Re: Printing stops with USB to Serial adapter

From: Thorsten Albers (albersRE_at_MOVEuni-freiburg.de)
Date: 02/26/05 

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 05:29:40 -0800

Tore Bostrup <newspost_at_bostrup.us> schrieb im Beitrag
<uH39$kvGFHA.3108@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>...
> I am struggling with printing to a receipt printer (serial port Star
> Micronics SP212 with Line mode driver installed) through a USB to Serial
> adapter (sorry - don't have the USB/Serial driver name available here).
> The output starts normally, but after a number of lines of output, it
simply
> stops printing. It is possible that this is after the printer's internal
> buffer fills up (about 1kb IIRC). At this point, there is no error
message,
> and no more output.
> I have tried a number of different settings, and at this point it is all
a
> blur. Previously, I have been able to print all, but received an error
> message from the print spooler - but if I ignore it, the printing seems
to
> complete.
> I will eventually be printing a sizable strip of paper from (hopefully)
> thousands of systems, and need for this to work flawlessly. Does anyone
> have any experience with this type of configuration - and what did you
have
> to do?

- Are You sure, that the printer driver apropriate for Your OS and printer
modell is installed correctly?
- Are You sure, that the driver for the USB-2-Serial adapter appropriate
for Your OS and adapter modell is installed correctly?
- Are Your sure, that Your are using an appropriate cable? If any, observe
printer peculiarities. E.g. for Star Micronics serial printers there is the
following note: "Star serial receipt printers use a DTE cable between the
computer and printer - this is NOT the same cable used between the computer
and an external modem". Make sure, that, if Your printer needs such a
special cable, the USB-2-Serial adapater is able to work with such a cable
too.
- If possible, try connecting the printer to the serial interface of
another computer and see, if there it works correctly (of course You will
have to install the printer driver there too; "another computer" because
Your using of a USB-2-Serial adapter leads me to the assupmtion that >Your<
computer doesn't have a serial interface). This at least could exclude
problems with the printer itself and would point to problems with the
connection.

> With flow control set to Hardware, the spooler ("Printers Folder") gets
an
> error "There was an error found printing the document ... to COM4:. Do
you
> want to retry or cancel the print job?". If I ignore this, the entire
> output prints, and the message goes away.
> With flow control set to Xon/Xoff or None, the output stops fairly
> consistently after a byte count (~1300-1400+ characters as counted from
my
> app). The printer's buffer is supposedly 1kb (or somewhere close).

- Did You try not only to change the flow control but to reduce or enlarge
the interface's (COM4) bit rate, stopp bit, parity settings, and so on? You
will find these settings in interface's property dialog within the device
manager.

And at least: Does the manual of the printer or the manual of the adapter
really state nothing about this? 

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THORSTEN ALBERS				        Universität Freiburg
                                                albers@
                                                       uni-freiburg.de
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