Forewarned is forearmed and why I can't print

I had the network administrators quotidian task of resolving a user dilemma of I can't print. I received the user quintessential response "I didn't do a thing"  to questions before taking the printer to my desk to investigate.

I’m making this post, not to be critical or find a way around the controls in this product but to raise awareness of my admin brethren. Maybe finding this post in a search result saves them time.

I’m embarrassed to say it took three installs of the vendor software'/driver on four different Windows computer to discover it was the roll of labels that prevented the printer from printing. DYMO has warnings in all their documentation to use only their labels.

In one manual, they show the different perforations in the ribbon labels that are critical to the operation of the device. What they don’t tell you is the rolls of labels have an RFID tag embedded in them to ensure their labels are used.

To install the printer, follow these simple instructions: Do not plug the USB printer into the computer before loading the software. Even the USB-A connector has a red warning label about software first. The power button on the front flashes (i.e. for 30 seconds, which is not normal) before going solid on. You then insert the USB. Windows detect the device and the power light on the printer flashes again. Flashing light is not a good thing!

Four machines later I went Google scrapping different combinations of “I can’t print”. Generic labels (half the price of DYMO labels), have a different hole pattern than the picture in a manual. Multiple hole covering tests later and still no resolution.

What is this? In the lower section of the printer software screen, after it detects the printer, there is a message empty. Empty, it has a full roll of generic labels.

In storage, the printer box had a package of DYMO original labels. When used, there is no 30 second flashing light on the printer before solid. Inserting the USB cable does not immediately cause the printer to flash its power light. Final clue, the printer has a count of how many labels are on the roll.

I found a search where people have attempted to reuse the RFID tag on generic label rolls to defeat the label controls mechanism. They had limited success, and the printer will at some point report that the roll was empty.

This got me thinking. Are RFID tags programmable? If a DYMO tag is installed on an generic label roll to imitate a roll, how does the printer identify an empty label roll? Does it increment the count from the tag? These questions spark my interest in RFID.

Someone approached me a number of years ago and asked me to hack the RFID tags on fireworks explosives. I started down the path to learn RFID. I stopped shortly after starting because 1) I was doing all the heavy lifting on discovery and 2) I really didn’t think using generic explosive in a vendor’s canon was a good idea. Yeah, you might get it to work or it could blow up in your face. Discovering the world of RFID was tempting, but before smoke started rising, I gave up the project.

Forewarned is forearmed, DYMO 550 LabelWriter require DYMO labels to work. You can spend time hacking a solution or bite the bullet and pay for using their labels.