Datamax-O'Neil Windows CE 5.0 Thermal Printer Driver User Manual

O’Neil Windows CE 5.0

Thermal Printer Driver

1 Overview

This driver allows you to print from your Windows CE 5.0 device to an O’Neil thermal printer
via the standard Windows printing mechanism.

2 Installation

To install the print driver to your device, copy the “ONeil PrinterDriver.CAB” file to the device
and double click on it. You will be asked for the location you want the driver files installed to.

Figure 1: Instillation Directory Prompt

Once you have chosen the location, the files will be copied and the registry entries will be added
so that the next time you print the “O’Neil Thermal” printer will be presented along with the
other printer drivers installed on your system.

3 Configuration

After the driver has been installed you must configure it to work with your current system setup.
The following screens will show how to configure the driver for use on Serial, Bluetooth, and
Wireless printers. After these settings have been made they are stored in the registry so they
don’t have to be set again unless the device’s configuration changes. To access the configuration
screen press the “Advanced” button on the Main Print Dialog displayed when you go to print
from most applications:

Figure 2: Main Print Dialog

3.1.1 General Settings

General settings apply to all styles of printing. They consist of the Printer Type, to determine the
width of the printer, how much paper you want to feed at the end of the document, if you want
the image scaled to fit the paper, and if you want the paper to act as a continuous sheet.

Printer Type:

The most important setting for the printer driver is the Printer Type. Printer Type
specifies how many “dots wide” the printer is. The different choices are:

o 2 Inch (384 dots)

Figure 3: General Printer Settings Dialog

o 3 Inch (576 dots)
o 4 Inch (832 dots) - default

EoD Feed:

The value represents the amount the paper will be advanced after the end of a print job.
Because WindowsCE does not contain the concept of continuous feed paper, this setting
was added to allow the paper to be advanced an appropriate amount such that it can be
torn from the printer without losing text or wasting paper.

Scale print job to fit paper

Depending on the application you are printing from, some printer output sent to a “Paper
Size” greater than the width of the printer’s paper may be truncated. Checking this box,
checked by default, will cause the pages image to be scaled to fit the printer’s paper.
This will also scale the margins specified on the Print Dialog.

Print as continuous sheet

To avoid pagination check this box when printing in portrait mode. This will cause the
entire print job to print on a “single page”. In landscape mode this setting is ignored.

3.1.2 Serial Settings

The serial settings apply to RS232 communications as well at Bluetooth communications that are
mapped through COM ports. Most of the settings here can be left to the defaults except Baud
Rate. The Baud Rate value is often changed to speed up the transfer of information to the printer
and the value here must correspond to the printer’s setting if using RS232 or printing will fail.

Figure 4: Serial Printer Settings Dialog

Baud Rate:

Baud rate is the speed at which data is transferred over the serial, RS232, cable. If this
value is incorrect, printing will seem to go fine according to your application, but usually
nothing will happen on the printer end. The available Baud rates are 1200, 2400, 4800,
9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200. With 9600 being the default.

Parity:

Parity is a method of error detection in serial connections. It can be used to try to look