WinCE 5.0 USP PCL Printing

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

JR Malin

2006-08-29 23:51:01 UTC

I have read the previous postings concerning PCL Printing, but they do not
fully cover my situation.

I am working with an x86, Enterprise Web Pad build for which I’m trying to
get USB PCL Printing to work on connection to any PCL-compatible printer. I
am using Platform Builder 5.0. I have added the USB Host Support, the PCL
Printer Driver, and the USB Printer Class Driver to the build. I started out
with only the default registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\USB\LoadClients\Default\Default\7\Printer_Class]
"DLL"="USBPRN.DLL"
"Prefix"="LPT"
"IClass"="{4FE1CEF1-E765-4a1e-B503-5B8C674D7C68}"

It is my understanding from the Help, that if a device is connected and not
identified in the registry, one can specify “USBPRN” in the Unknown Device
dialog box “This action loads the USB printer class driver and sets the
correct registry entries, so the driver can load automatically next time.”
When I do this, it creates a new key:

“[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\USB\LoadClients\Default\Default\7_1\Printer_Class]”

And sets up a series of device parameters under that key. If debug messages
are enabled, it reports that USBPRN was successfully installed, but it keeps
trying to load the original driver from the parameters it read from the
printer and stays in the prompt loop keeping the Unknown Device dialog box
displayed unless I cancel it. If I reconnect the device it doesn’t seem to
use the key and parameters that it created and does not add a key based on
the USB device ID, etc, that it reads from the printer when it attaches.

Does anyone know what the problem is and how to get and unknown USB printer
to register and be used as a print device?

--
JR Malin, Embedded Software Engineer

Rams

2006-09-08 05:23:02 UTC

Permalink

Hi,

I suppose that even we too faced the same problem. It was that even
though the printer had got registered, it was searching for other class
drivers that was not available in the WinCe. I mean that the printer was a
compound device supporting not only printer class, but also included mass
storage and many other things which that wince 5.0 was not supporting. So
when we connected the device to the USB host, we were to get the unknown
device connectivity dialog box. We dismiss that dialog and even then we would
be ablke to print documents from the wordpad. To check if the printer got
registered, u can see if the printer is seen in the list of printers
available wordpad file->print.
Hope this answers ur query.

-Rams

Post by JR Malin
I have read the previous postings concerning PCL Printing, but they do not
fully cover my situation.
I am working with an x86, Enterprise Web Pad build for which I’m trying to
get USB PCL Printing to work on connection to any PCL-compatible printer. I
am using Platform Builder 5.0. I have added the USB Host Support, the PCL
Printer Driver, and the USB Printer Class Driver to the build. I started out
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\USB\LoadClients\Default\Default\7\Printer_Class]
"DLL"="USBPRN.DLL"
"Prefix"="LPT"
"IClass"="{4FE1CEF1-E765-4a1e-B503-5B8C674D7C68}"
It is my understanding from the Help, that if a device is connected and not
identified in the registry, one can specify “USBPRN” in the Unknown Device
dialog box “This action loads the USB printer class driver and sets the
correct registry entries, so the driver can load automatically next time.”
“[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\USB\LoadClients\Default\Default\7_1\Printer_Class]”
And sets up a series of device parameters under that key. If debug messages
are enabled, it reports that USBPRN was successfully installed, but it keeps
trying to load the original driver from the parameters it read from the
printer and stays in the prompt loop keeping the Unknown Device dialog box
displayed unless I cancel it. If I reconnect the device it doesn’t seem to
use the key and parameters that it created and does not add a key based on
the USB device ID, etc, that it reads from the printer when it attaches.
Does anyone know what the problem is and how to get and unknown USB printer
to register and be used as a print device?
--
JR Malin, Embedded Software Engineer

JR Malin

2006-09-22 01:07:01 UTC

Permalink

Hi, & thanks for your input. I, too, have come to this realization. WinCE
5.0 requires a printer that identifies its interface as printer class and it
does not seem to know how to handle a multi-function device. One printer I
used identified itself as having two interfaces, both mass storage class.
The other printer was a multi-function device and did not report the printer
interface first. If the first interface reported is not recognized, WinCE
does not look at any of the other interfaces. It simply fails. I need to
get my hands on a simple USB printer with one interface that reports itself
as printer class. I was not able to get as for as you did. It failed on
both printers and I had no USB device known or unknown available for printing.

Regards,
--
JR Malin, Embedded Software Engineer

Post by Rams
Hi,
I suppose that even we too faced the same problem. It was that even
though the printer had got registered, it was searching for other class
drivers that was not available in the WinCe. I mean that the printer was a
compound device supporting not only printer class, but also included mass
storage and many other things which that wince 5.0 was not supporting. So
when we connected the device to the USB host, we were to get the unknown
device connectivity dialog box. We dismiss that dialog and even then we would
be ablke to print documents from the wordpad. To check if the printer got
registered, u can see if the printer is seen in the list of printers
available wordpad file->print.
Hope this answers ur query.
-Rams