woodycm has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello all,

First question asked, so please bear with me...

I am using Win32::SerialPort to communicate (ie print) with a PAXAR 9855 printer. I can poll the printer status using Windows Terminal and PAXAR's own gui tool, but cannot get a response from my perl program (attached below). The print part works fine, it's the read that doesn't work. Actually when SerialPort.pm runs, the got_p scalar, which is where I believe the response from the device is populated, is blank (as in null/nothing).

Any help in pointing me to where I have gone wrong, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
#!c:\perl\bin\perl
require 5.002;
use Win32;
use Win32::SerialPort;
use Win32::API;

$SerialPort = "COM1";
$ENQ = "^E";

$Port = Win32::SerialPort->new($SerialPort);
$Port->baudrate(9600)           || die "failed setting baudrate";
$Port->parity("none")           || die "failed setting parity";
$Port->databits(8)              || die "failed setting databits";
$Port->stopbits(1)              || die "failed setting databits";
$Port->handshake("xoff")        || die "failed setting handshake";
$flowcontrol = $Port->handshake || die "failed setting flowcontrol";

$Port->user_msg(1);
$Port->error_msg(1);
$Port->debug(1);

$Port->write_settings    || die "no settings";

#Write Immediate command to allow for Polling.
print "Send Immediate Command\n";
$Port->write('{I,E,"~123~044~034~124~125~126~094"|}');

#Print Label
$record_to_print = '';
$record_to_print = $record_to_print.'{F,26,A,R,E,600,400,"FMT26"|';
$record_to_print = $record_to_print.'C,400,50,0,50,16,16,O,L,0,0,"CART
+ON",0|}';
$record_to_print = $record_to_print.'{B,26,N,1|}';
$Port->write($record_to_print);
sleep 2;

#Read from Printer
undef $msg;
($count, $msg) = $Port->read(4); # Read string 1
$code1 = substr($msg,1,1);
$code2 = substr($msg,2,1);
print "DATA = $msg | COUNT = $count\n";
print "CODE1 = $code1\n";
print "CODE2 = $code2\n";
sleep 2;

#Print ENQ to poll printer
$Port->write("^E");

#Read from Printer
undef $msg;
$msg = $Port->read(3); # Read string 1
$code1 = substr($msg,1,1);
$code2 = substr($msg,2,1);
print "DATA = $msg\n";
print "CODE1 = $code1\n";
print "CODE2 = $code2\n";
exit;

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: No response from printer using Win32::SerialPort
by grep (Monsignor) on Oct 10, 2006 at 17:43 UTC
    I don't understand Win32::SerialPort but I know serial printers.

    What languages does the printer use (I'm guessing Barcode printer)? (proprietary, ESC/P2, ...) - If it's proprietary can you post what the stings are and what they're supposed to do?

    Are you supposed to sending '~' as part of the printer language? Most languages use ESC (\e or \x1B) to begin a command string.

    Sorry if I am missing something Win32::SerialPort does with ~ in the background.



    grep
    One dead unjugged rabbit fish later
[reply]
      I'm using PAXAR's proprietary language, I think they call it PCL or NCL.

      The string that includes the ~ character
      $Port->write('{I,E,"~123~044~034~124~125~126~094"|}');

      [download]
      is exactly what the PAXAR printer is expecting (copied directly from their user manual)to turn on what they call "Immediate Commands". The Immediate Commands allow for the "^E" (this is the polling character) to post an empty "write" to the port, which then puts the printer status on the port to be read.

      I don't think Win32::SerialPort does anything with the ~. As far as I can tell it just treats the entire string (including the ~) as a string.

      The following lines of code are more examples of the PCL and are to just simply print the word CARTON on a label.
      $record_to_print = $record_to_print.'{F,26,A,R,E,600,400,"FMT26"|';
$record_to_print = $record_to_print.'C,400,50,0,50,16,16,O,L,0,0,"CART
+ON",0|}';
$record_to_print = $record_to_print.'{B,26,N,1|}';

      [download]
      Thanks for your reply and your time...
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        One thing - I'm pretty sure '^E' shouldn't be the literal string 'caret' and 'cap E'. The caret is usally used in printer code to denote a control code. In this case \x05 or ENQ.

        From the manual it's actually not PCL - it's MPCL. It also does explain that '~' is used by the printer for decimal ascii codes - so that seems ok. I'm guessing the big problem is the Ctrl Codes. You can get more info here.



        grep
        One dead unjugged rabbit fish later
[reply]

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