Hi, I've been trying to make use of printing using bluetooth low-energy on the ZD620 and have been successful so far. However, the speed at which I can send ZPL to the printer is quite slow. Android and iOS both report a non-negotiable MTU size of 23 bytes that can be sent over at a time, but I've found that I can go up to 90 bytes, ignoring this reported MTU.
The labels I've attempted to print so far are from UPS and the they are 15kb in size. Every 90 byte chunk takes about 150ms and sending this 15kb label takes approximately 66 seconds to print one label. After much testing I've suspecting BLE is not meant for handling large print jobs as the speed seems to be fixed.
Are there any recommendations on how to print faster? Is bluetooth classic a better choice? Is BLE only meant for applications like retrieving printer status and not for full printing jobs?
1 Replies
Thien,
As you have observed, BLE does not have a very high transfer speed. You may have some minimal gains by setting the MTU to a multiple of 23. Either 69 or 92 would be the closest to 90. BLE is capable of full printing jobs, but it is not the fastest way with limit of only a few kB/sec depending on the device. For faster printing I would suggest bluetooth classic, or printing over a network connection.
Thanks,
Brian Moore
Software Engineer Kutir Mobility
Posted on behalf of Zebra Technologies