Zebra ZPL help

[murugs]

Hi,

I have a TLP 2844-Z barcode printer which works fine with Zebra
designer, but when I send ZPL commands via a text file, it prints the
actual ZPL command instead of actual barcode. Any ideas what I am doing
wrong?

Here is the content of the text file

^XA^TA0^JSO^LT0^MMT^MNW^MTD^PON^PMN^LH0,0^JMA^PR4,4^MD0^JUS^LRN^CI12^XZ
^EF
^XA^LL0609
^FT48,97^ACN,36,20
^FDLabel for a Zebra 105SL 203dpi^FS
^BY4,3,203^FT226,347^BCN,,Y,N
^FD>;8002283606^FS
^FT272,487^AFN,26,13
^FDData sent in ZPL^FS
^PQ1,0,1,Y^XZ
^EF

Thanks for your help.

- MK

 

[Warren Block]

I have a TLP 2844-Z barcode printer which works fine with Zebra
designer, but when I send ZPL commands via a text file,

You give no detail on how you are sending the text file to the printer,
what operating system, or how the printer is connected.

it prints the actual ZPL command instead of actual barcode. Any ideas
what I am doing wrong?

Usually this is caused by misunderstanding text representations instead
of unprintable control characters. For example, ESC or chr(27) has no
text representation, so an example code might say "ESC A". When
programming, that would not mean the letters E, S, and C, but a single
chr(27).

It might also be caused by software doing some conversions that would be
valid for a text file but are not valid for binary data. In DOS, that's
a reason to give the /b switch to the copy command.

Here is the content of the text file

^XA^TA0^JSO^LT0^MMT^MNW^MTD^PON^PMN^LH0,0^JMA^PR4,4^MD0^JUS^LRN^CI12^XZ
^EF
^XA^LL0609
^FT48,97^ACN,36,20
^FDLabel for a Zebra 105SL 203dpi^FS
^BY4,3,203^FT226,347^BCN,,Y,N
^FD>;8002283606^FS
^FT272,487^AFN,26,13
^FDData sent in ZPL^FS
^PQ1,0,1,Y^XZ
^EF

I tried to look this up on the Zebra web site, but they wanted a
registration before letting me see the programming manual for that
printer. Companies that hide their documentation don't have the best
interests of their customers in mind, and this looks like a reason to
avoid Zebra printers.

If you have a programming manual, check it. Those ^ characters look
suspicious, and may need to be converted to a control character.

 

[murugs]

Thanks Warren.
I am using XP w/sp2 and I figured out by calling Zebra technical
support.
This is what I had to do.

- Add a Generic / Text only printer to the printer list and assign the
same USB port as the zebra printer port.
- Send the text file to this newly created printer

It worked. But I don't know why they don't have this crucial
information in their manual.
Why don't they have an online searchable Knowledge Base?
Very poor effor IMO.

- Murugan