Below is a snippet of code we used with a Zebra BarCode printer. The BarCode was printing great (OI 4.0??). Recently, we tried printing (OI 4.11) and now the BarCode printer isn't printing (Yikes!). I know that the Print Command works okay. It's possible that something with the BarCode could be out of whack, however, the test print on it is fine. Nevetheless with all this chatter regarding Unicode, Ansi (??), etc. Could the implementation of it now be interfering with the code that we are sending the BarCode printer. I'm asking because of ignorance and at the moment I can't think of anything else (literally).

* Below Code to BarCode Printer Printer On PRINT '^XA^FO100,75^BY3' PRINT '^FO20,10^AD':Font:'^FD':PT_Name:'DOB: ':PT_DOB:'^FS' PRINT '^FO20,50^AD':Font:'^FDSSN: ':PT_SSN:'^FS' PRINT '^FO20,90^B3N,N,100,Y,N' PRINT '^FD':PatID:'^XZ' Printer Off End Code to BarCode Printer ***

Was working great and now it ain't ;-(

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Ray Chan

Ray,

Try running OI with the /ANSI switch and see if that effects it.

Pat

Pat

Try running OI with the /ANSI switch and see if that effects it.

Unfortunately, the /ANSI switch didn't help. I can see the Zebra BarCode Printer light flicker as the program hits the "Printer Off" command (so I know the connection is good).

Any other suggestion if this is caused by some change made in OI. I'm planning on calling the BarCode printer tech support on Monday. However, if the problem isn't caused by the Printer then I don't expect them to offer any help. But on the chance that you (or someone) may know what may cause this printer to no longer work when it was working recently it would save me call .

Thanks much,

Ray

P.S. Also sorry for the jumbled codes. The lines got all concatenated after I submitted.

You mentioned something about a test you did.

Do you have a program running on your pc which drives the printer? If you do have a program which creates the codes correctly from the pc then that would show that the pc/software/barcode printer combo does work.

dsig@sigafoos.org.com onmouseover=window.status=the new revelation technology .. a refreshing change;return(true)"

David Tod Sigafoos ~ SigSolutions

Phone: 503-639-4240

OS: Win2k sp2 (5.00.2195)

OI: 4.1

Hello David,

Do you have a program running on your pc which drives the printer?

Yes our OI Basic+ BarCode program. It did work. If I mentioned "test" program, I was referring to the BarCode printer self-test program. That works fine which I guess proves that the printer is mechanically sound.

As I said earlier when I send the "printer off" command, I see the light on the printer flickers (like before). Now however, it just doesn't print. I might mention that the printer is a serial printer that is connected to a workstation. Don't know if that provides any other clues. Meanwhile, we are pondering HARD on this.

I think I need some beverage

Thanks,

Ray

Ray,

If I had that problem, the next thing I would try is to set that printer to print to a file rather than the printer. Thru windows, using the printer "properties", set the printer to print to a file.

Run your program and then edit the file. Check to see if there are any extra characters in the barcode coding.

Next, I would try actually creating a file (not using OI) with the characters that you normally would send to the printer. Then copy the file to the printer. That should eliminate either OI or the Printer.

One thing that I did not read about, was if you changed anything on the computer. Like upgrade windows? Or even install a printer driver? If you can, maybe try it on another computer (another brand computer) too.

Richard (and Pat),

Appreciate your response. Your helpful suggestings got me thinking and working. Thanks.

One thing that I did not read about, was if you changed anything on the computer. Like upgrade windows? Or even install a printer driver? If you can, maybe try it on another computer (another brand computer) too.

Let me answer this first. Yes we did try this on different PCs with W2K using SP2 and W2k using SP3.

Run your program and then edit the file. Check to see if there are any extra characters in the barcode coding.

Okay when we ran this thru OI we could see extraneous characters in Notepad (little blocks). Manually stripped them out with no affect on printing when I drag the file to the barcode printer.

Next, I would try actually creating a file (not using OI) with the characters that you normally would send to the printer. Then copy the file to the printer. That should eliminate either OI or the Printer.

Good idea. I then copied our OI code into AREV and pdisk the result. When I dragged the text file to the printer, it PRINTED!

I then compared the difference between the AREV generated file from the OI generated file. BINGO!

OI was stripping away the leading character "^" (5E hex or 94 decimal) preceding the first format command. For example, our print command might be:

Print '^XA^F0100,75^BY3'

In OI, the output would be XA^F0100,75^BY3

In AREV, the output would be ^XA^F0100,75^BY3

After some experimentation, we found that if we use the QUOTE function (or enclose the command in another set of 'quotes', then the printer will print as it had before, e.g.,

Print Quote('^XA^F0100,75^BY3').

Pat,

My only concern now is that this may be a bug (not saying that it is) and if it is a bug and it is fixed will the fix then make our current solution not work. If it's not a bug, then we can just leave things as they are. Also as I mentioned the /ANSI switch had no impact on our printing.

Thanks again,

Ray Chan

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