in reply to No response from printer using Win32::SerialPort

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
  • Comment on Re: No response from printer using Win32::SerialPort

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: No response from printer using Win32::SerialPort
by woodycm (Initiate) on Oct 10, 2006 at 18:05 UTC
    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]
        The ~094 part of the Immediate Command sets the control code used for processing as the ^. I've spoken to PAXAR's support staff and have seen this in other scripts as well. At one point, before a reboot, I was getting intermitten responses from the printer using the same control codes. So, no, it's not the control code. I was not getting responses from the printer 100% of the time, but more like 1/3 of the time. Since the printer reboot, I can talk to it, but it won't reply. I've gone through every setup procedure that they have suggested and still nothing.
        Thanks
[reply]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom