Zebra Technologies P640I User Manual
Card printer
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Table of contents
Document Outline
- Zebra® P640i Card Printer
- User Guide
- Table of Contents
- 1
- Introduction
- Overview
- Photo ID card printing
- Printing basics
- What makes the P640i a different kind of printer
- What to expect when you turn on the power
- 1. Nothing happens for two or three seconds, then;
- 2. The READY light flashes yellow (indicating that the laminator is warming up), and you will hear the fan running , and a clicking sound inside the printer (the flip station resetting itself). Finally;
- 3. After a few minutes (3 to 5), the READY light will show steady green, indicating that the printer is ready to print.
- 1. Nothing happens for two or three seconds, then;
- Test card
- Push buttons and Indicator lights
- INDICATOR LIGHT SUMMARY
- A typical card production sequence
- 1. Blank cards are loaded face down in the hopper, with the mag stripe (if any) toward the front.
- 2. The carriage pushes the bottom card out of the deck, carrying it under the mag encoder.
- 3. After passing under the encoder, the card surface is cleaned by a tacky roller (which is itself decontaminated periodically by adhesive tape in the cleaning cassette).
- 4. The carriage drives the card under the print head, which transfers black characters and/or bar code from the K panel onto the back surface of the card.
- 5. The carriage pushes the back-printed card into the flip station, which elevates the card then flips it through 180o.
- 6. The card, now face up, is returned to the carriage, which is then reversed into position for a second cleaning operation.
- 7. After its face cleaning the card is driven under the print head again, this time to print a yellow (Y) dye image - the first of three color passes.
- 8. The carriage reverses the card into position for the second color pass, magenta (M), followed by another reverse-and-print cycle for the third color pass, cyan (C).
- 9. Now fully printed, the card re-enters the flip station, which this time acts only as an elevator (no flipping) to bring the card up to the laminator level.
- 10. An ejector arm propels the card into the laminator infeed rollers, which in turn drive the card between the two white transfer rollers, step 11.
- 11. Each transfer roller is “loaded” with a patch of laminate, cut from the top and bottom cassettes shortly after the previous card passed through the laminator.
- 12. As the card passes between the transfer rollers the laminate patches are rolled into place. They are then permanently bonded to the card by a pair of heated rollers applying pressure to the top and bottom surfaces.
- 1. Blank cards are loaded face down in the hopper, with the mag stripe (if any) toward the front.
- Figure 1 . Standard YMCK color ribbon
- A typical card production sequence
- Introduction
- 2
- Media Handling
- Loading cards
- Loading the cleaning cassette
- 1. Open the main cover of the printer, then remove the spent cleaning cassette by pulling it toward you.
- 2. Remove the protective foil from the replacement cleaning cassette.
- 3. Install a fresh cleaning cassette by locating the rectangular pin on the cleaning mechanism in the receptacle on the cassette. Push the cassette gently home, ensuring that the internal grooves on the upper spool engage the teeth on the takeup drive
- Why 10 cards is the normal clean frequency
- 1. Open the main cover of the printer, then remove the spent cleaning cassette by pulling it toward you.
- Loading the color ribbon
- 1. Install an empty ribbon core on the right (takeup) arbor. Push the core back as far as it will go, making sure the internal grooves on the core engage the teeth on the takeup arbor.
- 2. Pull out more ribbon, then bring the free end of the ribbon up to the right of the takeup core.
- 3. With the ribbon centered on the takeup core, attach its free end to core with Scotch tape or the adhesive label that came with the fresh roll. Take up slack by reversing the supply roll (don’t try to rotate the takeup arbor).
- 4. Close the printer cover, then press the RIBBON button to initialize the color ribbon. If the MEDIA light fails to go out, check the ribbon sensor.
- 5. Re-open the printer cover to inspect the ribbon path for wrinkles and folds. Correct if necessary, then close the cover.
- 1. Install an empty ribbon core on the right (takeup) arbor. Push the core back as far as it will go, making sure the internal grooves on the core engage the teeth on the takeup arbor.
- Laminating Station
- Laminate Cassettes
- Main components of the laminating system
- Removing the cassettes
- Loading the cassettes
- 1. Discard the spent core. Hold the open cassette with its cavities toward you, white idler wheel to the top.
- 2. Place a roll of laminate in the cassette so that it feeds from the bottom of the roll, UP and OUT to the front. Pull out an inch or two of laminate.
- 3. Close the cassette, then pull out a little more laminate. If it suddenly stops, resisting further pulling, a spring detent on...
- 4. With the white roller up and pointing to your left, rotate the core counter clockwise to reel in the laminate. Stop when the ...
- 1. Discard the spent core. Hold the open cassette with its cavities toward you, white idler wheel to the top.
- Installing the cassettes
- Clearing the Laminate Channels
- Laminating smart cards
- Media Handling
- 3
- Troubleshooting
- Image Adjustment
- Troubleshooting quality problems
- Poor color registration
- Examples of color mis-registration
- Poor color rendering
- Faint, non-uniform image
- Gaps in image at edges and corners
- Continuous white or black stripes on card’s longer dimension
- Random occurences of white (unprinted) spots
- Image not centered on card
- Image missing at top or bottom of card
- Consistent image defects, card after card
- Random colored patterns on image
- Scratches/dings on long edges of card
- Laminate not centered on card
- Laminate not parallel with card edges
- Laminate wrinkling
- Unusual Printer/Lmainator Events
- Color ribbon runs for longer than 2 or 3 seconds when cover is closed (MEDIA light stays on)
- ALARM light stays ON after error condition is cleared
- Card has both front and back images printed on same side
- MEDIA light ON steady, but no obvious visual problem
- Completely unexpected print results
- YMC color panels stick to card
- K (Black) panel sticks to card
- Loud rattling/screeching from card transport
- Brief rattling noise before every print job
- Rattling noise every 10 cards
- Unusual events
- Laminator spot check
- Additional help
- Error messages
- Troubleshooting
- 4
- Technical Notes
- Restore printer configuration
- Flip station
- Correction to this User Guide
- Other useful facts
- Table 1: General
- Table 1: Color Management
- Table 1: Sharing
- Table 1: Security
- Table 1: Ports
- Table 1: Advanced
- Technical Note 2 - Card Transport
- No-slip card transport
- Card transport knob
- Take care of the platen
- Removing the platen
- Truck interlock (arrowed)
- Truck home sensor
- Card presence sensor
- Cleaning cassette
- Underside of hopper base molding
- Transport Parameters in the Driver
- Run Clean Cycle
- Card Presence Sensor
- Move Carriage
- Pick Position Adjust (Pixels)
- Clean Frequency
- Delaminated platen
- Dirt on platen
- TEchnical Note 3 - Magnetic Stripe Encoder
- Mag encoder installation
- Mag encoder components
- Cleaning the read/write head
- Replacing the read/write head
- Magnetic Encoding Functions in the Driver
- Mag Position and Amplitude
- 1. If you have not already done so (see Replacing the read/ write head, above) back off the adjustment screw (counterclockwise) until the head bracket is fully down.
- 2. Using the manual card transport knob, drive a card under the head and leave it there. With the card under the head - make sur...
- 3. Load a few cards with magnetic stripe.
- 4. Click Mag Position Adjust. The printer will then:
- a. Pick a card from the hopper
- b. Mag encode it
- c. Back up, then run it under the read/write head again to determine the position at which the mag encoding begins
- d. Eject the card through the laminator. The starting position is stored in firmware and is used for all subsequent mag operations
- e. Pick a card from the hopper
- f. Mag encode it
- g. Back up, then run it under the read/write head again to measure average maximum amplitudes of the recorded data displayed on the Mag Data Monitor below
- h. Pause for a few seconds to allow adjustment
- i. Back up again, and repeat the read cycle continuously until the PRINT button is pressed, after which the card is ejected through the laminator
- Horizontal Offset
- Technical Note 2 - Card Transport
- Encoding choices and track layout
- Mag Encoder Verify On
- Bit by Bit Encoding
- Techncial Note 4 - Print Station
- Examples of printhead problems
- Cleaning the print head
- Print head attachment hardware
- Replacing the print head
- 1. Open the main cover, then power OFF.
- 2. Remove the color ribbon.
- 3. Unplug the cable from the print head.
- 4. Remove only the fasteners 1, 2, and 3 in the photo on the preceding page, then lift the print head clear.
- 5. Make a note of the resistance entered on the replacement printhead’s label (should be between 2400 and 3600 Ù.
- 6. Connect the cable to the replacement printhead, making sure it is seated properly, see “STOP” above. Install the print head, ...
- 7. Pivot the head assembly forward to bring the angle adjust button head in contact with the print head frame, then tighten screw 3.
- 8. Make sure the cable is not inhibiting free rotation of the print head about its pivot.
- 9. Power ON, then check print quality as follows.
- 10. Enter the printhead resistance in the driver Properties “Print Station Adjustment” screen, page TN4-4.
- Print quality tests and adjustments
- 1. Run IDPrint Lite, Tech Note 8, then select Graytone.bmp as Image 1.
- 2. Print two or three cards with the graytone image.
- 3. If you are satisfied with the overall appearance and uniformity of the image, you might wish to leave well alone. If you feel some improvement could be achieved, proceed to Step 4.
- 4. Referring to the photo on the preceding page, mark the head-angle-adjust button head with a fiber tip pen to serve as a reference. Loosen screw #3 just enough to allow sliding movement of the printhead bracket.
- 5. Unlock the angle adjust button head screw, turn it a quarter-turn counterclockwise, then re-lock it. This will have the effec...
- 6. Print another graytone card for comparison. If there is a noticeable improvement, try another quarter-turn adjustment, then print again.
- 7. If the print quality is seen to deteriorate rather than improve, return to the as-shipped setting of the head angle screw, then try rotating it clockwise in quarter-turn increments.
- 8. When you are satisfied with the graytone image quality, print one or two cards with Wedge_1.bmp to test for ribbon wrinkling....
- 9. When you are satisfied that ribbon wrinkling is under control, print one or two cards with Wedge_2. bmp, this being the same triangle flipped so that its black area starts full width.
- 10. As a final test, run Portraits.bmp to test for skin tone realism, etc.
- Print Station Parameters in the Driver
- K (Black) Panel Printing
- Black Panel - Compensation
- 1. Black panel compensation (Adjustment screen, this page TN4 - x) If a line of black dots is printed along the card motion axis...
- 2. Black panel density (Color Calibration screen, page TN4 - x) This control the amount of heat energy applied to any pixel required to be “black”. A higher value gives darker printing, but can cause undesirable blooming (indefinite edges).
- 3. Black panel preheat (Color Calibration screen, page TN4 - x) Think of this as a temperature offset applied across the entire ...
- Example of ribbon wrinkling
- Color Calibration
- Technical Note 5 - Flip Station
- How the flip station works
- Flip station components
- Flip station motor
- Flip station viewed from above
- 1. The stop pin (integr al with the rear flipper arm) rests on the bottom edge of the carrier, alternating from one side to the other in consecutive flip cycles
- 2. Azimuth adjust rotates the entire assembly to bring the flipper arms parallel to the carriage - a very sensitive adjustment
- 3. The arms must move freely, without end float. Over tightening of the screws will lock the arms.
- Flip station adjustm ent procedu re
- 1. Power OFF. Remove all cards from the hopper, then close the hopper cover. Disable the main cover interlock so that the printer will function with the cover open. Power ON.
- 2. On the host computer follow this sequence: Start > Printers (or Printers and Faxes) > Right click Zebra P640i > Properties > Device Settings > Control > Advanced Utilites
- 3. Click Move Truck to Flip Station.
- 4. With the flip arms horizontal, click Flip Test 3 (No Flip) a few times, noting what happens as the carrier begins to elevate at the start of the flip cycle.
- Flip Station Routines in the Driver
- Carrier Motion
- Flip station components
- Flip Station Parameters in the Driver
- How the flip station works
- Techncial Note 6 - Laminator
- 1. Skew (rotation)
- 2. Horizontal offset (left-right)
- 3. Vertical offset (up-down).
- Laminate position adjustments
- Reset the cassette pocket
- Making sense of the skew adjustment
- Upper cassette skew adjustment procedure
- 1. Check the action of the cassette latch. If necessary adjust its fore-aft position so that its ears smoothly engage the cassette without nudging the cassette.
- 2. Print and laminate a few test cards in the usual way, noting the direction of skew. Don’t worry about vertical offset at this stage unless the laminate overhangs grossly, in which case proceed to the Vertical offset adjustment procedure, below.
- 3. Referring to Section 2, Media Handling, unlatch and remove the upper cassette from its pocket. Rotate the laminate core counterclockwise, reeling in the laminate to bring it even with the lips of the cassette - VERY IMPORTANT! Set the cassette aside.
- 4. Remove the upper transfer guide, then discard the laminate patch on the upper transfer roller. (If you don’t do this, the next patch to be applied will not reflect the skew adjustment you are about to make.)
- 5. Using a fibertip pen mark the skew adjust screw head for reference.
- 6. Using a 7/64" hex wrench turn the skew adjust screw in ¹ turn increments as directed in the diagram below.
- 7. After each movement of the skew adjust screw do the following three actions:
- a. Adjust the cassette latch screw in the same direction, by the same amount.
- b. If you have not already done so, remove and discard the laminate patch on the upper transfer roller, close the printer cover, then press the LAMINATE button to run out a fresh patch from the upper cassette.
- c. Print a test card and inspect for skew.
- 8. Re-install the cassette.
- Lower cassette skew adjustment procedure
- Upper cassette vertical offset adjustment
- 1. Check the action of the cassette latch. If necessary adjust its fore-aft position so that its ears smoothly engage the cassette without nudging the cassette.
- 2. Print and laminate a few test cards in the usual way, noting the vertical offset (front-to-back position) of the laminate patch on the front of the card.
- 3. Unlatch and remove the upper cassette from its pocket. Rotate the laminate core counterclockwise, reeling in the laminate to bring it even with the lips of the cassette. Set the cassette aside.
- 4. Remove the upper transfer guide, then discard the laminate patch on the upper transfer roller. (If you don’t do this, the next patch to be applied will not reflect the vertical offset adjustment you are about to make.)
- 5. Using a fibertip pen mark the vertical offset adjust screw head for reference.
- 6. Using a flat blade screwdriver turn the vertical offset adjust screw in ¹ turn increments
- 7. Re-install the cassette.
- Lower cassette vertical offset adjustment
- Heater Temperatures
- Laminate Sensors
- Laminate Station Adjust
- Length Adjust (mils)
- Horizontal Offset (mils)
- Heater Temperature
- Line Voltage
- Correcting Laminator Problems
- Problem
- Corrective action
- Problem
- 1. Dings or rough edges on the card (depending on vendor, card quality can vary, even from batch to batch).
- 2. Either of the cutters fails to cut, so the card is stopped dead by a “tail” of laminate, now firmly held by the laminate feed roller, which can not be rotated by tugging on the laminate.
- 3. Heated rollers not rotating.
- 4. Infeed rollers not rotating
- 5. Outfeed rollers not rotating.
- Corrective action
- Technical Note 7 - ID/Log
- Technical Note 8 - Using the Windows Printer Driver
- Card Setup
- YMC (Color) Printing
- Image Adjustment
- K (Black) Panel
- Magnetic Encoding
- ID/Log
- Status
- Status
- Control
- Run Clean Cycle
- Clear Error
- Reprint Last Card
- Zero Buffer Count
- Flip Test 1
- Flip Test 2
- Flip Test 3
- Eject Card
- Flip/Pause
- Move Truck
- Mag Position Adjust
- Mag Amplitude Adjust
- Flip Station Calibration
- Show Sensor Data
- Ribbon Panel Detect
- Panel Threshold
- Ribbon Encoder Count
- Laminate Sensors
- Card Presence Sensor
- Printhead Voltage
- AC Frequency
- Assumed AC Voltage
- Printhead Temperature
- Controller Board Temperature
- Heater Temperatures
- Logic States
- Back to Advanced Utilites
- Update Backup Config
- Disable Printer’s Print Button
- Disable Printer’s Other Buttons
- Status Polling Frequency
- Number of Times to Retry
- Printer Adjustment
- Color Calibration
- General
- Color Management
- Sharing
- Security
- Ports
- Advanced
- IDPrint Lite
- Using IDPrint Lite
- Ribbons, image numbers and front/back assignments
- Technical Note 9 - Installing the Windows Printer Driver
- First things first
- Driver CD
- Download
- 1. Click Download, then choose somewhere to store the file temporarily (the Desktop is a convenient location).
- 2. Navigate to that location, then launch the Printer Installer by double clicking the downloaded file.
- 3. Click OK. This brings up the WinZip Self- Extractor, which will put the unzipped (decompressed) files in their default locati...
- 4. Navigate to c:\zebra\driver, or to the alternate location you specified, then double click setup.exe. This displays the Zebra Printer Setup screen. You are now at the same stage as if you had inserted the Driver CD.
- Uninstalling the printer driver
- Windows file missing
- 1. Navigate to c:\windows\inf (Windows XP) or c:\winnt\inf (Windows 2000).
- 2. Find the file named usbprint.in, then rename it to usbprint.inf.
- 3. If the computer continues to display “new hardware found” messages, disable them by choosing Install the software automatically, then waiting for Windows to respond with Cannot install this hardware.
- 4. Select Don’t prompt me again to install this hardware, then click Finish.
- Installing the printer driver
- New Hardware Found Wizard
- 1. Select Install from a list or specific location, then click Next.
- 2. If you have the Driver CD, place it in the CD- ROM drive. If you are working instead with downloaded software (or if you thin...
- 3. Following Step 2 the computer searches for a file named Atlprint.inf. If the search is successful, the following screen appears.
- 4. Click Continue Anyway, then Accept the License Agreement. If you are using a USB connection, the Browse Printers screen, righ...
- 5. Click OK to accept the timeout defaults on whichever Configure screen appears, USB or Parallel.
- 6. Click Finish to complete the installation.
- Install using Zebra’s Printer Setup screen
- 1. Referring to “First things first”, page TN9-1, place the Driver CD in the CD-ROM drive, or double-click setup.exe in the file folder containing the unzipped downloaded driver.
- 2. This is the Zebra Printer Setup screen. From here you can install or uninstall the print driver on your computer. Additionall...
- 3. Click Install a Printer and Driver. This brings up the Zebra Add Printer Port screen.
- 4. Unless you are conecting to a network through the optional Ethernet port, select either Parallel Port or USB Port (depending ...
- 5. On the next screen select the default, Local printer, with the “Auto Plug and Play” box unchecked, then click Next.
- 6. “Local printer” is the default selection.Click Next.
- 7. On the following screen click on the drop down arrow to view the options. Select (typically) ATLUSB001 for USB or PHID1 for Parallel, then click Next.
- 8. The next screen is a list of all printer drivers that came with the Windows operating system. The P640i is not one of them, s...
- 9. On the next screen press the down arrow, select the CD-ROM drive containing the Driver CD, then press OK. This brings up a sc...
- 10. If you don’t have the CD, Browse to the location (folder) containing the unzipped downloaded driver files (default location is c:\zebra\driver). If necessary, double click the file named AtlPrint.inf.
- 11. On the following screen type in a name for the printer. This can be anything you like, such as “Printer A”. Typically, check No, don’t make this the default printer. If asked, you do NOT want to share the printer.
- 12. If you select Yes, Print Test Page, the printer will do just that when the installation is completed, and the various media are loaded. The test page is a clipping from the top left corner of the standard Microsoft Printer Driver report.
- 13. Click Next to bring up the Completing the Add Printer Wizard screen.
- 14. The next screen warns that installation of the driver software may destabilize your system. The P640i driver software has be...
- Install using “Add a Printer”
- Firewall issues
- 1. Probing for the printer will fail if the firewall does not allow broadcast UDP (User Datagram Protocol) requests.
- 2. Probing for the printer will fail if the firewall does not accept responses from UDP probes (often because the firewall does not properly register the outgoing UDP port as valid for response traffic).
- 3. Probing for the printer will fail if the firewall disallows packets destined for UDP port 9099.
- 4. Printing and printer communications will fail if the firewall disallows packets destined for TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) port 9100.
- Configuring the Ethernet option
- Hardware setup
- Software setup
- 1. Obtain from your network administrator the following three sets of numbers: Static IP address, Netmask (a.k.a. Subnet mask), Gateway (optional).
- 2. Using either downloaded software or the provided CD, display the Zebra printer setup screen, then click Install a Printer and Driver:
- 3. Select Ethernet (Internal), then click Next.
- 4. Click Browse, and allow the computer to search for the printer’s default IP address.
- 5. Note the serial number of the P640i printer you are installing, then look for that number on the Browse screen (which may list more than one printer). Click that number to highlight it, then click OK.
- 6. When the Configure Ethernet Port screen reappears, click Configure Printer.
- 7. Leave DHCP set to OFF. Type in the IP address, Netmask and Gateway codes provided by your network administrator, then click OK.
- 8. Check the Static IP address reported on the Configure Ethernet Port screen. If correct, click OK. If not, click Configure Printer again to repeat the process.
- 9. This screen reminds you to select the correct port when it is asked for by the Printer Wizard.
- 10. From this point on the Add Printer Wizard will complete the installation semi-automatically. Check each screen to be sure the checked items are correct before moving on to the next.
- 11. Select Local printer.
- 12. Click the drop down arrow to view the port options, then select , then select (typically) ENET001.
- 13. Select Zebra Technologies and P640i then click Next.
- 14. On the following screen type in a name for the printer. This can be anything you like, such as “Printer A”. Typically, check No, don’t make this the default printer.
- 15. Typically, you do NOT want to share the printer.
- 16. You can print a test page if you wish.
- 17. Click Next to bring up the Completing the Add Printer Wizard screen.
- 18. The next screen warns that installation of the driver software may destabilize your system. The P640i driver software has be...
- 19. The Ethernet port is now configured. If the printer does not function as expected, refer to page 9-1. Uninstall, then reinst...
- Technical Note 10 - Printer Pooling
- Set up the Printers individually
- Create the pool
- 1. Go to Start > Printers and Faxes > Add a Printer
- 2. Click Next on the Add Printer Wizard welcome screen.
- 3. Select Local Printer. Make sure that Automatically Detect My Plug and Play Printer is unchecked, then click Next.
- 4. Select Use the following port, and choose the port that the first printer is on. In this illustration, this will be ATLUSB001.
- 5. In the printer list, choose Zebra Technologies as the manufacturer, then choose (for this illustration) Zebra P640i. Click Next.
- 6. On the next screen, choose Keep Existing Driver, then click Next.
- 7. Choose something meaningful for the printer name -Pool, for example. Decide whether or not this is to be the default printer, then click Next.
- 8. Decide whether or not the pool is to be shared, then click Next. (“Shared” means that other networked computers will be able to send jobs to the pool.)
- 9. Choose no test page, then click Next.
- 10. Click Finish.
- 11. Right click on Pool, then click Properties.
- 12. Click the Ports tab.
- 13. Check the Enable Printer Pooling box.
- 14. In the list of ports, select the other ports that have printers connected to them (remember that only one port was selected on the initial install). For this illustration, check the ATLUSB002 and ATLUSB003 ports, then click OK.
- Using the printer pool
- Technical Notes