Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product NB-15 Star Micronics
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USER’S MANUAli h NOT INTENDED FOR SALE PN 80821206 -___ --.-. - .-_..
Federal Communications Commission Radio Fre 3 uency Interference tatement 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 in- terference to radio and television reception.
A Special Message to the New Owner Congratulations for choosing this printer, one of the finest available at any price. 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 precision parts.
Table of Contents Chapter 1 Setting Up Your Printer Where shall we put it? What have we here? Removing the printer cover Removing the packing tube Removing shipping screws Installing the platen knob I.
Chapter 4 Controlling with BASIC Some basics about BASIC First steps Establishing communications The CHR$ function Control codes The escape codes A note on command syntax Some problem codes 33 39 53 C.
Chapter 7 Special Features of the Printer 73 Now hear this Resetting the printer Putting your printer to sleep Printing the bottom of the sheet Backspace, delete, and cancel text Immediate-print Adjus.
Chapter 9 Dot Graphics 107 Comparing dot graphics with download characters Using the dot graphics command Specifying the number of columns of dots Specifying the graphics data Combining text and graph.
,. ‘_ .,. ,,; Appendix G Serial Interface Specifications Configuring the serial interface The serial protocols Serial busy protocols XON/XOFF protocol ACK protocol 203 Appendix H Connecting with Com.
I CHAPTER 1 SETTING UP YOUR PRINTER Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 1 include- . Choosing a suitable place for your printer; l Unpacking your new printer; l Setting it up. WHERE SHALL WE PUT IT? Before you do anything else, give some thought to where you’ll be using your printer.
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.
3 tion and movement for both removing and replacing the cover. I Figure l-2. Remove the printer cover by lifting carefully. n Removing the packing tube The printer is shipped with a protective spiral tube to keep the print head from being damaged during shipping.
4 To get at these, remove the printer cover from the printer. Then remove the screws with a Phillips screwdriver as shown in 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.
L 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 of the printer. Warning: The print head gets hot during operation, so let it cool off before you touch it.
6 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. Check that the cartridge fits so that the drive pins engage the cartridge teeth.
I ,I:, 7 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 I I Interface cover Interface board Figure 1-8.
8 n Installing the font cartridge This printer is mounted the Prestige characters as standard. You can add two different character styles by installing the op- tional font cartridges to the printer. To install or change a font cartridge, start by turing off the power switch.
CHAPTER 2 GETTING TO KNOW YOUR PRINTER Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 2 include - l Parts of the printer - what they’re for and how to use them; l Paper selection and loading; l Adjustment; l Testing printer operation. CONTROLS AND PARTS OF THE PRINTER W Parts of the printer First, we’ll go over the parts of the printer.
Mute cover Printer cover Font cartridge slot ’ Interface cover L 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 to which you attach your com- puter cable.
11 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 pushes the small door up out of the way and exposes a connector which accepts the cartridge.
TOF KEY - Ejects the current sheet, feeds a new sheet, and moves the print head to the left margin. PAPER FEED KEY --Advances the paper one line at a time when the On Line indicator is off. If you hold the key down, you can get consecutive line feeds, one after the other.
foration skipping. See Appendix A for a complete list and ex- planation. SELECTING AND LOADING PAPER Your printer can handle the two basic types of paper - single sheets (stationery, envelopes, multipart business forms, etc.) and continuous paper (fan-fold perforated paper).
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.
._ . . L,. i. 6. L. L L. L L. L 15 I Figure 2-5. Prop up the paper guide by inserting the guide stand in the notches provided for it. 1 Figure 2-6. You can insert a sheet of paper by using the release lever.
16 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 setting-the top position. The printer will advance the paper automatically.
17 I Sprocket cover Figure 2-7. Open the sprocket covers to expose the sprocket teeth. pigure 2-8. Ready to run with sprocket-feed paper..
18 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.
19 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, experiment; you’ll soon find the best position for the paper you’re using.
Self-test 1 DIP switch 2-2 ON ‘+,-./0123456769:;<=,?BABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUVWXYZ[] DIP switch 2-2 OFF !“t$t&‘()*+,-./0123456784:;~=~?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUVWXYZ[]~~~~b !“Y$%h’()“+,-./0123456709:, .<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLtlNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[]---ab !“tSt&‘()*+,-.
cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz(~)- cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz( I)- cdefghlJklmnopqr~tuvwxyz(~)- cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz(: )- cdafghljklmnopqr~tuvwxyl(l)- cdefghijklmnopqrstuvHxyz(l)- cdefghlJklmnopqrrtuvwxyz(~)- !“tl$Xh ()‘+,-./0123456769:;cl,?eABCDEFGH dafghljklmnopqr~tuvwxyz(~}- !“lLSt&’ ( )‘+,-.
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 hex dump function, turn off the power switch.
23 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 j 1 ** * * ** ** * * I I I **: Hold down II Right margin set I *: Press (Left margin set J Figure 2-13.
24 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.
I. Make sure that both your computer and printer are turn- 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 as described in the computer manual.
MEMO - -.
CHAPTER 3 USING COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 3 include- . Using your printer with SuperCalc; l Using your printer with word processors.
28 need to know to use your printer as a regular printer. But this printer isn’t just a regular printer. Your printer has many capabilities that your commercial software isn’t aware of. A lit- tle later we will see what it takes to use some of your printer’s advanced features with commercial software.
29 . . simultaneously pressing a letter key. The particular letter key that is pressed determines what code is sent. Control and A 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.
are now available. It has the capability of using several of the ad- vanced features of your printer. Perhaps the most often used feature with spreadsheet programs is compressed printing. Let’s see how to use compressed printing with SuperCalc. In SuperCalc, the /Output command provides out put to the printer.
cessor handles it. Once you understand the concept you should 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 word pro- cessor for the IBM Personal Computer. This uses a fairly typical method of handling special codes.
32 MEMO.
Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 4 include- * Listing BASIC programs on the printer; l Printing from BASIC; l CHR$ function; l Command syntax; l Problem codes. In this chapter we will be teaching you how to use your printer’s features using the BASIC programming language.
c 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.
35 BASIC program. Generally, computers use about the same pro- cedure for printing in a program as they do to list a program. Let’s try what we learned. Type the following: NEW 10 LPRINT "TESTING" RUN Remember-we use LPRINT; you may have to use something else! At any rate, you should have the word “TESTING” on your printer.
36 Where did that noise come from? That’s the printer’s bell. We will learn more about it in Chapter 5. We just wanted to il- lustrate a code that causes the printer to perform a function.
L”. i. c, L- cc. L c... I-. 37 ending with 0. So for out example above, any of these BASIC statements will have the same result: LPRINT CHR$(27);"W"CHR$(l) LPRINT CHR$(27);"W"CHR.
38 MEMO.
CHAPTER 5 PRINTING TEXT Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 5 include- * Letter quality (LQ) characters; l Underlining and overlining; l Superscripts and subscripts; l Print boldface; l Print pitches. The rest of this manual will show you a little BASIC - just enough for you to use your printer.
40 printing, for it takes a keen eye to detect that it is from a dot matrix printer. Normally, your printer prints draft quality characters when the DIP switch 1-4 is set off. This is adequate for most work and it prints fastest. But for the final printout, try Letter Quality.
Function Control code Selects font slot 1 (ESC) “k” CHR$( 1) or (ESC) “4” Selects font slot 2 (ESC) “k” CHR$(2) Selects internal characters Cancels font slot 1 iESC j “k” CHR$(Oj (ESC) “5” n Underlines and overlines Not only your printer print all characters in both draft and LQ, but it can underline or overline them too.
42 Table 5-3 Underline and overline commands 1 Function 1 Control code I Underline ON (ESC) “-“l Underline OFF (ESC) “-“0 Overline ON (ESC) “p”1 f Overline OFF , ---I - 1 (ESC) “‘-“O Again, that’s simple.
43 with boldface printing. The following table shows the control codes for getting into and out of boldface mode. Table 5-4 Boldface print commands Function Control code Boldface ON (ESC) “E” or (.
44 ; . Table 5-5 Superscripts and subscripts commands Function Control code Superscript ON (ESC>“S”O Subscript ON (ESC)“S”l Super and subscript OFF (ESC)“T” Try this program to see them.
45 Pitch Pica Elite Table 5-6 Print pitch commands Characters/inch Control code 10 (ESC) “P" 12 (ESC)“M" Try this program to see how these two pitches work. 10 ' Demo of pica and elite pitches 20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M"; 30 LPRINT "This line is ELITE pitch.
46 Demonstration of EXPANDED printing. Notice that EXPANDED mode automatically turns off at the end of a line. Expanded print set with CHR$(14) is automatically cancelled at the end of the line. This is convenient in many applications, such as for one line titles.
I / ? :’ 47 n Condensed print Each of the print pitches also can be condensed to its normal width. This is called condensed print. Try this program to see how it works: 10 ’ Demo of condensed pitch 20 LPRINT "Demonstration of "; 30 LPRINT CHR$(15); 40 LPRINT "CONDENSED"; 50 LPRINT CHR$(lS); 60 LPRINT w printing.
48 100 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$(27);"P"; 170 LPRINT "This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED PICA.
49 Table 5-9 Proportional commands Function Control code Proportional ON (ESC)“p”l Proportional OFF (ESC)“p”O Try this program to see how the proportional spacing works. 10 ’ Demo of proportional printing 20 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; “~1”; 30 LPRINT “This line is PROPORTIONAL printing.
50 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 a printing style variation.
51 For example, suppose you turn on both Proportional and Con- densed modes. Since these cannot combine the printer must 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.
- MEMO.
- CHAPTER 6 FORMATTING TEXT Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 6 include- * The carriage return and line feed; l The amount of space between lines; l Moving to the next page; l The number of lines on a printed page; l Horizontal and vertical tabs; l Setting margins- left, right, and bottom.
54 print head to the left margin, ready to start a new line. Now to add a little confusion-most (but not all) versions of BASIC add a line feed (CHR$(lO)) to every carriage return (CHR$(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.
THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 9 THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 10 THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 11 THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 12 THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 14 THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 15 THIS LINE SPACI.
56 When you are using your printer with the DIP switch 2-2 off, the (ESC)“A”CHR$( ) n works to change the line spacing without (ESC)“2”. So in this case, change the following lines as shown below: 40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"A";CHR$(I); 80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"2" The results are the same as previous one.
Table 6-2 Line spacing commands Function Control code Set line spacing to l/8 inch Set line sDacinz to 7160 inch (ESC)“O” (ESC)“l” 1 Set or define line spacing to n/60 inch I (ESC)“ -reverse.
58 The (ESC)“J”CHR$(lOO) in line 50 changes the spacing to 100/180 inches for one line only without moving the printhead. The rest of the lines printed with the normal line spacing. Notice that both line 30 and line 50 end with semicolons. This prevents the normal line feed from occurring.
59 ,____ iv------- -------- - 1 LINE NUMBER 1. 0, LINE NUMBER 2. I 01 I OI I I -- ------ - ---- ------_-__ I LINE NUMBER 3. 0 ; LINE NUMBER 4. OI I The form feed (CHR$(12)) in line 50 caused the printer to move to the top of a new page before printing the last two lines.
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.
50 FOR I=1 TO 150 60 LPRINT "THIS IS LINE";1 70 NEXT I 90 LPRINT CHR$(lZ); 100 END ' Form feed When you run this program it will print 150 lines right down the page and across the perforations. When it’s done line 90 sends a form feed to advance to the top of the next page.
62 THIS IS LINE 2 THIS IS LINE 4 THIS IS LINE 6 I THIS IS LINE 54 THIS IS LINE 5.5 THIS IS LINE 56 THIS IS LINE 57 I THIS IS LINE 58 0 1 THIS IS LINE 59 ; THIS IS LINE 60 THIS IS LINE 62 I THIS IS LIN.
SETTING LEFT AND RIGHT MARGINS The left and right margins of thisprinter work just like a typewriter - once they are set all the printing is done between them.
64 on, or you can set margin values equal to the default values. This means that you should set a left margin of 0 and right margin of 136 in pica pitch. If you change the pitch of your printing after you set your margins, the margins will not change.
65 , . 15 LPRINT CHR$(27);“D”;CHR$(7);CHR$(l4);CHR$(21); CHRS(O) ; (ESC)“D” is the command to begin setting horizontal tabs. It must be followed by characters representing the positions that you want the tabs set. In our program we are setting tabs in col- umns 7, 14, and 21.
66 Table 6-7 One-time horzontal tabs Function Control cde One-time horizontal tab of n spaces (ESC) “f” 0 CHR$(n) Absolute horizontal tab (ESC) “$” CHR$(nl) CHR$(nZ) Relative horizontal tab (ESC) “” CHR$(nl) CHR$(nZ: The first command in Table 6-7 moves the print head n col- umns to the right.
67 Table 6-8 Units of motion for the relative horizontal tab command Print style Unit of motion Draft characters l/120-inch LQ characters l/MO-inch LQ proportional characters l/360-inch Try this program to see how this works.
68 set at line 20, a vertical tab (or <VT>) will move you to line 20 whether you start from line 5 or line 19. The vertical tab is not set at the power-on default. If you send a CHR$(ll), which is the ASCII code for < VT > , before we have set up tabs advance the paper one line.
69 Add one more line to the program to demonstrate one more feature of vertical tabs. 80 LPRINT CHR$(ll):"FIFTH TAB." Now when you run the program the first page looks just like before, but line 80 sends one more <VT > than there are tabs.
70 Table 6-9 Vertical tab commands Function Control code Advance paper to next tab position CHR$(ll) Set vertical tabs at nl, n.2, etc. (ESC)“B”CHR$(nl) CHR$(nZ).
71 120 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.
72 MEMO.
CHAPTER 7 SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE PRINTER Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 7 include- * Printer’s bell; l Master reset; l Uni-directional printing; l International character sets; l Printing BIG characters; l The optional sheet feeder; l Reading a hex dump.
mind an operator to change the paper or to make another adjust- ment to the printer. You can try this by typing: LPRINT CHR$(7) n Resetting the printer Up to now when we wanted to reset the printer to.
. _~, ,. 75 Table 7-1 Some miscellaneous commands Function Cotitrol code Sound bell CHRW) Master reset (ESC) “@” --- I Off line I On line Paper-out detector off Paper-out detector on I CH I CHI ’ --lR$(19) @x17) (ESC) “8” (ESC) “9” move mint head back one snace 1 CHI .
76 90 LPRINT CHR$(24); I 100 LPRINT "DOES NOT WORK" Here is what this program will print: BACKSPACE DOES NM WORK DELETE DOES WORK DOES NOT WORK The backspace codes in line 30 move the printhead a total of three spaces to the left so that the first part of line 40 will over- print the word “NOT”.
77 riage return code.) To end this program and print the contents of the buffer, press RETURN alone. Now add this line: 10 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;"il"; And RUN the program. Your printer responds to your typing - immediately. When you are finished, press RETURN alone.
78 This command can be used to produce micro-justification, which is a method of justifying lines by increasing the space be- tween each character. n Repeat characters This printer has a command that automatically repeats characters for you. Try this program to see how it works.
, L Try this program to see the difference that printing in one direction makes. 10 ’ Uni-directional printing 20 LPRINT CHR$(27);“A”;CHR$(6); 30 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“2”; 40 FOR I=1 TO 10 50 LP.
8n power on condition. You can also set the printer to print in one direction for one line only by using the (ESC) “(” command. This command im- mediately moves the printhead to the left margin and then prints the remainder of the line from left to right.
10 LPRINT CHR$(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.
82 3v 128 5; 133 A 138 & 143 A 148 ii 153 ij 158 pt 163 13 168 i 173 i 178 1 183 1 188 3 193 -l- 198 f= 203 ii= 208 JL 213 r 218 r 223 - 228 C 233 8 238 E 243 I 248 O 253 2 4+ 129 ii 134 a 139 i; 144 E 149 b 154 ii 159 f 164 A 169 c 174 a 179 1 184 1 189 J, 194 T ILgg It 204 11 209 $ 214 r 219 4 224 a 229 CJ 234 i-2 239 n 244 f 249 l 254 .
83 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).
84 The characters that change are shown code in Table 7-6. Table 7-6 International character beneath their ASCII sets - n Printing BIG characters You can even enlarge your character sets for attention-grabb- ing headings or special effects. There are two commands you can use.
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 SIZED PRINTING.
86 THIS IS DOUBLE SIZED PRINTING. THIS IS QUAI) SIZED PRINTING . n g-pin graphics emulation mode As you had learned in Chapter 2, this printer has a unique 9- pin graphics emulation mode.
. . L ; L. 87 When the automatic sheet feeder is installed, you must set the DIP switch 2-4 on to detect the paper-out condition. In addition, following functions are ignored when the auto- matic sheet feeder is installed: Setting of the page length Top and bottom margins Vertical tab settings Caution: The five-character commands (e.
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).
CHAPTER 8 CREATING YOUR OWN CHARACTERS Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 8 include- * Designing your own characters; l Printing your own characters; l 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.
90 - Figure 8-1 shows an enlarged schematic view of the front of the printhead, showing the ends of the wires and their relation- ship to the draft characters. As you can see, the capital letters use the top eighteen wires of the printhead, and the descenders (such as the lower case “p” shown) use the bottom eighteen pins.
91 But there is another area of memory in this printer reserved for user-defined characters. These are characters that you can design and download into the printer. When download characters are defined they are stored in RAM(random access memory), which allows you to define or modify them at any time.
92 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 a little clearer, we’ll be using a picture of an automobile as an example of a draft download character.
1 123458789 128 64 32 1st 18 byte 8 4 2 1 I 128 84 32 4 2 1 ASCII Data code: 2nd 18 Left space: We 8 Right apace: 128 1st: 84 32 I 8 2nd: 3rd: 3rd 18 4th: byte 5th: 4 8th: 2 7th: 1 8th: 9th: Figure 8-4.
94 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 like Figure 8-5. (Actually, you can define it, but when it prints, your printer will leave out the overlapping dots, so that it would print like Figure 8-4.
95 which we’ll get to shortly. 1st byte 2nd bvte r 3rd byte 123456769 d3zEl 126 64 32 16 6 4 2 1 126 64 32 16 6 4 2 1 126 64 32 32 16 16 6 6 4 4 2 2 1 1 ASCII code: 66 Left *pace: I Right space: 2 Figure 8-7. Add the values of the dots in each column and write the sum of each column at the bottom.
96 create proportional width characters that print at draft speed. When defining draft characters, the number of printed col- 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.
for user-defined characters, but a caution is in order. Characters with ASCII values below 32 are usually reserved as control codes by both your computer and your printer. While these characters can be replaced by user-defined characters, it should be avoided because of the effect on the normal control codes.
! 98 You’ll probably recognize dl d2 . . . . dx from the top of our layout grid. That’s right, each column is described by three bytes. Now we’ve got everything we need to download one character to the printer.
99 When you run this program, it looks like nothing happens. That’s OK. We’ll see why in just a moment. Save this program. We’ll need it again shortly.
50 LPRINT 60 FOR I=160 TO 254 70 LPRINT CHR$(I); 80 NEXT I 90 LPRINT 100 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“;%O”;CHR$(O) 110 END Nope! Just two characters in the download set. This is inconve- nient for a couple of reasons. First, every time you wanted to use a download character you would have to switch back and forth between character sets.
To demonstrate how to use these characters, let’s use this character set to print a small graph. This program, which has been built around the first program in this chapter, will do just I that: 10 .
102 ‘.. ; STEP 50 ); 370 LPRINT 380 LPRINT CHR$(9) 390 FOR I=0 TO 488 400 LPRINT CHR$(61 410 NEXT I 420 LPRINT 430 LPRINT "JAPAN" 440 FOR I=0 TO 347 ;CHRS(g); STEP 50 450 LPRINT CHR$(60); .
103 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 to replace them or turn the printer off.
104 THE PRINT MODE AND THE DOWNLOAD CHARACTERS In the example program above, before we defined the new characters, we selected the Draft print mode. By doing this, we caused user-defined characters to print as draft characters because user-defined characters assume the mode that is in ef- fect at the time they are defined.
105 together horizontally than draft style dot columns (the horizon- tal dot spacing is l/MO-inch when printing LQ characters - as opposed to l/120-inch for draft characters). Unlike draft characters, there are no restrictions on which dots can print.
. . .: ,,.. “. .,.. -. .1.. (r .,. 106 MEMO.
An important point after buying a device Star Micronics NB-15 (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought Star Micronics NB-15 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 Star Micronics NB-15 - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, Star Micronics NB-15 you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get Star Micronics NB-15 will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of Star Micronics NB-15, 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 Star Micronics NB-15.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Star Micronics NB-15. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Star Micronics NB-15 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
