I am using old (3 years) label software automatically print barcodes on a production line to a Zebra printer. I just realized and confirmed with their IT that this software, for whatever reason when a print job is triggered, it sends a ^PR6 to the printer, setting the print speed to 6 (and overwriting the 2 I have set). No amount of tooling around with the printers settings or properties we changed were able to override this. IT also told me this product is at end of life and likely no one there will make a patch on it.
It seems like my only solution is to somehow catch this packet before it goes from the server to the printer and remove this ^PR6 from the beginning of the packet so that the print job uses the printers settings. Is there a way that I can do this?
This is all on a Windows Server 2012 system.
Newer printers have a command override command. Send the following command to the printer that you want to ignore the ^PR6:
! U1 setvar "device.command_override.add" "^PR"
More information can be found in the ZPL manual: https://www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra/manuals/printers/common/programming/zpl-zbi2-pm-en.pdf
I can send this as a post request to the printer IP?
send it the same way you send zpl just make sure you preceed and follow it with a CRLF
Do I have to use Zebra Setup Utilities? I haven't sent ZPL files directly, I just use the aforementioned software send the print jobs, and we have this Zebra Printer set up currently as a Windows Printer which I don't want to mess with at the current moment. Also, its a older Zebra GT420t. Is there a way I can do this without any other installations?
The manual states which printers support the command, but that printer is a bit old so I do not know if the latest firmware supports the command. The setup utility has a communications button where you can send commands to the printer. That could be used to send this command.
This was close. I talked with smoeone from Zebra tech support who supported your answer and had me do ``` ! U1 setvar "device.command_override.add" "^PR" ! U1 do "device.reset" "" <CR> ``` however I am still facing the same problem, the ^PR6 in the print job overrides this, so I am thinking perhaps my printer is too old for this. Do you know any other way to tell a Zebra printer to override a command?