where I wanted results printed inspection of the code showed where to 'split it up' and then using text boxes and concaternate strings function rebuilt the code so it coul dbe exectuted in Labview. I have attache an image of code that I am using, looks messy but it works.

The next step was to use NI Visa Driver Wizard to identify the zebra USB printer which was already plugged in with its Zebra windows drivers installed. Using the wizard you get the product ID and vendor ID for the printer and can let then the wizard create a driver for you.

If its all gone correctly you should now be able to see the Zebra USB printer in NI MAX. Final step is to paste the identification that MAX uses to find the printer with Visa vi's. In my case it is

USB0::0x0A5F::0x0027::46A074100815::RAW

But this will change on the printer serial number etc.

I will try and find the link for the guy who wrote this all out and add it to my post for others to reference.

Final thing I still do not understand though is why it was a lot simpler in XP with report generator but now have to use ZPL etc?

[andres.vargas]

Hey I am glad you managed to solve this!

Thank you for sharing how you got there, it makes the thread more relevant for others who might come by.

Have a nice day!

[DNgineer87]

Thanks for the helpful information.  I was able to follow your suggestion to create a txt label file in LV that the Zebra ZT230 will print.

However, . . . windows 10 would not allow installation of the device driver created by NI-VISA because it did not have a digital signature.  At the moment, this is a huge issue for me since I do not have a certification to "sign" drivers.

Jack,

How did you get the driver to install?  Do you have a digital signature?

I tried entering all the required information according to NI help for USB RAW, but always get the error "Insufficient location information or the device or resource is not present in the system."  A search of the error code did not yield any helpful information.

Does anyone know a work-around for the "VISA resource name" input into the "visa open?"

[jack1]

At the moment all of our cllients are running Windows 7 pro and with no digital siganture required there has been no problems with using the creation tool with NI Visa, so no idea about Windows 10 I am afraid .

That said though it will become a problem in the future because a couple of our customers are thinking about moving to Windows 10 so glad you have highlighted it and hope there is a solution out there...........

Looks like a move to Linux might be the way to go .............

Jack