PV750 to drive a printer

Discuss issues and ideas you have to configuring displays with PowerVision
rtackett
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 9:58 am

PV750 to drive a printer

Post by rtackett » Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:52 am

All,
I need to drive a printer (either RS-232 or USB) directly from a PV750 screen. I need to know how to configure the port to send out printer commands.

Thanks,
Russell Tackett
bmcrae
Enovation Controls Development
Enovation Controls Development
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:20 am

Re: PV750 to drive a printer

Post by bmcrae » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:45 am

Russell,

There is no configuration of the USB or Serial Ports (485) for printers. That is not a feature we support at this time.

We do support exporting datalog files to a usb stick. We also support modbus. What is the application you need a printer for? What type of data are you looking to print?

Brian McRae
Test Leader
FW Murphy
rtackett
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 9:58 am

Re: PV750 to drive a printer

Post by rtackett » Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:47 am

Brian,
The application is for a cement truck. The printer needs to print time and date for the end of the job. It also needs to print several variables such as cement volume, stone/sand volume, etc. Presently, the requirement is for 14 variables. The customer would also like the ability to print invoices directly from the truck.

Ideally, the operator would complete the job. The information is held in the PV450/750. He would press a button, and the display would send a text string out to a printer (RS-232). Help direct me on how to accomplish this. I am talking with a printer manufacture now, but need to know how Murphy can accomplish this task.

Thanks for your help,
Russell
bmcrae
Enovation Controls Development
Enovation Controls Development
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:20 am

Re: PV750 to drive a printer

Post by bmcrae » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:39 pm

Russell,

We only have RS485 on our displays, we do not directly support RS232.

At this time the USB is reserved for use with USB flash sticks or attaching with ethernet / usb adapters.

The port does not support printers or exporting variable data out the serial port except via modbus.

I would suggest using modbus over serial or modbus TCP over a ethernet port. There might be a printer that can act as a modbus slave and recieve data from the display. Or purhaps the printer company you are talking with can make a unit that will talk via modbus.

You can also contact our application engineers to see what it would take for us to add this functionality to our system.

Also you might want to discuss with your customer the many "paperless" approaches. Printers can be expensive and difficult to maintain. At the end of the shift they could simply bring in a flash stick from the truck or someone can pull data from the display onto a flash stick. We could log any data and it is easy with the configuration tool to export files from the display onto a flash stick.