Text output to LPT/COM

[ribsa3]

Hi there

I am just tinkering with VB.NET and would like to send unformatted text to a COM or LPT port.

So I am hoping someone could give me a little hint or a sample on how I best can do that (e.g. write the contents of a textbox to COM1). Also, if I there are any escape characters I should be aware of for start, end, linespace, form feed or other things.

Many thanks in advance!
Kindly,

Bjoern Sandvik

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He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
-Chinese proverb

 

[Dimandja]

This should get you started:

        Dim portnum As Integer
        FileOpen(1, "LPT" & CStr(portnum), OpenMode.Binary, OpenAccess.ReadWrite, OpenShare.LockReadWrite, -1)

portnum should be 1 through 16. Replace LPT with COM as needed.

What are you building? A spooler?

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[ribsa3]

Hi, and thanks for the tip

I'm trying to create a bypass solution for an application which by default only generates graphical print jobs. The target is a label printer which is very sensitive to non-ascii characters.

So ideally, my application retrieves data from a database and sends it directly to LPT or COM.

A sample string containing article number, name and quantity:
801-B01|FOLIO STORAGE, MONTHLY|12.00

More information than you'd want I guess, but you get the idea

-B

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He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
-Chinese proverb