Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product LX-80 Epson
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EPSON ® LX-80™ PRINTER User’s Manual.
FCC COMPLIANCE STATEMENT FOR AMERICAN USERS 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 List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . LX-80 Features . . . . . . About This Manual . . . 1 Setting Up Your LX- 80 Printe r ........ . Printer Parts ......
5 LX-80 Features ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . Demonstration Programs . . . . . . . . . Pica Printing ......... . . . . . . . . . Changing Pitches ..... . . . . . . . . . Cancelling Codes ..... . . . ..... . . . Resetting the Printer ... . . . .....
9 Introduction to Dot Graphics ............. . 73 Dot Patterns ............................. . 74 Print Head ............................... . 75 Graphics Mode ........................... . 75 Pin Labels ............................... . 76 First Graphics Program .
F G H I Troubleshooting and Advanced Features ..... . Problem/Solution Summary ................. . Setting print styles ....................... . Tabbing ............................... . Graphics ............................... . Paper-out sensor ...
List of Figures 1-1 Printer parts . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Paper feed knob installation . . . 1-3 Ribbon cassette . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Print head assembly . . . . . . . 1-5 Ribbon cassette installation . . 1-6 Ribbon placement . . . . . . . . . 1-7 LX-80 ready for paper loading .
E-1 E-2 E-3 E-4 E-5 E-6 E-7 E-8 I-1 2-1 2-2 5-1 6-1 6-2 6-3 9-1 D-1 D-2 I-1 I-2 Continuous paper with printer stand .. . Continuous paper without stand ...... . Tractor placement .................. . Paper separator and paper guide ...... . Tractor release levers .
Introduction The Epson LX-80 printer combines low price with the high quality and advanced features formerly available only on more expensive printers.
About This Manual We’re not going to waste your time with unnecessary information, but we won’t neglect anything you need to know about the LX-80 and its many features.
Chapter 1 Setting Up Your LX-80 Printer Setting up your LX-80 printer is a simple matter of attaching two parts, putting in the ribbon and paper, and connecting the printer to your computer. This chapter will have you printing a test pattern within fifteen to twenty minutes and doing more complicated work not long after.
In addition to the items in the box, you need a cable and possibly an interface board. The cable connects the printer to your computer, and the interface board is necessary only for those computers that can’t use the LX-80’s Centronics ® parallel interface.
Figure 1-2. Paper feed knob installation Ribbon Installation The LX-80 printer uses a continuous-loop, inked fabric ribbon, which is enclosed in a cassette that makes ribbon installation and replacement a clean and easy job. The parts of this cassette are labelled in Figure 1-3.
To install the ribbon, first open the lid at the front of the LX-80 so that you can see the print head assembly shown in Figure 1-4. Move the assembly by hand to the center of the printer so that the other parts of the printer will not get in your way.
Then hold the ribbon cassette so that the small knob is on top and the exposed section of ribbon is away from you. Insert the cassette in its holder by first sliding the pins at the back of the ribbon cassette under the small hooks on the holder. (See Figure l-5.
Now turn the knob on the cassette in the direction of the arrow to tighten the ribbon. As you turn the knob, see that the ribbon slips down into its proper place between the print head nose and the silver ribbon guide (Figure l-6). If it doesn’t, guide it with a pen or a pencil.
Paper Loading Now put a sheet of paper in your LX-80 so you can test it. Figure 1-7 shows the names of the parts that you need to know. Friction lever Figure 1-7.
See that the printer is turned off, open the front lid, and push the friction lever back and the paper bail forward. Then move the print head by hand to the center of the printer and feed the paper in.
There are several buttons and indicator lights on the control panel. Their primary functions are described below: l The POWER light glows green when the power is on. l The READY light glows green when the printer is ready to accept data. This light flickers somewhat during printing.
Test Pattern Now you’ll see your LX-80 print something even though it’s not connected to a computer yet. Make sure that your printer has paper in it and that the power switch is off. Now, hold down the LF button on the control panel while you turn the printer on with the power switch.
Connecting the LX-80 to Your Computer Now that the test pattern has shown that your printer is working well, it’s time to hook it up to your computer. It is best to have both the printer and the computer turned off when you do this. Remember that each computer system has its own way of com- municating with a printer.
Groundin{ screw Wire clip Figure 1-10. Cable connection Next connect the other end of the printer cable to your computer. On most computers you can easily find the correct connector for the printer cable, but if you are not sure, consult your computer manual or your dealer.
Chapter 2 SelecType At the end of the introduction you saw samples of the typestyles available on your LX-80. In this chapter you’ll learn how Epson’s SelecType feature puts the most-used print modes at your fingertips.
Table 2-1 shows the typestyles you can print with SelecType, and-as you will learn later in this chapter-you can combine some of them. Table 2-1. SelecType modes 1 NLQ ABCDEFGHIJKL,MNopqrst,uvwxyz 2 Emphasized ABCDEFGH I JKL.MNop qrstUswx yz 3 Double-strike 0 Ix:: 1:) 1.
mode, all the panel buttons have new functions (also shown in Figure 2-1). Exit Figure 2-1. SelecType setting and functions In SelecType mode, the ON LINE button selects printing func- tions, the FF button sets the functions, and the LF button turns SelecType off, returning the panel buttons to their former operation.
First SelecType Exercises For practice in using SelecType, try setting emphasized mode. First turn the printer off and back on with the switch on the right side of the printer.
3) As you can see in Table 2-1, the code for compressed is four. Therefore, press the ON LINE button four times. (Remember that you hear a beep each time you press the ON LINE button when you are in SelecType mode). 4) Now that you have selected compressed, push the FF button once to set that mode.
1) See that both the ON LINE and READY lights are on. 2) Press the ON LINE and FF buttons at the same time. 3) Press the ON LINE button five times (the code for elite). You should hear a beep each time you press the button. 4) Press the FF button to set elite.
Table 2-2. Mode combinations I I / I I I J To combine modes you simply select and set more than one mode before you press the LF button to leave SelecType. After beginning the procedure in the normal way and pressing the ON LINE button to select a function and the FF button to set it, you do not press the LF button.
2) Press the ON LINE button once and then the FF button once. Since one is the code for NLQ, you have now set the LX-80 for that mode. 3) Press the ON LINE button one more time and then the FF button once. This makes a total of two times, and thus sets the LX-80 for emphasized also.
Chapter 3 Elements of Dot Matrix Printing This chapter is for those of you who want to know something about how your printer works. It’s a simple, non-technical explana- tion of the basics of dot matrix printing that will help you understand some of the later chapters.
Bidirectional Printing In nearly all of our discussions in this manual, we describe the action of the LX-80 print head as moving from left to right, as a typewriter does. During its normal operation while printing in the draft mode, however, the LX-80 prints bidirectionally.
Pica I---- a. 00 f I I 0 l a 0 0 0 0 T I 1 0 a f ..a Elite l Compressed 0 0 f 8 v 0 0 Figure 3-2. The three pitches of the LX-80 The dot pattern of each character is carefully designed so that in pica mode no dot overlaps another.
In Figure 3-3 there is a grid of lines behind the pica characters so that you can more easily see how they are designed. As you look at these characters you can see three rules that govern their desig.
SelecType makes it especially easy to change from draft to NLQ, but you can also select and cancel the NLQ mode with a software command or with a special switch in the back of your printer. You can find the software command in Chapter 5 and the operation of the switch (called a DIP switch) in Appendix D.
Chapter 4 Printer Control Codes The LX-80 printer is easy to use, especially with commercial soft- ware that has print control features. This chapter explains some of the how a computer communicates with your printer.
Computer and printer interaction would be terribly confusing if different kinds of computers and printers used different numbers for the same letter of the alphabet. Therefore, most manufacturers of computers, printers, and software use the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, usually referred to as ASCII (pro- nounced ASK-Key).
Printer Codes T O take advantage of the many print features of the LX-80, you can use a software program that sends the correct codes or you can use another method to send codes.
l The ESCape and control keys on your computer’s keyboard. With this system you send the ESCape code by pressing the ESCape key and a carriage return by pressing the control key and the M at the same time. (See Appendix B or the Quick Reference Card for the control key codes.
If your word processing program allows inserted codes, it will probably do standard printing without such codes. It is only for special features that you will need to use inserted codes. For example, if you want to have headings in wide bold printing (called expanded emphasized), you would probably have to use inserted codes.
Chapter 5 LX-80 Features Beginning with this chapter we describe many of the printing fea- Demonstration Programs Along with our discussion and examples of the LX-80 features, we include demonstrations in the BASIC programming language so that you can see these features in action.
If you don’t want to do the exercises in BASIC, you don’t have to. Many users are quite happy with their printers without ever learning load paper. Therefore, you shouldn’t be intimidated by the informa- tion in this manual. In most cases the software that you use for word cating with the printer for you.
Changing Pitches Now you can try other pitches. As we explained in Chapter 3, the 20 LPRINT CEIR$( 27 > “M” ; This line uses the command for elite, ESCape “M”, to turn on that mode. Your printout should look like the one below. i’; B i: g E i- C; H 1 J x L M bi a ,Q Q 17 5 T [ ! !j’ W yi, ‘Y Z i j .
To avoid having one program interfere with the printing modes of another, you can cancel a mode one of two ways: l With a specific cancelling code, such as the ESCape "P" that we used above to cancel elite. Each mode has a cancelling code, which you can find in the discussion of the code and in Appendix B.
In fact, if you need even more than the 132 characters per line that compressed gives you, you can combine elite and compressed for a mode we call compressed elite. It is not really another pitch, because the size of the characters is the same as in the compressed mode; only the space between the characters is reduced.
All the modes demonstrated in this chapter are compared in Table 5-1. Table 5-1. Summary of LX-80 pitches Print sample CPI Codes t 1 inch + On Off Near L,et;ter Quality 10.00 ESC “x” 1 ESC “x” 0 ,3 ‘; (:‘;i’>, !Y.yti ‘I !,‘!“[ 10.
Chapter 6 Print Enhancements and Special Characters Now that you have seen how you can change the pitch of your LX-80 printing, we can show you many more ways to vary and enhance your printing. So that you won’t have to type in dozens of programs to try all the features, we give you just one master program that can demonstrate any feature.
Emphasized works only in draft pica and NLQ modes. In elite and compressed the dots are already so close together that even with the reduced print speed, the LX-80 cannot fire, retract, and again fire the pins quickly enough to print overlapping dots.
You should get the following printout when you run this program and type “E” and “emphasized” in answer to the questions. This sample USPS ESCape E t.o proi-fuce emphasized pr-inting. The code to turn off emphasized is ESCape “F”. Double-strike The other bold mode on the LX-80 is double-strike.
Expanded Mode Perhaps the most dramatic mode on the LX-80 is expanded. It produces extra-wide characters that are good for titles and headings. For this mode, the dot pattern of each character is expanded and a duplicate set of dots is printed one dot to the right.
LX-80 printer can print such complicated combinations as double- strike emphasized expanded underlined italic subscript, although we’re not sure that you would ever want to use such a combination.
The code to turn italic mode on is ESCape “4”. Try it in the master program if you wish. When you use this code in the master program, enter “4” in answer to the first question just as if it were a letter of the alphabet instead of a number. ESCape “5” turns off italic mode.
Figure 6-J. The underline mode As shown in Figure 6-5, the underline mode is continuous, but some word processing and other applications programs produce an underline that leaves spaces between characters as demonstrated in the printout below.
For any combination, just add up the values of each of the modes you want and use the total as the number after ESCape “!“. For example, to calculate the code for expanded italic underlined pica, .
Indeed, Master Select is such a powerful feature that it may occa- sionally be more powerful than you want it to be. Because it controls eight different modes, a Master Select code will cancel any of those eight that are not selected. For example, suppose that you have a page in elite and want part of it printing in italic.
In order to print any of these characters, first select one of the following character sets and then use the individual characters within that set. 0 USA 6 Italy 1 France 7 SP ain 2 Germany 8 Japan 3 .
Table 6-2. International characters in draft mode Table 6-3. International characters in draft italic The number at the top of each column in the tables is the ASCII code that prints the characters in that column.
Graphics Character Set The LX-80 printer’s Read Only Memory (ROM) also contains the 32 graphics characters that you see in Figure 6-6. Figure 6-6. Special graphics characters Undoubtedly you can thi.
The next printout shows the characters in emphasized expanded pica: The design of all the special graphics characters is shown in en- largements in Appendix A.
Chapter 7 Page Formatting Although the LX-80 printer has many sophisticated commands to set margins, line spacing, and horizontal and vertical tabs, we won’t take up your time with extensive discussions of these because most of these functions are taken care of by applications programs.
You should be aware that a few applications programs reset the printer before each document or file they print. These programs will, of course, cancel your new margin settings.
Skip Over Perforation If you are using continuous pin-feed paper for printing program listings or other material not controlled by an applications program, you may find that the LX-80 prints right over the perforations be- tween pages. The LX-80 has an ESCape code to prevent this: the ESCape “N” command.
116 inch 1/6 inch 1 1 3 blank rows 1 3 blank rows Figure 7-l. Standard line spacing The default line spacing illustrated in Figure 7-1 is the only one you need for almost all printing of text, but in some cases you may want to increase or decrease the space between lines.
Paper-Out Sensor Under the platen (the black roller) of your LX-80 printer is a small switch that senses whether or not paper is in the printer. When the end of the paper passes this switch, it sends a signal that sounds the beeper and stops your printing.
Chapter 8 User-Defined Characters The LX-80 has 416 different characters stored in its ROM (Read Only Memory). Although this number includes draft, italic, interna- tional, special graphics, and Near Letter Quality characters, some- times you would like to have a few more.
After you have created your own characters with our programs, certain keys that you seldom use will generate the user-defined char- acters. For example, you will be able to type = to print t . Your user-defined characters can be utilitarian or imaginative, any- thing from a scientific symbol to script letters for your initials.
When you place your dots on this grid, remember that dots cannot go on horizontal lines, but they can go on vertical lines so long as they do not overlap any other dots. As you design your characters, draw the dots as large as you see them in the example on the left in Figure 8-2.
So that you can see how the program works, we’ll present the steps used to create the Greek letter sigma. First is the grid we used to design the character. 12345678 9 Figure 8-3. Design for sigma Running the program For each of the nine columns, the program will ask for the num- bers of the rows in which you want dots to appear.
Now wait a moment for your computer to calculate the dot pat- terns and your LX-80 to print the new character in two different typestyles. Your printout also gives you nine numbers, which you will use in the next program.
90 FOR P=58 TO 63: LPRINT CHR$(P);: NEXT P 100 K=l: IF K>3 THEN A=58 ELSE A=60 110 LPRINT CHR$(27)":"CHR$(0)CHR$(B)CHR$(PI); 120 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(l)CHR$(O); 130 LPRINT CHR.
The two lines when printed by your own program provide you with a key to the characters your LX-80 will now print. When you press the key for one of the characters in the top row, the printer will print the corresponding character in the bottom row.
2 1 128 64 32 16 8 4 64 I I I I 1 I J 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 Figure 8-5. Grid for NLQ characters On this grid you can use any numbered line or space. As you can see, that includes the bottom line and the line on the right side. You should remember to leave one or two columns blank for space be- tween characters, however.
First data number Second data number Third data number / 128 64 32 ( - 16 8 4 2 1 128 64 32 < 16 8 4 2 1 128 64 128’ 64 32 > =229 4 1 84 =64 Figure 8-6. Data numbers for one column To calculate the data numbers for this column, you see which dots are used in the top group (the top eight positions) and add their values together.
8 32 255 32 8 0 0 0 255 0 0 0 0 0 192 iJ 0 0 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 128 64 32 16 4 16 64 64 16 4 a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Figure 8-7. Arrow design and data numbers If you look at each column individually, you can see how the data numbers were calculated.
la LPRINT CHR$(27) "x"CHR$(l) 20 LPRINT CHR$(27)":"CHR$(I)CHR$(O)CHR$(0); 30 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(l)CHR$(O); 40 LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(O)"<(".
When you run this program it prints six characters, then redefines one or more of them and prints them again. As with the draft charac- ters, you use this two-line printout as a guide to the new characters your LX-80 will print. You can use them with an applications prog- ram or a program you write yourself.
Chapter 9 Introduction to Dot Graphics The Epson dot graphics mode allows your LX-80 printer to pro- duce pictures, graphs, charts, or almost any other illustrative or crea- tive material you can devise.
I MHWZIMS --- ---- EE';;T - s;ELLEF;; ------- ~I;IENCE FIl;TION -------- Some commercial software programs perform what is called a screen dump, in which whatever is on the computer screen is sent to, and printed by, the printer. This function is sometimes accomplished by a “print screen” command.
Print Head The graphics mode on the LX-80 is quite different from the text modes, Instead of sending codes for letters and printing functions, you send codes for dot patterns, one number for each column in a line. Since none of the predefined characters or symbols in the prin- ter’s memory is used, your program controls where each dot is printed.
The LX-80 has several different graphics densities, but we’ll keep things simple by using only one in the first exercises. The code for entering single-density graphics mode is ESCape “K” n l n 2 .
not used 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Figure 9-1. Pin labels To fire any one pin, you send its number. To fire more than one pin at the same time, add up the numbers of the pins and send the sum to the printer. With these labels for the pins, you fire the top pin by sending 128.
With this numbering system any combination of the eight pins adds up to a unique decimal number between 0 and 255. Although you use a decimal number, it is, of course, converted to a binary number before it goes to the printer.
30 LPRINT CHR$(27>"K"CHR$(lOO)CHR$(O); 40 FOR X-l TO 50: LPRINT CHR$(85)CHR$(42); 50 NEXT X If you run the program now, you’ll see how one line of the pattern looks: To see a how more than one line combines to form a figure, enter and run the following program, which uses two of the lines you have already typed and adds several more.
Line 20 begins a loop to produce multiple print lines. Lines 30 and 40 were covered above, but an LPRINT is added to line 50 to pro- duce a line feed after line 40. Lines 60 and 70 are like lines 30 and 40 except that line 70 uses a reversal of the patterns in line 40.
You are familiar with the command format that uses the ESCape code and a letter, but LX-80 graphics commands can also be in the following format: LPRINT CHR$(27)"*"CHR$(M)CHR$(Nl)CHR$(NZ); with m being the mode number found in the left column of Table 9-l.
the maximum number of dots you can reserve on the LX-SO, then, is: CHR$(27)"Z"CHR$(128)CHR$(7); or, in the other format: which is 128 dots plus 7 times 256 dots, for a total of 1920 dots in one row.
Design Your Own Graphics In this section we take you through the development of a graphics program. The example is not especially complicated, but it does in- clude the same steps you would use for a more complex figure so that you have the basis for designing graphics on your LX-80.
Figure 9-4. Arrow design After plotting all the dots as in Figure 9-4, you calculate the num- bers for each pin pattern by dividing the design grid into separate print lines. For the arrow design the grid was divided into three lines, each seven dots high.
The numbers for the second and third lines were calculated in the same manner. Once the numbers for the pin patterns are calculated, they go in DATA statements, separated by commas.
Graphics Programming Tips Now that we’ve shown you how to design your own graphics, we’ll review and emphasize a few elements of graphics programming.
What went wrong? To help you understand the graphics command and avoid some of the more common errors made with it, we’ll examine this program in detail. First look at line 20. ESCape “K” calls for single-density graphics, and the two CHR$ numbers specify 50 columns of dots.
You may also wonder why the program prints not only the differ- ent pin patterns but also the character “J” a number of times. The reason lies in the number of columns you reserved with the graphics command.
10 G$zCHR$(27>+"K"+CHR$(l00)+CHR(0) 2c3 A$=CHR$( 85 > +(;EW$( 42 > 30 B$~~CHR$(42)tCMR$(85) 40 I,PRINT CHR$(27)"1"; 50 FOR Rr-1 TO 3 60 LPRINT G$; 70 FOR X=1 TO 50: L,PRIN.
Appendix A ASCII Codes and Character Fonts This appendix provides information about the way ASCII codes are used on the LX-80 printer and about the character fonts associ- ated with those codes.
Dee Hex CHR cl 00 none 1 01 none 2 02 none 3 03 none 4 04 none 5 05 none 6 06 none 7 07 EEL a 08 BS 9 HT 10 :: LF 11 OB VT 12 CC FF 13 OD CR 14 OE SO 15 OF Sl 16 10 none 17 11 none la 12 DC2 19 13 non.
Special Graphics Characters Dec 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 Hex 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 Character L.. Y 4 t- I I-’ “I Hex 89 Character 138 8A .
Dec Hex Character Dec Hex Character 145 91 !k 148 94 + 150 96 -is 152 98 u 154 9B A 155 9C 156 9C -.L. 157 9D ::,:. 158 9E .-:- 159 9F + A-4.
Draft International Characters Roman characters Italic ch aracters ,I 1 i A-5.
Appendix B Control Codes in Numeric Order You can use any of the methods explained in Chapter 4 to send these control codes to your LX-80. If you use MBASIC, you send a control code using LPRINT CHR$(27) followed by CHR$(n), where n is a number from the decimal (Dee) column below.
ESC De c 10 11 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 24 ESC 2 5 Hex Symbol O A LF 0B VT 0C FF OD CR OE SO OF SI 11 DC1 12 DC2 13 DC3 14 DC4 18 CA N 19 EM Function Line feed. Empties the printer buffer, performs a line feed at the current line spacing, and resets the buffer character count to 0.
ESC Dec 27 ESC 33 ESC 37 ESC 3 8 Hex Symbol 1 B ESC 21 ! 25 26 % & Function Escape. Prepares the printer to re- ceive control codes. Master Select Selects 1 of 64 unique print mode combinations. Format: ESC “!” n where n stands for a number between 0 and 255.
ESC Dec Hex ESC 4 2 2A ESC 4 5 ESC 4 7 2F ESC 4 8 30 0 ESC 4 9 31 1 ESC 5 0 32 2 ESC 5 1 33 3 ESC 5 2 34 4 ESC 5 3 35 5 ESC 5 6 38 8 ESC 5 7 39 9 ESC 5 8 3A ESC 60 2D 3C Symbol ::.
ESC Dec Hex Symbol Function ESC 63 3F ? Redefines one of the four alternate graphics codes--“K”, “L”, “Y”, or "Z"--as one of the seven graphics density numbers used with th e ESCape “‘$” command. Format: ESC “?s” n ESC 64 40 @ ESC 65 41 A ESC 66 42 B ESC 67 43 C ESC 67 43 C where s is K, L, Y, or Z and n is O-6.
ESC Dec Hex Symbol ESC 68 44 D ESC 69 45 E ESC 70 46 F ESC 71 47 G ESC 72 48 H ESC 7 4 4A J ESC 75 4B K Function Resets the current tabs and sets up to 32 horizontal tabs in the current pitch. Tabs may range up to the max- imum width for the character and printer size.
ESC Dec ESC 76 ESC 7 7 ESC 78 ESC 79 ESC 80 ESC 81 ESC 82 Hex Symbol 4C L 4D M 4E N 4F O 50 P 51 Q 52 R Function Turns low-speed double-densit y graphics mode ON. Prints 960 dots per 8-inch line. Format: ESC “L” n l n 2 followed by n data numbers, where n = total number of dot columns, ni = n MOD 256, n 2 = INT (n/256).
ESC Dec Hex Symbol Function ESC 83 53 S Turns script mode ON. Either type of script is printed in double-strike. Format: ESC “S”CHR$(n) ESC 84 54 T ESC 85 55 U where n = 0 produces superscript, and 1 produces subscript. Turns script mode OFF. Turns unidirectional mode ON.
ESC 97 61 a ESC 98 62 b ESC 101 65 e ESC Dec Hex Symbol Function ESC 94 5E A Turns nine-pin graphics ON . Format: ESC “*” d n l nz followed by 2 times n data numbers, where n = total number of dot columns, nl = n MOD 256, n2 = INT (n/256). The printer expects two data num- bers for each column of print.
ESC Dec Hex Symbol ESC 102 66 f ESC 108 6C ESC 109 6D ESC 115 73 S ESC 120 78 X 127 7F DEL 1 m Function Prints spaces or line feeds without carriage returns. Horizontal format: ESC “f0” n where n is the number of spaces and equals 0-127. Vertical format: ESC “f1” n where n is the number of line feeds and equals 0-127.
The printer’s high- order control codes from 128 to 155 mirror their low-order counterparts (O-27). In some cases it is necessary or more convenient to use the high-order codes instead of the low-order ones. For example, if your system will not send a 9 for a horizontal tab, use 137 instead.
Control Key Chart Some applications programs can use control key codes for decimal values 0-27. The table below gives you the proper values. The Con- trol key column indicates that you press the control key at the same time you press the key for the letter or symbol in that column.
Appendix C Control Codes by Function This appendix shows most of the control codes in Appendix B, but this time they are arranged by categories. If your computer cannot generate lowercase letters, use the equivalent decimal ASCII values.
Print Enhancement ESC “SO” Turns superscript mode ON. ESC “S1” Turns subscript mode ON. ESC “T” Turns either script mode OFF. ESC “-0” Turns underline mode OFF. ESC “-1” Turns underline mode ON. Mode and Character-Set Selection ESC “!” ESC “4” ESC “5” ESC “@” ESC “R” ESC “m” Master select.
Forms Control ESC “8” ESC “9” ESC “C” 0 ESC “C” ESC “N” ESC “O” Page Format ASCII 9 or 137 ASCII 11 ESC “D” ESC “Q” ESC “1” Turns the paper-out sensor OFF. Turns the paper-out sensor ON. Sets the form length in inches.
Appendix D The DIP Switches Several tiny switches called DIP (for Dual In-Line Package) switches are in the back of your LX-80 printer. They control a num- ber of important printer functions. For most uses they can be left as they were set at the factory, but you may want to change some settings.
Always turn the power OFF (with the switch on the right side of the printer) before you change the setting of any of these switches. Any changes made while the power is on will be ignored until you turn the printer off and back on. So set all switches with the power off.
Switch 1-5 controls the paper-end detector. When it is ON, the detector is inactive, causing printing to continue even when the print- er is out of paper. When it is OFF, the printer stops when the end of the paper passes the paper-end detector. Some computer systems ignore the setting of this switch.
Appendix E Using the Optional Tractor Unit The optional tractor unit allows you to use continuous paper with pin feed holes along the sides. The unit is adjustable so that the continuous paper can be any width from 4 to 10 inches.
Figure E-2. Continuous paper without stand Tractor Unit Installation To install the removable tractor unit, first pull the friction lever toward the front of the printer. Then hold the tractor with the gears to the right as shown in Figure E-3. Figure E-3.
In each tractor slot are two pegs that fit into the notches on the tractor fittings. Tilt the tractor back so that the rear notches fit over the rear pegs. Then tilt the unit forward until it clicks into place. That’s all there is to it. Now install the paper separator and pull out the paper guide as shown in Figure E-4.
When you want to use single sheet paper in your LX-80, you can remove the tractor unit quite easily. Just push back the two tractor release levers shown in Figure E-5, tilt the unit backwards, and lift it up. Figure E-5. Tractor release levers Loading Continuous Paper Once your tractor is installed, you can load continuous paper.
Figure E-6. Pin feed bolder adjustment Next, open the pin feed covers as shown in Figure E-7 and feed the paper under the paper separator and into the paper slot; push the paper through until it comes up between the ribbon guide and the platen. Figure E-7.
Next pull the paper up until the top is above the pin-feed holders. Fit the holes on the left side of the paper over the pins in the left holder and close the cover. Now fit the right side of the paper in the right holder, moving the holder as needed to match the width of the paper.
Appendix F Troubleshooting and Advanced Features This appendix approaches troubleshooting from several directions. The first section uses a columnar format to match solutions with problems.
affect your system if possible. You can also POKE the problem codes directly to the printer port. Seven-bit computers cannot use the eighth pin (128). If you have a seven-bit computer and any of your graphics data numbers are larger than 127, change the num- bers.
Paper-out sensor Can’t deactivate paper-out sensor Computer systems that monitor with DIP switch l-5 or ESCape printer cable pin 12 will ignore “8”. both ESCape “8” and the setting of switch l-5. These systems will stop the printing when no paper is in contact with the paper-end detector (a small switch located beneath the platen).
Now give your printer the command to resume printing. If your example is now in compressed, you can use this same sequence each time you want to use SelecType. The procedure is not complicated; once you practice it a few times, it gives you fingertip control of your printing.
Occasionally you may wish to cancel one or more modes with SelecType instead of resetting the printer with power switch. T o cancel all modes controlled by SelecType, simply enter SelecType mode and then press the FF button without pressing the ON LINE button.
6) Press the ON LINE button to put the printer on-line. Now you have cancelled emphasized without affecting any other modes. Some users think that this procedure is too complicated and prefer to cancel all the SelecType settings and then reset the ones they want.
Therefore, if you ran the following BASIC program while your LX-SO was in the data dump mode, you would get the printout below it. The printer will print all but this last line and then stop. Press the ON LINE button to make the printer print the last line.
Put the printer in data dump mode and then RUN the program. Remember to press the ON LINE button to make the LX-80 print the final line. Then compare your printout with the list of hex codes in order in the middle columns of page A-2 in Appendix A.
Unfortunately, this process is also different for each computer system. We’ll give the procedure for a couple of systems here; if your system is neither of them, use the procedure as a model. Consult your computer’s manual to determine if you can do the same on your system.
The printer’s status is stored in location 49601 and the outgoing values are sent to 49296. Special printer drivers An even better (but more difficult) way to overcome these prob- lems is to modify the printer driver so that the codes are passed correctly to the printer without any PEEK S or POKE S .
To find out whether your system is an 8-bit system, capable of generating all 256 ASCII codes, enter this simple test: 10 P’OR X=160 TO 254 20 L,PRINT CHR$( X> ; 30 NEXT X If you get italic characters when you RUN this, you are using an 8-bit system.
Apple II solutions There are two types of problems that you who own Apple II computers will need to address. The first is that the Apple II is an S-bit computer, but its printer interface only handles seven bits. The second is that there is one problem code number: nine.
TRS-80 TM solutions A routine to POKE codes to the memory of a Model I is given in the POKEing codes subsection. A special printer driver for either the Model I or the Model III is shown in the Special printer drivers subsection. One of those methods should solve any problems with the programs in this manual.
And for the programs in this manual, don’t forget to use PRINT #l wherever we use LPRINT. This won’t work for those of you who have the original release of the Disk Operating System (DOS 1.0). It can’t run a printer like a file. IBM has, however, issued a free update (DOS 1.
Appendix G Printer Maintenance Always Always keep your printer in a safe and clean location. Keep it away from : Dust and grease Heaters and furnaces. Safe temperature range is 41°F (5°C) to 95°F (35°C) Now and Then Clean particles and dust from the printer every so often with a soft cloth or brush.
Appendix H Technical Specifications Printing Printing method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Impact dot matrix Printing speed . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Characters per line: Pica Pica expanded Elite Elite expanded Compressed Maximum characters per line 80 40 96 48 132::. (35::. 160 Compressed expanded Compressed elite +137 if right margin is changed. ‘:68 if right margin is changed. Paper Paper width Paper feed Pin-feed .
Environment Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O p erating 41°F to 95°F (5°C to 35°C) Storage -22°F to 149°F (-30°C to 65°C) Humidit y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Operating 10% to 80% (no condensa- tion) Storage 5% to 85% (no condensation) Shock .
Appendix I The Parallel Interface The LX-80 printer uses a parallel interface to communicate with the computer; this appendix describes it. Connector pin assignments and a description of respective interface signals are shown in Table I-1.
Table I-1, continued Notes: 1. The column heading “Direction” refers to the direction of signal flow as viewed from the printer. 2. “Return” denotes the twisted-pair return, to be connected at signal ground level. For the interface wiring, be sure to use a twisted-pair cable for each signal and to complete the connection on the return side.
4. Data transfer must be carried out by observing the ACKNLG or BUSY signal. (Data transfer to this printer can be carried out only after receipt of the ACKNLG signal or when the level of the BUSY signal is LOW.) 5. Under normal conditions, printer cable pins 11, 12, and 32 are activated when the paper-end condition is detected.
Table I-2. Signal interrelations On-Line ]SLCTlN IERROR 1 BUSY ) ACKNLG 1 DATA ENTRY 1 OFF ON ON HIGH/LOW LOW HIGH HIGH LOW HIGH HIGH Not generated Disabled LOW/HIGH Generated after data entry Enabled.
INDEX A American Standard Code for Information Interchange. See ASCII Apple computers, F-10, F-11-12 See also Seven-bit systems ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), 29-30 codes listed for all characters, A-2 Automatic test. See Test pattern B Bail.
D Data dump mode, F-6-8 Data transfer sequence, I-3 Density. See Graphics mode Dimensions of printer, H-3 DIP switches, D-1-3 Dot graphics. See Graphics Dot matrix, 23-27 Double-strike mode, 43 ESCape “G” t urns it on; ESCape “H” turns it off.
ESCape “E”. Turns emphasized mode on, 41-43 ESCape “F”. Turns emphasized mode off, 41-43 ESCape “G”. Turns double-strike mode on, 13 ESCape “H”. Turns double-strike mode off, 43 ESCape “J”. Produces an immediate line feed, B-6 ESCape “K”.
G Graphics, 73-89 column reservation numbers, 81-82 densities, 80-81 designing, 83-85 nine-pin, B-9 problem codes with, 89 reassigning code, 81 special graphics characters, 52-53 summary table, 80 H Head.
Location of printer, 4, E-1-2 Lubrication, G-1 M Maintenance, G-l Margins, 55-56 Master Select, 47-49 Matrix. See Dot matrix N Near Letter Quality (NLQ) mode, 12, 26-27, 39 Can be set with SelecType, DIP switch, or ESCape code Nine-pin graphics.
Print head and dot graphics, 75-78 and dot matrix printing, 23 Print pitch summary table, 40 Printer driver for problem codes, F-10 Protective lid. See Lid Q Quadruple-density. See Graphics densities QX-10, 80, F-14 R Reset code, 38 with user-defined characters, 67 Resetting the printer, 38 Ribbon, installation and replacement, 5-8 Right margin.
T Technical specifications, H-l-3 Temperature, H-3 Test for reset code, 19-20 for seven-bit system, F-11 pattern, 12 Top of page, E-6 Tractor, optional, E-1-6 Troubleshooting, F-1-14 TRS-80, F-9-10, F-13 U Underline mode, 46-47 ESCape “-1” turns it on; ESCape “-0” turns it off.
Spectrum LX-80 ® Printer.
Control Codes by Function Near Letter Quality Mode ESC “x” 1 Turns NLQ mode ON. ESC “x” 0 Turns draft mode ON. ESC “a” Activates NLQ justification modes. Character Width (Pitch) ASCII 15 Turns compressed mode ON. ASCII 18 Turns compressed mode OFF.
Special Printer Features ASCII 8 ESC 25 ESC I‘<” ESC “U0” ESC “U1” ESC "s0" ESC “s1” Line Spacing ESC “0” ESC “1” ESC “2” ESC “A” n ESC “3” n ESC “J.
User-defined Characters ESC “&” ESC “:” ESC “%” Defines characters in user RAM. Copies the character set from ROM to RAM. Activates ROM or RAM character set. Dot Graphics ESC “+” ESC I“” ESC “K” ESC “L” ESC “Y” ESC “Z” ESC “ /&, 7, SelecType Feature Selects one of seven graphics densities.
ASCII Codes Dot Hex CHR 0 00 1 01 2 02 3 4 :: 5 05 6 06 7 07 a 08 9 09 10 OA 11 08 12 OC 13 OD 14 OE 15 OF 16 10 17 11 18 12 19 13 20 14 21 15 22 16 23 17 24 la 25 19 26 1A 27 16 28 ic 29 1D 30 1E :: .
Control Keys Decimal Hexadecimal 0 00 1 01 2 02 3 03 4 04 5 05 6 06 7 07 8 08 9 09 10 OA 11 OB 12 oc 13 OD i4 OE 15 OF 16 10 17 11 18 12 19 13 20 14 21 15 22 16 23 17 24 18 25 19 26 1A Control key @ A.
EPSON AMERICA, INC. LIMITED WARRANTY Epson America, Inc. hereby warrants that it will repair or replace, at its option, any part of the Epson product with which this warranty is enclosed which proves defective by reason of improper workmanship and/or material, without charge for parts or labor, for a period of one (1) year.
An important point after buying a device Epson LX-80 (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 LX-80 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 LX-80 - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, Epson LX-80 you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get Epson LX-80 will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of Epson LX-80, 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 LX-80.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Epson LX-80. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Epson LX-80 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
