Good day. I have a task to print from PLC to a regular printer. I did it, I print the data block through TSEND, but when printing at the beginning of each 'string' variable a symbol similar to   ‘t’   is printed. How to get rid of it

It is anyone's guess what you are using (PLC / software / printer) and how the PLC code looks like. Concentrating on the most basic issue: a String data type for S7 processors contains two bytes more than the ascii text content. Have a look at the CPU documentation if you have not compensated for that. String to Character array can resolve most of those problems.

It is strange though that you mention the ‘t’ character. Either you printed only one text string or you have some other issue. You will need to bring more information to your follow up discussion if my initial guess is not the root cause.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the incomplete information. I use a S7 1200 and a regular laser printer HP Laser color jet. Through the TSEND block I send to print the DB in which the strings are stored. 

I tried to use an array of characters and indeed the character is not printed and this way works, but I can't completely replace all the lines with an array because I use the string '$R$L' to go to another line. And before this line there is still this character. I need to make a table, but I found only this way.

You can overcome this bump in the road. Consider as example that you have a text string with 15 characters out of a possible 20 characters. The String To Character array instruction will fill the array with 15 characters. So you make the 16th character a ‘$R’ and 17th character is ‘$L’. When using the TSEND instruction you send 17 characters.

I leave it up to you to create code to do the task described above. You will have to share code if you wish a volunteer to nudge you further.

thank you. its working good.)

Now I have another problem. I need to print the date and time that I receive in the DATE_AND_TIME format. As far as I understand, it is impossible to convert this format to STRING in order to then convert it to a array of chars . I tried to convert it to DTL and from there take the year, month, etc. separately in the USInt format. But I realized that numeric data (INT, USInt, etc) cannot be converted to a string format. It is probably possible to somehow convert the date and time to a string, but all my attempts have been unsuccessful. 

I would be grateful if you could tell me where to look for an answer

unfortunately i cant download here attachments (screenshot) with my code. And code i have in LAD and i cant insert it here

iurii_85

thank you. its working good.)

Now I have another problem. I need to print the date and time that I receive in the DATE_AND_TIME format. As far as I understand, it is impossible to convert this format to STRING in order to then convert it to a array of chars . I tried to convert it to DTL and from there take the year, month, etc. separately in the USInt format. But I realized that numeric data (INT, USInt, etc) cannot be converted to a string format. It is probably possible to somehow convert the date and time to a string, but all my attempts have been unsuccessful. 

I would be grateful if you could tell me where to look for an answer

unfortunately i cant download here attachments (screenshot) with my code. And code i have in LAD and i cant insert it here

 

It would be best to create screenshots and place it in a zip file. Then add the zip file as an attachment.

There is code available to convert the DTL data to String. Best to use the search facility within this support site to find it. Converting numbers to String is also not a problem. There is an instruction for it. Find it under the instructions toolbox (STRG_VAL).

There is a "library of general functions" that is also very helpful for your case. Again use the search facility on this support site to find it. Older versions of the public library contains LAD. But SCL is now preferred. 

Know that it is possible for you to add SCL code lines inbetween your LAD networks. Right click on a network line to see the context menu where it is available.

Thank you very much for your help. I found everything and got it working.

I’m printing this data block using TSEND to looks like a table, as shown in the picture. Is there any other way to print it as a table? Or at least change the font size? I couldn’t find anything on the forums.
I am beginner in programing, and there are a lot of features in TIA Portal that I’m not even aware of yet.

You have already done great work to get the PLC to send plain text and have the printer print it. I would not have even tried it that way. You have done well.

HP would have some protocol that controls the way a print is made. That is why we have printer drivers on our PCs. The ins and outs of that is not something I know. I do know that there are C# coding that you can buy to generate PDFs and send that to a printer.

I imagine it would be possible to have an IOT (like the IOT2000 series) convert data to a printing format and send it to the printer. It is the strength of the IOT200 to be a translator between PLC and IT infrastructure. But this theoretical insight is not immediately useful. I have to bow out from further discussion on this topic.

Good luck.

Thanks a lot for your help.