Siemens PLC through TCP to Zebra Printer

mrkvak said:

If you mean the return value "7000" on e.g. TSEND instruction it should mean that no active job is performed. Normally send action is requested via rising edge on REQ input. Then status is changed from 7000 to something different (7001 or 7002 could be). Then since it is done it goes back to 7000.

So status output is changed for only very short time so you could not be able to see it in online view. A year ago I made software for S7-1500 with Zebra printer - it is working.

For commissioning I would highly recommend to use some terminal application (I used Hercules Setup utility). Via this you can try both - TCP server, client and check if your TSEND instruction is working properly = you receive ASCI string into terminal. And vice versa I used terminal app to setup string for printer. Via terminal I connected to Zebra - which is TCP server - and then you can send strings and see the printer output.

I can share the software for S7-1500. Unfortunately not for S7-300 but in principle it should be the same. I only use instruction TSEND_C which is more simple as it combines TCON, TDISCON and TSEND in one instrucion. Before I used TSEND and was working as well.

Click to expand...

ctking said:

Can you post your s7_1500 project with tsend_c? I've been trying to connect to hercules to test the functionality but looks like I might have some issue with the port configuration. Would be nice to be able to rule out the programming side of things.

Click to expand...

mrkvak said:

For me the following method worked well:

1) use Zebra designer to set up your label which you need to print

2) try to print it using the Zebra designer to see the result

3) then print to file the prepared label, in file you can find the exact ZPL code which has to be sent to printer via TCP

4) in the ZPL code identify the field you need to change

5) try to use terminal application (e.g. like I mentioned Hercules setup utility worked well for me) and test TCP connection to printer

6) try to print the ZPL code using terminal app, if working ok you are ready to use TCP connection in PLC
(check the printer config via web interface, I used the port 6101)

7) the worst work is to compose the complete ZPL code in PLC as it is string.

See the pictures ...

For support u can contact me one [email protected] (also Google hangouts chat possible)

Click to expand...