This product is no longer available. For more products, view the Zebra Main Page. We will continue to carry options, accessories and supplies for this product for as long as we can. Please contact RACO for availability and pricing.

For help in choosing a comparable replacement product, feel free to contact one of our RACO Product Specialists by selecting a Chat Online or Click to Call button or by calling 800-446-1991 or 513-984-2101 or by emailing us at info@racoindustries.com.

Zebra Printers

ZebraLink... A Revolutionary Real-Time Connectivity and Control Solution

Stripe Series printers now include ZebraLink! The ZebraLink solution is standard equipment on Zebra's favorite-- the Stripe Series (S600™, S400™, DA402™ and T402™). Look for the ZebraLink Logo on the latest Zebra printers, software and accessories.

ZebraLink provides unmatched intelligence to connect and control you bar code printers anywhere and anytime. Empower your printing applications with the state-of-the-art capabilities available in the ZebraLink solution:

• Configure printer settings from your desk, your car, your client's office - virtually anywhere.
• Communicate with your printer from any location, around the office or around the world.
• Replace an old bar code printer - any brand - with the superior performance and reliability of a Zebra printer... without costly programming efforts.
• Create stand-alone applications using a scanner, keyboard or weight-scale without a PC.
• Send, receive and print real-time data with easy connections to your ERP or WMS system.

ZebraLink maximizes the connectivity and control you want from Zebra bar code printers with three core components:

• Alert* - provides unsolicited printer error and status notification in real-time via any email-enabled, wired or wireless device.
• WebView* - a graphical, remote printer setup and control feature that allows you to adjust printer settings using any Web-enabled device--at anytime, from anywhere.
• ZBI™ - a new programming language to control and interpret incoming text and/or data, which expands the features and power of ZPL II (Zebra Programming Language).

Find out how these features empower your bar code printing applications...

Instant notification of networking or printer errors.

ALERT: Real-Time Printer Monitoring

The ZebraLink™ ALERT system aids in managing Zebra printers by providing real-time alerts to system administrators informing them of printer errors or warning conditions. Using web-based graphical configuration tools, selected errors or warning conditions may be routed over a wide variety of communication devices such as E-Mail, Wireless Pagers, or Zebra™s own ALERT Printer Management Utility for Windows™ 98/95/NT.

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW:
ZebraLink™ ALERT monitoring system comprises the following components:

Error Detection System
ZebraLink™ ALERT actively searches for and immediately reports printer and networking error and warning conditions on all Zebra printers running on a wired or wireless network.

Immediate Error Notification System
Error or warning conditions are immediately detected and selectively routed through the following communication channels and services:

• E-Mail
• Pager
• Cell Phone Messaging Systems
• Internet
• Corporate LAN or WAN
• Wireless Networks
• Symbol Spectrum24 NetVision Paging Products
• Zebra™s own ALERT Printer Management Utility for WindowsŽ 98/95/NT
• HP Jet-Admin, HP Web-Admin, HP Open-View

PC Management Software
Zebra™s own ALERT Printer Management Utility for Windows™ 98/95/NT provides centralized error management of Zebra printers on a network. Acting as a background task under Windows™, this software package actively monitors the printer and the network connections. If there is a problem, the system administrator is warned and an optional report may be generated.

Statistical analysis of printer errors is supported with this software program. The ALERT Printer Management Utility for Windows™ is an optional component of the complete ZebraLink™ ALERT system.

Benefits

• Decrease downtime of printers and production lines in mission critical operations.
• Instant response to printer error or warning conditions before a call comes from the production line.
• Increase effectiveness of a mobile network administrator.
• Leverages the power of the mobile workforce by allowing mobile workers to immediately respond to critical printer error conditions.
• World-wide active management of Zebra printers
• Statistical determination of printer maintenance requirements.

Summary

The ZebraLink™ ALERT system provides business with a powerful tool to actively manage their Zebra printers in mission-critical printing applications where proactive management of Zebra printers is required. The ZebraLink™ ALERT system is highly flexible and adaptable to meet the evolving needs of business and is compatible with the latest mobile, wireless, and Internet technologies.

 

Configuring the ZebraNet PrintServer II is as easy as surfing the web.

Webview: Remote Graphical Configuration, Control and Monitoring

PRODUCT OVERVIEW
ZebraLink™ WebView helps manage Zebra printers by providing real-time graphical configuration, control, and monitoring capabilities through a standard web-browser interface such as Microsoft Internet Explorer™ or Netscape Navigator™. This system allows complete control and management of Zebra printers across the enterprise, uses a standard graphical interface system, and operates under any TCP/IP Ethernet network system such as a corporate LAN or the Internet.

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
ZebraLink™ WebView is an extremely powerful management tool that leverages state-of-the-art Internet technology. A web-server embedded within the Zebra printer's operating system makes WebView technology possible. When a Zebra printer is configured for a TCP/IP Ethernet network, the printer's embedded web-server allows a network administrator to point a web-browser to the Zebra printer's URL just as one would point to a URL on the Internet. The printer's web-server then responds by sending a web page to the network administrator's web-browser, thus providing a wealth of information about the printer's status, configuration, and settings.

The web pages returned by Zebra printers are not static. They contain real-time information about the printer's present state of operation including on-line status, error conditions, and all printing parameters. Even management of stored label formats, graphics, and stored fonts is just a click away. Every printer parameter may be viewed through this interface or modified using easy to use web-components. All attributes for a particular printer setting are presented to the network administrator through easy-to-use drop-down boxes. Knowledge of cryptic commands or available printer settings is not required since each printer's unique configuration choices are all graphically presented.

Zebra printer web pages for Zebra printers may be viewed anywhere across the enterprise. Printers located in another building or even another country may be managed using a standard web-browser interface. ZebraLink™ WebView even supports web management via PPP and SLIP connections allowing for dial-in access to Zebra printers from remote locations where a fixed TCP/IP connection may not be available.

ZebraLink™ WebView even supports mobile workers with integrated support for controlling Zebra printers via mobile devices. When used with ZebraLink™ ALERT, a mobile worker can be immediately notified of printer error conditions can modify and correct printer settings from web-enabled mobile devices.

Benefits

• Easy graphical configuration and setup of Zebra printers using a well-known graphical interface
• Short learning curve since a well known web configuration interface is presented for the printer
• Reduced downtime of printers and production lines in mission critical operations.
• Remote diagnostics and reconfiguration of printer parameters across the enterprise.
• Instant response and corrective action to printer error or warning conditions before a call comes from the production line.
• World-wide active management of Zebra printers through any TCP/IP or dial-up network
• Leverages the power of the mobile network administrator

SUMMARY
ZebraLink™ WebView provides business with a powerful tool for remotely managing Zebra printers using an easy to use graphical interface. This system leverages the power and technology of the Internet to satisfy the most demanding mission-critical printing applications.

 

With ZBI, the power to create new applications and solve complex printing problems is at hand.

ZBI: New, Powerful Programming Tool Works in Conjunction with ZPL I

Product Overview
Zebra Technologies has extended the power and capabilities of Zebra label, tag, and ticket printers. Leveraging the awesome power of Zebra™s original printer command and control language, ZPLII , and the new incredibly versatile control language, ZBI™, programmers can fully customize the operation and control of ZBI™ enabled Zebra printers.

The full power and speed of ZPLII™s label design and formatting commands for the Zebra printer is enhanced and reinforced with ZBI™. ZBI™ extends the power of ZPLII by providing full control over the operation of the printer and interpretation of data being transmitted to the printer. The benefits of ZBI™ are:

• Stand-alone operation of Zebra printers
• Direct interface to peripheral devices such as bar-code scanners, weight-scales, and keyboards.
• Interpretation and translation of foreign and proprietary data streams.
• Data logging
• Internet networking support for TCP/IP and E-Mail messaging

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
There are now two programming languages embedded within the Zebra printer: ZPLII and ZBI™. ZPLII provides a programmer with an easy to use method for describing complex label designs and formats using ASCII based control syntax. ZPLII provides control of printer settings such as darkness or print mode while also maintaining control for printing parameters on supported labels, tags, or tickets. 

ZPL II supports the following label design features:

• ASCII based
• Simple command system
• Barcodes rendering of 1D & 2D symbologies
• Scalable fonts
• Graphic Shapes
• Graphic Logo Support

HOW DOES ZBI™ WORK?
ZBI™ is a new programming language embedded inside Zebra printers. ZBI works in conjunction with the ZPLII label formatting command language. ZBI™ IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR ZPL II. ZBI complements the speed, features, and power of the ZPLII programming languages and expands the applications in which ZPLII can serve.

ZBI™ is based on the ANSI BASIC computer language and operates within the Zebra printer.

The benefits of which are:

• Easy to learn
• Simple commands
• Fast
• Powerful

The ZBI is an interpretive programming module that sits between the communication ports of the printer and the ZPLII processing engine. This enables the ZBI™ module to intercept data and manipulate it before it reaches the ZPLII label generator for processing.

FEATURES
With ZBI™, the power to create new applications and solve complex printing problems is given in a simple to use programming language and development system that all reside within the Zebra printer. 

ZBI™ can customize the operation of the Zebra printer to perform unique and complex printing tasks without having to rely on a PC hooked to the printer.

Peripheral control
In the past if an application required interfacing the printer with some type of external device, such as a weigh-scale, hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars would need to be spent to create an interface for the job. Because the scale and the printer speak different languages, at the very least a computer would be needed interpret the data between the two devices. In more extreme cases, there would need to be custom programming to facilitate the data conversion. That type of scenario is made easy with ZBI™. ZBI™ can connect the scale directly to the Zebra printer, gather weight information, and print the desired weight information on the label without placing a PC in the application.

Programming time is also cut to a minimum because ZBI™ is programmed in easy to understand BASIC. Complete stand-alone systems are easily created using ZBI™.

Networking
ZBI™ is Internet and network aware. This allows ZBI™ programs and applications that are created to communicate to most company™s corporate information systems. In the ZBI™ application just described, the printer is gathering weight data from a weigh-scale. Without ZBI™s™ networking support, the information sent from the scale to the printer would be lost to an application on the network that might need to use it for further processing. With ZBIŽ the Zebra printer can be printing and transmitting the printed data over a corporate LAN to a global database for inventory tracking, shipping information, or any reason. This will reduce errors by eliminating manual processes and automating data retrieval.

Data extraction
One of the most exciting aspects of the ZBI™ system is the ability to receive and interpret foreign data streams. If there is a need to replace an older printer in the factory or office with a Zebra printer, ZBI™ offers many options. The program on the opposite column is taken from an aging printer that is in desperate need of new parts that have long since been discontinued. The customer has no idea who programmed the shipping software and does not want to change over to a software that directly supports current printers. ZBI™ can readily solve this all too common problem. By creating a small program like the one shown here, the data from the shipping software does not need to be touched. ZBI™ can handle the data conversion into ZPLII for printing on Zebra printers.

Benefits of ZBI™

• Rapidly solves difficult and unique printing problems
• Allows Zebra printers to interface to foreign data streams that are not ZPL II compliant.
• Leverages the power, features, and speed of ZPLII
• Easy to learn and program
• Provides maximum benefit and use over corporate networks.

Summary
Zebra Printers now have a new control language named ZBI™ (Zebra Basic Interpreter). ZBI™ complements the speed, power, and unbeatable performance of ZPLII by allowing the data being sent to the printer to be manipulated into any form desired by the programmer. The vision of a business with efficient and seamless in- house operations has just become much easier to obtain. With ZBI™ and the rock solid performance and reputation of Zebra™s printers no application is out of reach!

ZBI is based on the ANSI BASIC computer language and operates within the Zebra printer.

Data is transmitted to the Zebra printer on any of its three input ports: serial, parallel or Ethernet. The ZBI engine can receive data and manipulate it for transmission out of the printer on any of the above ports. The same data can also be converted to a form usable by the ZPL II engine for label printing.

This type of architecture allows the programmer to completely control the data coming into and being transmitted from the Zebra printer. The possibilities are endless!

Language emulation is seamless and easy with ZBI.

Data being sent to outdated printer.

 

ZBI program to extract variable data

 

Output from a ZBI enabled printer

ZBI and ZPLII an unbeatable combination for ease of integration and data retrieval

Direct data transfer to any network application is possible with ZBI™

 

Back to Zebra main