David’s Tech Tip – Intermec PM4i

I’d be the first to admit that I’m not an expert when it comes to Intermec printers. That’s why I was interested when a calibration issue came up with one of our customer’s machines. Calibrating a thermal printer makes sure the machine knows the label length and ensures the label gap sensor is set correctly.

Should you ever need to calibrate an Intermec PM4i, here is the correct way to do it. The information was kindly provided by Brandon Doyle at Intermec – thanks Brandon!

The direction we go in depends largely on which language the printer uses (IPL or Fingerprint (Direct Protocol). Most likely you have IPL. If you do there is an LTS calibration you can run. Here’s how:

Press SETUP
Left Arrow to CONFIGURATION
Press ENTER
Right Arrow to LTS CALIBRATION
Press ENTER
From here just follow the direction on the display.

You should end getting to a screen that gives you a number, which is usually seven, that you cannot change. It is just telling you what it is set for. Hopefully after this calibration your labels will feed properly.

If you have Fingerprint or Direct Protocol the calibration of label length is fairly easy. All you do is with the power turned on:

Hold down the SHIFT key and press the FEED key.

If you did not know how to tell the difference between an IPL and a Fingerprint printer. Here are a couple ways:

1). Look at the front display of the printer, it will tell which language you have and what version.

2) Look at the keypad overlay, if is is IPL it will only have 7 keys and a yellow print button. If the printer is fingerprint it will have a full number pad, a shift key and a feed key as well as all the keys that are on an IPL printer. So, in a nutshell the fingerprint printer has a lot more keys.

Of course, whatever brand of thermal printer you have, you can get great support from the Winco Service Team