ZEBRA LP 2844 EPL VISA RAW USB
Hello My name is Joe. This is my first Post ever. Don’t blow me up.
I have a Zebra LP 2844 Label printer that connects to some very old scales. The scales need to be setup in Line Mode (EPL I) and have a one time only EPL Setup string that is sent to them. The vendor who installed the system jumpered out the power switch, removed the power connection from the inside of the printer, and soldered the power supply output directly to the printer. They followed up by connecting the Power Supply to a UPS. We have about 50 of these printers. When they lose power you have to remove the serial cable, plug in a XP PC, and Hyper Terminal in to send the following one time only commands (OR ON POWER LOSS).
OEPL1
(ALT CODE 027)N5
(ALT CODE 027)M30
To make a long story short I spent two days reading through several threads about using Libusb-win32 and Labview to communicate raw to the printer as well as a VISA method. I wanted a way to Program these printers without having to use the Serial Port. After two days of reading I learned a lot, but no solution. I came up with the attached program. It will allow you to send raw setup commands to the printer, It also allows you to send raw EPLII code through the Test Text Box. I noticed alot of people used these printer or the LP 2844Z and thought I would post the program. If this was the incorrect way to go about this I apologize, Please don’t blow me up.
Here is brief description of the steps involved.
NI VISA Driver Wizard will not create a driver for this particular printer because it uses USB 1.0 and not USB 1.1 or higher.
In the wizard Device List find the printer. Copy the Vendor ID and Product ID. You can try click next but if it does not work choose other.
Under the Device List Select Other . Type in the Vendor and Product ID's and then click next to generate the drivers.
Install the drivers by selecting your device in the Device Manager, Righ Click Properties > Driver Tab > Update Driver > Browse > Let Me Pick > Have Disk > Browse to your driver. I tested the program in both XP and WIN7 That’s about it.
Check out the program it is basically VISA OPEN --> VISA WRITE --> VISA CLOSE
Some of the commands I could not get to work so I used the Zebra setup utility to send them to the printer while the printer was installed using the certified Zebra drivers.
I went into printer properties Devices and Printers --> Zebra Printer ---> Right Click ---> Printer Properties > Advanced Tab > Check Keep Printed Documents
then I went to C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers and copied the SPL file. I used VISA Write From File Block to Raw write the SPL file and it worked well I didn't change the extension or anything. Anyways hope this helps any LP 2844 \ Labview Users.
Written in LABVIEW 2013