By default Navigator DFE wants to control the printheads.
Navigator DFE is capable of driving a Duraflex based printer entirely from PDF input; to color management, screening, and rendering; to engine control and maintenance.
However, some printer manufacturers may choose to implement some of the printer control themselves.
This document will tell you how to disable some key parts of our engine control so that you can provide those functions yourself.
If you need more information, please consult your Duraflex developer documentation from Memjet.
One option to get information for system integration is to poll the Navigator DFE with Navigator WebAPI commands for information about printer and job status. For more information about the Navigator API, please contact your Xitron representative.
For paper path or other integrations with tighter requirements you may wish to send start and stop printing commands directly from the your application.
To see other options for paper path control read this document: https://help.xitron.com/a/solutions/articles/1000301481
To stop Navigator DFE from sending Start Printing and Finish Printing commands, so that you may send them directly, read on.
A printer manufacturer may choose to send the command to 'start printing' and 'finish printing' from their own software rather than have the Navigator DFE do this. There are some simple text changes in an .INI configuration file to allow this.
This configuration is done inside the XiflowServer.ini file at %appdata%\Roaming\Xitron\Navigator\
There are two optional settings. Both of these change are made in the [Duraflex] section of XiflowServer.ini.
The first setting controls whether we send the Start Printing command to the print engine.
The second controls whether we send both the Start Printing and the Finish Printing commands to the print engine.
Start of print
By default, the Navigator DFE sends a print command when the press is ready (in PRIMED_IDLE state). If you wish to control the start of print you can change the setting below. In the case of it being set to "0", when the job is processed, Navigator will wait for the printer to start via an external method.
The possible external start methods: the OEMs own software or Xitron's spooler application. The Xitron spooler application has a button to send this start print command. You can use it during development or to test your solution. It is not intended for the end user to use the buttons in the spooler application as a part of their workflow.
The INI setting:
AutoPrintOnQueue=1
The possible entries and an explanation of each:
0 = Do not trigger a print cycle if a job is queued and the press is in PRIMED_IDLE. (External command is required)
1 = Navigator DFE triggers a print cycle if a job is queued and the press is in PRIMED_IDLE. (default)
Both Start of Print and End of print
Caution. Tread lightly here. Failure to call the Finish Printing command at the correct time will result in the printhead remaining uncapped and possible permanent damage.
Again, for development and testing, Xitron's spooler application can be used to externally send these commands manually.
The INI setting:
ManualPrintMode=0
The possible entries and an explanation of each:
0 = Normal print mode - Navigator DFE controls StartPrinting and FinishPrinting usage. (default)
1 = Manual print mode - Third party controls FinishPrinting usage. (External commands are required)
Please take care when using any mode outside our default modes. Especially in the case of the finish printing commands.