Zebra Technologies R2844Z Thermal Printer with RFID User Manual Pt 1

Zebra Technologies Corporation Thermal Printer with RFID Users Manual Pt 1

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Users Manual Pt 1

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Users Manual Pt 1

Part #980476-001 | Rev. AUser GuideZebra®TMSmart Label Printerand EncoderR2844-Z

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BatteryThe main printed circuit board assembly includes a three-volt lithiumbattery.CAUTION • Risk of explosion if battery is replaced with an incorrect type.Note • Recycle batteries according to local your guidelines and regulations.Shock HazardThe printer and power supply should never be operated in a location whereeither one can get wet. Personal injury could result.Media and RibbonAlways use high-quality, approved labels, tags and ribbons. If adhesivebacked labels are used that DO NOT lay flat on the backing liner, theexposed edges may stick to the label guides and rollers inside the printer,causing the label to peel off from the liner and jam the printer. Permanentdamage to the print head may result if a non-approved ribbon is used as itmay be wound incorrectly for the printer or contain chemicals corrosive tothe print head. Approved supplies can be ordered from your dealer.If labels or ribbon run out while printing, DO NOT turn the power switchOFF (0) while reloading or data loss may result. After loading newsupplies, press the feed button to resume printing.Static DischargeThe discharge of electrostatic energy that accumulates on the surface of thehuman body or other surfaces can damage or destroy the print head orelectronic components used in this device. DO NOT TOUCH the printhead or the electronic components under the top cover.Thermal PrintingThe print head becomes hot while printing. To protect from damaging theprint head and risk of personal injury, avoid touching the print head. Useonly the cleaning pen to perform maintenance.iv 980476-001A

ContentsIntroductionHello!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1What's in the Box?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Inspecting the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Opening the printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Closing the printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Reporting Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Related Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Getting StartedModes of Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Attaching Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Loading Roll Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Placing the Roll in the Media Compartment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Adjusting the Guides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Using the Optional Media Adapter Plates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Loading Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Install the Ribbon Supply Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Install the Take-Up Core. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Attach and Tighten the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Operator Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Power Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Feed Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Status Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Printing a Test Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Hooking Up the Printer and Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Interface Cable Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16USB Interface Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Parallel Interface Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Ethernet Interface Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Serial Interface Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17980476-001A v

Communicating with the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Universal Serial Bus (USB) Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Parallel Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Internal Ethernet Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Serial Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Adjusting the Print Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Adjusting the Print Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Operation & OptionsThermal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Replacing Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Adding a New Transfer Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Replacing a Partially Used Transfer Ribbon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Printing in Peel-Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Printing on Fan-Fold Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24RFID GuidelinesPrint Quality Over the Transponder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Supported Transponders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Transmission and Identification Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Manufacturers and Brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28ZPL II Commands for RFID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33^WT – Write Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34^RT – Read Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35^RS – RFID Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37^RI – RFID Get Tag ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39^RE – Enable/Disable Electronic Article Surveillance Bit . . . . . . . . 41RFID Programming Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42MaintenanceCleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Print Head Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Media Path Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Cleaning Card Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Platen Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Lubrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Replacing the Platen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Replacing the Print Head. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Thermal-Transfer TLP Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54vi 980476-001A

TroubleshootingResolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Print Quality Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60RFID Symptoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62External reader cannot confirm RFID tags are programmed. . . . . . . 62VOID messages are printed across media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Nothing is printed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Manual Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Troubleshooting Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Printing a Configuration Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Recalibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Resetting the Factory Default Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Communications Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Feed Button Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66AppendixInterfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Universal Serial Bus (USB) Connector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Parallel Interface Technical Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68ZebraNet® PrintServer II for Ethernet Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Serial (RS-232) Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70980476-001A vii

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IntroductionThis section describes what you get in your shipping box and provides anoverview of printer parts. This section also has procedures that describehow to open and close the printer and report any problems.Hello!Thank you for choosing a Zebra®R2844-Z™ printer, a high-qualityon-demand printer with RFID (radio-frequency identification) capabilitymanufactured by the industry leader in quality, service, and value—ZebraTechnologies Corporation. For over 25 years, Zebra TechnologiesCorporation has provided customers with the highest caliber of productsand support.Your R2844-Z printer provides thermal-transfer printing (which usesribbon) and direct-thermal printing.This manual provides all of the information you will need to operate yourprinter on a daily basis. To create label formats, refer to the theRFID-specific ZPL II commands in this guide and the ZPL II ProgrammingGuide. The programming guide is available by contacting your distributoror Zebra Technologies Corporation.NOTE • Many printer settings may also be controlled by your printer’s driver or labelpreparation software. Refer to the driver or software documentation for moreinformation.Your printer, when connected to a host computer, functions as a completesystem for printing labels and tags, especially those with RFID applications.980476-001A 1

What's in the Box?Save the carton and all packing materials in case you need to ship or storethe printer later. After unpacking, make sure you have all parts. Follow theprocedures for inspecting the printer to familiarize yourself with printerparts so you can follow the instructions in this book.2 980476-001A

Inspecting the PrinterLook at the outside of the printer and make sure that all parts are present.Opening the printerTo access the media compartment, youmust open the printer.Pull the release levers towards you and liftthe cover.980476-001A 3

INSPECTING THE PRINTER (continued)After opening the printer, check the media compartment.4 980476-001A

Closing the printerHold the top cover and press the“kick-stand” cover lock to release.Lower the top cover. The ribboncarriage automatically folds up into place.Press down until the cover snaps closed.980476-001A 5MOVIE

Reporting DamageIf you discover damage or missing parts:■Immediately notify and file a damage report with the shipping company.The manufacturer is not responsible for any damage incurred duringshipment of the printer and will not cover the repair of this damageunder its warranty policy.■Keep the carton and all packing material for inspection.■Notify the authorized resellerRelated DocumentationDepending on the options you have ordered or choose to use with your newprinter, you will find the following documents helpful:■ZPL II® Programming Guide■ZebraNet® PrintServer IITM for Ethernet Networks Installation andOperation Guide■Universal Serial Bus Specification available from the USBImplementation Forum6 980476-001A

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