Communication between PLC and a Printer

Hello All

Yesterday a friend asked me about to create a communication between the PLC and a printer... He wants to use it in an application that the plc will send a message to the printer, to print a card every time that a product is rejected by the system.
Please, somebody help me... i want to do it using a Schneider Twido PLC and any printer.

Thanks.

I'm not sure exactly how it's done (what commands etc...) but you need to send ASCII commands to the printer. The first hurdle is finding out is the PLC you're using does ASCII from a serial port.

I can’t give you a direct answer because I don’t know the Schneider PLC’s well enough. But in general it isn’t so easy to connect a printer to a PLC directly. Don’t you have a SCADA system or an operator panel that you can use for this? I’ve done something similar before with a Siemens PLC and an operator panel. I connected a standard USB laser printer to an operator panel (TP277) and configured a report in the panel. I could then printer the report by setting a bit in the PLC.

I agree with Jobbe's comments. If you have an existing SCADA or HMI system, you might as well configure a report file or a condition to execute your desired function. I think most HMI softwares can do that, and I've seen it personally using wonderware and factory talk and CitectSCADA.

Thanks.

For it to be simple you need three things: an RS232 port on the PLC, a printer with an RS232 port, some method on the PLC for sending data out of the RS232 port. If you have all of these then it is extremely easy to use a printer with a PLC.

Finally you need to know the pinout for the two RS232 ports so that you can connect them together, the simplest cable connects TX on the PLC to RX on the printer, and signal GND to signal GND.

Don't get freaked by stories of how difficult it is, if your system meets the terms of my first paragraph you will have no problems.

Bryan

Back in the day, I would have agreed with BryanG. Technically it's not that challenging. I've connected Siemens S5 and S7 to serial printers.

Biggest problem, I think, is going to be finding a serial printer. We used Okidata Microline 192s and 320s and IBM 2300 series, all which had optional serial cards. I haven't seen any of these new on the market in 10 years or so. Several years back, even refurbished microline 192s were ungodly expensive. If you can still find serial printers anywhere they're likely a specialty item and very expensive.

In today's world, I agree with Jobbe. Let an HMI handle the printing tasks. It'll be much more "standard" and use off-the-shelf commonly available printers and you'll be better prepared for the future.

Zebra still makes serial port printers. A bit pricey thou.

It depends on the kind of printer you are looking for. I use these on machines and they cost about £200.
http://www.able-systems.com/category.asp?cat=5

If you want something bigger Epson still have a good range with serial interfaces, starting at about £220
http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-All-In-Ones/Dot-Matrix

Printing from an HMI tends to be easier because you can format the output on screen, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), printing direct from a PLC means much faster output and data is less likely to change from the print instruction being sent until the data is actually printed.

Bryan