Brother QL — Spool Switch (CAS) Pin Map

Source: QL-1060N Service Manual (pages II-15 / II-16), cross-referenced with QL-800 and QL-series Raster Command References, and confirmed via hardware probing on a QL-800 with DK-22251.

DK code naming convention

• DK-1xxxx — Die-cut labels
• DK-2xxxx — Continuous tape
• DK-4xxxx — Removable adhesive continuous tape
• DK-Nxxxx — Non-adhesive tape

The last three digits of the DK code appear on the physical roll as the "roll marking" (e.g., DK-22251 → "251"). This does not correspond to the media ID used in the raster protocol.

Complete switch table

Bits column is [SW5][SW4][SW3][SW2][SW1][SW0] — the binary value equals the SW number.

SW	Media ID	Pins	Media type	Size	DK code	Material	Notes	Bits
0	—		No media	—	—	—		000000
1	271		Standard Address Label	29×90mm	DK-11201	Paper, die-cut		000001
2	272		Large Address Label	38×90mm	DK-11208	Paper, die-cut		000010
3	274		Small Address Label	62×29mm	DK-11209	Paper, die-cut		000011
4	275		Shipping Label	62×100mm	DK-11202	Paper, die-cut		000100
5	269		Multi Purpose Label	17×54mm	DK-11204	Paper, die-cut		000101
6	270		File Folder Label	17×87mm	DK-11203	Paper, die-cut		000110
7	273		CD/DVD Label	58mm Ø	DK-11207	Paper, die-cut	Round, masked center	000111
8	—		Reserved	—	—	—		001000
9	—		Reserved	—	—	—		001001
10	—		Reserved	—	—	—		001010
11	—		Reserved	—	—	—		001011
12	370		Square Paper Label	23×23mm	DK-11221	Paper, die-cut		001100
13	—		Reserved	—	—	—		001101
14	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		001110
15	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		001111
16	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		010000
17	362		Round Paper Label 12mm	12mm Ø	DK-11219	Paper, die-cut		010001
18	363		Round Paper Label 24mm	24mm Ø	DK-11218	Paper, die-cut		010010
19	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		010011
20	258		White Paper Tape 29mm	29mm continuous	DK-22210	Paper, continuous		010100
21	259		White Paper Tape 62mm	62mm continuous	DK-22205	Paper, continuous	Also: DK-44205 (removable), DK-44605 (removable yellow)	010101
22	—		White Film Tape 29mm	29mm continuous	DK-22211	Film, continuous		010110
23	—		White Film Tape 62mm	62mm continuous	DK-22212	Film, continuous		010111
24	—		Yellow Film Tape 62mm	62mm continuous	DK-22606	Film, continuous		011000
25	—		Clear Film Tape 62mm	62mm continuous	DK-22113	Film, continuous		011001
26	257		White Paper Tape 12mm	12mm continuous	DK-22214	Paper, continuous		011010
27	262		White Paper Tape 50mm	50mm continuous	DK-22223	Paper, continuous		011011
28	251		Two-color Paper Tape 62mm	62mm continuous	DK-22251	Paper, continuous	Black+red. QL-800 series only. Confirmed via hardware.	011100
29	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		011101
30	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		011110
31	—		Reserved	—	—	—		011111
32	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		100000
33	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		100001
34	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		100010
35	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		100011
36	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		100100
37	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		100101
38	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		100110
39	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		100111
40	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		101000
41	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		101001
42	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		101010
43	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		101011
44	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		101100
45	365		White Paper Label 102×51mm	102×51mm	DK-11240	Paper, die-cut	QL-1050/1060N only	101101
46	366		White Paper Label 102×152mm	102×152mm	DK-11241	Paper, die-cut	QL-1050/1060N only	101110
47	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		101111
48	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		110000
49	—		Reserved	—	—	—		110001
50	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		110010
51	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		110011
52	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		110100
53	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		110101
54	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		110110
55	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		110111
56	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		111000
57	260		White Paper Tape 102mm	102mm continuous	DK-22243	Paper, continuous	QL-1050/1060N only	111001
58	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		111010
59	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		111011
60	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		111100
61	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		111101
62	—		Not to be used	—	—	—		111110
63	—		Reserved	—	—	—		111111

Physical pin layout (top view, pins in device)

④  ③
    ②
    ①
    ⓪
    ⑤

• Pins 3, 2, 1, 0, 5 form a vertical column.
• Pin 4 is offset to the left, level with pin 3.
• 0 = no projection (switch not pressed) — 1 = projection present (switch pressed).
• SW number = binary value of [SW5][SW4][SW3][SW2][SW1][SW0].

3D printable spools for testing

These spools can be used with third-party label rolls or to probe unknown pin combinations by covering all holes and selectively punching them out:

• Brother Label DK printer spool by Marko — basic reusable spool, tape over holes and punch out as needed
• Universal Brother label DK Spool by Mind2MatterPrinting — universal design with swappable identifier plates and magnet-attached sides, supports all roll widths

Rolls not yet mapped to a switch code

These rolls appear in Brother's QL-820NWB consumables list or QL-800 command reference but are not in the original QL-1060N switch table. Their pin codes need hardware probing.

DK code	Size	Media ID	Material	Notes
DK-22225	38mm continuous	264	Paper, continuous
DK-N55224	54mm continuous	261	Paper, non-adhesive
DK-11234	60×86mm	383	Paper, die-cut	QL-800 era
DK-11247	103×164mm	—	Paper, die-cut	QL-1100 series

Rolls sharing the same pin code

SW 21 (101010) maps to multiple 62mm continuous paper variants:

• DK-22205 — White Paper Tape 62mm (standard permanent adhesive)
• DK-44205 — Removable White Paper Tape 62mm
• DK-44605 — Removable Yellow Paper Tape 62mm

The printer cannot distinguish between these by spool pins alone.

Status response — undocumented bytes

The QL-800 command reference documents bytes 14 and 24–31 as "Reserved" with fixed values. Empirical testing shows they vary per roll:

Roll loaded	Byte [14]	Byte [25]	Notes
DK-22251 (SW 28)	0x23	0x81	62mm two-color continuous
DK-11201 (SW 1)	0x01	0x01	29×90mm die-cut

Hypothesis: Byte [25] bit 7 (0x80) is the two-color media flag. Byte [14] may encode the CAS switch pattern or a derivative.

Further status dumps across roll types are needed to confirm.

QL-800 series status response — known deviations from documentation

Byte	Offset	Documented value	Actual behavior
12	11	Media type: 4Ah/4Bh	Correct (changed from 0Ah/0Bh on older QLs)
15	14	"Fixed at 3Fh"	Varies per roll — likely CAS-derived
18	17	Media length (mm)	Correct — 0x00 for continuous, mm for die-cut
25	24	"Fixed at 00h" (8 bytes)	Varies — bit 7 of byte [25] = two-color?

PT-P / PT-E — TZe laminated tape

Laminated tape cartridges for the PC-connectable PT-P / PT-E series. The same id maps to different print-area pin counts on the 128-pin and 560-pin head families — the registry stores both under media.geometry.narrow / media.geometry.wide. Pin configurations sourced from Brother's Raster Command Reference PDFs via nbuchwitz/ptouch. Status: 🔲 Untested.

128-pin head (PT-E550W, PT-P750W)

ID	Width	Left pins	Print pins	Right pins
401	3.5 mm	52	24	52
402	6 mm	48	32	48
403	9 mm	39	50	39
404	12 mm	29	70	29
405	18 mm	8	112	8
406	24 mm	0	128	0

560-pin head (PT-P900, P900W, P950NW, P910BT)

ID	Width	Left pins	Print pins	Right pins
401	3.5 mm	248	48	264
402	6 mm	240	64	256
403	9 mm	219	106	235
404	12 mm	197	150	213
405	18 mm	155	234	171
406	24 mm	112	320	128
407	36 mm	45	454	61

The 36 mm width (id 407) is exclusive to the 560-pin family.

TZ-legacy cartridges share TZe geometry per width — the entry name includes "TZe / TZ" so search hits work for either term. TZeFA (flexible-ID) is the same width-by-width; no separate id allocation.

PT-P / PT-E — HSe heat-shrink tubing

Heat-shrink tubes for cable wraps. Both 2:1 and 3:1 ratios. The 128-pin pin configurations carry an inherited "shifted -2 pins (up) based on testing" correction from nbuchwitz/ptouch; the 560-pin configurations carry "shifted +17 pins down based on Brother software analysis". These corrections are inherited as-shipped — phase-4 hardware verification should confirm.

PT-P910BT does not support HSe; only PT-E550W, PT-P750W, and the PT-P900 family print HSe tubes.

128-pin head — HSe 2:1

ID	Width	Left	Print	Right
421	5.8 mm	52	28	48
422	8.8 mm	42	48	38
423	11.7 mm	33	66	29
424	17.7 mm	13	106	9
425	23.6 mm	0	128	0

128-pin head — HSe 3:1

ID	Width	Left	Print	Right
441	5.2 mm	56	20	52
442	9.0 mm	44	44	40
443	11.2 mm	41	50	37
444	21.0 mm	6	120	2

560-pin head — HSe 2:1

ID	Width	Left	Print	Right
421	5.8 mm	261	56	243
422	8.8 mm	241	96	223
423	11.7 mm	223	132	205
424	17.7 mm	183	212	165
425	23.6 mm	161	256	143

560-pin head — HSe 3:1

ID	Width	Left	Print	Right
441	5.2 mm	269	40	251
442	9.0 mm	245	88	227
443	11.2 mm	239	100	221
444	21.0 mm	169	240	151
445	31.0 mm	109	360	91

The 31.0 mm width (id 445) is exclusive to the 560-pin family.

Per-model media support matrix

Model	TZe widths	HSe 2:1	HSe 3:1
PT-E550W	3.5 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 18 / 24 mm	5.8 / 8.8 / 11.7 / 17.7 / 23.6 mm	5.2 / 9.0 / 11.2 / 21.0 mm
PT-P750W	3.5 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 18 / 24 mm	5.8 / 8.8 / 11.7 / 17.7 / 23.6 mm	5.2 / 9.0 / 11.2 / 21.0 mm
PT-P900	3.5 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 36 mm	5.8 / 8.8 / 11.7 / 17.7 / 23.6 mm	5.2 / 9.0 / 11.2 / 21.0 / 31.0 mm
PT-P900W	3.5 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 36 mm	5.8 / 8.8 / 11.7 / 17.7 / 23.6 mm	5.2 / 9.0 / 11.2 / 21.0 / 31.0 mm
PT-P950NW	3.5 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 36 mm	5.8 / 8.8 / 11.7 / 17.7 / 23.6 mm	5.2 / 9.0 / 11.2 / 21.0 / 31.0 mm
PT-P910BT	3.5 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 36 mm	— (not supported)	— (not supported)