Brady Express Labels

Bluetooth iOS App is Great! Intuitive and simple to use. Intuitive and simple to use. Automatically connects to iPhone as app is launched. Only gripe is that it’s a bit too easy to accidentally “print” before you’re ready because the print button is positioned too close to the object adjustable setting. As for the PC software, NO BUENO! Repeatedly tried to link my PC (via Bluetooth, WiFi, and Ethernet) to a S3700 printer. Though it appears connected the consumable (printer ribbon & tape) part numbers won’t populate, making it impossible to print from my PC.

The app does a pretty good job letting you make custom labels. I wish you could selectively modify highlighted text, instead you have to create a separate text box if you want to do that which is really cumbersome. I wish I could just create a label and then select the text I want to bold or italicize, or make a selection within the txt box have a bigger font. Major negative is there is no intuitive way to set a default file location for cloud storage. I want all of my label files stored on the cloud and retrieved from said storage. In fact, I don’t know where the files actually go except for locally within the app that is a stupid place to have templates stored. At least give me a backup feature so I can back up all of my files at a minimum.

In my opinion, the app has never been great in the 6 months I’ve used the M211. It has always had bugs and random issues. I recently had an issue with the app crashing immediately every time I tried to open it. I was able to solve this by reinstalling the app, but this also reset every setting in the app. It took a while to get it set back up the way I had it and printing the labels the way I want them to print. Still having issues with the app, but they are different issues that I’ve never had before. When printing wire markers, it keeps reverting to “rotate” orientation, so the label prints 90° from how I want/need it to print. I can toggle the rotate option but it just does whatever it wants the next time I go to print a label. When I am able to get it to print in the orientation I want it, it leaves a margin at the end, which it has never done before when printing wire markers. I’m temporarily able to resolve this by toggling the label tape saving option under printer settings, but same as the orientation issue, it reverts when going back to print a new wire marker. I’ve also had issues with the “smart” label tape cartridge saying it’s empty, when it’s not. Then you can no longer print from that cartridge, even though there’s some material left. There should be an override for this. The Brady label tape has great adhesion, which is usually great, but if I need to relabel something (which is often for me, doing service and retrofit projects), it leaves the majority of the adhesive on the surface it was applied to. Of course, you cannot use any off brand label tapes in the printer because of the “smart” chip they require for operation. Due to all of these issues, I will likely be going back to a Brother brand printer.