General Purpose I/O - Microcom 428M Operator's Manual

Printer Commands

5.3 General Purpose I/O

When this command is enabled (Switch 6 bit 6; D26 command), the printer provides the
ability to report the current status of 4 additional inputs accessed through the P17 connector
on the PCB, report the status of 4 additional outputs accessed through the P21 connector
on the PCB, to change the status of the outputs, and to configure the inputs to generate
immediate errors.
^A ^D Command
XX 110 General Purpose Status Byte
The printer has a special mode of communication for General Purpose control
environments. Communication is over the Ethernet port and uses the
following protocol.
The host sends a command byte to the Ethernet port every few milliseconds.
The printer's Ethernet interface will pass the command byte on to the printer
only when there is a change, i.e., when there is a new command.
The printer sends a byte of status data to its Ethernet interface using the same
data format, and will only send the data when there is a change in status. The
printer's Ethernet interface will send the printer status byte to the HOST every
few milliseconds.
This is the command byte configuration:
Command Byte From Host to Printer:
Bit #
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
The HOST only sends the command byte to the printer. The printer's Ethernet
interface receives this command byte from the HOST and tests it to see if it is
different from the previous command byte. If there is a change, then the
command byte is put into the "xx" of a ^Axx^D110 command and sent to the
printer. Valid values for "xx" are determined from the "Host to Printer" table
above.
The printer sends a status byte to the host every few milliseconds thru its
Ethernet interface. This status byte is sent whether there is a change of status
or not.
Bit #
0 (LSB)
5-28
Function when = "1"
PRINT
PRINT TEST PATTERN
RESET
not used
not used
not used
not used
not used
Status Byte From Printer to Host:
Function when = "1"
IN RESET or PRINTING
Function when = "0"
DON'T PRINT
DON'T PRINT TEST PATTERN
DON'T RESET
Function when = "0"
NOT BUSY
428M Operator's Manual - 880028-0112
Chapter 5