February 2025

A new dashboard integrated into Power BI is now available: Managerial ESG. It provides an overview of the printer fleet managed in the current month, with key indicators for monitoring ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) practices, such as:

efficiency of printer monitoring, i.e. the number of devices online or offline in relation to the total
environmental impact of production in trees, liters of water, energy and CO² since implementation
total number of currently engaged customers, i.e. those with managed printers
percentage of the average coverage rate of exchanged supplies in the current month, disregarding premature exchanges
total number of supply carcasses to be collected in the current month
total number of supplies exchanged prematurely in the current month
percentage of efficiency in supply changes carried out at the correct time (when supplies were out of stock) in the current month
graph of the evolution of efficiency in printer monitoring over the last 6 months
graph of the evolution of the coverage rate of supplies exchanged over the last 6 months
graph of the evolution of efficiency in supplies exchanges over the last 6 months

These indicators provide transparency in the management of the services provided, encourage actions to reduce environmental impact and promote sustainable management. They are updated daily to ensure the latest and most accurate information.

For more information on the new dashboard, visit Visualize the indicators of business intelligence.

Monitoring network thermal printers

A new type of connection is available for monitoring on the NDD Orbix portal: network thermal printers.

At the moment, monitoring of network thermal printers consists of label printing equipment from the manufacturer Zebra.

The main benefits of this functionality are:

Cost and resource optimization
Centralized and efficient management
Continuous and proactive monitoring
Uninterrupted operation
Data-based decision making
Personalized alerts

By installing the DCA and Cloud Connector agent and enabling and configuring the service rules, the agent will scan the devices and automatically the network thermal printers covered by the enabled rules will be monitored and available in the inventory.

In addition, it is possible to perform remote actions with the service (start, restart, stop and update), view and configure the service logs, perform settings for printer search, synchronization, monitoring and communication of the service, stop managing or return to managing a printer, view odometer information and manually add or remove a reading.

To find out more about how to start managing thermal printers, go to Managing thermal printers.

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

Alerts for Zebra thermal printers

To enable more efficient monitoring and ensure continuity of operations, the following alerts for Zebra thermal printers have been made compatible:

Clean printhead
Cutter jammed
Low label
Low ribbon
No label
No ribbon
Replace printhead

In addition to the compatible alerts, two new alerts have been added:

Battery low: The printer's battery level is too low and may cause interruptions in operation.
Bad printhead element: One or more elements of the printhead have failed, indicating possible physical damage or wear.

For more information on how to issue and manage alerts, go to Configuring alerts.

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18 and the NDD - Thermal Monitor (Windows) and NDD - Thermal Monitor USB (Windows) services to versions 1.0.0 and 1.3.0, respectively, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

Improvements

Enhancement in the members of the send e-mail rule when generating a supply demand

E-mail sending rules have been improved to offer greater flexibility and precision in the settings of members, ensuring that demand data is sent in a more efficient and personalized way.

Previously, it was only possible to configure customer and division elements as members. Now, the options have been expanded, allowing the following elements to be configured:

Customer
Site
Department
Manufacturer
Printer

With these new options, demand data can be sent according to specific business needs. This improves operational efficiency and raises the quality of service, offering more agility and transparency in the replenishment process.

The e-mail will only be sent when the supply demand meets all the elements configured in the rule member, ensuring greater precision and personalization in the sending.

The system will apply the following adjustments to e-mail rules that have already been configured:

Rules with customer(s): the rules will remain configured with the customers added and e-mails will continue to be sent whenever a supply demand is generated for an alert running out from this customer.
Rules with customer(s) and unit(s): the rules will be adjusted to keep only the customers added as members. The units will be removed automatically and e-mails will continue to be sent for demands related to customers.
Rules with unit(s): these rules will continue to be created, but members of units will be removed automatically. In this case, e-mails will stop being sent until new members are set up.
Rules without members: the rules will continue to be created, but will remain without members until new settings are made.

To create or change sending e-mail rules, go to Create sending e-mail rule when generating a printer supply demand.

Adjusting the nomenclature of the thermal printer address field

To increase the clarity and accuracy of the data displayed in the system, we have made adjustments to the nomenclature of the field that informs you of the thermal printer's address.

References to the IP address of network and USB thermal printers have been changed to Network/USB address in the following places:

Column in the grid of the Monitoring > Thermal printers menu
Summary tab in the thermal printer properties in the Monitoring > Thermal printers menu
Info tab in the thermal printer properties in the Monitoring > Thermal printers menu

This field tells you the IP or hostname of the thermal printer for network thermal printers, or the hostname of the workstation monitoring the USB thermal printer.

Improved service monitoring

We have added protection to prevent an error generated in service monitoring from interrupting the entire monitoring process.

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

Fixes

Incorrect driver version date in inventory (Service: NDD - Computer Monitor)

We have adjusted the driver inventory to display the version date correctly.

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18 and the NDD - Computer Monitor (Windows) service to version 1.3.5, respectively, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

Inconsistency in monitoring USB devices (Service: NDD - Printer Monitor USB)

When monitoring devices connected via USB, some models returned more than one object in addition to the printer, without manufacturer and model information, generating exceptions in the logs.

To fix this, we added a validation that discards objects with empty information, preventing errors from occurring.

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18 and the NDD - Printer Monitor USB (Windows) service to version 1.1.6, respectively, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

Approvals

Approved network printers (Service: NDD - Printer Monitor)

	Meters and supplies capture
Toshiba	e-STUDIO6525AC
Epson	EM-C800 EP-C800
Ricoh	IM 460
Lexmark	CS531dw XC9635

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18 and the NDD - Printer Monitor (Windows) service to version 1.1.14, respectively, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

Adjusted network printers models (Service: NDD - Printer Monitor)

	Meters and supplies capture
Brother	ADS-4700W
Epson	SWF-C5790
HP	LASERJET 400 COLOR M451dw

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18 and the NDD - Printer Monitor (Windows) service to version 1.1.14, respectively, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

Approved USB printers (Service: NDD - Printer Monitor USB)

	Meters and supplies capture	Meters capture only
Brother	TJ-4121TN	-
Ricoh	-	IM 460

The Lexmark CS531dw model is incompatible.

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18 and the NDD - Printer Monitor USB (Windows) service to version 1.1.6, respectively, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

Approved network thermal printers (Service: NDD - Thermal Monitor)

	Odometer capture
Zebra	ZT231 ZD230

The DCA and Cloud Connector (Windows) agent must be updated to version 1.1.18, as instructed at Update the agent or gateway on portal.

February 13, 2025

Fixes

Failure to grouping columns in the printers grid

In the grid in the Monitoring > Printers menu, it was not possible to group the Installations, Customer, Site, Department, Manufacturer and Model columns.

To fix this, we made adjustments to the internal settings so that the component determines which data returned by the server should be grouped together.

February 11, 2025

Fixes

Error in CSV export of the printers grid

The CSV export of the grid from the Monitoring > Printers menu was excessively slow or resulted in an error message, preventing the process from being completed.

To fix this, we've made improvements to the flow of obtaining data from the grid, optimizing the performance of the export process.