Using LV to print to a Weber Barcode Label Printer

[dave2]

Has anyone done anything concerning printing directly to a Weber Barcode Printer or any kind of Barcode Printer?  I would like to have LV set-up so that when a user clicks on print, it sends the information (in whatever format it would need to be in)  to the printer and poof a barcode label.

Thanks

[Dennis_Knutson]

There's a couple of different ways that I've done this to Zebra and Brady printers. One way is to install a bar code font. I got mine from my shipping department but sometimes the fonts are included with the printer. With a bar code font installed, you set a string indicator to use it with the font dialog and then everything written to that indicator is displayed as a bar code. After that you just have to print the front panel. Set the front panel for a white background and color the string housing transparent. Another way I've done it is to create a file with the text surrouned by the printer's special control codes. The Brady printer has control codes for bard code to use, size, etc. When the file is complete, I just use the System Exec function to copy the file to LPT1.

[dave2]

Ok, I think I follow you.  What do you mean by surrounded?  Like concatenated in the proper order?  Ill check with my shipping department and see if they have a barcode font.  I do not have the printer in front of me now, so I might have more questions after I get my hands on one and start testing it out. 

Thanks a lot!

[becktho]

Hi

We use a special barcode-printer software (BarTender from Seagull), to print barcode labels. With this software you can create labels graphically and take the necessary data out of a database. I think there are more possibilities to provide the label with data, but that's the only way we use it.

The software is accessible using ActiveX.

Maybe this is an option for you too.

Thomas

[Brian_Beal]

My best experience has been with Brother P-Touch label makers.  You make a template with their software, then use their COM SDK package(free) to print the labels from Labview.  As far as the user is concerned, Labview is the interface that is used.  Everything else is done behind the scenes.  We are using several of the PT-9500PC models in a prodution environment.  The only limitation I have run into is that they are limited to 1-1/2" wide(or tall) labels.

[dliechti]

I would like to use a TLS2200 Brady printer. Does somebody have some LabVIEW code to interface the printer?
What if I want to write graphics and text- does it work as well in this case, just to make a bitmap in LabVIEW and send it to the printer as a file?
Thanks for any help,
David

[zeb]

Brian Beal wrote:

"My best experience has been with Brother P-Touch label makers.  You make a template with their software, then use their COM SDK package(free) to print the labels from Labview."

I have a Brother PT-9500PC label maker, how exactly did you do this? I can't seem to find the .dll, do you have an example? That would be awesome if you could help out on this, seems like this could take a while...

Thanks,
zeb

[Brian_Beal]

Zeb-

You can find an example I posted here.  The Brother B-PAC SDK can be downloaded from here.  Let me know if you have any questions.