Canon i70 by IRDA prints pages of garbage for Word and Excel documents?

  • Thread starter Thread starter rj
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R

rj

I have a Canon I70 printer and am using it with my Toshiba 5100 laptop
running Home XP SP2.

It prints fine via the USB port. However I want to use the IRDA port. I
cannot print Word and Excel documents via the IRDA port. When I try the i70
spits out pages of garbage - just random gibberish.

I can print a .txt document made with Notepad via the IRDA fine, so the
communication appears
to be ok.

I reinstalled the latest Canon drivers as per their instructions. I have
the latest drivers for my Toshiba.

I'd really like to get the IRDA working for Word and Excel documents so
I'd appreciate any advice.

thanks

rj.
 
Additional info:
1. Canon Customer service suggested uninstalling and reinstalling the i70
software which I did.
2. They also suggested lowing the speed of the IRDA link.

Both if these did not fix the problem.

Below is my response to Canon.
1. I still have the problem. I cannot correctly print Word or Excel
documents.

2. I uninstalled then reinstalled the i70 software and restarted my
computer.

3. I changed the IRDA speed to various values and it did not make a
difference.

4. I also changed the min. turnaround time to the highest value - again it
didn't affect things.

5. What is printed out is not random. It is the same all the time.
Therefore it is not an IRDA speed issue. I doubt if it is a communication
issue. The computer is sending the same data each time. The printer is
receiving and printing the same data each time. Except what is printed out
is not correct.

I created a Word document just with a single word "test" as the document
contents and try to print it via the IRDA. There seems to be Word meta data
type of information buried in what is printed out. I can email or fax a copy
of what is being printed it if will help.

This is the exact sequence that happens.

1. turn on computer

2. turn on i70

3. computer indicates "another computer is within range"

4. I click on the IRDA icon in the task bar.

5. a "wireless Link" window appears with a file open dialog

6. I select test.doc and press the "send" button. This document only
contains the word "test".

7. a "sending files" dialog quickly appears and disappears

8. The i70 starts printing.

9. it prints out the same sequence of garbage, only a few lines at most a
page until I turn the printer off after about 10 pages.
 
[...]
5. a "wireless Link" window appears with a file open dialog

6. I select test.doc and press the "send" button. This document
only contains the word "test".
Click to expand...
Did the Canon documentation say to print all files in this manner, have
the technical support people been expecting that to work? :-( It it
unlikely that the printer would be able to handle non-text file types in
that manner.

There are apparently (I haven't seen this printer, and I can't find
documentation) two IrDA application services present in the printer.

The first, is IrLPT. It sinply replaces a parallel or serial link to
the printer; all other things remain unchanged. So with this, the
printer appears to Windows in the same way as cable connected printers,
i.e. in Printers and Faxes. It should be detected and installed with
Plug and Plug. If not do "Add New Printer" and select the port called
IR. Then print in the normal way from MSWord.

The other service, the one you have been using, is called OBEX (or
IrOBEX), it's kind of IrDA's HTTP. It is a very commonly supported,
and is a very useful service. It is PalmOS’s Beaming, Nokia’s “Send …
via IR“, Windows 2000’s Wireless Link File Transfer, Linux’s OpenObex
etc.

Printers have started to support this mode as it allows all types of
devices, including mobile phones, PDAs, etc to print simple information
without having to support all the control languages used by the various
printers (e.g. PostScript, PCL, etc etc). However the printer has to
understand the format and content of the beamed file. This is likely
just text-based ones: .txt as you've found, but also Business cards
(.vcf), Calendar entries (.vcs) etc.

I've just found some barely useful text in the brochure
(http://www.brochures.canon-europe.com/product.php?productid=7314):
"CONNECTIVITY
The Bubble Jet Printer i70 offers you easy connectivity via USB and Fast
IrDA (infrared) interfaces, compatible with Windows and Macintosh
operating systems.
It also provides IrOBEX support via its IrDA interface for direct
printing from a PDA or mobile phone!"

Reading that with good knowledge of the IrDA protocols, allows one to
realise that the first paragraph is talking about IrLPT... :-(

Some more IrDA services are described at
<http://www.alanjmcf.me.uk/comms/infrared/IrDA uses (brief).html>
 
Thank you so much - I got things working. I had to manually "Add new
Printer" and set it to the "IR Local Port" as you suggested. Thanks also
the your additional protocol info and links - that helps.

The Canon documentation is absolutely minimal for using the IRDA and not
really useful at all for trouble shooting. What is there is geared to
PDA's - line it up and hit print. Any trouble shooting is geared to older
windows versions (Me, 98, 95). I had given up on Canon customer service who
had just said to reinstall the driver and lower the transmission speed.

In hind sight I'm not sure what I missed. I thought I had looked under the
Printers and scanners/properties/ports but I may have missed the IR Local
Port as it is the last entry of a scroll down list.
I'm not sure if the IR Local Port entry was added to the list after doing
the manual "Add new Printer" procedure and selecting IR as you recomend.
Regardless, I set it up as two seperate printers (i70 USB and i70 Irda) and
that works great.

Thanks again.
rj.
 
Thank you so much - I got things working. I had to manually "Add new
Printer" and set it to the "IR Local Port" as you suggested. Thanks
also the your additional protocol info and links - that helps.
Click to expand...
Good to hear its working. :-)
The Canon documentation is absolutely minimal for using the IRDA and
not really useful at all for trouble shooting. What is there is
geared to PDA's - line it up and hit print. Any trouble shooting is
geared to older windows versions (Me, 98, 95). I had given up on
Canon customer service who had just said to reinstall the driver and
lower the transmission speed.
Click to expand...
Hmm, its really annoying when a company's tech support people spout
utter nonsense when they don't know how their system actually works. :-(
In hind sight I'm not sure what I missed. I thought I had looked
under the Printers and scanners/properties/ports but I may have
missed the IR Local Port as it is the last entry of a scroll down
list. I'm not sure if the IR Local Port entry was added to the list
after
doing the manual "Add new Printer" procedure and selecting IR as you
recomend. Regardless, I set it up as two seperate printers (i70 USB
and i70 Irda) and that works great.
Click to expand...
The printer's documentation should really have explained to add the
printer with the port as "IR". I wondered after I'd sent my message,
whether the first sentence could be read to imply mistake on your part.
It wasn't meant that way. :-) The fault here seems solely on Canon's
part.
 
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