LabeLase® Producer
Main Form - Maintenance Menu

The Maintenance menu is only available when in the Supervisor mode of operation and provides several features that aid in the setup of the printer and diagnosis of any problems you may encounter.   Note that under most circumstances, it will not be necessary to access these functions.   If you must use these functions, do so only under the direct supervision of factory trained personnel.

The Printer Calibration dialog allows you to perform two separate calibration operations. 

Stepper Motor
The first tab allows calibration of the printer’s stepper motor. Use this function to determine the stepper resolution. This procedure may be necessary after prolonged use of the printer due to wear of the drive roller.   Follow the on-screen instructions to perform the Motor Calibration procedure.

Laser
The next tab allows calibration of the printer’s laser. This function is usually used by factory trained technicians only.  The laser will burn a line across the tag and then step 50 steps forward.

Feed and Tag Adjustment

The following adjustment and calibration procedures can be used to fine tune the tag printer’s operation.

1. Calibrate Stepper Resolution

   a. Feed at least 6 inches of tag stock into the rear in-feed slot of the printer.

   b. Select “Maintenance – Calibrate…” from the LabeLase® Producer menu to go to the “Printer Calibration” form. Click on “Begin”. Two calibration lines will be burned on the tag stock.

   c. Press the “Feed” button on the printer and feed the stock out of the printer until the two lines are visible. As accurately as possible, measure the distance between the lines and enter the decimal value in the “Distance Measured” field of the “Printer Calibration” form.

   d. Click on “Compute” and then click “Save”. The stepper resolution should now be calibrated. The value should be about 0.00295 or 0.00296 inches or about 0.075 millimeters if using metric units.

   e. Click on “Close” to return to the main form. Select “Printer – Unload Tags” from the menu (or reverse feed by pressing F8 until the tags are unloaded from the printer.)

2. Adjust Tearoff Location

   a. Feed a string of 3 or more tags into the rear in-feed slot of the printer. Press the “Feed” button twice to feed out 2 tags. If the tags do not align with the tearoff location, measure the amount of miss-alignment.

   b. Go to the Printer Configuration form. If the tag feeds out too far from the printer, reduce the “Tearoff Location” setting by the amount you measured. If the tag did not feed far enough, increase the setting. Click on “Ok” to enter the setting and return to the main form.

   c. Select “Printer – Unload Tags” from the menu (or reverse feed by pressing F8 until the tags are unloaded from the printer.) Repeat step a. Don’t forget to feed 2 tags before checking the alignment If necessary, repeat the adjustment until correct.

3. Adjust Rear Drive Location (alignment of tag fed in from rear)

   a. Unload the tags from the printer.

   b. Feed in some tag stock into the rear in-feed slot of the printer.

   c. Check the alignment of the first tag with the tearoff location. Measure any misalignment.

   d. Go to the Printer Configuration form. If the tag feeds out too far from the printer, reduce the “Rear Drive Location” setting by the amount you measured. If the tag did not feed out far enough, increase the setting. Click on “Ok” to enter the setting and return to the main form.

   e. Repeat the procedure until proper alignment of the first tag is achieved.

4. Adjust Front Drive Location (alignment of the tag fed in from the front)

   a. Unload the tags from the printer.

   b. Go to the “Printer Configuration” form. Make sure that “Auto Print Single Items” is NOT checked.

   c. Feed a tag into the front slot of the printer. Note the tag must be the same length as the tag loaded into the layout of the LabeLase® Producer program. Also note that the minimum length for single tags is 3 inches, so if you are using shorter tags, you will need to use a strip of 2 or more tags totaling 3 inches or greater.

   d. Check the alignment of the tag with the tearoff location. Measure any misalignment.

   e. Go to the Printer Configuration form. If the tag edge stuck out too far from the printer, increase the “Front Drive Location” setting by the amount you measured. If the tag fed too far into the printer, decrease the setting. Click on “Ok” to enter the setting and return to the main form.

   f. Repeat the procedure until proper alignment of the tag is achieved.

5. Adjust Laser Location and Galvo Offset (alignment of burned image relative to the tag)

   a. For this adjustment, you will need to create a tag layout with a box at the outside edges of the tag. A box with a bold line (10) is recommended. The line edges should go clear to the edges of the tag layout.

   b. Insert continuous tag stock into the rear of the printer. The tag stock should be of the same length tags as the layout created in step a. Make sure the stock is aligned correctly with the tearoff location. Print the tag with the box image.

   c. Check the alignment of the printed box with the leading and trailing edges of the tag. If the box is printed too far forward (toward the front of the printer), the “Laser Location” setting (located in “Printer Configuration”) is too low. If the box is printed too far back (toward the rear of the printer), the setting is too high.

   d. The top and bottom lines of the printed box may be used to check vertical alignment. The vertical alignment of the image is part of the internal calibration of the printer, however it may be “fine tuned” in the printer configuration by using the “Galvo Offset” setting. The units are in inches when using English units of measure, or in millimeters when using Metric units. “Galvo Offset” is normally set to 0, but a positive number will shift the image up and a negative number will shift the image down. Normally very small numbers (thousandths) will be entered here.

6. Tag Sensor Location

   a. This is provided for future use and should be set to the default of 4.8 inches.

The Jog Printer Motor dialog is useful for exercising the printer’s stepper motor. With this dialog, you can:

Jog the motor by single (or multiple) steps in either the forward or reverse directions.

Specify a specific position relative to the notch sensor and have the motor move there.

Monitor the state of the notch sensor to determine if the sensor is functioning properly.

Feed the tag stock by one tag length.


Left Button - This button will cause the motor to move in the left direction by the number of steps specified in the Number of Steps drop down list.

Right Button - This button will cause the motor to move in the Right direction by the number of steps specified in the Number of Steps drop down list.

Number of Steps - This drop down list allows you to specify the number of steps to move when jogging in either the left or right direction. You can select any number of steps in the list, or type in a specific number of steps.

Feed Button - This button will cause the tag material to feed by one tag length. The notch sensor must be found for this to function correctly.

Current Motor Position - This entry field display the current tag material position, which is the distance moved past the notch sensor. You may enter a new number here and press the Go button, which will cause the motor to move to the indicated position.

Go Button - This button is used in conjunction with the Current Motor Position to move the motor / tag material to a specific position relative to the notch sensor.

Notch Sensor - This is an indicator of the state of the notch sensor. When the notch is at the sensor, the indicator will glow yellow.

Tag Sensor - This is an indicator of the state of the tag sensor.

The Printer I/O Monitor is a view only screen that shows the status of the inputs and outputs of the printer. This screen is updated once each ½ second.

Inputs that are "off" are shown as dark, while "on" inputs are shown lighted in yellow.

The printer uses a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) to control the operation of the mirror galvanometer. This dialog allows you to manually manipulate the DAC and thus the position of the mirror.

Select the Digital to Analog Converter Channel - This drop down list allows you to select one of the two DAC channels in the printer. Most models of the LabeLase Printer use only Channel 1.

Enter the Desired Voltage - There are two ways to enter an output voltage and thus move the mirror. You may type the voltage setting into the edit field and then press the Output button, or you may move the slider control. The valid voltage range is -10.0 volts to +10.0 volts. When the slider is at the middle of its range, the output is zero volts.

Output Button - When pressed, this button will cause the voltage setting in the edit field to be set at the DAC output.

Oscillate Button - When pressed, this button will begin oscillating the mirror at a frequency of 20 hertz. The amplitude of the oscillation will be determined by the setting of the voltage entry field at the time the oscillate button was pressed. This is very useful when trying to calibrate the galvanometer. Calibration of the galvanometer should only be performed by qualified factory personnel.

The test print menu item causes the printer to print a special test tag that can be useful in calibrating the printer.

This menu item clears the queue of messages downloaded from the host.