Embroidery machine as "Generic Printer"

[DogTags]

Hi All :)

 

We pass delimited flat file data from a winXP computer to an embroidery machine.

 

Basically, the embroidery machine is like a big printer. It reads the incoming data, fields, delimiters, etc., and then does the embroidery

 

We hooked up the printer cable from the winxp box to the embroidery machine and then created a "generic printer" in winxp. We then pull up the delimited data file in a simple text editor and "print" it using the embroidery machine. So far, it works very well.

 

We would love to set up something similar in mandriva. We installed 2005LE, and it looks like a good install.

 

1. Is it possible to create the same kind of set up using 2005LE ?

 

2. What do you think we need to accomplish this? (We haven't tackled printers yet in 2005LE).

 

Many thanks

Edited November 2, 2005 by DogTags

[theYinYeti]

It's a bit weird, but the "Generic Printer" thing gives hope... Please begin by telling what brand and model this "printer" is.

 

Yves.

[DogTags]

Hi Yves

 

Thanks for chiming in :)

 

Better yet, what parameters or things should I find out about the machine to help sort out this generic printer stuff.

 

What I mean is what things about the machine need to be understood as relating to a 'printer' ?

 

I could ask the manufacturer if I knew what characteristics I needed to inquire about.

 

Many thanks, Yves :)

[theYinYeti]

For a start, please: what is the brand, and what is the model? Eg: mine is "Epson" "Stylus color 900".

 

Next, it would indeed be usefull to have some technical details. First of all: does it talk PostScript or PCL, or some other common printer language?

 

Yves.

[Gowator]

Just adding to Yves post.

 

Linux onthe whole uses a far more generic approach to drivers so anything 'generic' should be easily doable.

 

Its likely to take a bit of trial and error ...but its likely to work better inthe end in linux than Windows because you can ultimately make it do exactly what you want.

 

If you can capture an example output file by using the print-to-file in Win then this should pass some clues to us.

 

The more we know the more we can help etc.

[DogTags]

Wow, this is fascinating :)

 

What I'm gonna do is present these issues to the manufacturer to see if they can identify the printer language, and any other details, needed to nail this down.

 

I don't think the machine can 'print to file' in win. The only thing that we can do with it is pass a delimited file to the machine, which then embroiders the stuff. An example pipe-delimited file might be something like this:

 

(FRED FLINTSTONE|I LOVE PIZZA)

(BARNEY RUBBLE|I LOVE BEER)

 

It would be soooooooooooooo great to get this sorted out.

 

As soon as I hear from the manufacturer, I'll post what they say.

 

Thanks so much :)

[DogTags]

Okay, here's what I was just told by the chief tech guy:

 

We ignore all characters until the Start of Text. We only look for the data. I do not know what you have to do with Linux. I guess you will have to try it. Remember it needs to be through a serial port. A generic printer allows data to be sent as if it was going to old printers that had no intelligence other than to print what was sent. There was no communication back and forth as in parallel printers. We use Xon Xoff because the serial ports handle this.

 

That's all I have.

 

Any suggestions? This is an adventure, isn't it :)

 

Many thanks :)

[theYinYeti]

This is a guess only, but it seems that unlike in Linux where "generic printer" usually refers to a PostScript printer, in Windows "generic printer" refers to a device that takes raw data (eg: ASCII).

 

If that is indeed so, you could try and send the data directly to the "printer", this way:

cat datafile.txt >/dev/lp0

assuming your embroidery machine is connected to the /dev/lp0 (aka. LPT1) port.

 

Yves.

[DogTags]

This is a guess only, but it seems that unlike in Linux where "generic printer" usually refers to a PostScript printer, in Windows "generic printer" refers to a device that takes raw data (eg: ASCII).

 

I think you're exactly right - ASCII

 

If that is indeed so, you could try and send the data directly to the "printer", this way:

cat datafile.txt >/dev/lp0

assuming your embroidery machine is connected to the /dev/lp0 (aka. LPT1) port.

 

What does the following mean:

 

cat datafile.txt >/dev/lp0

 

I'm not sure what 'cat' is. Is this all a shell command?

 

What I had hoped to do was pull up a gui text editor like Gedit, paste my text file in there, and hit Print and aim the print job at the 'embroidery printer'

 

Am I off target?

 

Thanks so much :)

[phunni]

cat is a shell command.

 

You could just run that on a text file you had just written and, assuming that the assumptions about raw data working are correct, it should work.

 

Otherwise text editors like nedit allow you to configure the print command, so you could set it up to cat the current open file to /dev/lp0...

 

That would give you a more "gui" approach...

[DogTags]

cat is a shell command.

 

You could just run that on a text file you had just written and, assuming that the assumptions about raw data working are correct, it should work.

 

Otherwise text editors like nedit allow you to configure the print command, so you could set it up to cat the current open file to /dev/lp0...

 

That would give you a more  "gui" approach...

 

I snagged nedit and unzipped the package

 

I then tried to both just click the nedit file (nothing happened), and then I opened a command line window, navigated to the unzipped file contents, entered nedit, but again, nothing happened.

 

I know I'll have to sort out how nedit works, but do you think that eventually I could get this to work by just having on icon on my desktop that I can click and pull up the editor?

 

Basically, I'd want some tool that can run ascii data to the 'embroidery printer', kind of like I can do with Notepad in Win

 

Many thanks :)

Edited November 5, 2005 by DogTags

[phunni]

nedit should be in the RPM repositories. If you install from there it should be added to your start menu.

 

You could then get a desktop short cut to it - no problem. Let's try and get your printer working first.

 

Try and test the cat command in a shell with a text file so that we know if we're at least going down the right road...

 

Getting Nedit working for you should be the easy bit after that...

Edited November 5, 2005 by phunni

[DogTags]

If that is indeed so, you could try and send the data directly to the "printer", this way:

cat datafile.txt >/dev/lp0

assuming your embroidery machine is connected to the /dev/lp0 (aka. LPT1) port.

 

What if it's on a USB port?

 

I don't think it's

cat datafile.txt >/dev/eth0

 

is it?

 

Many thanks :)

[theYinYeti]

Someone with USB?

I can't help here, my printer is on /dev/lp0 using an "old-style" printer cable...

 

Apart from that, yes just open a terminal window and execute the given command. Of course, you'll have to replace datafile.txt with the actual path and file name of your "embroidery data file".

 

Yves.

[chalex20]

As far as I understand, this embroidery machine emulates serial printer, not parallel. If it's on a USB port, it should emulate some serial-to-USB converter.

"Generic non-Postscript" printer is called "raw printer" in CUPS.

So, what needs to be done is the following, IMHO:

- Check /dev/usb/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyUSB0 for existence ( check what appears in /var/log/messages or in "dmesg" when attaching the printer)

- Using CUPS or Drakprint, define some "raw" printer attached to /dev/ttyUSB0 ( or whatever seems relevant).