network printer

[control_buddy 0]

Hi All ! I have connected a Network printer as an alarm printer to Citect HMI Touch Panel(PC). When Iam running Citect project (version 6.10) which is logging alarms to LPT1.DOS ,my alarms print very slowly or fail to print at all until I shut down Citect .Why is this happening? we are using a oki netwok printer through ethernet interface card .And i have connected printer through ethernet cable to ethernet port of hmi pc(windows XP). The printer is installed using tcpip (local port) and then mapped to lpt1port using netuse command. I am using oki dotmatrix (line by line). And almost i am able to get a line print of the alarm but iits veryyyyyyyy slow.It happens some thing like this . Out of 7 or 8 alarms occuring in 2 minutes only one alarm (last alarm ) is printing .ans some times no printing untill shutdown of citect . I have been contacting citect Technical support about this problem for few days but they are still trying for proper solution. If any one of you already worked on this and have some idea, could u share ur knowledge soonest! thanks in advance.

[Nathan 7]

Try upgrading your drivers. You'll also want to look into how the connection is configured. For example, in the TCP/IP driver "LPR" versus "RAW", Postscript versus PCL, etc. I have seen cases where the computer is set up to dump significantly more data that was fixed by driver settings. It can be like raster versus vector graphics for simple objects - you don't want to describe each pixel if you can describe the shape. The printer icon in the system tray will tell you how big a job is that you're printing. Might be trial and error. Good luck.

[control_buddy 0]

Hi ! the same problem occurs even if the printer is connected via USB port !!???

[tragically1969 0]

Are you logging the alarms in the alarm list and if so are alarms logged in the alarm list at the same time or quicker than the printer ?

[control_buddy 0]

Hi ! There is no problem in logging alarms in the ALARMLOG text file. I have checked this clearly that once i see the alarm on the alarmpage , i could see the same in seconds on the alarmlog text file ,but it takes could be minutes to print that on the printer. Moreover to say clearly , out of 5 alarms which comes in 2 minutes for example , the last alarm is only printing. some times prints only after shutdown of demo mode (shut down of drivers).

[shauncroman 0]

I suspect that it may be the way the print job is being created- or perhaps if it is being spooled on the system first- try using the print directly to printer option on the printer driver If its happening on the usb connection as well it may be this- otherwise maybe your system is having memory/processor issues- does the software take a long time to print on another system?

[control_buddy 0]

hi Now i dont have problem with printer when connected with USB port . I could able to print line by line without any problem with quite good print speed . But when i connect using ethernet por iam facing this printer .