Printing to the LPT port VS2005 .NET 2.0 1

[zarkon4]

I am trying to send raw data to a label printer,
specifically a ZEBRA 105SL, using Visual Studio 2005.

I have the following code, but it is not working.

Can anyone help?

FileOpen(1, "LPT1", OpenMode.Output)
PrintLine(1, "^XA^MMC^MNN^MTT^PON^PMN^JMA^PR4,4^JUS^CI0^XZ")
PrintLine(1, "^XA")

PrintLine(1, "^LH0,0^LL" & lYLabelLen)

PrintLine(1, "^BY10,3,500^FT550," &lYBarCode& "^B3B,N,,N,N")
PrintLine(1, "^FD" & strLoc & "^FS")
PrintLine(1, "^FO580," & lYText1 & "^A0B250,250")
PrintLine(1, "^FD" & strLoc & "^FS")
PrintLine(1, "^XZ")
FileClose(1)

 

[earthandfire]

Just a thought:

You are sending "^X" etc.

Is this meant to be Ctrl-X etc?

If so then you would need to convert the letters to their alphabetic ordinal values (taking a couple of short lines as an example):

Replace :

[tt] PrintLine(1, "^XA")
PrintLine(1, "^XZ")[/tt]

With:

[tt] PrintLine(1, CHR(ASC(X) - 64)) + "A")
PrintLine(1, CHR(ASC(X) - 64)) + "Z")[/tt]

where
^A = 1
^B = 2
...
...

("A" = 65), (65 - 64 = 1)



Hope this helps.

 

[zarkon4]

Doesn't help. The code does not even get to the PrintLine
portion. It errors on opening LPT with the following error

FileStream will not open Win32 devices such as disk partitions and tape drives. Avoid use of "\\.\" in the path.

 

[earthandfire]

In which case see if this is af any use:

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;EN-US;322090

Hope this helps.

 

[earthandfire]

By the way, although the above is for 2002/2003 it should still be valid for 2005.

 

[chrissie1]

http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/ZebraEPL2Printing.asp

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

"My new site" - Me

 

[zarkon4]

Thank You Chrissie1!

That was the simplest solution.

 

[whloo]

Hi all, i am trying to use Chrissie1 solution but i always hit with the following:

---------------------------------
An unhandled exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in mscorlib.dll

Additional information: Invalid handle.
-----------------------------------

below is my code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
'Create object
Dim print As New Waterfurnace.ZebraPrint

'Print on the computer PC-0556 with printer name VantageT
' this is where i got the problem. any issue with my command?
print.StartWrite("\\57.33.94.74\\57.33.94.111")

'Do this because the zebra manual says so
print.Write("")
print.Write("N")

'Write Text
print.Write("A30,90,0,4,1,1,N,""" & Me.TextBox1.Text & """")

'Write bar code
print.Write("B30,20,0,1,2,5,50,N,""" & TextBox2.Text & """")

'Print a single copy
print.Write("P1")

'Clean up
print.EndWrite()

End Sub

 

[chrissie1]

print.StartWrite("\\57.33.94.74\\57.33.94.111")

Why does it have two IP addresses?

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

"My new site" - Me

 

[whloo]

57.33.94.74 is my print server address.
57.33.94.111 is my printer ip.

 

[chrissie1]

that can't be right.

What name do you give if you want to print to it directly from windows?

What is the printer share name?

it is most likely something like this.

print.StartWrite("\\57.33.94.74\printersharename")


Christiaan Baes
Belgium

"My new site" - Me

 

[whloo]

i just changed it to print.StartWrite("\\57.33.94.74\ZebraZ4M") but it still giving me the problem
sorry for the trouble... i am a novice in all these. really appreciate ur help.

 

[woyler]

If you are trying to print to a networked Zebra printer, you need to create it as a shared printer from a server or add a DNS entry in for it.

 

[chrissie1]

print.StartWrite("\\57.33.94.74\\ZebraZ4M")

is what I tried and it works without a problem.

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

"My new site" - Me

 

[whloo]

not sure why it doesn't work for me