Zebra R110Xi RFID label printer

[Patrick W]

Does anyone happen to have a R110Xi working with rfid encodes?  If so what software are you using?  I've been trying to get mine working with the zebra software and no matter what I do it just ends up voiding a whole bunch of tags.

[rtspt.usa]

yes. it was a PITA to set up and went through a few hundred tags to finally dial it in.

i use bartender but bartender wasn't the issue. 

it was all in the printer's set up, calibration and configuration and was not the encoding software that i already knew worked. 

also, part of the issue may have been that this printer was used so there were probably settings internally that were not set for what i was doing.

i had to run through things a zillion times to finally get it...but now i can at least print foam backed tags if i need them : )

being that my other two printers (zd 500's) were brand new when i set them up they worked right off the bat --well i should say, setting up the second one worked right off the bat. with the first one i had no clue as to how to set the encoding software up so that was all new to me and alot of trial and error. 

i can run it through the settings screens if you want.  as i recall, it was all about getting the right tag parameters to stick. i remember going through both auto config and manual config a zillion times to finally get it. this model is alot older so the firmware is kind of wonky but it will eventually work.

sean

[Patrick W]

If it's not a huge inconvenience that would be great help.  I've literally spent hours trying to get this to work, but while the calibrates all seem to work it just voids all the tags when I try so I'm sure something's off.  I have been using Zebra's software, but can get bartender as it seems to be more popular.

[Brad Kline]

I wrote a program to do our tags.  You can download it here https://smile.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/ufpYLXwHnKkWprSVnZeGaTo0ugH5Wn1c51OtUfWJLKf Just unzip the files and run the .exe file.

[Patrick W]

Brad what is it you do with your program that none of the "professional" software does?  I spent forever playing with things using the suggestions and stuff from Sean and lots of googling and still both zebra and bartender would just spit out a stack of void labelled tags...  I tried yours and it worked first try..  Seems to also spit out a couple blank tags ahead (or behind?) the printed ones, but the bib range I printed all seems to have printed and encoded properly..

[Brad Kline]

Are you saying that my software isn't professional? LOL.  All the software is doing is creating a text file with the ZPL code to print and encode the tags.  The extra tag/s at the beginning are because I have it encoding the RFID 1 number ahead of what is set to print.  I did this because the RFID and the number printing on the tag were off by 1.

[Patrick W]

Yah, looks like the encoding happens ahead of the printing, and so you also have a +1 at the end that you write to 0 as well lol...   then feed the text file into a raw print job..  A couple issues, but it's a good first draft lol.... at least issues for others, the most notable being for all you save the text values to your settings, you don't seem to load them when the program starts so you have to re-enter them every time lol.. 

I'm thinking of rolling a version that will tie into the ART data directly so you can run the roster version you hint at without the excel file (which I'm guessing from your deps is how you're doing it lol), but I'm not sure since the excel does let you tweak the data easily if you want so I can see benefits both ways.

[Aaron Ford]

Brad's software is what I've been using for over a year now. I have a Zebra ZT-400 Printer that I use it with. The printer encodes a value that is one off what is printed, but I just use a bib/chip file to offset the difference. Brad, thank you so much for sharing your software!

[Brad Kline]

At one point I was playing around with uploading roster data from an ART Excel export, then being able to print the runner's name/age/sex etc directly onto the tag.  It really wasn't a feature that we use as we normally run off large batches of tags and pre-tag all of our bibs for the year, so I just disabled the button for the time being.  I haven't looked at the code in quite some time, but if that's something you're interested in, I can take a look at it again.

@Aaron, if you try the 2" Tag option, I think that it will encode the numbers for you correctly.  Maybe you have an old version of the software, but I added the 2" for someone else who had a bunch of old tags that were encoding with the wrong numbers.  The 1" vs 2" doesn't actually matter what size the tag is, it just changes when the RFID encode changes.

[Aaron Ford]

Thank you Brad - I'll give it a shot! I haven't actually timed a race since February, so this is a good rainy day project.

[Patrick W]

naa I'm good to fire up visual studio and roll my own if I get there lol.  really just having the text file output is plenty in the way of example since that's where the real work is happening.  (I already have a custom live results client that ties into art to push data to my site so there's no issues on the getting data side lol).

Usually I'm in the same boat that I'd rather just give the convener a set of tags printed well ahead and let them figure it out, but for some meets it adds a little extra to have the tags personalized (and takes away one less level of a coach "not knowing" that they weren't supposed to just randomly hand out the bibs...  too many times has this happened lol).

[Patrick W]

Brad, it apparently took me until now to have a need to spin my own lol.  I decided to own the fact that the first tag wasn't encoded properly and send a header tag that lets me say the event name, shows the bib range, etc.  Also added some other features like doing more than one copy of the tags, and rather than dumping to the text file I send the data directly to the printer.  Because it prints directly, I added a fancy "progress bar" (it's the racing stripe of .net programming).  Still needs some features like race specific encoding (I've never actually used it before, but may need it), and I'll probably add a way to feed a csv with a name field per bib rather than connecting directly to the ART database...    and of course a bunch more testing.

[Brad Kline]

very nice!

[Tom Jordan]

Hi guys - just wondering if there has been a solution for the bib number on the tag being one off?  We've been managing it (just put chip #2 on bib #1, etc) but if there was a way for chip #1 to have a 1 printed on it instead of a 2 that would be wonderful :-) 

[William Sanchez]

I decided to buy one of these on ebay. @Patrick W, are you willing to share your software? I will also start to try Brad's software. I hope the "one off" issue has been resolved by now. Fingers crossed.

[Windsor Running, LLC]

I use Brad's software a few times a week and have never dealt with the chips being one off. That being said, it took me HOURS and lots of help from people in the group to get the printer dialed in so that the tags printed exactly where I wanted them to. But now that it is set, I'm not sure how I timed races without the flexibility and time saving the printer affords. 

I would just go into the printer set up accepting you'll go through a ton of tags getting it dialed in. 

Jesse

[William Sanchez]

Brad's software worked great. After a simple calibrartion of the RFID chp in the encoder, everything printed great out of Brad's software from the first run. THANK YOU.

[Patrick W]

@William Sanchez I'm apparently in a giving mood lol. 

Printing names on tags will ask for a text file, two fields bib number + name with <tab> separator...  I mean it could be any string.  It just looks to see if there's something in its name list when it prints each bib.

Send to printer tracks the generating the tag info, and job remaining in queue count isn't quite the 'tags left to print' but is close enough.  

It is largely designed for remote use as my printers are in a different room so I remote to the print server to run a range and the job monitoring lets me keep an eye on status.

One note - race specific looks like it works from what I can see, but I've never actually used that at an event so if anyone does use that feature and could try it and confirm that would be helpful.

Do a bit of testing before going too crazy with it, but for people who run larger ranges of tags especially you should see a speed difference becasue it's working directly with the printer as bulk data.  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CsEC3qrFZTmqzFt_KsBx24fKoWKWMtnu/view

On Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 4:00:15 PM UTC-4 William Sanchez wrote:

[Christopher Regan]

That file came up as containing a virus

[Patrick W]

Google scans all files shared, which is part of why I use it, so I know that is not the case.  It is more likely your browser/virus scanner is complaining about you downloading an exe "to protect you".

[Raphael Leal]

Yeah, I just downloaded the file and no virus message.

I'm struggling to calibrate my printer but it doesn't work.
It's a Intermec PC43. I'm almost throwing it in the trash...lol

[Christopher Regan]

Thanks gentlemen...strange

[Patrick W]

@Raphael it'll likely only work with zebra printers as it talks to the printer in zebra's markup language.  All I can say is it will work on r110's as I have a few of them, but it should work on most / all of their industrial printers AFAIK.

I just tried downloading it with chrome and it was blocked with an "uncommon file".  Part of google's monitoring of people apparently is how often people download links lol.  In any event you can bypass if it comes up.

On Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 9:27:27 AM UTC-4 Raphael Leal wrote:

[Christopher Regan]

I saved it to my google drive and was able to grab it from there. I just ordered a printer from eBay so i'm looking forward to testing. Thank you so much for giving!

[Patrick W]

Good good.  I suppose I should also add to this the standard sort of disclaimer that while this is a version of the printing app I use and I consider it to work well,

you use at your own risk for everything up to and including your timing mats bursting into spontaneous flames (because who knows).   

In any event I've printed ~10 000 tags with it so far this season (and counting when the new ribbon gets here lol).

[Jason Swan]

Thanks to Brad and to Patrick W for generously making their homebrew printing software available.

I have moved from using Brad's to using Patricks at this point as it is more efficient - Brad's has a back and forth movement to the process that Patrick's does not.

I am writing this to offer the tip to try setting up your printer ( mine is a zebra r110xi - ymmv ) as a network printer vs using a USB connection if you are having trouble with print jobs.  I had tons of issues with incomplete print jobs and stalling in the middle - Patrick's would print 5 tags and then stop if I tried to print more than 50 or so at a time.  Brad's would generally crash around 400 tags printed.

Once I reconfigured to connect via network, using Patrick's software has been completely stable - I have run up to 500 at a time through so far with no issue.  I have not tried Brad's software as of yet but would expect a similar improvement in stability.

Jason

[Patrick W]

The stopping is interesting to hear...   I print from a 7" laptop that connects to my printers by usb and have never had an issue.  Maybe it's a driver issue?  I think I'm using one of zebra's drivers rather than the standard one from microsoft update...  but it's one of those things that because I have it working I don't tough anything because that will likely make it not work lol.

Speed was one of my pushes for doing my spin on it, though people really like the names being printed on the tags for distribution of larger teams.  My usual print jobs are generally over 1000 so I am all about saving seconds everywhere I can because they add up...  so the tags go from the printer onto a label rewinder, then get loaded into an automatic label dispenser for application lol.

[William Sanchez]

Hi Patrick,

I’m checking in to see if there have been any updates to the software. Now that I’m back to printing in bulk for spring season, one issue I have is the second number that is printed is encoded the same as the first even though the number printed is accurate. For example,

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Is encoded as

1, 1, 3, 4, 5

And printed as 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

So I end up with a stack of bibs I have to re-encode manually to assign them their proper number. 

I have it mostly dialed in that it’s either the above scenario or a chip gets detuned but properly printed with a number. I think that’s an alignment issue. 

[Springer Sport]

Hi William!

Probably the RFID writing power is set too high. The rfid tags have become significantly more sensitive in recent years and when the transponder tape wind fowards, the recent encoded tag can sometimes be overwritten when encoding the next tag.
The RFID writing power can be reduced in the setup settings of the RFID printer.

Martin

[Springer Sport]

Hi Patrick,

I have a small addition: If rfid tags will often marked as void and cannot be encoded, it would make sense to reduce the printing speed somewhat. This can also be set in the printer's setup settings.

Martin

William Sanchez schrieb am Mittwoch, 1. Mai 2024 um 13:30:47 UTC+2:

[William Sanchez]

These two tips were VERY helpful. I was able to successfully send a print job for 300 tags with very few detuned or void tags. And the chip after the first is getting it's appropriate number encoded.

Thank you

[Patrick W]

Sounds like Martin's suggestions got you squared away.  Power being too high is definitely an issue, the printers are very precise about things though so any encoding issues often points to an issue with your tag calibration or write power.  Encoding and printing wise the zpl data I'm sending to the printer is very similar to what Brad was sending, the main difference is I'm sending it as a single transaction to the printer rather than each tag individually opening and closing the printer. 

I run through easily 10 000+ tags a month during XC season with no issues in batches sized between 200 and 2000 between 3 different printers so I all can give a "I see no issues and it works for me" guarantee..  

[William Sanchez]

I hate that I’m back here, but, everything is off by one again. To be honest, it has been for months and I put it off. I’m wondering if anyone is willing to share their printer settings from the print server page so I can compare my settings. I know label size matters but I’m using m750 1 inch by about 4 inch labels. I just want to see what other things I might be missing on back feed etc… I have a run of 2000 chips to do and I hate runners telling me “the chip is and bib don’t match”. I put a friendly “vvvv # - 1 = Bib #” message and I verify each chip. I want to do away with the off by one and message for good. 

Thanks in advance. 

[Springer Sport]

Hi William!

If the problems you describe have only occurred since using the M750 tags, then I still believe that the previous "neighboring" rfid tag is being overwritten. If my suspicion is correct, then you could encode the transponders with password protection and thus prevent tags that have already been encoded from being encoded again.

Martin