Before following these steps, prepare the ribbon by removing its wrapping and pulling its adhesive strip free.
1 - Notch (Required on the left side of Zebra thermal transfer ribbon)
2 - Adhesive Strip
3 - Right Notch (not usable by ribbon drive system)
Verify that the ribbon and empty ribbon core have notches on the left side of the ribbon cores as shown above.
With the printer open, place an empty ribbon core on the printer’s take-up spindles. Push the right side of the empty core onto the spring-loaded spindle (right side). Align the core with the center of the left side spindle’s hub and rotate the core until the notches align and lock.
You can find your first ribbon take-up core in the packing box. Subsequently, use the empty supply core from the supply spindle for the next roll of ribbon.
Place a new ribbon roll on the printer’s lower ribbon supply spindle. Push it onto the right spindle and lock the left side the same as the take-up mounting the take-up core.
Attach the ribbon to the take-up core. Use the adhesive strip on new rolls; otherwise, use a thin strip of tape. Align the ribbon so that it will be taken straight onto the core.
Turn the ribbon take-up hub with the top moving toward the rear to remove slack from the ribbon. Rotating the hub helps to finish aligning the take-up ribbon position to the supply ribbon roll. The ribbon leader should be completely covered by the ribbon.
Verify that the media is loaded and ready to print and then close the printer cover.
If printer power is on, press the
FEED
button to have the printer advance a minimum of 20 cm (8 in.) of media to remove slack and ribbon wrinkle (straightens the ribbon), and to align the ribbon on the spindles. Otherwise, wait to turn on the printer and complete the printer instructions in this chapter.
Change the print mode setting from direct thermal printing to thermal transfer to set the printer’s temperature profiles for thermal transfer media. This can be done with the printer driver, ZebraDesigner label design software, or printer programming commands.
When controlling printer operations with ZPL programming, refer to the Media Type (
^MT
) ZPL II command (follow the instructions in the ZPL Programming Guide).
When controlling printer operations with EPL Page Mode, refer to the
Options
(
O
) EPL command (follow the instructions in the EPL Page Mode Programmer’s Guide).
To verify the mode change from direct thermal printing to thermal transfer printing, use the Test Printing with the Configuration Report to print a configuration label. The
