Troubleshooting The Rs232C (Serial) Interface - SATO CL408 Programming Manual

6. Troubleshooting

6.4 Troubleshooting the RS232C (Serial) Interface

1. Is the RS232C Serial cable connected securely to your serial port on
the PC (DB-25S Male) and to the RS232C connector on the printer?
Warning: Never connect or disconnect interface cables (or use a
switch box) with power applied to either the printer or the host. This
may cause damage to the interface circuitry and is not covered by
warranty.
2. Is the cable defective? At the very least, you should be using a "Null
Modem Cable," which crosses pins in a specific manner. This should
enable your printer to print. We recommend that you use a cable built
to specifications described in Section 3, Interface Specifications.
3. Check for obvious errors in the data stream. Remember that all print
jobs for serial data must be framed by an STX and ETX.
4. If after sending your job to the printer, it only "beeps" (or displays a
Framing Error message on the LCD panel), you may have a configu-
ration problem. There may be some inconsistencies with the Baud
Rate, Parity, Data Bits, or Stop Bits in relation to your host computer.
If you are confused as to what the printer's current RS232 settings are,
you may choose the SATO defaults (all DIP switches in the OFF posi-
tion) to achieve 9600 baud, no parity, 8 data-bits, and 1 stop bit).
5. If you still are unable to get printer output, try the Hex Dump as
described in Step 5 under the Centronics Interface troubleshooting. In
this case, the printer monitors its RS232C interface for incoming data.
6. From the Hex Dump, if you are seeing extra 0D 0A (CR and LF) char-
acters, and are using BASIC, refer to the beginning of the Command
Code section in the Operator and Technical Reference Manual.
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Programming Manual
SATO RISC Printers