Bluetooth Connectivity Zebra Mobile Printers Rev 2.
TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 1. What is Bluetooth? 2. What specification does the Zebra Bluetooth radio comply with? 3. What range does Bluetooth connectivity have in Zebra Mobile Printers? 4. What devices can communicate with Zebra Bluetooth Printers? 5. What information can be transmitted via Bluetooth to Zebra Mobile Printers? 6. What type of security does Bluetooth support? 7. What is the Friendly Name? 8. What are the configurable Bluetooth settings in my printer? 9.
I. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): 1. What is Bluetooth? Bluetooth is a global standard for a small radio module to be plugged into computers, printers, mobile phones, etc. A Bluetooth radio is designed to replace cables by taking the information normally carried by the cable, and transmitting it over radio frequency in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz frequencies to a receiver Bluetooth radio chip. 2.
that has been formatted for printing of receipts, labels and barcodes in media up to 4 inches wide, depending on the printer model. Zebra provides a label creation utility called “Label Vista” to facilitate the formatting of labels or text. A Programming Manual is also available. 6. What type of security does Bluetooth support? The Bluetooth specification supports authentication and encryption. For the authentication algorithm, the size of the key used is always 128 bits.
To change these settings the user can use “Label Vista” or send printer programming language commands to do so. Either way the printer needs to be connected to a PC through a serial cable P/N BL11757-000. For programming commands please refer to the “Mobile Printing Systems Programming Manual” section: Bluetooth Parameters. 10. What is the transmitting rate through a Bluetooth connection? According to Bluetooth Specification, the over the air transmission rate is 1 Mbps.
Bluetooth and 802.11b share the same spectral band (2.4GHz). Therefore, cross interference will be inevitable. The results can be a reduction in throughput. In general Bluetooth devices are less susceptible to coexistence problems because of the following reasons: • Bluetooth is a Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum technology (FHSS) which means that if a channel is busy, Bluetooth will immediately hop to a different channel to transmit the packet of information. 802.
Programming Manual) A serial connection from your PC to the printer and a communications utility such as Label Vista, MS HyperTerminal or ProComm is needed. With Authentication turned on: When a handheld computer discovers the printer and tries to establish a communication link between them, the printer will request a passkey. Zebra printers use an algorithm to generate the passkey based on the Friendly Name of the printer.
2) Encryption: If encryption is enabled in the terminal, then the link key is used to securely negotiate a 128 bit encryption key, which is used to encrypt all subsequent data passing back and forth from the printer. The Encryption key changes on every connection that is made with the device and calculated using the link key and a random number. Zebra has selected to calculate the PIN with a proprietary hashing function generated from the printer’s friendly name.
3) A handheld computer with Windows CE, Pocket PC (PPC) operating system, equipped with a Compact Flash (CF) card slot. 4) A Bluetooth CF card to enable your handheld with Bluetooth capabilities, and the software that comes with the card. Zebra has worked and tested interoperability of CF cards manufactured/sold by: Anycom, and Socket Communications. A. Copying the Files to your PPC Handheld Device Download or get the following files from Zebra: ZebraBTprintUtility.exe, pwrdll.
B. Printing Labels Using the Anycom CF card in your PPC device. 1) Tap on Start / Programs / Bluetooth Wizard /in your PPC device. 2) Tap on Serial Port Connection and then tap next. 3) Follow the directions on the screen. – Select a local port to setup or click new to create a new virtual port - If you select an existing COM port tap on it and then click next. Other wise add a new port and then tap on it and then click “next”.
3) Check the box next to the printer name and tap next. The service that the printer provides is found. Click finish. 4) Click “Device” in the lower menu bar, and then click on “My Bluetooth Device”. Go to the COM Ports tab. Make sure that the box for Bluetooth Com Port is selected and write down the port number. If you are unable to select the box for “Bluetooth COM Port” then de-select some of the other boxes and then select the “Bluetooth COM Port Box”. Only 4 boxes can be selected at any given time.
want and then click select. It will bring you back to the ZebraPrintUtility window. 9) Tap on the Send/Print button and the label will print. E. Printing Labels Using the iPAQ 3870 with embedded Bluetooth. In order to print labels from the iPAQ 3870 (with embedded Bluetooth) the user needs to establish a link from the IPAQ to the printer. In addition he needs to download the files: ZebraBTPrintUtility.exe and pwrdll.dll (compiled for the ARM processor) into the iPAQ and a few label files to print.
11) click on the upper most task bar to bring the dropdown menu and select/open "ZebraBTPrintUtilityARM". 12) In the Serial Port Box Change to COM8: using the pop up keyboard. This iPAQ uses COM8 to communicate through serial port emulation (see IPAQ manual). 13) Click on the "file name" box and select one of the labels that you loaded previously. 14) Click send file and a label should print. The above is just to prove the connectivity of the IPAQ with Bluetooth to a Zebra Bluetooth printer.
V. Bluetooth Definitions • Bluetooth: Bluetooth is a specification for short-range wireless communications based on low power 2.4 GHz frequency hopping RF technology. Although Bluetooth has approximately the same power level as our SRRF radios, both the radios themselves and the protocol they use are far more complex. • Piconet: Bluetooth allows up to 8 devices to link together creating a piconet.
must know the right password to access the server. A client without the password is not “authentic” and will not be serviced. • Rev 2.1 Standard Password: Zebra has defined a standard password for use in authentication. This password is based on the WRF protocol address generation algorithm. This algorithm generates a unique WRF address based on the serial number of the printer. We are using this unique WRF address as our standard password.
