Hardware

Supported devices

Model	PID	Protocol	Head dots	Network	NFC lock	Status
LabelWriter 400	0x0021	450	672	—	No	✅ Verified
LabelWriter 400 Turbo	0x0023	450	672	—	No	🔲 Expected
LabelWriter 450	0x0020	450	672	—	No	✅ Verified
LabelWriter 450 Turbo	0x002A	450	672	—	No	🔲 Expected
LabelWriter 450 Twin Turbo	0x002B	450	672	—	No	🔲 Expected
LabelWriter 450 Duo	0x002C	450	672	—	No	🔲 Expected
LabelWriter 4XL	0x0025	450	672	—	No	🔲 Expected
LabelWriter Wireless	0x0031	450	672	Wi-Fi	No	🔲 Expected
LabelWriter 550	0x0052	550	672	—	Yes	🔲 Expected
LabelWriter 550 Turbo	0x0053	550	672	Ethernet	Yes	🔲 Expected
LabelWriter 5XL	0x0054	550	1248	Ethernet	Yes	🔲 Expected

All devices use vendor ID 0x0922 (Dymo).

🔌

Got one of the untested devices?A two-minute test helps everyone who owns one of these printers.

Run these two commands and report what happens:

labelwriter list→labelwriter print text "test"

✅ It works⚠️ Partially works❌ Doesn't work

450 vs 550 protocol

450-series protocol

The 450-series protocol is the original Dymo LabelWriter protocol:

• Reset: ESC @
• Raster line (uncompressed): 0x16 <len> <data…>
• Raster line (RLE): 0x17 <len> <pairs…>
• Form feed: ESC E
• Short form feed: ESC m
• Status request: ESC A
• Error recovery: 85 × ESC followed by ESC A

550-series protocol

The 550-series protocol extends 450 with a mandatory job header prepended before every reset:

• Job header: ESC s <jobId[4]> where jobId is a 4-byte little-endian job identifier
• All other commands are the same as 450-series

The job header is required for every print job on 550-series devices. Sending a print without it results in a protocol error.

NFC label lock (550 series)

All 550-series devices (LabelWriter 550, 550 Turbo, 5XL) include an NFC reader that validates label roll authenticity before printing:

1. When a print job begins, the printer reads the NFC chip embedded in the label roll spool.
2. If no chip is detected, or the chip is not a recognised Dymo-certified label, the printer raises a paper-out condition.
3. The printer's status byte reflects this as paperOut = true.
4. The host software has no way to disable or bypass this check — it is handled entirely within the printer firmware.

To print successfully with a 550-series device, you must use genuine Dymo-branded label rolls that include an NFC chip.

Print head geometry

All models except the 5XL have a print head 672 dots wide (84 bytes per raster row). The LabelWriter 5XL has a 1248-dot head (156 bytes per row).

Label length in dots determines the number of raster rows in the print job. The setLabelLength command (ESC L <len_lo> <len_hi>) specifies this in a 16-bit little-endian value.