Xerox 8200DX pcl problem

[jsgiii]

Hi all,

This is a rather long-winded question, so I'll do my best to explain the sitution. I've been experiencing problems with trying to Duplex to a Xerox Tektroniks Phaser 8200 DX. We've been using a vendor application that simply tacks on the appropriate PCL escape codes when sending the document to the printer. The codes appear in the document. They are:
esc&l1O
esc&l1S
esc(s0p16.66H
esc&a1G

Our HP duplex printer 8000DN has no problem producing this document in the preferred duplex short-edge binding. Our Xerox Phaser 8200 doesn't have a problem with the font selection or the short edge binding, but can't seem to process the duplexing part. We've tried different drivers, and by different drivers, I mean loading up the full Win2000 DocuPrint C55 PCL5c driver. Still no luck. I've tried to send PJL commands (within the document), but I'm not sure the Phaser 8200 will recognize PJL commands or if Xerox machines need some special initilization string.
The other option is to try to produce the same document using PostScript commands, but PostScript looks intimidating and all I am trying to get the Phaser to do is duplex without having our users having to select the duplexing feature when attempting to print. And yes, I've checked with Xerox technical support and they keep pointing me to Postscript, but all I want to do is send some kind of command code to duplex my Xerox.


Let me know if further information is required.

Tx,
JSGIII

 

[jlasman]

Are you sure there is a working duplexor on the printer; i.e., have you successfully duplexed from other applications?

Also, is the paper going through the duplexor but only printing on one side, or is the not going through the duplexor at all?

Is the PCL code that you showed only sent at the beginning of the print run or on every page?

Jim Asman
jlasman@telus.net

 

[DansDadUK]

Several points:

esc&l1S sets Duplex long-edge binding (not short-edge).

esc&a1G throws to front face; you need either esc&a0G (throw to next side) or esc&a2G (throw to rear face) to get data printed on the back side.

Having said that, perhaps the above are mistypes, and your print stream actually contains the correct sequences (since you claim it works OK on the HP device), in which case the following MAY be relevant:

We came across a problem with the Minolta D1650 (I think also marketed as Konica, and maybe with similar interpreter to the Phaser?) whereby it would not take any notice of PCL 'set duplex' sequences (or in some circumstances it seemed to obey the first, but not subsequent such sequences in a 'job').

The printer appeared to class 'simplex/duplex' as a Job-level attribute, and could only be satisfactorily controlled using an appropriate @PJL SET DUPLEX statement (I can't remember the exact format of this).

The PJL statement must be preceded by the Universal Exit Language sequence (esc%-12345X), and followed by the @PJL ENTER LANGUAGE=PCL statement to switch back to PCL. Note that UEL has a similar effect to escE in that it resets the environment to the user-default.