How Do I Begin Programming LabWindows/CVI To Use A Zebra 170XiIII Label Printer?

[TonyJ]

Group,

Well I got the LabWindows/CVI and TestStand training. I have a PXI chassis and a Zebra 170XiIII label printer. Where do I begin? I seem so overwhelmed. Where does one begin, the NI instructor races through his examples at a blistering pace and then he's gone. Point me in the right direction.

Tony

[Jeremy_L]

Hi Tony,

Depending on what you have for the printer, you can do a variety of things - If there's a driver (dll) for the printer available, you can call the functions for the dll in your CVI application. You can also try VISA if it's a USB printer, or even do low level commands like inp and outp if it's a LPT Printer. I would suggest searching our website for knowledgebase entries and other discussion forum posts on CVI and printers. Just go to ni.com/support, and search the knowledgebase, forums, or example code for "cvi" and "printer". See what comes up!

[RobertoBozzolo]

ZEBRA printers have an easy way for programming the label to print. I have used it for a ZPM4+ printer but the documentation states this procedure is valid for all Zebra printers.

Basically, the printer breaks down the label into two parts: fixed items and variable items. These two parts are sent to the printer separately, so the communication is reduced to the minimum (fixed parts are sent only once and variable parts every time you need a label to be printed).

Fixed parts are built into a text file with .ZPF extension, while variable items are built into a .ZPV file. With a tool supplied with the printer (BarOne) you are able to build your label graphically, and this tool produces the two files with fixed parts and sample variable parts (but with some effort and a lot of error-and-correct attempts you could build ZPV and ZPV files from scratch...).

The .ZPF file can be sent directly to the printer, while you will need to create your own .ZPV file based on the structure of the sample one.

Attached a document from Zebra that explains all this procedure.

[John Nordling]

My advice (such as it is) is to start by determining exactly what you want to do with the label printer. Then, build the GUI and start putting together the code from there.

Bear in mind that I'm not a programmer, I'm just a chemist who is also a control freak (thus I tend to prefer LabWindows over LabView).

-John