Hi fk36,

It is unfortunate that no one has been able to help you with your specific problem. Even the administrators cannot help you. Unless there is a volunteer who understands your problem and has experience with it, there will be no qualified answer.

I will not be able to give you a solution either, as I have never worked with a Zebra printer. However, I can ask you for some additional information that will make your problem clearer to the community and increase your chances of getting help.

• What PLC are you using and what is its firmware version?
• What version of TIA Portal are you using?
• Your screenshot shows a TSEND_C command. Is it working? What is the status?
• Were you able to send a command to the printer that was answered correctly?
• Or is your problem just how to write a real value in the record to be sent to the printer? In that case, a quick suggestion: Write the value before sending the data and not - as seen in your screenshot - after the send command has been requested.

Kind regards
Stefan

Hi,

als already suggestet. Put the S_CONV instruction in a network above TSEND_C.

Furthermore, please post a online screenshot of S_CONV and TSEND instructions with their online values.

Thank you.

regards

sancruz

Hi fk36,

The next question you should answer for yourself is whether the printer prints the expected label when you enter a constant real value in your data block. Test this first without using the "S_CONV" instruction. If it works, check that S_CONV produces the correct output to print the label. I would expect this not to be the case as it is a very simple instruction. You may have better luck with the "VAL_STRG" instruction.

If you have already figured out what the data in the data block should look like, please provide a few examples (with the actual value and the expected output). Please also pay attention to the consistency of the data.

Since TSEND_C works asynchronously over several PLC cycles, you must ensure that the data does not change during this time. However, your current programming of S_CONV does not take this into account.

Kind regards
Stefan

Hi,

well, at least the string is written into the data block. But somehow there are empty characters before the first real character of the string, maybe thats an issue for the printer.

So as a quick check you can do what Stefan already suggested. Enter a fixed String without empty characters into the data block manually and check if the printer does print this fixed test String.
If this test String is printed, you can use S_CONV again and modify the string in an additional step after the conversion and delete the empty characters before sending the data to the printer.

If also the fixed test String is not printed, there is maybe another issue with the control characters.

regards

sancruz

Hi fk36,

You wrote that you are able to print a correct label when using a fixed value. Please provide a screenshot showing the monitor values of "Printer Data" for this case.

As a next step, I would recommend replacing "AKTIF DEGERLER"."PH AKTIV DEGERI" %DB12.DBD0 with another real value that you will create for testing. This is to ensure that the value is not changed by the process, only by you. However, please also provide the monitor values of "Printer Data" for this case.

As a third step, I would recommend that you change the parameters of the VAL_STRG statement to get a result without leading spaces and the + sign. This will only be a solution for the value you are using for testing, but I hope it will help you to find out why it is not printing. So please provide the monitor values of "Printer Data" for this third case as well.

Kind regards
Stefan

Hello fk36,

in str[6] to str[9], I guess, you have to change the order to ^FN11^FD...^FS (in your screenshot it shows ^FD^FN11 ...^FS).

Do you have a stored format on the printer?

Regards,

Frink

If the datatype is char, then '' defines an empty character because nothing is in there.  It's also considered the NULL character, ASCII value 0.

If you have a string with several '' at the beginning of the string, those are useless (in most cases) empty characters.

fk36

Dear Sancruz ,

What do you mean empy charachter .Could you explain it please .

Thank you .

Hi

I did print labels on Zebra but this was allen-bradley job.

best course of action is to create data using SCL - much easier than in LAD.

first - use notepad to create a text file and then send it to printer from your PC
(use copy command in command line)

then produce data in PLC as others said.

EXAMPLE - prints a label using a text and barcode (code 39)

// Create a Label
// Routine creates strings which are sent to the Zebra printer to create a label.

// Label Strings generation (sent as multiple messages due to RS232 card limit of 128 characters)

STmp2.LEN:=1;                                             // Initialise padding string with '0'
STmp2.DATA[0]:=32;

CASE PRINT_PART_SELECTOR OF
1:    // Header (2 lines with unload rack x label and date & time label produced)
// ^XA^FO50,050^A0,70,50^FDUnloaded Rack # Label^FS
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[0] := 94;                     // ^
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[1] := 88;                     // X
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[2] := 65;                     // A
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[3] := 94;                     // ^
(...)
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[37] := 32;                     // Space
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[38] := 48+TRACKING_BILLETS.PRINTED_DATA[0].Rack;    // Rack Number as Ascii value (48: ascii code for 0)
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[39] := 32;                     // Space
(...)
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[45] := 94;                     // ^
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[46] := 70;                     // F
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[47] := 83;                     // S

//^FO50,125^A0,50,35^FDProduced on dd-mm-yyyy, hh:mm:ss^FS
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[48] := 94;                     // ^
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[49] := 70;                     // F
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[50] := 79;                     // O
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[51] := 53;                     // 5
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[52] := 48;                     // 0
(...)
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[81] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Day/10);            // Day - 10s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[82] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Day MOD 10);        // Day - 1s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[83] := 45;                     // -
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[84] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Month/10);        // Month - 10s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[85] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Month MOD 10);    // Month - 1s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[86] := 45;                     // -
DTOS(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Year,STmp1);             // Year to String
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[87] := STmp1.DATA[0];         // Year - Ks
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[88] := STmp1.DATA[1];         // Year - 100s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[89] := STmp1.DATA[2];         // Year - 10s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[90] := STmp1.DATA[3];         // Year - 1s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[91] := 44;                     // ,
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[92] := 32;                     // Space
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[93] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Hour/10);        // Hour - 10s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[94] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Hour MOD 10);    // Hour - 1s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[95] := 58;                     // :
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[96] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Minute/10);        // Minute - 10s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[97] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Minute MOD 10);    // Minute - 1s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[98] := 58;                     // :
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[99] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Seconds/10);        // Second - 10s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[100] := 48+(CLOCK.DATE_AND_TIME.Seconds MOD 10);// Second - 1s
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[101] := 94;                     // ^
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[102] := 70;                     // F
BRH_KF2101:3:O.Data[103] := 83;                     // S

BRH_KF2101:3:O.Length := 104;                     // Length

//---- send data to printer

IF BRH_KF2101:3:O.TransmitRecordNumber<127 THEN                 // Communication Trigger inc and roll to 0
BRH_KF2101:3:O.TransmitRecordNumber := BRH_KF2101:3:O.TransmitRecordNumber+1;    // Message ID change to trigger sending
ELSE
BRH_KF2101:3:O.TransmitRecordNumber := 0;    // Message ID change to trigger sending
END_IF;

// End Of block

of course you need fill a data block and then send string of given length to printer in Siemens.
The above is to give you example how to construct messages to Zebra
Message specifies format (if a plain text or a specified barcode, size, etc.),
position on label and payload.

in Siemens you need use DB_PRINT.LABEL[x]:=Character;
or whole strings. I had to fill char by char in AB because version 30 did not support string constants.