I am sending images of the labels I want printed, one at a time, to a ZD421.
After around 100 were printed what was supposed to be a single label ended up being a stream of zeroes, with "30" under each, spread over several labels.
Print result
Close up
The image sent was of a barcode with various related info in text around it.
Expected result
The ZPL sent for the labels looks like the following and the socket is closed after each is sent.
~DGR:label,40804,101,000...000(81608 characters of data)
^XA
^PON
^LH0,0
^LS0
^LL404
^PW808
^FO0,0
^XGR:label,1,1
^FS
^XZ
Restarting the printer fixed the problem and repeating the request printed the expected label.
My assumption was that reusing the name, "label", would overwrite previously sent graphics and there would be no memory management required. Is there something I should be sending to clean up after recalling the graphic?
Related
We have a web app that batches the ZPL for many shipping labels (UPS, USPS, FedEx) at a time. For some reason it will randomly mis-print where is just prints the barcodes, but nothing else. This usually only starts after about label 20 or so in the batch, and even then, it is not consistent in the labels after that. Sometimes it does it, sometimes it doesn't. It is consistent in that it does it to the USPS labels and not UPS or FedEx.
If we reprint just that label's zpl, it prints fine.
So I was wondering if there is some limit we're running into with batching. We send just one long zpl string for the entire batch, each label separated with ^XA....^XZ.
The printer is a GX420T.
Any ideas?
Example mis-print - I drew black lines on the barcodes to make them not readable for privacy
The following ZPL code when sent to a Zebra GX-420D printer with 2"x2" labeld loaded, does 2 very strange things:
Skips the first 2 labels and only prints on the 3rd one
Repeat this (2 blank labels + one with content) one more time, after a short delay.
So in total it uses 6 labels, and the content is only on the 3rd and 6th one.
Here's the code:
^XA
^FX Test for long barcode
^BY1,2,50
^FO20,10^BC^FD>6UIQ-2013P-MR-BU^FS
^XZ
Is there anything in the above code that would cause this phenomenon?
^FS at the end of a commented text is optional.
From ZPL II manual :
The ^FS command denotes the end of the field definition.
Alternatively, ^FS command can also be issued as a single ASCII control code SI (Control-O, hexadecimal 0F).
I eventually figured it out. I was trying to remotely fix this, not having a direct access to the printer and not seeing what it printed and how. But eventually I got access to a printer and then it didn't take long to fix.
It seems that there were some defaults or setting left over from the previous print jobs that cause the problem. I added some resetting of values in front of the printing and after that it properly printed out just one label.
And yes, the ^FS was not needed at the end of the comment with ^FX.
Here is the code that printed out the same thing correctly (there might be some unnecessary commands but this one worked so I left it at that):
^XA~TA000~JSN^MNW^PON^PMN^LH0,000~SD15^XZ
^XA^JUS^XZ
^XA
^MMT
^PW0355
^LL0305
^FX Test for long barcode
^BY1,2,50
^FO20,10^BC^FD>6UIQ-2013P-MR-BU^FS
^XZ
I am working on a set of ZPL validation routines which parse arbitrary ZPL files, sanitize them, edit certain key commands (label length, print speeds, etc), and extract some useful information.
Since this printer is generating labels for a free-running shipping line I really need to know how long it's going to take from the moment I send the ZPL file to the printer until I'll be ready to apply the label. It is clear that the print time is directly linked to the label length and print speeds, but the label render time (conversion of ZPL into ready to print image in printer memory) is less obvious.
Since I'm printing label contents provided by numerous third parties, I can't simply measure the time for the labels. I've asked Zebra and gotten no guidance, so I'm wondering if anyone has an idea of how to estimate the render time? Am I stuck trying to estimate the processing time of every individual ZPL command?
My experience over the last couple of years working with differnt zebra printers (Z4M, ZM400, GK420t) is, that the label that is send to the printer is printed almost instantaneously.
I print a text using ZPL but they are printed incorrectly. It has gaps in the middle. They are printed correctly to the real printer via the ZebraDesigner. But they are wrong when printing via ZPL:
^FT246,70^A0R,16,16
^FB900,2,,
^FDMaisstaerke, Austernuce, Cashewnuss,Pilz, Mais, Lattich, Pack Choi,Sojasprossen^FS
It is printed as 'Maisstaerke, Austernuce, Cashewnuss,Pilz, Mais, Lattich, Pack Choi, Sojasprossen'
(there is a big gap after 'Mais,').
http://screencast.com/t/sTiaxC3cMg
http://screencast.com/t/0QkypnsPyF89
Please help.
Thanks
I'm unable to reproduce the issue, but the field block width seems rather large; you didn't specify any label dimensions in the original post. If you use the following code--a combination from the original post and your comments:
^XA
^PW560
^LL560
^LS0
^FO246,70^GB28,300,,^FS
^FT246,70^A0R,16,16 ^FB300,2,, ^FDMaisstaerke, Austernuce, Cashewnuss,Pilz, Mais, Lattich, Pack Choi,Sojasprossen^FS
^PQ1,0,1,Y
^XZ
I can reproduce what is possibly the issue--the field block automatic word wrapping--by reducing the field block width to 300 dots.
I also drew a box around the block for visualization. You can test in on the Labelary Viewer.
Finally, if you're somehow composing the data make sure there are no special (non printable, such as tab, non-UTF-8 or accented) characters in it, and if so, you will have to pre-escape them.
We are designing a label to be printed from SAP to an Intermec PM4i printer in ZSim mode. The printer is using the Generic Text driver, meaning that we can send raw ZSim-compatible ZPL code to the printer.
The content of the PDF417 barcode must be one string exactly 100 characters in length. This is my customer's requirement, not mine.
We developed an application that generates the proper ZPL code with all the characters in their proper position. However, when validating the printed barcode with a scanner using Motorola's 123Scan2 utility, all our data is there but we keep getting 6 additional spaces at around position 70 of the string, resulting in a string 106 characters long.
We also sent the ZPL code to the printer from a text editor and observed the same results. Below code snippet is what we are using to generate the barcode.
^XA
^MMT
^PW609
^LL0203
^BY2,4^FT331,111^B7N,4,0,,,N
^FH\^FDMN23012635105 A MN239598U205 QDR-032565.14812 H030^FS
^XZ
I have also experimented with sending the spaces as hex and that actually resulted in more extra spaces.
I am not sure what we are missing. Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.