Calibrating or Recalibrating Your PheedLoop Printers

When using our on-site badge printing and kiosks, it’s important to feel confident and know any workarounds in the case that there could be a hardware malfunction. In the situation where your printer receives the “media-out” error message, the labels keep printing, or any hardware related issue where your printer is not responding, we have some steps to help re-calibrate your printer.

There are two ways of re-calibrating your printer, a standard calibration and a manual calibration. Either method is a surefire way of “resetting” your printer back to the original intended state.

Please review the videos below to get a detailed understanding of how to calibrate your printers.

1. Setting Up Your Labels or Badges

Before you conduct any calibration steps, you need to ensure your badges or labels are properly inserted into the printer. Most badges or labels will have a black mark on the back. The black mark should be facing down.

1 (A). Setting Up Labels

Pull back the two yellow tabs on the sides of the printer and once you hear a release, pull the top open
Pull the two yellow label holders horizontally in opposite directions of each other
Feed the label roll in between the label holders and let them hold the roll in place
1. Use the rolling adjuster to tighten/loosen the label holders.
2. Make sure a bit of the label is sticking out of the printer.
Feed the unrolled labels underneath the two small tabs which will help keep the labels fed through
Feed the labels through the cutter entrance of the printer so the labels stick out
Close the top of the printer tightly, you will hear a plastic click when it is properly closed

1 (B).Setting Up Badges

Pull back the two yellow tabs on the sides of the printer and once you hear a release, pull the top open
Feed the badges through the back opening of the printer, make sure to feed them in backwards.
Feed the badges underneath the two small tabs which will help keep the labels fed through
Feed the badges through the cutter entrance of the printer so the labels stick out
Close the top of the printer tightly, you will hear a plastic click when it is properly closed
Select the X for the Pause Request
Select the pause button to unpause the printer

2. Steps for Standard Calibration

2 (A). Steps for Standard Calibration with Labels

From the Home screen, select Wizards from the right hand side menu
Under Wizards, select Print
Select Start Print
For Print Type, select Direct Thermal and then the checkmark icon
For Media Type, select Mark and then the checkmark icon
1. Mark is only applicable to badges/labels that have a black mark. If yours does not have this, select Gap/Notch.
For Label Width, keep the default number setting (710) and select the checkmark icon
For Media Handling, select Cutter and then the checkmark icon
Load the labels for the calibration and then select the checkmark icon
Close the cover and then select the checkmark icon
The printer will print and then ask “Would you like to print a test label?”, select the checkmark icon
1. It will print the test label, if it works as intended, the calibration now works.
2. In the case that it’s still not printing as intended, follow the extra two steps below.
For Tear Line Offset, adjust the distance between the top edge of the label and tear/peel bar, and then select the checkmark icon
For Adjustment Method, you can manually adjust the darkness and speed of the printing, and then select the checkmark icon

2 (B).Steps for Standard Calibration with Badges

From the Home screen, select Wizards from the right hand side menu
Under Wizards, select Print
Select Start Print
For Print Type, select Direct Thermal and then the checkmark icon
For Media Type, select Mark and then the checkmark icon
For Label Width, keep the default number setting (710) and select the checkmark icon
For Media Handling, select Cutter and then the checkmark icon
Load the badges for the calibration and then select the checkmark icon
1. If the auto-calibration fails, select Calibrate then the pause button.
2. If the printer pauses, just select the pause button to continue the calibration.
For step 6/10 manual calibration on Open the cover, select Next
For step 7/10 manual calibration on Move labels over the sensor, select Next
For step 8/10 manual calibration on Close the cover, select Calibrate
For Image Adjust, adjust the distance if necessary, then select the checkmark icon
For Print Quality, select the Adjustment Method, then select the checkmark icon

3. Steps to Smart Calibrate

Smart Calibration is used if you want to quickly calibrate the labels. The steps are much quicker and can be done typically in less than 5 seconds. We always recommend using Standard Calibration but this can be used if time is in a pinch.

From the Home screen, hold down the pause button and the X button at the same time
1. Hold these two buttons down until it re-calibrates and prints/cuts a label/badge.

Note - this can be used for both badges and labels

4. Test Your Label/Badge Print

Now that you have done your calibration steps highlighted above, we recommend you to print a badge directly from the dashboard.

4 (A). Printing From the Event Dashboard

From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Attendees > Attendees
1. Make sure to also refresh your browser to keep everything up to date.
Select an attendee you would like to test a badge print for from the list
1. We recommend someone with a long last name or long organization to push the capabilities of your custom template.
Above the attendee list, select Actions > Print Badge
Under Select Printer, select the printer which is being used for badge printing
Under Select Template, select the custom template you want to use for badge printing
Select Print
1. Select Download as PDF, if you want to view what the badge will look like before printing.