I have a ZD421 printer and a Zebra TC26, both of which are supposed to be Link-OS compatible. I have downloaded several Zebra example Android apps and none of them work. Is there a working example of PRINTING to a BTLE printer? I can connect, but the printing doesn't work in any of the example projects I have tried. I'm trying to print ZPL over BlueToothLE to a Link-OS printer, with no luck other than connecting and then failing.
Working Code Examples for BTLE printers from Android?// Expert user has replied. |
3 Replies
If you just want to test how the printer works with the TC26, you can download the Zebra Printer Setup Utility App from the Google Play. The utility app should be able to discover the ZD421 printer either on Bluetooth or on BTLE.
If you are a developer and want to compile a demo app for the TC26 with the ZD421 printer for BTLE, then you can download and install the Link-OS Multiplatform SDK | Zebra. There is a demo app in the default installation folder: C:\Program Files\Zebra Technologies\link_os_sdk\android_btle\v2.14.5198\demos. This demo app should work for you over the BTLE. Please note, you will have to request the fine location permission in the manifest file and ask the user to give the explicit permission, since the TC26 is on Android 11.
In my experience I have not been able to get printing to work over BLE. We attempted to send a PDF print job to a BLE Zebra Printer from a TC52 and the BLE connection could not handle the PDF payload. A ZPL based print job might be a different story but I at least wanted to share that I haven't found it possible to print over BLE. A printer with the full Bluetooth stack may be required.
there is a way to print pdf file directly on the printer....use SGD to enable pdf and then send the file via connection's sendfile method.