Buy a label printer

[govindsankar]

Hello,

We are planning to buy a new label printer. My company has decided to buy Zebra printer ZD621 with a USB connection and my PC has windows 10 connection. And I remember that for windows 10 labview connection with USB needs a signed certificate. And I had problems in the past getting appropriate help from Zebra. But that time we updated from Windows 7 to Windows 10 on an existing working system and that was the problem, but now this is a different system with a different PC and a new printer.  So I want to ask, is it possible to buy the signed certificate from them for the driver along with the zebra printer or should I go for some other label printer. Incase it is another printer can anyone recommend a label printer that works easily with LabVIEW. Thank you. 

[aputman · Accepted solution]

What do you mean by "needs a signed certificate"?  I'm using a Zebra printer via USB in Win10 with LabVIEW and I don't have a clue what you mean. Follow this link for the method I use to print labels.  I see no reason why this shouldn't work with almost any printer.

[AeroSoul]

The signed certificate is needed for driver installation (from what i gathered from other posts on this forum).

To communicate with the printer via USB, just plug it in and send it commands with VISA.

Edit:

Knowledgebase article for different Zebra printer

Discussion on Zebra printer commands

[govindsankar]

@aputman. Thank you for your reply. In the link you posted it does mention about the signed certificate. Because without the signed certificate NI Max will not detect the instrument and we cannot communicate with it using LabVIEW. So your solution : 

Using the System EXEC VI, you can copy the temporary file to the printer using the printer share name.

cmd /c copy %filename% \\%computername%\%printershare%

So my send this line to the command line of system exec.VI we can run the printer. But I didnt understand how I do send ZPL commands. So using labview I save the ZPL command as a temporary file, - like in a .text file ? But then how do I send it to the printer. This part I am not sure. 

How I programmed the Zebra printer was by sending the ZPL commands using VISA write. But when windows was upgraged from 7 to 10 then VISA was not detecting Zebra and so didnt NI MAX. Then upon research I came up with this https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA03q000000x1qzCAA&l=de-DE

Here it explains I need a signed certificate for connecting with USB raw instruments. So this is the problem. 

[govindsankar]

@AeroSoul. Just plugging in, NI visa will not detect the printer because it is not a USB Test and Measurement Class device. It is a USB raw instrument. So for that we need to create the driver using NI Visa driver wizard and create an INF file and then install the file. But this is only possible in windows 7. For windows 10 we need a signed certificate to install the INF file. And last time I tried to get it, I didnt get it because I didnt get the support from Zebra. So I dont want to have the same problem again. So i hope to find a different solution or a different printer that doesnt use USB. Thank you.

[aputman]

AeroSoul posted the link about signed certificate.  I was not aware that was a thing.  Maybe that's why I have always used the System EXEC VI. 

Spoiler

; Set label height and gap height
Q101,24
; Disable double buffer mode
rN
; Set print speed and darkness
S4
D15
; Set reference point from left edge of print head
R268,6
; Set print direction
ZB
O

N
A20,3,0,4,1,1,N,"%Field%"
A205,3,0,1,1,1,N,"%datecode%"
A20,30,0,1,1,1,N,"PART#:%pn1%"
A20,50,0,1,1,1,N,"PART#:%pn2%"
A20,70,0,1,1,1,N,"SERIAL#:%serial%"
%FormBack%
P1

I create a label template with all of the ZPL/EPL code in it, using tokens for the variable fields that need to be filled in. 

In your application, read in this text file, replace the tokens, write it as a text file into a temporary directory and then call the command to send the text file to the printer.

cmd /c copy label.txt \\%computername%\%printershare%

You have to make sure the printer is shared and given a share name (in printer properties -> "Sharing" tab.

[govindsankar]

label.txt is the text file with ZPL commands?

[aputman]

---

@govindsankar wrote:

label.txt is the text file with ZPL commands?

---

Yes.

[Yamaeda]

I installed a Zebra just the other week, and it didn't register as a printer, but as a Com-port. From LV that's easier to write to. 🙂

(In our case we used the USB to set the IP and then communicated that way)

[govindsankar]

Thank you @aputman. 

To others, as a back up if anyone can recommend good label printers that you have worked with in the past using labview kindly let me know. So that I have multiple options to choose from. Its my responsibility to propose the label printer to buy which then I have to program using labview. So if i propose a wrong one and later i tell my company i cannot say i cant program using labview. Thank you.