CUPS with Zebra printer doesn't print

2
votes

EDIT:

I have found that the EPL2 driver allows for a partial print and crashes the printer after. Still no useful printing though

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I have a Zebra printer (LP2844) hooked up to an RPI, with Jessie installed. The printer used to work with the direct USB connection and the CUPS service.

I tried adding a second one, but couldn't get it to work. After a day of fiddling I wanted to revert to the first setup. But now, even with one printer I can not get it to print even a test page.

The state in CUPS goes from "Rendering page 1" to "Rendering complete" and the job then disappears. CUPS believes the job to be completed successfully and the error_log is not appended.

I have been trying to switch the drivers between the ZPL driver and a raw driver. Previous to the second printer, I used the raw driver.

Windows seems to be able to print pages on the Zebra via USB connection.

I am totally at a loss here. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated

1
linuxprintingzebra-printerscups
LP2844 is not a ZPL printer. ZPL or Raw mode will not work. – banno

1 Answers

1
votes

Turns out the printer was broken for some reason after adding a second one. Had to "recalibrate" the autosense feature.

Followed: https://km.zebra.com/kb/index?page=content&id=SO8281

Auto Sense Procedure

  1. Make sure you have configured your driver or application for the media type you are using. Gap/Web or Black Bar (Mark). Send a test print to the printer before proceding so it is properly configured. Note: You can only send data when the button is green so cycle power if the printer button is red. 2 Turn off printer and have media loaded
  2. Hold feed button down, and turn printer back on
  3. When the red light starts flashing, release the feed button.
  4. Printer light will turn green and advance a few blanks.
  5. After printer stops advancing and prints the internal information, press the feed button one time.
  6. You will get another label with the "Out of Dump" message on it.

The printer should feed one label each time you press the Feed Button. If one label is issued each time you press the Feed Button the printer has been properly calibrated.

Skipping labels or printing across multiple labels

If the printer is properly calibrated but still issues multiple labels when printing then assure your label setup for printing is set to the correct label size. If it is longer than the calibrated length the printer will print additional labels attempting to print the complete image. Allow for a small dead band if this is occurring by shortening your driver/software label size.