Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product HX-20 Epson
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EPSON HX-20 OPERATIONS MANUAL B Y Kenneth Skier President SkiSoft, Inc. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechan- ical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Epson America, Inc.
Federal Communications Commission Radio Frequency Interference Statement “This equipment generates and uses radio frequency energy and if not installed and used properly, that is, in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, may cause interference to radio and television reception.
CONTENTS 1 Congratulations! ................................... 2 Cautions ......................................... Case .............................................. Dummy cartridge .................................. System bus cover ..............
Virtual screen width ................................ 42 Logical lines vs. physical lines. ....................... 43 Retyping .......................................... 44 Deleting text ...................................... 44 Insert mode ..........
Chapter 1 Congratulations! Congratulations! You have just purchased the first of a new gen- eration of personal computers. The Epson HX-20 is unlike any product ever built, combining the power and usefulness of a desktop computer with the port- ability of a pocket calculator.
memory even when you turn it off Contained within the HX-20 is an extended version of Micro- soft BASIC, a powerful pro- gramming language that is easy to learn and which takes full advantage of the many special features of the HX-20. If you have no interest in program- ming, you can purchase programs and run them on your HX-20.
permanently with the desired capabilities. Only one option ROM can fit inside the HX-20 at a time, but it’s a powerful means of customizing the HX-20 for a desired application-without diminishing in any way its abil- ity to run BASIC programs or to accept option cartridges.
I I -one or more floppy-disk units, which may store dozens or hundreds of programs and data files on-line, for virtually instant access; As you can see, the HX-20 is powerful, portable, easy to use and expandable. Whether you wish to use it for school, for busi- ness, or just for fun, you could hardly choose a more personal personal computer.
Chapter 2 Cautions The HX-20 is not a toy. Although it is solid and well-built, it is not invulnerable. Treat it with the care it deserves, and it should pro- vide you with years of reliable service. The warnings on these pages concern only the HX-20.
cartridge Leave the dummy cartridge in place If you purchase an option cartridge containing a program or a microcassette recorder, then you will need to remove the dummy cartridge in order to insert the option cartridge. But until then, please leave the dummy cartridge in place.
Treat the circuit cover with care If you turn your HX-20 upside down, you will notice something that looks like a trap door. This covers the HX-20’s internal circuitry. circuit cover Treat the circuit cover with care PLEASE NOTE: You should not remove this cover yourself! Re- moving it exposes the static-sensitive circuit to possible damage.
plugs identical to the one on the HX-20 battery charger.) Using any battery charger other than the one that came with your HX-20 may damage the HX-20 and/ or its batteries and could void your warranty.
recharge the HX-20 before you see that message, you will only shorten the useful life of the batteries. Charging the batteries for more than eight hours at a time will shorten their life. Charging them continuously for more than seven days can destroy them.
Plugging in a device that does not conform to these specifications may damage the HX-20 and/or the device you plug in, and may void your warranty. Connect the HX-20 only to appropriate peripherals Protect the HX-20 from physical shock Don’t drop your HX-20, or let it shake about.
Protect the HX-20 from extreme heat and cold The HX-20 is designed for use in conditions where the temperature is below 95° F (35° C), and above 41°F (5° C).
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Chapter 3 Preparing your HX-20 for use Before you use your HX-20 for the first time, you must take several steps: I) Unpack it. 2) Charge the batteries. 3) Put paper and a ribbon in the printer. 4) Adjust the LCD display. 5) Initialize memory and the calendar clock.
3) A roll of paper for the printer. 4) A ribbon cartridge for the printer. 5) This manual. 6) The Epson HX-20 BASIC Tutorial and Reference Manual. 7) The registration card. 8) A warning sheet concerning the battery charger. Fill out the registration card at the time of purchase and mail it to Epson.
Uncoil the battery charger cable. At the free end of this cable is a small, cylindrical plug: Insert this plug into the socket labelled “ADAPTER” on the back of the HX-20: DO NOT TURN ON THE HX-20! If you leave your HX-20 power on, your batteries will not be fully charged at the end of eight hours.
When the HX-20 is shipped from the factory, the ribbon and paper are not installed in the printer. To prepare the printer for use, you must perform the following steps: 1) Remove the printer cover. 2) Insert the paper roll. 3) Insert the ribbon cartridge.
When you have tilted the printer cover up to a near-vertical position, you may lift it completely from the HX-20: I I Now you can look directly into the printer compartment. Inserting the paper roll Note the ON-OFF switch on the right side of the HX-20.
(Pay no attention to the screen at this point.) Turn the printer on, by sliding the PRINTER ON-OFF switch to the right: The printer will remain inactive.
Now you need the roll of printer paper that came with your HX-20. When you use it up, replace it with the same kind of paper (available at your Epson dealer).
While holding the paper in place, press the PAPER FEED button. The printer will activate, and a rubber roller will pull the paper into the printer compartment. Hold the PAPER FEED but- ton down until the paper emerges from the top of the printer mech- anism.
Close the paper compartment by pulling the paper cover all the way forward. Be sure that you don’t close the paper cover on the free end of the paper roll. Inserting the ribbon cartridge Packaged with your HX-20 is an L-shaped ink ribbon cartridge: Holding it as shown, you may slide it over the paper and into the printer compartment.
Push the ribbon cartridge down into the printer compartment, until the top surface of the ribbon cartridge is level with the metal plate. (Do not be concerned if the ribbon has some slack and rests on top of the metal plate.) The ribbon cartridge is now installed.
Push the back of the printer cover down and into place: I I Press the front of the printer cover down: The printer cover is now in place. Adjusting the viewing angle The HX-20 uses an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen. Unlike a television or movie screen, an LCD screen can only be viewed from within a narrow range of angles.
At one angle you might not see any text at all on the screen. At another angle the entire screen may look black. But you will discover an optimal viewing angle: an angle from which you will find it very easy to read the screen. Nevertheless, you won’t have to sit in any particular position while using the HX-20.
Initializing memory and the calendar clock Before you use the HX-20 for the first time, you must initialize its memory and its calendar clock. (If your HX-20 is not on now, turn it on.) The screen will look like this: I CTRL/@Initialize 1 MONITOR 2 BASIC I (Note: there may be various letters and symbols under “1 MON- ITOR”.
Figure 3-1 Format for Specifying Date and Time MM DD YY HH MM SS +ay !.,. / j ?,.k= You must enter IWO digits for each of these units of time. For example, let’s say that you are reading this in the month of January. Even though it’s the first month of the year, you may not specify the month with a “1”.
Your HX-20 is now ready for use. Selecting a different character set Please note: The following information is for dealer reference only! The circuit cover should be removed only by an authorized Epson dealer or service center. Removing it yourself will void your war- ranty.
You will see a shiny, flexible flap. Carefully lift this up and out of the way. One component, called a DIP switch, looks like this (enlarged to show detail): The DIP switch is actually a set of four switches.
TABLE 3-2 DIP Switch Settings for International Character Sets Desired Switch Country 1 Denmark On England Off France Off Germany On Italy On Spain Off Sweden Off USA On Switch 2 On Off On Off Off Off On On Switch 3 Off On On On Off Off Off On (Switch 4 has no effect on the HX-20’s character set.
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Chapter 4 Using the HX-20 Once you have prepared the HX-20 for use, you may use it any- where, at any time. Just turn it on, view the menu, and choose an item from the menu. Turning it on To turn on the HX-20, find the ON-OFF switch on the right side of the HX-20, and push it towards the back of the HX-20: A menu will appear on the screen.
Or it might be much longer. However, if it is longer, its first few lines will look exactly like the above menu. The above menu is three lines long, so you can see all of it on the screen at one time. But a menu might list as many as seventeen jobs-far too many to fit in one screen.
TABLE 4-1 Keys You May Use To View The Menu Key Effect The entire menu will scroll up through the screen. When the scrolling stops, you will see item “1” in the top of the screen. Same as the q key. Text on the screen will scroll up by four lines.
To answer that question, let’s take a look at a particular menu: (Press q to see the top line of this menu on your screen.) Each line in the menu lists a job the HX-20 may perform, by spec- ifying a key and the job associated with that key. To choose an item from the menu, press the key listed next to that item.
Chapter 5 The screen editor When you use BASIC or almost any application program, you will interact with the HX-20 by typing on the keyboard, and it will respond by displaying text and graphics on the screen. This is made possible by the screen editor.
If you place that piece of paper on any page in this book, it will cover up all but a small portion of the page. Yet by moving that window horizontally and vertically, you can bring any desired por- tion of the page into view: Moving the window does not change what’s on the page.
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At the bottom of the screen, you will see a symbol that looks like this: That symbol consists of a “greater-than” sign with a little line underneath it. That little line is called a cursor. On your keyboard, just above the m key, you will notice two keys with arrows on them.
Thus, themkeys enable two cursor keys to move the cursor in any of four different directions: left, right, up, and down. To select horizontal movement, do not use alkey. To select vertical movement, you must use alkey. Scrolling Something special happens when you try to move the cursor beyond the edge of the LCD screen.
Clearing the screen You can erase the entire virtual screen, just by pressing a single key: This clears the virtual screen, and homes the cursor. Typing on the virtual screen Typing on the virtual screen is as easy as.
Because the cursor is near the right edge of the screen, something unusual will happen when you type the next character. Press them key. An “O” appears on the screen at the cursor location, but the cursor doesn’t move to the right. Instead, all the text on the screen slides to the left.
already displaying the rightmost portion of the virtual screen. Now, press the q key and the screen will look like this: ALL GOOD MEN TO COM ' - The cursor is now in the rightmost location of the virtual screen.
(You will see an error message on the screen if you press piiiJJ now, after typing “NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR PARTY.” Here’s why: Pres- sing m tells the HX-20 that you have just completed a logical line. The HX-20 is in “BASIC,“ so it examines your line to see if it is a legitimate BASIC command.
(Note: if the cursor is at the beginning of a logical line, then pressing a will not delete the preceding character, but will instead delete the character at the cursor.) You will find the 111 key extremely helpful when you are typing new text. With it, you can correct typographical errors as soon as you make them.
Eventually, you’ll want to stop inserting text. To exit from insert mode, hold down a m key and tap magain. Or press any cursor key. Either action will take the HX-20 out of insert mode. Upper and lower case So far, you’ve only typed UPPER CASE LETTERS on the virtual screen.
When the screen editor is in lower case mode, the w keys work the same way they do on a typewriter. Use no m key and you get a lower case letter; use either [ key and you get an upper case letter. To put the screen editor back into upper case mode, simply press the q key again.
That’s the same pattern of numbers you’ll find on the keyboard of any calculator or adding machine. When the HX-20 is in numeric mode, you cannot type any let- ters. (Go ahead. Press the q key. See? Nothing happens. In this mode, all letter keys are disabled.
Figure 5-1 Screen Editor Modes Graphic characters So far you’ve typed letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, but with the screen editor you may type many graphic characters as well.
Printing the screen Now you’ve learned enough to make the LCD screen display text and graphics. At some point, you may decide that you’d like to save a copy of what you see on the screen. You can make a hard copy of the LCD screen whenever you’d like.
Move cursor right to a multiple of n col- umns. (Originally n = 10, but n may be changed with the BASIC scroll command.) Clear virtual screen and home the cursor. Home the cursor. Move cursor right by 8 columns. Scroll text up the screen by four lines (or by the amount set with the BASIC SCROLL command.
Display leftmost portion of virtual screen. Scroll right. Delete from cursor to end of logical line. Move cursor to rightmost portion of virtual screen. Same as q Horizontal tab (8 columns). Move cursor down by one line. (Has no effect in BASIC immediate mode.
B lets you change the rate at which the HX-20 LIST S a BASIC program on the screen. To change this rate, press w when a program is LISTing on the screen, and then press a key from 0 to 9. 0 sets the slowest LIST rate; 9 sets the fastest LIST rate. Other keys set intermediate LIST rates.
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Chapter 6 Connecting your HX-20 to other devices You can connect your HX-20 to a number of other devices-for example, to a cassette recorder, a printer, and a bar code reader, to name but a few. In this chapter you’ll learn how to connect the HX-20 to such peripherals.
At each end of the cable you'll find three plugs, colored red, white, and black. Take the three plugs at one end of the cassette cable and plug them into the following sockets on the right side o.
Your cassette recorder is now connected to your HX-20. You may use it to save and load BASIC programs, as described in the Epson HX-20 BASIC Tutorial and Reference Manual. Or you may use it with various applications programs, as described in the documen- tation for those programs.
Plug the small, rounded end of the RS-232 cable into the DIN socket labelled “RS-232” in the back of your HX-20. Then plug the other end of the cable into the corresponding socket on your RS-232 device. Now the HX-20 and the RS-232 device are connected.
A bar code reader can “read” bar codes-those patterns of black and white stripes you find on groceries, magazines, and so many other products today. As of this printing, Epson has provided only the hardware inter- face for a bar code reader. But when you read this, a bar code reader might be available.
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Chapter 7 What if you have problems? Your HX-20 is a highly sophisticated computer, controlled by very advanced software. Epson built reliability into this software, so it’s quite likely that your HX-20 will give you trouble-free service for years. Nevertheless, even the most intelligent systems can become confused.
The RESET switch will interrupt the HX-20, no matter how busy it may be. Once interrupted, the HX-20 will notice that the ON-OFF switch is in the “OFF” position, and it will stop processing. This will make the screen go blank. If the menu displays garbage.
Chapter 8 Storing your HX-20 Because of its sensitive components, the HX-20 requires some care even when you’re not using it. This chapter tells you how to store your HX-20, for a few minutes, a few days, or even a few months.
also be prudent to save on a cassette any programs you have stored in memory. Then store the HX-20 in its original box and packaging materials, in a place with acceptable temperature and humidity.
Chapter 9 Specifications This chapter provides information of interest to technically- sophisticated users. If you are just learning about computers, ignore this chapter. Turn instead to the Epson HX-20 BASIC Tutorial and Reference Manual, and learn how to program your HX-20.
As shown in Figure 9-1, the main microprocessor accesses read- only and read-write memory, and controls the keyboard, LCD display, and clock. The slave microprocessor controls the micro- printer, speaker, and external cassette. The cartridge interface has ports for both the main and slave microprocessors.
Expansion Several options may be easily installed to expand the HX-20’s capability, as shown in Figure 9-2. An expansion unit provides an additional 32K of memory, which includes 16K of RAM. In addition, an 8K application ROM may be installed internally.
Specifications CPU and Memory Main CPU Slave CPU RAM ROM Internal Expansion ROM External Expansion RAM ROM Built-in Features Display Printer Clock Speaker Interfaces Interface Power Capacity (each pin.
Serial (Full and half duplex) Connector Input/ Output Level Baud Rates Pin Assignment Peripheral Cartridge Connector Input/ Output Level Pin Assignment Cartridge Type ROM Cartridge Not assigned No car.
AC Adapter (Battery Charger) Input Voltage Frequency Consumption Isolation Switches Internal External Keyboard and Character Set Type Function Total Number of Keys Function Keys Special Keys Ten Key N.
CX-20 Acoustic Coupler Communications Operation Mode Signaling Speed Interface Power Supply Display Controller Switch Box RS-232C Cables Serial Cables (High Speed) External Cassette Cable support AC A.
An important point after buying a device Epson HX-20 (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought Epson HX-20 yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data Epson HX-20 - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, Epson HX-20 you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get Epson HX-20 will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of Epson HX-20, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime Epson HX-20.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Epson HX-20. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Epson HX-20 along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
