Zebra LP2844 Linux and my headache!

Discussion:

Lee McLain

18 years ago

Hey everyone,

I just got my hands on a Zebra/Eltron LP2844 direct thermal label
printer. I have it connected via USB and I *think* that it comes up at
/dev/usblp0.
I have it set up via the Print Manager and it works just fine *except* I
would like to send straight ASCII to the printer so that I can use the EPL2
printer language. I cannot figure out how to:
1) Make sure that I am addressing the printer at the correct port. How can
I find out what device the printer gets set to?
2) Send ASCII to the printer directly and not through CUPS. I have tried
redirecting output to /dev/usblp0 with no luck. I have used 'lpr -d
printername textfile.txt' and it just printed the textfile(which is an EPL2
textfile) without translation. I then tried 'lpr -l -d printername
textfile.txt' and nothing happens. NOTHING.

SOOooooo...Does anyone have any experience with this printer or does anyone
know what it will take for me to send data directly to it?

Thanks in advance,
Lee
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Brian McKee

18 years ago

Permalink

Post by Lee McLain
Hey everyone,
I just got my hands on a Zebra/Eltron LP2844 direct thermal label
printer. I would like to send straight ASCII to the printer so that I
can use the EPL2 printer language. How can I find out what device the
printer gets set to?
2) Send ASCII to the printer directly and not through CUPS.

Set another copy of the printer up in CUPS using the 'raw' driver. (I
like the web interface for CUPS)
Then CUPS won't interpret what you sent it. This works to send control
codes to PCL printers, so I can't see why it wouldn't work for EPL2.

HTH
Brian
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Lee McLain

18 years ago

Permalink

Ok, I tried that and all that happens is the printer errors out after about
10 seconds.

Is there anyone who has any experience with devices like these? Would I
have better luck attaching the printer via serial or parallel interface and
sending the files that way?

Thanks,
Lee

Message: 2

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NoOp

18 years ago

Permalink

Post by Lee McLain
Ok, I tried that and all that happens is the printer errors out after about
10 seconds.
Is there anyone who has any experience with devices like these? Would I
have better luck attaching the printer via serial or parallel interface and
sending the files that way?
Thanks,
Lee

What driver are you using? According to:
http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/whatsnew.html
Printer Drivers
75. New Drivers; CUPS 1.2 adds Zebra CPCL and EPL label printer drivers

Looks like for ASCII you may need to use the serial or parallel port:
<https://support.zebra.com/OA_HTML/csksxvm.jsp?JServSessionIdrootz03srlweb08a=a49k70tu31.sx0NqR9GrQjwa3vv/BDzmB9v/AbJphDUa3bNqALRnk8Kc64IsAjwqA4ImQXHcxyTb3y-&jttst0=6_50258%2C50258%2C-1%2C0%2C&jtfm0=_0_0_-1_-1_f_nv_&etfm1=&jfn=ZG75D0684B1CFEF5F0A79F3E88AA791EE5574840D09A236A8AE2059B87E4A68021CCB91451FFFB3755234C1DF36912DDCAA8&p03ebs=kaApH7qFPY3bIM0cIDGbKZyJ:S&p03ebs_pses=p03ebs%3DkaApH7qFPY3bIM0cIDGbKZyJ%253AS%7E&oas=XjLUmkgCU4-MoubMnaICFA..&nSetId=16810&nBrowseCategoryId=10115>
====
Zebra Printer driver for UNIX

We currently do not have any software that will support our printers on
a Unix or Unix-like environment.

Here are a couple of suggestions that you may wish to explore...

1. EuroPlus, the makers of the NiceLabel label design program have a
version of the program for Unix. It includes a Unix print queue that can
be used to print from any Unix application to your printer. You can
contact them at www.nicelabel.com

2. There is an open source project for Linux that is developing the
Common Unix Print System, or CUPS. One of the contributors has provided
a significant amount of information about Zebra printers and my
understanding is that the current build (available from www.cups.org)
supports printing to Zebra printers.

Software that will enable you to send ASCII string out one of the
computer's ports (Serial, Parallel and some others) can be used to make
the printer print, but you will need to send the printer's native
command language to the printer. Depending on the model of the printer
this will be either Zebra Printer Language (ZPL), Eltron Printer
Language (EPL), or Comtec Printer Control Language (CPCL). For more
information about Printer control languages review
https://support.zebra.com/cpws/docs/zpl/zpl_manuals.htm for the ZPL
manual; https://support.zebra.com/cpws/docs/eltron/epl2/EPL2_Prog.pdf
for the EPL manual; or
http://www.zebra.com/id/zebra/na/en/documentlibrary/manuals/en/cpcl_programming_language.DownloadFile.File.tmp/PROMAN_P1a.pdf
for the CPCL manual.

The purpose of the driver is to translate a known generic output
language into the printer control language necessary to print the pages.
====

Alex Mauer

18 years ago

Permalink

Post by Lee McLain
2) Send ASCII to the printer directly and not through CUPS. I have
tried redirecting output to /dev/usblp0 with no luck.

I've had no problems using the device file directly to print to a USB
Zebra 110 XiII; I see no reason why it shouldn't work for your printer,
assuming your file is valid. At least for debugging purposes you may
want to try parallel or serial mode as well.

-Alex Mauer "hawke"

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