Thermal Label Printer installing problem using CUPS

[Sologa]

Hi guys,

I'm having trouble installing thermal label printer on raspberry pi 4.
printer model is - yhdaa YHD-80A it's a budget printer.
Vendor of this printer send me some PPD files with filters for cups but none of this drivers works for me.
when i try to print test page from cups, printing status says "Filter Error" and in printers panel this thermal printer staus is " Idle - Rendering Completed"

any suggestions to setups this printer ? it's a very simple thermal label printer with only usb connection.

[scruss]

this one? http://www.yhdaa.com/English/Product/42768146.html

It's quite a complex device: has its own language and file system inside. Doesn't seem to talk the same ESC-POS command set that printers I'm used to understand. Nice manual, though. If the supplier can't provide full source (so no x86 binary libraries) for the driver it won't work with a Raspberry Pi. It looks as if it's trying to be Zebra ZPL compatible

Is there a DIP switch setting that puts it into ESC-POS mode? Then the zj58 / zj80 driver might work.

[Sologa]

yes this one.
and yes i tried to install zebra zpl drivers and when i tried to print test page it said "Finished page 1" and removed from prints job, but nothing was printed.
also zj58/zj80 printer drivers but not working, btw drivers are good cause i tested that on normal thermal printers

[Sologa]

i think its a filter file problem
this is what i get when running Install.sh file

######################################################
pi@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/LinuxDiverInstalla $ sudo ./install.sh
POS CUPS driver installer
---------------------------------------


Searching for ServerRoot, ServerBin, and DataDir tags in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

ServerBin tag not present in cupsd.conf - using default

DataDir tag not present in cupsd.conf - using default
SERVERBIN =
FILTERDIR = /usr/lib/cups/filter
PPDDIR = /usr/share/cups/model/POS

Installing filter driver ...
strip:/usr/lib/cups/filter/pos: file format not recognized
/usr/bin/install: strip process terminated abnormally
strip:/usr/lib/cups/filter/rastertobarcodetspl: file format not recognized
/usr/bin/install: strip process terminated abnormally

Installing ppd files ...

Restarting CUPS
[ ok ] Stopping cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
[ ok ] Starting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.

Installation Completed
Add a printer queue using OS tool, http://localhost:631, or http://127.0.0.1:631

####################################################

do i need some cups tools installation or something ?

[scruss]

The strip:/usr/lib/cups/filter/pos: file format not recognized error message suggests it's trying to process Linux binaries for another processor, typically x86. Unless you want to go the (slow / can't help you with it) emulation method, this printer isn't going to work with a Raspberry Pi.

[Sologa]

I also tried this driver to install on Ubuntu, not on a raspberry pi, but the error message was the same.
could it be a driver problem ? cause the printer perfectly works at windows systems.
i was just interested in if there is any other driver which could work for this printer.

[scruss]

Not that I know of, sorry.

If I found the right driver package on the company website, the only drivers it supplies for Linux are 32 and 64-bit Intel binaries:

Code: Select all

file pos*
pos_32: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, not stripped
pos_64: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=068aec502e24ea060abee9e5f390d09886a2a725, not stripped

These don't have a hope of running on a Raspberry Pi. They're also really ancient (kernel 2.6, which stopped having any support in 2011), so you won't be able to install them on any current Ubuntu x86 machine either.

Short of defining a very limited scope and writing specific applications to feed this printer directly, I don't see any easy way to make this work with a Raspberry Pi. I'd be very happy to be wrong about this, though.

[Sologa]

Well I guess this printer is not going to work for our project.
Can you suggest me any budget printer under $50 for label printing that will work on a raspberry pi4 ?

[fruitoftheloom]

Well I guess this printer is not going to work for our project.
Can you suggest me any budget printer under $50 for label printing that will work on a raspberry pi4 ?

https://scruss.com/blog/2015/07/12/ther ... -pi-zj-58/

[daphnee]

Well I guess this printer is not going to work for our project.
Can you suggest me any budget printer under $50 for label printing that will work on a raspberry pi4 ?

I use HP ENVY 5055 Wireless All-in-One Photo Printer and it works great for me. And yes it is compatible with raspberry pi4. It is an universal printer in budget that delivers high quality prints. I personally use

[Sologa]

I have tried this driver, it works perfectly with thermal printers I have, but not on this label thermal printer, I have problem with

[Sologa]

This is the drivers they sent to me
is there any problem with this ppd or filter file that could cause the problem ?

[scruss]

I took a look at that driver package:

1. one driver binary is for MacOS x86_64
2. the `pos` driver is missing entirely.

So, no.

Looks like this printer may be a clone of the TSC 244(?). They only provide binary x86 drivers too.

Dymo label printers have been supported on Linux for a long time, but they're not under $50

[Sologa]

I think sent wrong attachment, can you also check out this driver.
thank you for your suggestion about dymo printers, will all the dymo label printers work for raspberry or there are certain of them ?

[scruss]

I think sent wrong attachment, can you also check out this driver.

Sorry, no dice there. The binaries are for Intel machines, not ARM for Raspberry Pi:

Code: Select all

file driver/*
driver/pos:                 ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=068aec502e24ea060abee9e5f390d09886a2a725, stripped
driver/rastertobarcodetspl: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=34a352870aca7a3767cb77e6471dda5d9db5ba2d, stripped

thank you for your suggestion about dymo printers, will all the dymo label printers work for raspberry or there are certain of them ?

I don't know if they all will, but the place I used to work had success with them on Raspberry Pi. This is kind of an old blog post about it: Using the Raspberry Pi as a Print Server for a Dymo 4XL Label Printer
I don't know any more about this: follow the link.

[sudo97]

In case anyone is still looking for a solution

Zebra ZPL driver works perfectly. Go to set printer defaults, i chose darkness as 25 and printing speed as 4 inch/sec. You can play around and get your desired result!