Important: If you want to use the Ricoh Card Save (CardSave) procedure for capturing spool files in the Ricoh device instead of the versatile IBS capture feature described below you either must have IBS removed before or at least deployed the QuickSet PassThrough onto the device in order to have IBS temporarily disabled during the Card Save procedure. Please do not forget to have the PassThrough Quickset removed from the device afterwards because IBS will just do nothing once this QuickSet is loaded.

This IBS debug option has been enhanced since CONVERT version 9.50 and older devices with hard drive:

  1. Positioned on the right-hand side is the implementation of the old debugging function from BOCR CT which only captures one data stream. Occasionally it was just a UEL (exit) command.
  2. On the left-hand side is the innovative component sustaining only CONVERT version v9.50 and newer devices. One click away from gathering all data streams on the SD card or Hard Drive. With 2 additional clicks, load them back onto your PC for review.

 

debug

The device table of the debug menu shows only the devices, which

Is a certain device missing from the table, please check the device and make sure that:

Note: Debug is currently not supported for the device model IM C530

 

1. Capture Data streams

This function is supported on:

This current service works on SD cards and hard drives. Please note that the capacity of the SD is extremely limited at times, merely 100 MB. You may opt to insert the SD card into your PC to verify the available memory to ensure that all confined jobs contain altogether fewer bytes.

Capture

Step 1 Activate Depending on what you need to capture IBS Control Center comes with three predefined Quicksets which are located in C:\ProgramData\IBS_CC\debugfiles and named:
  • capture.ini - Data streams sent from the host: Incoming data
  • capture_out.ini - Stream leaving IBS to the device: Outgoing data
  • capture_both.ini - Capture both streams: Incoming and outgoing data


If you have knowledge about the settings, you may modify those files about your needs. Add for example NoPrinting=ON

After having selected one option IBS CC checks if the device has already a Quickset loaded. If so then you are able to retrieve the current one from the device and save it to your local PC:



You may reload the retrieved Quickset any time using the Quickset import function.



After a last warning that the capture Quickset will overwrite a possible existing Quickset in the device the download will start and become active immediately.
Step 2 Send data You are now capable to send any data streams from any application to the printer. The jobs are printed and archived on the hard drive or SD card.
Step 3 Turn off The previously loaded Quickset file is overwritten by a neutral Quickset doing just nothing special.
Step 4 Read back Before reading back the captured data there is the possibility to enter optional information in order to identify the captured data later in a better way:



The Short description is used as a suffix for all retrieved files from the device.
The Long description is an ordinary text field which content will just be copied in a file called doku.txt that resides in the folder where the captured files will be stored. 
During the capturing process there might occur "control files" with only an UEL inside. By default such files are excluded from the retrieval.

Once the OK button is hit the data is retrieved from the device. This process could require some time. The data streams are accumulated into the "debug files" directory under the IP address of the printer and consequently are entered into a directory with the actual date and time as directory name.
All successful uploaded files are automatically removed from the device storage media. If the retrieval process runs in a network timeout you will be notified accordingly and the remaining files can be retrieved by repeating Step 4 multiple times.



USEFUL HINTS: 
  • If IBS is installed on a SD card you can power the printer off and plug the card into your PC / Notebook. The files are located in the GPS directory.
  • The archived file names begin with "in_" (incoming) and "out_" for the IBS outgoing data streams. The files are numbered in their order of appearance. Starting with IBS v2 these files are located in 0:/pcl/macros on the device.
  • In most cases you will find more archived files then sent data streams. This is related to how IBS needs to send the jobs to the language interpreter of the device for enabling bidirectional communication.
    You can simply copy the pieces together to get the real printed file.
Step 5 Open folder Opens the File Manager in the directory with the last transferred data streams. You may now open the files using an editor, e.g. like Notepad++.
If you need assistance, please send the files to your Ricoh support contact.
Note: If the control files have been excluded from the retrievement the suffix numbering of the files must not be continuously increasing.

 

2. Capture one single data stream like BOCR Config. Tool

The benefits of this method are:

The disadvantage to this maybe two data stream files (in_data.prn and out_data.prn) containing the De-initialization of the data stream or may possibly be empty. The reason for that is briefly explained in above table, step 4.

BOCRT

Step 1 Activate Hard Drive: A Quickset is sent to the device and the next job is captured.
SD card: By clicking IBS CC it will generate the file ..\debugfiles\config.txt. This file needs to be copied to the SD card with IBS previously installed into the folder \sdk\5046297. It will then be necessary to power off the printer, insert the SD card into your notebook / PC and copy the file. Next plug the card back into the device and power on.

Note: The amount of time for the first page to print might be increased significantly due to writing the log file acquires relatively some amount of time.
Step 2 Send data Now you can send one (!) data stream from any application.
Step 3 Read log file Depending upon the selected mode, IBS CC reads 3 (one checkbox active) or 4 (two checkboxes active) files back from the device.
  • in_data.prn = last incoming data stream to the printer
  • out_data.prn = last outgoing data stream after IBS processed it
  • LOG_FILE.TXT = log file of the IBS Kernel (convert) with a lot of IBS debugging information (Debug Barcode)
  • ibsdebug.txt = log file with printer internal information (Crash Analysis)
The reading may require some time. The files are retrieved form the device permanent storage 0:/pcl/ibs (IBS v2 and higher) and stored into the C:\ProgramData\IBS_CC\debugfiles\<w_x_y_z>\<date/timestamp> (<w_x_y_z> reflects the IP address of the device).

Note: As explained above, the .prn files may be empty or just contain the de-initialization part of the sent data stream.
Step 4 Turn off Hard Drive: Just click and the setting is removed.
SD card: You may need to unplug and delete the file from the directory, using your PC / Notebook
Step 5 Open folder Opens the File Manager in the folder with the last transferred data streams. You may now open the files using an Editor, e.g. like Notepad++.
If you need help, then send the files to your Ricoh support contact.


Note: For both operation modes, the top process bar displays the actual loaded file, while the lower process bar will display the available files over all.