Zebra P330i Thermal Card Printer - Answered Questions & Fixed issues

Either your print-driver settings don't match the ribbon installed, or you have a bad ribbon sensor. Check your driver settings via the Windows printer center screen (Win7: Start Button => Devices and Printers; WinXP: Start Button => Printers and Faxes); locate your Zebra printer, then right-click on it and select "Printing Preferences". Locate the tab for the ribbon setting, and ensure the setting here matches the ribbon you have loaded. NOTE - you must have Windows administrator rights for your Windows log-in ID to make any changes to the driver settings. Contact your network administrator if you do not have these elevated privileges, and they can log in and make any required change for you.

calibrate with ribbon 800000-440

hi, not sure, but they have diferent ribbons, 800000-440 or -415 .... try difirent ones

it's possible that some elements from the printhead are damage, you will have to replace the printhead. Try to print the demo card, if still happen, possible printhead.

i will need to know, how the printer is connected, USB or network? did come any error at lcd panel? is the printer on at all times or went offline? please reinstall driver or install diferent driver ( seagullscientific.com). please let me know how it goes.

please check the part number of the ribbon. seems the shipp from ribbon is faulty, try other ribbon.

!RIBLEN - - - - Get number of remaining panels on ribbon
Send the command !CSA_0
Send the command !CSA_1

Sounds as though your printer is dirty, there are unfortunately no different color matchin schemes for this particular printer. The printer operates on an RGB interface, even though it prints using YMC. As far as the speckled look, this typically is due to dust during printing.

They are very finiky. Leave ribbon in and power on machine. hold button to initialize cleaning. it will ask you to remove ribbon and cards. if the card is not recognized when dropped in the feeder, you either have a bad sensor, cable, or main board. if it is recognized it will begin trying to feed. the printer will not take the card in right away as it scrubs the belt first. then pulls in the card. once ejected get the long card out and put it between the rollers in the exit. Then press the button and it should pull the card in. If your printer needs service it could be shipped to the company i work for and repaired on a time and materials basis. google search plastic card systems, and click the first non-advertised link for additional information.

It's hard to say based on the fact that your have already tightened screws. Without knowing which ones this may have caused the issue. One of the screws on the printer head is a set screw for the angle. If this is not set correctly it may break the ribbon. Based on your description of the colored ripples this means you are printing too hot and the ribbon is wrinkling under the heat. The only way to adjust this is to alter the printers internal head resistence settings. You would either have to succefully print a test card, or look at the under side of the print head to find the value. This should not be adjusted more then 300 points from the default value on the print head itself. to adjust go to printers and faxes, and right click the printer, go to printer properties (or just properties), device options, tools, properties, in the command line you must put the new value. !R_XXXX ( where "_" is a space, and the xxxx is the value on the print head. hope this helps.

Upgrade to version 2.0.0

go to zebra and download the latest firmware and drivers (free).
update the firmware first
turn printer off
then uninstall (from uninstall programs) the zebra drivers.
then install latest zebra driver.
turn printer on

Double click on printer icon, click on properties.
Click on the device options tag, then click on the properties next to tools
Enter "CALB" and click execute - this will re-calibrate your ribbon

First try the CALB, if your current firmware does not recognize it, then you will
need to upgrade the firmware as above.

The printer uses three sensors in relation to the ribbon. The RFID (chip on ribbon). When you go into the printing preferences for the printer it should detect any color ribbon, and say ribbon type changed to (ribbon type). If so both the ribbon and RFID sensor are working properly. Then there is the color ribbon sensor, which has the blue and amber LED's, and is used to detect the panel of the ribbon. Thirdly the flag sensor which is on the back end of the supply reel, to detect the ribbon turning. . Additionally, CALIB command has never worked for me. !SA is an auto self adjustment for multiple sensors. additional you can use !CSA 0 without ribbon in machine, then run !CSA 1 with a ribbon (color ribbon is a must with any calibrations). You can also run !SAP 0 for card sensors !SAP3 for mag encoder card sensor. !SAP 1 for ribbon calibrations. if all else fails, you can manually set the ribbon by using !CSA 5 70 120. Please remember these commands are for genuine zebra I Series printers, and that they are case sensitive, and spaces are present. If none of the above corrects the issue you may need to replace one of the three sensors, the daughter board, or possibly the main logic board.

ribbon cut again and again after put 2 or 3 cards pls give instruction how to solve the problem.

Common problem is a dirty card, make sure you handle the cards by the edges and not the surface as oil from finger residue will cause a misprint on that part. This problem can also be caused by improper or too low of a setting for black intensity, where the printer does not apply sufficient heat to transfer the color onto the card. Also check for a faulty ribbon, if the ribbon is not properly stored or is more than 3 years old, it can also cause this issue.-- The Pros at www.DiscountIDStore.com

Try to send the command !SA from the driver. And run the Ribbon calibration

The P330i is not supposed to work with the YMCK color ribbon, you should use the YMCKO 800015-440 color ribbon.-- The Pros at www.DiscountIDStore.com

The P430 and the P330 are similar, P430 print both sides from the card, and the P330 just print one site, but the commands to send are the sane. Please try !SA command from the driver.

what for? There are some command to ajust the hit on the printhead.

I doubt you can set a delay. Maybe try only sending a page to the printer, and then putting the paper in the other way up, and then sending the other page. If this works OK - then if you have a run, print off all copies of the one side, and then repeat for the other side.

Alternatively, if you only have the one page in, it should wait until you put the paper back in, to do the other side.