QL-570 printer : the led flashes red and nothing happens

[Vincent Louviaux]

The label printer Brother QL-570 refuses to print ...

When I ask the printer to print, the led flashes red and nothing happens.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: printer-driver-ptouch 1.4.2-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-17.20-generic 4.13.8
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-17-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Dec 3 13:46:56 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-12-03 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171018)
SourcePackage: ptouch-driver
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Phil Pemberton (philpem)]

The most common issue which can cause this is setting the Page Size incorrectly in the driver. You'll get the red flashing light if the intended page size doesn't match the label.

The other issue is swapping the X and Y dimensions - the X (as far as the printer is concerned) is across the printer; the Y axis is the direction the label feeds.

Note that most of the Ptouch labels are longer (Y axis) than they are wide (X axis), but the dimensions on the label box are the other way around. This means you need to specify the paper size as it is on the physical label (i.e. longer than wide) then rotate the label (e.g. gLabels's "Rotated" option).

What are you trying to print, and with which application?

[Vincent Louviaux (vincent-louviaux)]

I tried with several applications like LibreOffice.
I tried with the function "print test page" directly from cups admin.
What is strange is that cups indicates that jobs are completed.

If I try the function "Clean Print Heads" , I have got the mesage "Invalid printer command "Clean".

The only error I have got in the cups log :
W [04/Dec/2017:09:01:37 +0100] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id \'QL-570-Gray..\' already exists

[Phil Pemberton (philpem)]

Clean Print Head doesn't apply to the QL driver. "cleaning" the heads requires either a cleaning card or a bit of manual work (can't remember if the 570 is like a Zebra printer; the instructions should be in the manual).

The CUPS test page is geared up for page printers, not label printers. I haven't tried it with the Ptouch driver but I wouldn't be surprised if it had problems.

As I said - you need to configure the label dimensions correctly in both the driver and the application. I've never tried Libreoffice, but gLabels works well.

If you get the page size wrong (especially width), the printer may refuse to print on the labels.

Can you post the settings you have set in the driver? Screenshots from CUPS (http://localhost:631 -> printers -> QL) would be useful, and I can see if you have anything set obviously wrong.

[Phil Pemberton (philpem)]

Another thought - can you also post the Brother part number of the labels you're using please? (then I can look that up and make sure your page size is right)

It'll be on a label on the side of the plastic label roll cartridge.

[Vincent Louviaux (vincent-louviaux)]

what I meant was that with the function "Clean Print head" I have a "normal" error while here cups tells me jobs completed and the printer blinks red.
I have try also with glabels and the driver was working well with the previous version on trusty : printer-driver-ptouch (1.3-8).
now printer-driver-ptouch (1.4.2-2).

[Vincent Louviaux (vincent-louviaux)]

I used 62mm label width
I add the screenshot

[Vincent Louviaux (vincent-louviaux)]

I use DK22205 labels.
How can I check what is send to the printer and what is the answer from it ?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Sandro (napk-deactivatedaccount)]

I have the exact same problem with my Brother QL-570 label printer.

I am running Raspbian Jessie and manually installed the binary driver package from the Stretch (v1.4.2-2) repository. This was an attempt to fix a problem with the cutter that was introduced after upgrading from Wheezy (v1.3-4) to Jessie (v1.3-8). However with version 1.4.2-2 my printer stopped working altogether and the red light comes up when attempting to print labels, in my case 62 mm wide continuous roll tape.

I have set up Custom Media Size as 59 x 32 mm (yielding 62 x 38 mm paper size effectively) in CUPS to account for the hardware margins (1.5 x 3 mm). This was working fine in Wheezy when printing custom labels generated with glabels having the same dimensions as the printer media size (59 x 32 mm). I have seen that provided label templates follow the same approach (at least in earlier versions of glabels).

As already pointed out in the discussion the reported problem is potentially related to the media size. I have noticed the latest PPD has updated the HWMargins option which may conflict with the Custom Media Size I am using.

Can you tell me what setting to use for Custom Media Size in CUPS and the correct dimensions for labels created with glabels. I am aiming at 62 x 38 mm. I can report back if this fixes the problem with the blinking red light. Meanwhile I downgraded to v1.3-4, but I want to see the problem resolved properly. I also managed to compile the drivers from source, so I can try out driver patches if necessary.

[Sandro (napk-deactivatedaccount)]

To clear things up, I was referring to Page Size in CUPS when saying Media Size.

[Sandro (napk-deactivatedaccount)]

I attached the log file for a failed print job from /var/log/cups/error.log. I am not entirely sure I was using driver version 1.4.2-2 at the time. Maybe this helps though.

[Sandro (napk-deactivatedaccount)]

Not sure what happened to the attachment. Gonna try again.

[Sandro (napk-deactivatedaccount)]

I resolved the issue by setting proper Page Size (62 x 38 mm) in CUPS and glabels. My QL-570 is now working with the latest driver version 1.4.2-3+b1 from Ubuntu. I attached the glabels template for reference. It is also possible to print smaller labels (same width, different height) without adjusting the printer settings. Perfect!

~napk