Sending PCL from Mainframe application

[Sapguy]

I am trying to send a PCL command (any at the moment) from within a mainframe application to an NT network connected printer (HP4050). This is needed to switch fonts for one field in a document and then switch back to the default for the printer.
I think I have the correct sequence of codes to, in this example, switch to BOLD for the whole document. Here is what I send 1B 28 73 33 42 which I think should be: <esc> (s3B .
However, when the document gets to the printer, it prints in the default font and prints a square and an f in the first two positions of the line and offsets the rest of the line by two positions.
This is my first exposure to the wonderful world of PCL as I'm really a mainframe programmer, but we really need to make this work.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[UncleRick]

If you can get the spool file on the NT machine(just before it goes to the printer) and post the begginning of the file(to the begginning of the data to be printed). We could probably help. There are a number of different things it could be and there is no point in speculating.

Have fun,

 

[Sapguy]

Sorry to be such a newbie, but I really am a mainframe guy! Where can I see the data in the NT queue. We have paused printing for the printer and have a n example waiting, but where in NT is it.

 

[Sapguy]

Found it! The first line of the printout looks like this

ƒGb b bbb REPRINT GE b

Don't know if that's any help.

 

[UncleRick]

Sorry, I don't know much about Windows. I'm a UNIX person myself. Do you know how the NT machine is printing to the printer? Is it LPD? Do you have access to a Windows workstation?

If you are printing LPD and you have access to a windows workstation I can send you a LPD daemon that runs on a windows box and all it does is capture the spool and control files. We use it to capture spool files from mainframes and alike to troubleshoot coding. I'll post more about it if you are in this situation.

The line you did post contains no printer commands at all. If you open the file in a hex editor we can find out what those two control charactures are.

Let start here and see how it goes.
have fun,

 

[jlasman]

I'm not well versed on windows printing at all, but is there a spool or port config parameter that can be set to &quot;RAW&quot;? If so, try it once and see.

I'm only guessing that some characters are being translated into something else than what you send.


Jim Asman
jlasman@telus.net

 

[Sapguy]

It would appear that something is corrupting the control string as this is what we have when we get to the printer.

0C 1B 83 47 62

which is not what came out of the program. Any suggestions as to where I should look would be greatly appreciated.

 

[UncleRick]

Which OS are you running? Which spooler are you running? Which interface script or device type are you using? Can you check the spooled data file before it gets to the NT box to see if the NT box is changing it or the output from the main frame is incorrect? Did you try Jim's suggestion of setting the NT port to RAW?

 

[Sapguy]

Hi Guys
I would like to thank you for the assistance you have ofered with this problem. We have identified that the problem occurs in the mainframe environment (though not exactly where), so I have to hand this off to our out-sourced support team.
Thanks again for the support.