Bluetooth Printer Drivers for Windows Mobile 6.5

This article outlines the primary printer drivers, communication interfaces, and middleware used to enable Bluetooth receipt printing from field applications on Windows Mobile 6.5. Because the mobile operating system lacked a universal, desktop-style printing architecture, enterprise deployments relied on a combination of Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) virtual drivers, manufacturer-specific Software Development Kits (SDKs), OPOS drivers, and dedicated third-party mobile print managers.

Bluetooth SPP and Virtual COM Port Redirection

The most prevalent method for enabling Bluetooth receipt printing on Windows Mobile 6.5 was using the Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP). The operating system’s native Bluetooth stack (either the Microsoft Bluetooth stack or the Broadcom/Widcomm stack) assigned an outgoing virtual COM port (such as COM6 or COM7) to the paired receipt printer.

Field applications wrote raw ASCII, ESC/POS, or vendor-specific control languages directly to the serial port handle. This eliminated the need for complex graphical rendering drivers and allowed fast, lightweight printing over serial streams directly through the Windows CE/Mobile file system API (CreateFile, WriteFile).

Manufacturer-Specific Mobile Printer Drivers and SDKs

Hardware vendors provided specialized dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) and CAB driver files designed specifically for Windows Embedded Handheld and Windows Mobile 6.5:

  • Zebra Mobile SDK and CPCL Drivers: Zebra provided developers with native C++ and .NET Compact Framework libraries to communicate with mobile printers like the QL, RW, and MZ series. Rather than relying on a graphical Windows driver, these drivers encapsulated communication over Bluetooth to transmit Zebra Basic Command Language (CPCL) and ZPL commands.
  • Intermec (Honeywell) Print SDK: Intermec supplied dedicated drivers and printing libraries for rugged mobile units like the PB21, PB31, and PB51. The driver handled line-printing routines, Bluetooth RFCOMM link management, and device font calls directly from field service apps.
  • Bixolon Mobile Drivers: Bixolon offered POS drivers and a dedicated Windows Mobile SDK for models like the SPP-R200 and SPP-R300, providing API-level wrappers for ESC/POS commands over an active Bluetooth connection.
  • Star Micronics StarIO SDK: Star Micronics provided the StarIO driver framework, which acted as a communication layer enabling applications to detect, connect, and stream receipt formatting to mobile printers like the SM-S and SM-T series.
  • Epson ePOS and TM Series Drivers: Epson provided specific Mobile POS SDKs and communication drivers allowing field service applications to push raw ESC/POS formatting over paired Bluetooth ports to portable TM-P series printers.

OPOS-CE (Open POS for Windows CE)

For enterprise applications that required adherence to retail and POS standards, vendors implemented OPOS-CE (OLE for Retail POS on Windows CE). OPOS-CE drivers acted as standardized middleware between the field application and the receipt printer. The driver framework utilized a two-layer model:

  1. Control Objects (CO): Provided by the application platform to standardize print calls.
  2. Service Objects (SO): Vendor-specific drivers that translated unified print commands into the printer's native language and handled the Bluetooth transmission layer.

Third-Party Middleware and Universal Print Drivers

When legacy or commercial off-the-shelf field software lacked native Bluetooth receipt formatting capabilities, organizations utilized third-party utility drivers:

  • FieldSoftware PrintPocketCE: A widely used universal print engine for Windows Mobile that installed a system-level print driver. It captured standard graphical output from Pocket PC applications and converted it into bitmap or text streams compatible with Bluetooth thermal printers.
  • Bachmann Software PrintBoy: Middleware that integrated with Windows Mobile messaging, forms, and custom databases to route document and receipt rendering directly to paired Bluetooth mobile printers.