Star Micronics NB-15 User Manual
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Star Micronics NB-15 User Manual

Star Micronics NB-15 User Manual

Star micronics printer user's manual
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USER'S MANUAli
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NOT INTENDED FOR SALE
PN 80821206
-___ --.-.
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Summary of Contents for Star Micronics NB-15

  • Page 1 USER’S MANUAli NOT INTENDED FOR SALE PN 80821206 .-_. -___ --.-.
  • Page 2 However, should any errors be detected, STAR would be greatly appreciate being informed of them. l The above notwithstanding, this manual. @Copyright 1986 Star Micronics Co., Ltd. uency Interference tatement instructions, may cause in-...
  • Page 3 Your new printer will reward you with many years of high-quality document printing, and is backed by Star Micronics’ more than 30 years in manufacturing parts. You already know that it represents tack-sharp dot matrix printing with its rugged 24-pin print head.

  • Page 4: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Setting Up Your Printer Chapter 1 Where shall we put it? What have we here? Removing the printer cover Removing the packing tube Removing shipping screws Installing the platen knob Installing the ribbon cartridge Installing the mute cover Installing the interface board Installing the font cartridge Getting to Know Your Printer...
  • Page 5 Controlling with BASIC Chapter 4 Some basics about BASIC First steps Establishing The CHR$ function Control codes The escape codes A note on command Some problem codes Printing Text Chapter 5 Some special kinds of text Letter Quality characters Characters Underlines Boldface printing Superscripts...
  • Page 6 Special Features of the Printer Chapter 7 Now hear this Resetting Putting your printer to sleep Printing the bottom of the sheet Backspace, Immediate-print Adjusting characters Repeat characters Uni-directional The seven bit dilemma Block graphics characters symbols International Printing BIG characters The optional sheet feeder Reading a hex dump Creating Your Own Characters...
  • Page 7 Dot Graphics Chapter 9 Comparing characters Using the dot graphics command Specifying the number of columns of dots Specifying Combining Printing a design or logo Plotting with your printer How the program works Using the 24-pin graphics mode Compatibility Redefining Caring for Your Printer Chapter 10 Cleaning the printer...
  • Page 8 Appendix G Serial Interface Specifications Configuring The serial protocols Serial busy protocols XON/XOFF protocol ACK protocol Appendix H Connecting with Computer Connecting BASIC programming Listing programs Connecting Applesoft Listing programs Connecting TRS-80 BASIC Listing programs Connecting CP/M computers Using MBASIC Listing programs the serial interface with IBM-PC and Compaq...

  • Page 9: Setting Up Your Printer

    CHAPTER SETTING UP YOUR PRINTER Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 1 include- . Choosing a suitable place for your printer; Unpacking your new printer; Setting it up. WHERE SHALL WE PUT IT? Before you do anything you’ll be using your printer. near your computer.

  • Page 10: Removing The Printer Cover

    igure l-l. Check to make sure you have all six items: 1) Printer, 2) Mute cover, 3) Paper guide, 4) Platen knob, 5) Ribbon cartridge, and 6) User’s manual. You should also have a parallel interface your computer to the printer. Also available are a parallel inter- face board with extra buffer memory board, both optional.

  • Page 11: Removing The Packing Tube

    tion and movement for both removing and replacing the cover. Figure l-2. Remove the printer cover by lifting carefully. n Removing the packing tube The printer is shipped with a protective the print head from being damaged during shipping. We have to remove this tube.

  • Page 12: Installing The Platen Knob

    To get at these, remove the printer cover from the printer. Then remove the screws with a Phillips screwdriver Figure l-4. You’ll be smart to save these screws, along with the rest of the packing material and the shipping carton, in case you ever have to ship the printer.
  • Page 13 Figure 1-5. Press the cartridge into place until the holding springs snap into place. 1. Turn off the power and remove the printer cover. 2. Now slide the print head gently to the center printer. Warning: The print head gets hot during operation, let it cool off before you touch it.

  • Page 14: Installing The Mute Cover

    3. Using the guide holders as a fulcrum with the ribbon fac- ing away from you, as shown in Figure 1-5, lightly press the cartridge down until the two holder springs snap shut to hold the cartridge firmly in place. 4.

  • Page 15: Installing The Interface Board

    Up to this point, we’ve been clearing the decks for action, so to speak. There are only a couple more things left to do before we can start printing - install the interface board and the font cartridge. W Installing the interface board Figure 1-8.

  • Page 16: Installing The Font Cartridge

    n Installing the font cartridge This printer is mounted the Prestige characters You can add two different character styles by installing the op- tional font cartridges To install or change a font cartridge, power switch. Fit the font cartridge into the slots and slide it all the way. Figure 1-9.

  • Page 17: Getting To Know Your Printer

    CHAPTER GETTING TO KNOW YOUR PRINTER Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 2 include - Parts of the printer - to use them; Paper selection and loading; Adjustment; Testing printer operation. CONTROLS AND PARTS OF THE PRINTER W Parts of the printer First, we’ll go over the parts of the printer.
  • Page 18 Mute cover Printer cover Font cartridge slot ’ Interface cover Figure 2-1. Front and rear views of the printer. INTERFACE COVER - On the back of the printer, this con- ceals and protects the interface board. The cover is cut away to expose the external connector puter cable.

  • Page 19: Controls And Indicators

    SLOTS FOR FONT CARTRIDGES - These are the two openings at the bottom right of the front of the printer. Insert- ing an optional font cartridge the way and exposes a connector H Controls and indicators Now let’s go over the controls and indicators starting with the control panel on the right.

  • Page 20: Extra Functions

    TOF KEY - Ejects the current sheet, feeds a new sheet, and moves the print head to the left margin. PAPER FEED KEY --Advances when the On Line indicator is off. If you hold the key down, you can get consecutive line feeds, one after the other.

  • Page 21: Selecting And Loading Paper

    foration skipping. See Appendix planation. SELECTING AND LOADING PAPER Your printer can handle the two basic types of paper - single sheets (stationery, envelopes, and continuous paper (fan-fold perforated This is a good place to tell you about the release lever, which you’ll be using often.

  • Page 22: Loading Single Sheets

    n Loading single sheets Now, instead of feeding the paper in manually by turning the platen knob, we’re going to use the release lever for automatic feeding (the printer must be turned on). Single sheets from 5.5 to 14.5 inches wide can be used. OK? Let’s start.
  • Page 23 Figure 2-5. the notches provided for it. Figure 2-6. lever. Prop up the paper guide by inserting the guide stand in You can insert a sheet of paper by using the release...

  • Page 24: Loading Sprocket-Feed Paper

    6. Align a sheet of paper on the guide along the adjuster. 7. Turn on the power switch. (The Paper Empty indicator will glow because there is no paper.) 8. Now set the release lever to the auto-feed position. automatically. 9.
  • Page 25 Sprocket cover Figure 2-7. Open the sprocket covers to expose the sprocket teeth. pigure 2-8. Ready to run with sprocket-feed paper.
  • Page 26 11. Set the release lever to the auto-feed setting. The printer will advance the paper automatically. 12. When the paper stops, set the release lever for sprocket- feed paper again. 13. Finally, install the paper guide on the printer. You can in- stall it either to lie flat as shown in Figure 2-8, or to raise as shown in Figure 2-9.
  • Page 27 Figure 2-10. The adjustment lever allows for different thicknesses of paper. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding the right gap setting for your paper. If necessary, best position for the paper you’re using. EXTRA FUNCTIONS WITH THE COUTRUL PANEL There are many functions the control panel.

  • Page 28: Self-Tests

    Self-test 1 DIP switch 2-2 ON ‘+,-./0123456769:;<=,?BABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUVWXYZ[\] DIP switch 2-2 OFF !“t$t&‘()*+,-./0123456784:;~=~?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUVWXYZ[\]~~~~b !“Y$%h’()“+,-./0123456709:, !“tSt&‘()*+,-./0123456789:;<.,7eABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]-~~8b !“#S%h’()g+,-./01234S6709:, !“~$tb’()~+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP~RSTUVWXYZ[\]-~~~b !“#$X&‘()‘+.-./0123456789: Self-test 2 ‘igure 2-12. The self-tests show you what the printer can print. n Self-tests Your printer has two built-in programs lines of letters, numbers, that everything’s in good working order.

  • Page 29: Hex Dump

    cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz(~)- cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz( cdefghlJklmnopqr~tuvwxyz(~)- cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz(: cdafghljklmnopqr~tuvwxyl(l)- cdefghijklmnopqrstuvHxyz(l)- cdefghlJklmnopqrrtuvwxyz(~)- dafghljklmnopqr~tuvwxyz(~}- efgh!jklmnopqr¶tuvwxyz(~)- fgh~Jklmnopqrstuvwxy2(:)- gh~Jklmnopqrstuvwxyz(: 1‘ hlJklmnopqr~tuVWxyz{:)- !” o$Z&'()*+,-./O~~~~S~~~~:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLM Paper Feed key-Self-test On Line key-Self-test Were you surprised? It’s fast, isn’t it? About 250 characters second with draft characters LQ characters. When you want to terminate off the power switch.

  • Page 30: Panel Modes

    1. Plug in the printer (don’t turn it on yet). 2. Insert a sheet of paper, as you did for the self-tests. 3. While holding down both the Paper Feed and Mode keys, turn on the power switch. When you want to terminate the power switch.

  • Page 31: Setting Print Start Position

    1. Plug in the printer (don’t turn it on yet). 2. While holding the TOF key and the Paper Feed key, turn on the power switch. When you want to cancel this mode, turn off the power switch. During normal operation Top of foms”-Ti **: Hold down *: Press...

  • Page 32: Setting The Left And Right Margins

    you can reset it by the following procedures. 1. Set the Off Line mode by pressing the On Line key. 2. While holding the Print Pitch key, press the TOF key. Your printer acknowledges sound of beep. n Setting the left and right margins As you’ll learn in Chapter 5, you can set the left and right margins with the control codes.
  • Page 33 I. Make sure that both your computer ed off. 2. Connect the printer end of the interface cable to the con- nector socket at the right rear of the printer as shown in Figure 2-14. 3. Connect the other end of the cable to your computer described in the computer and printer are turn-...
  • Page 34 MEMO...

  • Page 35: Using Commercial Software

    CHAPTER 3 USING COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 3 include- . Using your printer with SuperCalc; Using your printer with word processors. Many of you purchased software. You made a good choice because this printer is com- patible with most commercial programs to spreadsheet Many of these programs...

  • Page 36: First, Some Terminology

    need to know to use your printer as a regular printer. But this printer isn’t just a regular capabilities that your commercial tle later we will see what it takes to use some of your printer’s advanced features with commercial First, some terminology Your printer knows what to print because it knows how to in- terpret the codes that the computer sends to it.

  • Page 37: Using Your Printer With Supercalc

    simultaneously that is pressed sends ASCII code 1, control and B sends ASCII code 2, and so on. Because of the way they are created, these codes are often referred to as “control-A” etc. So there are four common ways of referring to the same set of codes: the character value, the hexadecimal For example, the code that causes the printer to advance the...

  • Page 38: Using Your Printer With Word Processors

    are now available. It has the capability of using several of the ad- vanced features of your printer. feature with spreadsheet Let’s see how to use compressed In SuperCalc, the /Output command printer. One of the options of the /Output command This option provides you with a menu of functions to configure SuperCalc to match your printer.
  • Page 39 cessor handles it. Once you understand be able to use your program manual to figure out how your word processor does it. The program that we will study is‘the EasyWriter cessor for the IBM Personal typical method of handling special codes. Generally, word pro- cessing programs don’t want you to put non-printing the file.
  • Page 40 MEMO...
  • Page 41 CHAPTfiR 4 CONTROLLING WITH BASIC Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 4 include- * Listing BASIC programs on the printer; Printing from BASIC; CHR$ function; Command syntax; Problem codes. In this chapter we will be teaching printer’s features using the BASIC programming easy to communicate with your printer from BASIC and, though it has its detrators,...
  • Page 42 LPRINT things other than character strings. We started with Microsoft BASIC because it is the most wide- ly used version of BASIC around. The programs in this manual are written in Microsoft BASIC so they should run on most com- puters.
  • Page 43 BASIC program. Generally, computers cedure for printing in a program as they do to list a program. Let’s try what we learned. Type the following: 10 LPRINT "TESTING" Remember-we use LPRINT; you may have to use something else! At any rate, you should have the word “TESTING” printer.
  • Page 44 Where did that noise come from? That’s the printer’s bell. We will learn more about it in Chapter lustrate a code that causes the printer to perform a function. n The escape codes Back when the ASCII system was set up, computer ment was relatively simple and thirty-three considered sufficient...
  • Page 45 ending with 0. So for out example above, any of these BASIC statements have the same result: LPRINT CHR$(27);"W"CHR$(l) LPRINT CHR$(27);"W"CHR$(49) L”. LPRINT CHRS(27);"Wl" Even though, there are many commands of ASCII code 0; the character substituted. show CHR$(O) each time these commands n Some problem codes Before we go too far we need to mention some codes that may cause you problem.
  • Page 46 MEMO...
  • Page 47 CHAPTER 5 PRINTING TEXT Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 5 include- * Letter quality (LQ) characters; Underlining and overlining; Superscripts and subscripts; Print boldface; Print pitches. The rest of this manual will show you a little BASIC - just enough for you to use your printer. We’re not going to try to make you an expert programmer, All our examples will be given in Microsoft BASIC as used by the IBM Personal Computer, but remember...
  • Page 48 printing, for it takes a keen eye to detect that it is from a dot matrix printer. Normally, characters when the DIP switch 1-4 is set off. This is adequate for most work and it prints fastest. But for the final printout, try Letter Quality.
  • Page 49 60 LPRINT “This line 70 LPRINT CHR$(27);“k”;CHR$(O); 80 LPRINT “This line 90 END When you’ve installed the Gothic Font Cartridge to the font slot 1, and the Italic Prestige the results of this program look like this: This line shows This line shows This line...
  • Page 50 Underline and overline commands 1 Function Underline ON Underline OFF Overline ON f Overline OFF Again, that’s simple. Let’s try it with this program: 10 ’ Demo of underlining 20 LPRINT “Demo of “; 30 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“-1”; 40 LPRINT “UNDELINED”; 50 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“-O”;...
  • Page 51 with boldface printing. The following table shows the control codes for getting into and out of boldface mode. Boldface print commands Function Boldface ON Boldface OFF Try this short program to see the boldface mode: 10 ' Demo of boldface 20 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ;...
  • Page 52 Superscripts and subscripts commands Function Superscript ON Subscript ON Super and subscript OFF Try this program to see them work: 10 ' Demo of superscripts 20 LPRINT "Look! "; 30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"SO"; 40 LPRINT "SUPERSCRIPTS *'; 50 LPRINT CHRS(27);"T"; 60 LPRINT "& **; 70 LPRINT CHRS(27);"Sl";...
  • Page 53 Print pitch commands Characters/inch Pitch Pica Elite Try this program to see how these two pitches work. 10 ' Demo of pica and elite pitches 20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M"; 30 LPRINT "This line is ELITE pitch." 40 LPRINT CHRS(27);"P"; 50 LPRINT "This line is PICA pitch (normal)." When you run this program you should get this: This line is ELITE pitch.
  • Page 54 Demonstration Notice that EXPANDED automatically turns Expanded print set with CHR$(14) is automatically at the end of the line. This is convenient such as for one line titles. Note that you didn’t need to put an (ESC) in front of the CHR$(14), although works just the same.
  • Page 55 :’ n Condensed Each of the print pitches also can be condensed width. This is called condensed how it works: 10 ’ Demo of condensed 20 LPRINT "Demonstration of "; 30 LPRINT CHR$(15); 40 LPRINT "CONDENSED"; 50 LPRINT CHR$(lS); 60 LPRINT w printing." Demonstration Condensed off with CHR$( 18).
  • Page 56 100 LPRINT CHR$(27);"P"; 110 LPRINT "This line is NORMAL PICA pitch." 120 LPRINT CHRS(27);"Wl"; 130 LPRINT CHR$(15); 140 LPRINT CHRS(27);"M"; 150 LPRINT "This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED ELITE." 160 LPRINT CHR$(27);"P"; 170 LPRINT "This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED PICA." 180 LPRINT CHR$(lS); 190 LPRINT CHRS(27);"M";...
  • Page 57 Proportional commands Function Proportional ON Proportional OFF Try this program to see how the proportional 10 ’ Demo of proportional 20 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; “~1”; 30 LPRINT “This line 40 LPRI NT CHR$ (27) ; “~0” ; SO LPRINT “This line When you run this program you should get this: This...
  • Page 58 Here, the value of n defines the print style to be selected. The value of n can range from 0 to 255, which is the range of values that can be stored in one eight-bit byte. If you look at each bit in this byte, you’ll find that each one represents variation.
  • Page 59 For example, suppose you turn on both Proportional densed modes. Since these cannot combine make a choice; in this case, the printer chooses Proportional. Summary notes 1) Pica is the default pitch and is active when Elite is turned off. 2) When two modes conflict, cancelled.
  • Page 60 MEMO...
  • Page 61 CHAPTER 6 FORMATTING TEXT Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 6 include- * The carriage return and line feed; The amount of space between lines; Moving to the next page; The number of lines on a printed page; Horizontal and vertical tabs; Setting margins- left, right, and bottom.
  • Page 62 print head to the left margin, ready to start a new line. Now to add a little confusion-most BASIC add a line feed (CHR$(lO)) to every carriage (CHR$(13)) that they send. If your version of BASIC doesn’t do this, then you should turn DIP switch 2-6 off so that your printer will add the line feed for you.
  • Page 63 THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING THIS LINE SPACING Line 40 defines and changes the line spacing. The command (ESC)“A”CHR$(n) defines the line spacing as the (ESC)“2”...
  • Page 64 When you are using your printer with the DIP switch 2-2 off, the (ESC)“A”CHR$( ) n works without (ESC)“2”. So in this case, change the following lines as shown below: 40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"A";CHR$(I); 80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"2" The results are the same as previous one. You may wonder why they picked l/60 of an inch as the incre- ment for the line spacing command.
  • Page 65 Line spacing commands Function Set line spacing to l/8 inch Set line sDacinz to 7160 inch Set line macinn to l/6 inch or use 0W”A” defiiitiod (ESC )“2” 1 Set or define line spacing to n/60 inch One-time line feed of n/180 inch -reverse line feed of n/180 inch 1 ( ESC)“...
  • Page 66 The (ESC)“J”CHR$(lOO) 100/180 inches for one line only without moving the printhead. The rest of the lines printed Notice that both line 30 and line 50 end with semicolons. prevents the normal line feed from occurring. The (ESC)“j”CHR$(n) that the paper moves in the opposite direction. Try this simple change to your program and see what a difference 40 ’...
  • Page 67 ,____ iv------- -------- 1 LINE NUMBER LINE NUMBER 2. The form feed (CHR$(12)) in line 50 caused the printer to move to the top of a new page before printing the last two lines. n Changing the page length You may have some computer forms that you wish to use with this printer that are not 11 inches high.
  • Page 68 This program should print “PAY TO THE ORDER OF:” twice, and they should be 7 inches apart. Line 20 sets the form length to 7 inches. After line 30 prints, line 40 sends a form feed advance the paper to the top of the next form. Line 50 then prints its message.
  • Page 69 50 FOR I=1 TO 150 60 LPRINT "THIS IS LINE";1 NEXT I 90 LPRINT CHR$(lZ); 100 END When you run this program it will print 150 lines right down the page and across the perforations. sends a form feed to advance to the top of the next page. Look at the lines that have printed near the perforations.
  • Page 70 THIS IS LINE 2 THIS IS LINE 4 THIS IS LINE 6 I THIS IS LINE 54 THIS IS LINE 5.5 THIS IS LINE 56 THIS IS LINE 57 I THIS IS LINE 58 1 THIS IS LINE 59 ; THIS IS LINE 60 THIS IS LINE 62 I THIS IS LINE 63 1 THIS IS LINE 64...
  • Page 71 SETTING LEFT AND RIGHT MARGINS The left and right margins - once they are set all the printing is done between typewriter them. The commands to set the margins are given in the follow- ing table: Left and right margin Function Set left margin at column n Set right margin at column n...
  • Page 72 on, or you can set margin values equal to the default values. This means that you should set a left margin of 0 and right margin of 136 in pica pitch. If you change the pitch of your printing margins, the margins will not change. They stay at the same place on the page.
  • Page 73 15 LPRINT CHR$(27);“D”;CHR$(7);CHR$(l4);CHR$(21); CHRS(O) ; (ESC)“D” is the command to begin setting horizontal tabs. It must be followed by characters you want the tabs set. In our program we are setting tabs in col- umns 7, 14, and 21. The CHR$(O) at the end ends the string of tabs.
  • Page 74 One-time Function One-time horizontal tab of n spaces Absolute horizontal tab Relative horizontal tab The first command in Table 6-7 moves the print head n col- umns to the right. It has the same effect as sending n spaces to the printer.
  • Page 75 Units of motion for the relative Print style Draft characters LQ characters LQ proportional characters Try this program to see how this works. ' Deso of relative horizontal 20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xO"; 30 LPRINT "Draft characters" 40 GOSUB 120 50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xl"; 60 LPRINT "LQ characters"...
  • Page 76 set at line 20, a vertical tab (or <VT>) whether you start from line 5 or line 19. The vertical tab is not set at the power-on default. If you send a CHR$(ll), which is the ASCII code for < VT > , before we have set up tabs advance the paper one line.
  • Page 77 Add one more line to the program to demonstrate feature of vertical tabs. 80 LPRINT CHR$(ll):"FIFTH TAB." Now when you run the program the first page looks just like before, but line 80 sends one more <VT > than there are tabs. This doesn’t confuse your printer - it advances the paper to the next tab position which happens to be the first tab position on the next page.
  • Page 78 Vertical Function Advance paper to next tab position CHR$(ll) Set vertical tabs at nl, n.2, etc. Set vertical tabs every n lines One-time vertical W Vertical tab channels Vertical tab channels are especially helpful in two situations. The first occurs when you are writing a program to accompany a preprinted form that can accommodate responces.
  • Page 79 120 LPRINT “2ND TAB OF CHANNEL’* ; I 130 LPRINT CHR$(12); 140 NEXT I 150 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“@” 160 END When you run this program you should get like this. FORM OF CHANNEL OF CHANNEL In this program we set tabs at 10 and 20 in channel 1 in line 20.
  • Page 80 MEMO...
  • Page 81 CHAPTER SPECIAL FEATURES THE PRINTER Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 7 include- * Printer’s bell; Master reset; Uni-directional printing; International character sets; Printing BIG characters; The optional sheet feeder; Reading a hex dump. In the previous chapters groups of control codes. In this chapter we will look at more con- trol codes.
  • Page 82 mind an operator to change the paper or to make another adjust- ment to the printer. You can try this by typing: LPRINT CHR$(7) n Resetting the printer Up to now when we wanted to reset the printer to the power on condition we have had to either turn the printer off and then on again, or to send the specific codes that reset the particular features.
  • Page 83 Some miscellaneous Function Sound bell Master reset I Off line I On line Paper-out detector off Paper-out detector on move mint head back one snace 1 CHI Delete last character sent Cancel text in print buffer 1 Immediate-mint 1 Immediate-mint Add n dot spaces between characters Repeat characters n Backspace,...
  • Page 84 90 LPRINT CHR$(24); 100 LPRINT "DOES NOT WORK" Here is what this program will print: BACKSPACE DELETE DOES DOES NOT WORK The backspace three spaces to the left so that the first part of line 40 will over- print the word “NOT”. The delete codes in line 60 “erase” the three letters in the word “NOT”...
  • Page 85 riage return code.) To end this program and print the contents of the buffer, press RETURN Now add this line: 10 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;"il"; And RUN the program. Your printer responds to your typing - immediately. When you are finished, press RETURN n Adjusting the width of space between characters This printer provides a command...
  • Page 86 This command can be used to produce which is a method of justifying lines by increasing the space be- tween each character. n Repeat characters This printer has a command characters for you. Try this program to see how it works. 10 ' Demo of character 20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"V";CHR$(4);...
  • Page 87 Try this program direction makes. 10 ’ Uni-directional 20 LPRINT CHR$(27);“A”;CHR$(6); 30 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“2”; 40 FOR I=1 TO 10 50 LPRINT ” I ” 60 NEXT I 70 LPRINT :LPRINT 80 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“Ul”; 90 FOR I=1 TO 10 100 LPRINT “I ”...
  • Page 88 power on condition. You can also set the printer to print in one direction for one line only by using the (ESC) “(” command. This command im- mediately moves the printhead prints the remainder of the line from left to right. H The seven bit dilemma Certain computers (but not the IBM-PC fortunately!)
  • Page 89 10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"0"; 20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"6"; 30 FOR J=3 TO 6 40 LPRINT '* ";J;CHR$(J);CHR$(9); 50 NEXT J 60 LPRINT '* 21 ";CHR$(21) 70 LPRINT 80 FOR J=128 TO 254 STEP 5 90 FOR I=J TO J+4 95 IF I>254 THEN 110 100 LPRINT I;CHR$(I);CHR$(9);...
  • Page 90 129 ii 134 a & 139 i; 159 f 164 A 169 c 179 1 189 J, 193 -l- 194 T 198 f= ILgg It 219 4 229 CJ Figure 7-1. Character 166 B 171 + >> 176 III 181 j 186 II 190 d 191 1...
  • Page 91 If you have a 7-bit interface, add the following lines to the pro- gram given above: 15 LPRINT CHR$(27);">"; 95 LPRINT CHR$(27);"=" In this program line 10 selects character set #2 so that all the graphics characters can be used (including the “club” symbol). Then lines 20-80 print the 5 of clubs figure.
  • Page 92 The characters that change are shown code in Table 7-6. International character n Printing BIG characters You can even enlarge your character sets for attention-grabb- ing headings or special effects. There are two commands can use. Everything following any of them will be enlarged as shown below, until the cancel code is entered.
  • Page 93 90 LPRINT “THIS IS “; 100 LPRINT CHR$(27);“h”;CHR$(2); 110 LPRI NT “QUAD” ; 120 LPRINT CHR$(27);“h”;CHR$(O) 130 LPRINT ” SIZED PRINTING.” 140 LPRI NT CHR$ (27) ; “-0” When you run this program, you will get like this: -DOUBLE QUAD THIS IS As you can see, when the big character baseline for each character...
  • Page 94 DOUBLE THIS QUAI) THIS n g-pin graphics emulation As you had learned in Chapter 2, this printer has a unique 9- pin graphics emulation You can select this mode with a control code - (ESC)“g”. After you’ve entered into the g-pin graphics emulation following commands work in the same manner printers, as shown below:...
  • Page 95 When the automatic sheet feeder is installed, you must set the DIP switch 2-4 on to detect the paper-out condition. In addition, matic sheet feeder is installed: Setting of the page length Top and bottom margins Vertical tab settings The five-character Caution: automatic sheet feeder is mounted on the printer (e.g.
  • Page 96 Most BASICS, however, are not quite that straight forward. For example, the IBM-PC prints like the following. Notice that your printer is receiving decimal code 13 (hex OD) is coming with hex OA, which is really decimal 10. In addition, your printer does not receive decimal code 26 (hex 1A).
  • Page 97 CHAPTER CREATING YOUR OWN CHARACTERS Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 8 include- * Designing your own characters; Printing your own characters; Print mode and the download characters. In the previous chapters of this manual you’ve learned how to control the printer to give dozens of different typefaces. ing various combinations selections, you can create nearly any effect you want to in text.
  • Page 98 Figure 8-1 shows an enlarged schematic the printhead, showing the ends of the wires and their relation- ship to the draft characters. use the top eighteen wires of the printhead, (such as the lower case “p” shown) use the bottom pins.
  • Page 99 But there is another area of memory in this printer reserved for user-defined characters. download design characters are defined they are stored in RAM(random memory), which allows you to define or modify them at any time. Each of these draft characters, ROM or in download RAM, is constructed five “boxes”...
  • Page 100 the same way. Make up some grids (photocopy Figure 8-3 if you wish) and get ready to be creative! (Just in case you are not feel- ing creative, and to make our explanations be using a picture of an automobile download character.
  • Page 101 123458789 byte 32 4 2 1 byte Figure 8-4. We’ve designed byte 84 4 2 1 byte 1.igure 8-s. Uots cannot overlap; “half columns” will be ignored when the character Data code: ASCII Left space: Right apace: 1st: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 5th: 8th:...
  • Page 102 dots, the printhead would have to slow down and back up to print both dots-not very efficient! To avoid this inefficiency, this printer will not allow you to define a character 8-5. (Actually, you can define it, but when it prints, your printer will leave out the overlapping Figure 8-4.) n Rule 2: Each row is divided into three bytes...
  • Page 103 which we’ll get to shortly. 123456769 d3zEl byte bvte byte Figure 8-7. Add the values of the dots in each column and write the sum of each column at the bottom. Assigning a value of character Besides being able to specify character, this printer allows you to specify the position in the standard grid where the character will print.
  • Page 104 create proportional width characters When defining draft characters, umns (ml) cannot exceed 9, and the sum of m0 + ml + m2 can not exceed 12. n Assigning a value to your character We’ve done a pretty through job of designing and describing a user-defined character.
  • Page 105 for user-defined characters, with ASCII values below 32 are usually reserved codes by both your computer characters can be replaced by user-defined be avoided because of the effect on the normal control codes. In our example, we’ll assign the car a value of 60, which is the code for the character “(”...
  • Page 106 You’ll probably recognize layout grid. That’s right, each column is described bytes. Now we’ve got everything character to the printer. character is shown below: CHR$(27);CHR$(38);CHR$(O);CHR$(6O):CHR$(6O): CHR$(l);CHR$(9);CHR$(2);CHR$(l);CHR$(24O);CHR$(O): CHR$(6);CHR$(8);CHR$(O);CHR$(8);CHR$(lOO);CHR$(O); CHR$(O);CHR$(O);~$(O);CHR$(24);CHR$(99);CHR$(l28): CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHRS(3l):CHR$(255);CHR$(l92~; CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHR$(6);CHR$(3);CHR$(O) Now let’s send the information program will send characters to the printer. Before you enter the program, turn off the printer and set the DIP switch 2-3 off.
  • Page 107 When you run this program, That’s OK. We’ll see why in just a moment. Save this program. We’ll need it again shortly. PRINTING DOWNLOAD You’ve now defined and sent two characters But how do you know that? If you try printing those characters now you don’t get a car and telephone.
  • Page 108 50 LPRINT FOR I=160 TO 254 70 LPRINT CHR$(I); NEXT I 90 LPRINT 100 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“;%O”;CHR$(O) 110 END Nope! Just two characters in the download set. This is inconve- nient for a couple of reasons. First, every time you wanted to use a download character forth between character to do that, your printer won’t even allow it.
  • Page 109 To demonstrate character been built around the first program in this chapter, will do just that: 10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xO"; 20 LPRINT CHRS(27);":" ;CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHR$(O) 30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"&";CHR$(O);CHR$(60);CHR$(61); 40 FOR N=60 TO 61 50 FOR M=l TO 30 60 READ MM 70 LPRINT CHR$(MM); 80 NEXT M 90 NEXT N 100 LPRINT...
  • Page 110 370 LPRINT 380 LPRINT CHR$(9) 390 FOR I=0 TO 488 400 LPRINT CHR$(61 410 NEXT I 420 LPRINT 430 LPRINT "JAPAN" ;CHRS(g); 440 FOR I=0 TO 347 450 LPRINT CHR$(60); 460 NEXT I 470 LPRINT 480 LPRINT CHR$(9); 490 FOR I=0 TO 493 STEP 50 500 LPRINT CHR$(61);...
  • Page 111 Note that we didn’t hnvc to re-enter the download characters, since they were already sent to the printer with the first pro- gram. They will stay with the printer until you download new characters (ESC) “@” command, destroy the contents n How to print the characters As explained values below 32.
  • Page 112 THE PRINT MODE AND THE DOWNLOAD In the example program characters, we selected the Draft print mode. By doing this, we caused user-defined characters because user-defined characters fect at the time they are defined. The modes that affect user-defined letter quality printing. (The (ESC) “x” n command selects be- tween draft (n = 0) and letter quality (n= l).) commands download character set, and copying ROM are exactly the same...
  • Page 113 together horizontally than draft style dot columns (the horizon- tal dot spacing is l/MO-inch when printing LQ characters opposed to l/120-inch for draft characters). Unlike draft characters, dots can print. This, coupled with the closer dot spacing, allows you to design characters is speed.
  • Page 114 MEMO...

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