Brother P-touch, PT1230PC, PC-Connectable Label Maker, No Software Needed, Four Different Label Widths, Compact Design, White

I purchased this just to label a few things around the house. I must say, once I got this working I have been having a blast with it.To start with I will describe the problems I ran in to. After installing 6 AAA batteries (or a 7-9v DC power supply) and then plugging it into my Windows 10 64bit PC with the supplied USB cable, a Window explorer popup showed an executable to run (simple edit/printing software for the device). I then double clicked the executable which launched their software, however when I typed information in to the label box and clicked print it ejected about two inches of label with nothing on it. I double checked everything and tried again with the same results. At this point I Googled “PT-1230PC downloads” and found a link to support.brother.com which had drivers and the full Editor software. I installed the drivers which I believe corrected the problem however after the driver install, the Window explorer popup showing an executable no longer worked. Because I could no longer run their simple program from the popup I installed the “FREE” full version from there web download which worked and printed perfectly.So, now that their drivers and full software application is loaded and working perfectly I have been able to play with it a bit. By default, the full program opens in a tab called “Express”. This tab gives all the basic features you need to print a label however if you’re a power user, switching to the “Professional” tab gives a lot more options. Some of these options include Word Art, Bar codes, easier access to layouts, and much more.Long story short, in my case I had to load their drivers and full software program located on their web site. I have had a lot of fun printing labels and for the price I am really enjoying this handy label maker. I have used hand held label makers in the past which are very time consuming – I would buy this over one of them any day.

I have been using this for over three years without any problems. Rather than repeat the information here, you should read the reviews which tell you how to avoid wasting tape...they'll save you a lot of money. If you're going to print a lot of labels, you also should purchase the external power block. This printer burns through batteries at an amazing rate, and with six batteries per refill, gets expensive fast. Don't even think about using a power block off some other piece of equipment...I must have fifty of them around here that aren't being used and NONE ARE COMPATIBLE! (Brother wired the + connection to the shell and the - to the center pin. Everybody else is the opposite.)As a label printer, though, this is great. The labels are pretty much indestructible. Among other things, I use them to label my tomato cages, where they're exposed to the (California) weather all year round. They're still legible and stuck to the wire the next summer. I've stuck them to wood blocks, coated them with different types of finishes and they held fast. Putting them on a file tab is nothing in comparison.You should download the latest P-Touch software from the Epson website. It's much more versatile than the software that's built into the printer. It'll also drive other Brother label printers, like the QL-570, which I use for envelope labels.Highly recommended.

This label maker only works connected to a PC or laptop, but if that's what you want to use it for anyway, it's great! It runs off 6 AAA batteries (or an AC adapter, neither are included), and mine's made probably 30 labels so far without slowing down. It does come with the USB cable required to connect to a computer. Takes the standard tapes, and comes with a 16 ft (5 meter) cartridge of 1/2" black-print-on-white tape. It fits my needs perfectly. I did dock one star because the way the print head and cutter are set up, you do waste about 3/4 to 1 inch of tape per print. I work around the problem by printing multiple labels in one strip, then trimming with scissors.

I really like my label maker. This Brother PC-Connectable Label Maker(PT-1230PC) is really easy to use. I am guilty of using products before I look at the directions. Yes, I am one of those. This product was designed with people like me in mind. I loved the fact that I could put in tape and batteries, connect the USB to my computer, click on the one icon that was in color, type and then print out really nice labels before I even pulled directions out of the box. I can easily adjust how much blank tape is at the end of the label, but I am disappointed that it wastes so much tape at the leading edge of each label. Maybe that is covered in the directions, but it hasn't come to that, yet. I am just too busy labeling things.

I got this label printer in a Lightning Deal for a fraction of the current price so the price was right.I installed the drivers, connected the printer, Windows said it was installing the device and everything completed successfully. The problem is that the software comes on a flash drive built into the printer. Even after the drivers were installed the drive wasn't showing up and the power light kept flashing. Brother recommends doing a firmware upgrade in this situation, but since the drive wasn't showing up the update wouldn't install.I tried downloading the full version of the software from Brother's web site. It installed okay and knew the printer was there, but nothing would print and the power light just kept flashing.Out of options I decided to return it. I wanted to exchange it, but thanks to the Lightning Deal it wasn't in stock from Amazon any more. At least Amazon made it very easy to return.Overall it is a decent looking machine and I wish it worked. A power adapter is strongly recommended. Luckily I had a spare 9v adapter laying around so I didn't have to buy one.