[Nhcoll-l] HONEYWELL, PX940 PRINTER, VERIFIER W/PERPETUAL LIC.

Tue May 24 16:03:12 EDT 2022

I also was unable to buy a Datamax, but we ended up with a GoDEX ZX430i: https://www.godexprinters.co.uk/industrial/zx430i
Pros:

  *   Much cheaper than the Honeywell printers, even with the cutter (which cost almost as much as the printer itself)
  *   Prints tiny characters very clearly
  *   Connecting and setting up drivers was easy
Cons: an absolute pain in the neck to use in almost every way.

Not once have I printed a label successfully on the first try. I have to hand feed the label paper (we use Tyvek Brillion) every time I print or else the rollers won't grab it. I don't recommend using this medium; it curls on the edges after some time in ethanol. Frequently, the cutter will cut the label before it finished printing it, and then will print the second half of the label and then claim that it is jammed (when it isn't). I have wasted so much of that pricy Tyvek paper. When I turn the printer off, half of the settings aren't saved, so I just have to leave the printer on all the time unless I want to spend 30 minutes figuring out what all the settings were before.

I really identify with the statement: "I just spent ~1 hr last week printing 10 labels..." because this is usually what happens to me too. I have been putting off labeling jars because it is so frustrating to print labels.

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that thermal printers are not the way to go. Seems like everyone has horror stories, regardless of the brand.

Best of luck to you!

Katrina Derieg
Vertebrate Zoology Collections Manager
Natural History Museum of Utah (UMNH)
301 Wakara Way
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
Email: kderieg at nhmu.utah.edu<mailto:kderieg at nhmu.utah.edu>
Mobile: (801) 707-4819 | Office: (801) 587-5787
she/her

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Watters, Jessa L.
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2022 1:22 PM
To: Mary Sollows <Mary.Sollows at nbm-mnb.ca>; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] HONEYWELL, PX940 PRINTER, VERIFIER W/PERPETUAL LIC.

We bought the following machine last Fall: Honeywell PX940
https://www.cdwg.com/product/honeywell-px940-3-core-300-dpi-thermal-industrial-printer/5712690?pfm=srh

It has been a total disaster and we all feel like we wasted a few thousand dollars. Details are as follows:

  1.  Connecting it to a device was harder than it should have been (our in-house IT could not do it without Honeywell customer service help).
  2.  It prints very faintly. We have it turned up to maximum density and it is just barely at the darkness our old Datamax was on a regular setting (and we have been informed by Honeywell that printing at darkest setting with cause it to die out faster...)
  3.  It doesn't seem to recognize the media we already had (supposedly "standard" and can fit any thermal printer). This results in us having to open and shut the print head before every label, just to trick it into recognizing there is media present. It also ejects/feeds about 4-5 labels worth of media after each label.
  4.  There is no built-in cutter to cut your labels for you (not sure if that is just a model issue or none of these Honeywell ones have it; the company seemed confused by this concept)
  5.  We use FileMaker as our specimen database and our presets on labels there print ok, but the ones in Excel do not (and we basically have to do weird re-formatting things in Excel every time we create a new label)

We have tried a new printhead, thinking it would fix the faintness issue (#2), but it did not. We also requested the "official" Honeywell media sample thinking maybe it would start to recognize it (perhaps fixing multiple issues in #3). They have not sent the media yet (requested over a month ago), so I assume we will have to eventually break down and just buy it ourselves, hoping it fixes the problem. See attached specs from the company.

In the meantime, as an example, I just spent ~1 hr last week printing 10 labels...

Jessa

___________________________________________________
Jessa Watters, M.S.
Collection Manager, Herpetology
Sam Noble Museum
2401 Chautauqua Ave.
Norman, OK 73072
jwatters at ou.edu<mailto:jwatters at ou.edu>
https://jessawatters.weebly.com/
405-325-7771 (phone)
405-325-7699 (fax)
https://samnoblemuseum.ou.edu/collections-and-research/herpetology/
pronouns: she, her, hers

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> on behalf of Mary Sollows <Mary.Sollows at nbm-mnb.ca<mailto:Mary.Sollows at nbm-mnb.ca>>
Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at 6:55 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu> <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] HONEYWELL, PX940 PRINTER, VERIFIER W/PERPETUAL LIC.
Hello,

I would like to know if anyone has experience using the following thermal label printer for collections stored in ethanol:  HONEYWELL, PX940 PRINTER, VERIFIER W/PERPETUAL LIC., FULL TOUCH DISPLAY, UNIVERSAL FW, ETH, USB, SERIAL, LOW POWER BLUETOOTH, RIBBON INK IN/OUT, MEDIA CORE 3 INCH, DT AND TT, 300 DPI, US POWER CORD.

Our efforts to purchase a Datamax or CAB/Squix were unsuccessful last year because of supply issues so we purchased a Honeywell option.  We returned it to Honeywell in January because it was defective and we have now been offered the option to replace it with a slightly different model, the HONEYWELL, PX940 PRINTER, VERIFIER W/PERPETUAL LIC.

I am also curious if anyone knows of a museum service available to have thermal labels printed by an external organization using the appropriate media and SDR ribbon?  I don't want to run the risk of "Alphabet soup" in the jars of ethanol caused but incorrect ribbon. We need to deal with a large backlog of labels to be printed that have been accumulating over the past 2 years.  As always, I really appreciate your advice.

Best regards,

Mary Sollows
Invertebrate Zoology
Department of Natural History / Département d'histoire naturelle
New Brunswick Museum / Musée du Nouveau-Brunswick
277 Douglas Ave.
Saint John, New Brunswick
Canada  E2K 1E5

Mary.Sollows at nbm-mnb.ca<mailto:Mary.Sollows at nbm-mnb.ca>
tel: (506) 643-2365
fax: (506) 643-2360 t was defectivt

http://www.nbm-mnb.ca/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/www.nbm-mnb.ca/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!56lbnZS1_foWfdh4wFFp1XbQkvZdItQGWx5EXTsbPhqk0anZvrN-h7tLM6Tg7xB1Z_PgAMJR9rsNcZULXkyQmt2dGw$>

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