Bi-directional
Communication with Printer Drivers
While our printer drivers do not support
bi-directional communication, there are ways of bypassing the driver for querying
and receiving status. We have provided sample files in both VB6 and
VB.net format for accomplishing bi-directional communication over parallel,
serial and USB interfaces. (At the present time, bi-directional
communication over an Ethernet interface is limited to applications without
printer drivers.)
Setup
Procedure
· Download and save the applicable project:
[bidi_vb6.zip] Released
- January 2008
Unzip bidi_vb6.zip and a subdirectory named
bidivb6 will be created and populated with many files, including the entire VB6
project and some test files.
[bidi_vbnet.zip] Released
- May 2007
Unzip bidi_vbnet.zip and a subdirectory named
bidinet will be created and populated with many files, including the entire
VB.net project and some test files.
· For this code to communicate
correctly, you must install a Boca Systems printer driver with a Boca Systems
printer. Please see the printer driver page to locate the latest printer
driver file.
· By default, the Boca Systems
printer drivers are installed with the spooler activated. This is
standard for unidirectional communication. To achieve bi-directional
communication and retrieve data back from the printer, the spooler option needs
to be changed to print directly. To accomplish this, display the
properties of the Boca Systems printer driver installed, click on the “Advanced”
tab and then select “Print directly to the printer”, instead of the default
spool option. Click on OK.
· Once the setup is complete, test it before any code is
modified, by running bidivb6\bidi.exe. The tool allows the user to send a
string or a file to the printer and then read the returning data and display
it.
Please note that, in order to communicate
bi-directionally with a driver, you must send an <S1> command immediately
prior to each read command. The printer will typically respond with an
X-ON character and any other data that may be sitting in its output buffer.
Bi-directional
Communication Projects without Printer Drivers
You can communicate bi-directionally on Ethernet, Parallel and Serial interfaces without the use of printer drivers. The following projects in
VB6 and VC can be used in developing bi-directional communication with your
printer. Please note that no printer driver (of any manufacturer) can be
installed on the port that you intend to use for bi-directional communication.
If you need to contact Boca Systems about this project, please direct
your email to mailto:michael@bocasystems.com.
