Sending ZPLII Code to Zebra RW220 via Serial Port

Hi,

This apparently is a common problem and I've yet to read a solution that actually works for my specific situation.

I have a Zebra RW220 printer that I connect to via Bluetooth connection mapped to a serial port. The application I'm writing runs on a Windows Mobile 5 device, so there's no built in printer support and I have to use a serial port.

When I try to write the zpl code to the serial port, the printer simply prints the code verbatum. In other words, it does not 'interpret' the code, but instead, prints it out on the label instead of printing the barcode as instructed in the zpl code.

I've tried sending the string value containing all of the zpl code to the serial port using the serial port .Write() and .WriteLine() methods. I've also tried converting the string value to a byte array and sending that. Neither way works.

My backup plan was to create the barcode as an image and send the image, but if I can't send anything but text to the printer, then the printer seems rather useless to me as a c# developer.

Zebra's manuals say to compile the zpl code into a text file and send via a command prompt (copy file to serial port), which is equivalent to using the Send File menu command in Hypertext Terminal. When the device is connected to my desktop, I can do that fine, but this is a manual process and I want to automate this.

I could purchase a third-party library or control that would allow me to do this rather simply, but I want to learn how this is done so I don't have to rely on a third-party application.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Charlie
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