Zebra 2844 User Manual

Zebra

LP 2844

Part #980483-001 | Rev. A

User Guide

Desktop Printer

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Proprietary Statement

This manual contains proprietary information of Zebra Technologies Corporation. It is intended solely for the information and use of parties operating and maintaining the equipment described herein. Such proprietary information may not be used, reproduced, or disclosed to any other parties for any other purpose without the expressed written permission of Zebra Technologies Corporation.

Product Improvements

Continuous improvement of products is a policy of Zebra Technologies Corporation. All specifications and signs are subject to change without notice.

FCC Compliance Statement

NOTE: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that the interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

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Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

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Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver.

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Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different than that to which the receiver is connected.

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Consult the dealer or an experienced Radio/TV technician for help.

NOTE: This unit was tested with shielded cables on the peripheral devices. Shielded cables must be used with the unit to insure compliance.

“The user is cautioned that any changes or modifications not expressly approved by Zebra Technologies Corporation could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.”

Liability Disclaimer

Zebra Technologies Corporation takes steps to assure that its published Engineering specifications and Manuals are correct; however, errors do occur. Zebra Technologies Corporation reserves the right to correct any such errors and disclaims liability resulting therefrom.

No Liability for Consequential Damage

In no event shall Zebra Technologies Corporation or anyone else involved in the creation, production, or delivery of the accompanying product (including hardware and software) be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or the results of use of or inability to use such product, even ifZebra Technologies Corporation has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you.

Trademarks

The Zebra logo and the zebra head design are both registered trademarks and LP 2844 is a service mark of ZIH Corp. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. All marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Copyrights

This copyrighted manual and the label printer described herein are owned by Zebra Technologies Corporation. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of this manual or the software in the label printer may result in imprisonment of up to one year and fines of up to $10,000 (17 U.S.C.506). Copyright violators may be subject to civil liability.

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Shock Hazard

The printer and power supply should never be operated in a location where either one can get wet. Personal injury could result.

Media

Always use high-quality, approved labels and tags. If adhesive backed labels are used that DO NOT lay flat on the backing liner, the exposed edges may stick to the label guides and rollers inside the printer, causing the label to peel off from the liner and jam the printer. Approved supplies can be ordered from your dealer.

If media run out while printing, DO NOT turn the power switch OFF (0) while reloading or data loss may result. After loading new supplies, press the feed button to resume printing.

Static Discharge

The discharge of electrostatic energy that accumulates on the surface of the human body or other surfaces can damage or destroy the print head or electronic components used in this device. DO NOT TOUCH the print head or the electronic components under the top cover.

Thermal Printing

The print head becomes hot while printing. To protect from damaging the print head and risk of personal injury, avoid touching the print head. Use only the cleaning pen to perform maintenance.

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Contents

Introduction

Hello!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

What's in the Box?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Inspecting the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Opening the printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Closing the printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Reporting Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Related Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Getting Started

Modes of Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Attaching Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Loading Roll Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Placing the Roll in the Media Compartment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Adjusting the Guides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Operator Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Power Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Feed Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Status Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Media Length Sensing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Hooking Up the Printer and Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Interface Cable Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

USB Interface Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Parallel Interface Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Ethernet Interface Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Serial Interface Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Communicating with the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Universal Serial Bus (USB) Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Parallel Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Internal ZebraNet® PrintServer II™ Communications . . . . . . . . . . 15

Serial Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Adjusting the Print Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Adjusting the Print Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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Operation & Options

Thermal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Replacing Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Printing in Peel-Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Printing on Fan-Fold Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Using the Cutter Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Maintenance

Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Print Head Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Media Path Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Cleaning Card Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Platen Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Lubrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Replacing the Platen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Replacing the Print Head. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Direct-Thermal LP Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Troubleshooting

Print Quality Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Manual Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Resetting the Factory Default Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Communications Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Feed Button Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Appendix

Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Universal Serial Bus (USB) Connector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Parallel Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

ZebraNet® PrintServer II™ Internal Ethernet PrintServer. . . . . . . . 43

Serial (RS-232) Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

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Introduction

This section describes what you get in your shipping box and provides an overview of printer parts. This section also has procedures that describe how to open and close the printer and report any problems.

Hello!

Thank you for choosing a Zebra®LP 2844™ printer, a high-quality on-demand printer manufactured by the industry leader in quality, service, and value—Zebra Technologies Corporation. For over 25 years, Zebra Technologies Corporation has provided customers with the highest caliber of products and support.

Your printer is a high-quality, on-demand printer. The printer provides direct-thermal printing.

This manual provides all of the information you will need to operate your printer on a daily basis. To create label formats, refer to your programming guide. This guide is available by contacting your distributor or dealer.

NOTE: Many printer settings may also be controlled by your printer’s

driver or label preparation software. Refer to the driver or software documentation for more information.

Your printer, when connected to a host computer, functions as a complete system for printing labels and tags.

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What's in the Box?

Save the carton and all packing materials in case you need to ship or store the printer later. After unpacking, make sure you have all parts. Follow the procedures for inspecting the printer to familiarize yourself with printer parts so you can follow the instructions in this book.

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Inspecting the Printer

Look at the outside of the printer and make sure that all parts are present.

Opening the printer

To access the media compartment, you must open the printer.

Pull the release levers towards you and lift the cover.

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INSPECTING THE PRINTER (continued)

After opening the printer, check the media compartment.

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Closing the printer

Lower the top cover.

Press down until the cover snaps closed.

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Reporting Damage

If you discover damage or missing parts:

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Immediately notify and file a damage report with the shipping company. The manufacturer is not responsible for any damage incurred during shipment of the printer and will not cover the repair of this damage under its warranty policy.

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Keep the carton and all packing material for inspection.

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Notify the authorized reseller