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  1. #1
    Darkhelmetdad is offline Novice
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    Question Print Job Restarts While Printing Labels - How to avoid or catch when it does?

    Forgive me if this has been asked elsewhere, I couldn't find any similar posts when I looked.

    I have a DB that I use to print to a thermal printer to make barcode labels. These barcodes are each a unique number and are usually printed in a sequence of 500 at a time. It creates one report with each page being one label. The problem I am finding is that on occasion, the print spooler seems to resend the entire the job to the printer causing whatever numbers were already printed to be duplicated. From what I can tell in other searches is that it's likely happening if the printer, spooler or network drops the job, it can be resent again causing it to start over. So the next solution I'm looking at is having to revise the process so that it creates a 1 page report for each number in the sequence - thereby creating 500 print jobs being sent to the printer instead of just one.



    Can anyone advise if there is a better solution than dumping that many jobs to the printer, or is that likely the best solution as any lost job should be resent? Could a job get locked or skipped and cause the sequence to be printed out of order? I don't imagine it's easy if even possible to detect when the job gets dropped or restarted?

    Thank you in advance.

  2. #2
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    ranman256 is offline VIP
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    I made a form that i can fill in text boxes: the starting record# and ending#,
    The query pulls that range for the report.

    because I've had to restart printout also.

  3. #3
    Micron is offline Virtually Inert Person
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  4. #4
    Darkhelmetdad is offline Novice
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    All three were, that's how I figured this is what was happening. Today it printed 280 labels and then restarted. There are no time outs on the printer that I can see.
    Suspecting the network is the issue, but since I have no control over that I think I'll need to do an in DB solution. Not seeing any events logged today regarding printing.

  5. #5
    Micron is offline Virtually Inert Person
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    Can't use a direct Ethernet connection to printer to test elimination of the network?
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  6. #6
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    If you disable the spooler, would that make it too slow to use?
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  7. #7
    Darkhelmetdad is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by Micron View Post
    Can't use a direct Ethernet connection to printer to test elimination of the network?
    No, application is network reliant and requires multiple databases to run. Disconnecting from network will disable the other resources it needs to run. This will also prevent others from using it. If it really is a network dropping issue, then I still have to find another solution as we will not be rewiring this building, replacing servers or changing how we connect to those other servers in other locations anytime soon.

  8. #8
    Darkhelmetdad is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by Welshgasman View Post
    If you disable the spooler, would that make it too slow to use?
    Not sure. Does this not mean the job is directly sent to the printer as a whole? Memory might be an issue there. Will try it and see what happens.
    I do know that sending one job to the printer at a time causes the thermal printer to pause in between pages. Over time this is going to cause a lot of extra wear on the motors and belts versus it continuously rolling while printing thousands of labels.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darkhelmetdad View Post
    Not sure. Does this not mean the job is directly sent to the printer as a whole? Memory might be an issue there. Will try it and see what happens.
    I do know that sending one job to the printer at a time causes the thermal printer to pause in between pages. Over time this is going to cause a lot of extra wear on the motors and belts versus it continuously rolling while printing thousands of labels.
    Just suggesting some experimentation?
    Cut the batch down to 100 at a time, or 20, 50 and just send to spooler. Then if a batch fails, smaller number of repeats.?

    Why not standard label paper like 8 or 16 to an A4 page? Memory would likely be larger on a laser type printer.
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  10. #10
    Darkhelmetdad is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by Welshgasman View Post
    Just suggesting some experimentation?
    Cut the batch down to 100 at a time, or 20, 50 and just send to spooler. Then if a batch fails, smaller number of repeats.?

    Why not standard label paper like 8 or 16 to an A4 page? Memory would likely be larger on a laser type printer.
    I get that and will try different spooling settings tomorrow when I get more time.

    These are polyvinyl stickers 4"W x 12" L and come in rolls of 500, so we try to just print one roll at a time so we don't have to baby sit it, but that may be my best option in the long run.

    We use them to barcode units of product in our yard and in most cases it needs to be adhered to a plastic or paper wrapping over them. They have to run through a Thermal Printer (a Zerba ZM600 - maximum width of media is 6 inches), not using a laser or regular office printer. I can probably check on expanding the memory so that it could take the whole job at once, but I'd have to get the ok from my boss to spend the money.

  11. #11
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    If you have a roll of 500 in the printer, what happens when just 50 are printed? I would expect the roll to stop ready for next batch?, so sending in small batches would not affect anything different?
    10 batches of 50 would go to the spooler, and then just run 50 at a time to the printer?

    Yes, installing more memory would be my last choice as well, well at least my boss's, if I was still working.
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  12. #12
    Darkhelmetdad is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by Welshgasman View Post
    If you have a roll of 500 in the printer, what happens when just 50 are printed? I would expect the roll to stop ready for next batch?, so sending in small batches would not affect anything different?
    10 batches of 50 would go to the spooler, and then just run 50 at a time to the printer?

    Yes, installing more memory would be my last choice as well, well at least my boss's, if I was still working.
    Yes, it just stops printing and waits for the next job. The trick is that the numbers are generated in reverse order, so it would be a more manual process to manage it. For example, right now we are at number 1048500. Normally, I would tell it to start the next batch at 1049000 and print 500 tags. It will start printing at 1049000 and run down to 1048501. This puts the next number in sequence at the begging of the roll. To do smaller batches, I'd have to enter in 1049000 - 100 copies, then enter 1048900 - 100 copies, then 1048800 - 100 copies, etc etc.

    Perhaps redesigning it to make batches of 100 to be more automated is an option to look at?

  13. #13
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    Well not really?, that can be calculated and programmed?
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  14. #14
    Darkhelmetdad is offline Novice
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    Quote Originally Posted by Welshgasman View Post
    Well not really?, that can be calculated and programmed?
    Not quite sure what you mean by that, but I think so. I can probably make it produce say 10 report prints of 50 each and have them sent to the printer in sequence, maybe even having to confirm each one before it gets sent so that one has an opportunity to cancel the next if there's a problem.

  15. #15
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    Well you start at a number, and print 50, then deduct 50 from that number and print again, so for each print, you can calculate the starting number.
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