Star Micronics LC-8021 - Manual

1 Chapter 1: Printer Setup This chapter contains important information on setting up your printer. Be sure to read this chapter carefully before using the printer for the first time. Choosing a place for the printer Before actually unpacking the printer, you should take a few minutes to think about ...

2 Printer Setup Unpacking the printer Check to make sure that the carton contains each of the items shown in the following illustration. If anything is missing, contact the store where you bought the printer and ask them to supply the missing part. Note that it is a good idea to keep the original bo...

General guide 3 General guide The following illustrations show the major components of the your printer. Front cover Platen knob Control panel Power switch Document table Document table extension Power terminal Serial interface connector Parallel interface connector

4 Printer Setup Opening the front cover ❏ Pull on the left and right corners of the front cover to and swing it down until it is fully open. Removing the front cover ❏ Once the front cover is fully open, carefully lift it straight up to remove it. To replace the front cover, lower the slots on the l...

Removing the protective materials 5 Removing the protective materials ❏ Packing material in the printer protects its components during shipping. Before using the printer for the first time, be sure to remove the packing material, which is located inside the front cover as shown in the illustration. ...

6 Printer Setup Installing the ribbon cartridge ❏ Make sure that the printer is unplugged from its power outlet. ❏ Open the front cover of the printer. Note: You will probably find later steps to perform if you remove the cover. ❏ By hand, move the print head to the left as far as it will go, where ...

8 Printer Setup ❏ Close the front cover of the printer. Important! Printing that is poor quality or too light is almost always due to a ribbon that is simply worn out or “used up.” If you experience problems with print quality, check the condition of the ribbon. If the black part looks gray and well...

Connecting to a power outlet and turning power on and off 9 Important! Never try to move the print head while the printer is plugged into a power outlet. Doing so can damage the printer. If you have just used the printer, let the print head cool for a few minutes before you touch it. ❏ Pull on the r...

10 Printer Setup ❏ Securely attach the power cord to the power terminal on the back of the printer. ❏ Plug the other end of the power cord into a grounded wall outlet. Caution! If the voltage marked on the bottom of your printer does not match the voltage from the outlet you are using, do not plug i...

Connecting to your computer 11 ❏ Insert the paper into the printer as far as it will go, sliding its left side against the printer’s left guide. Important! If the paper is not inserted straight into the printer, it will be considered a loading error and the paper will be ejected. Be sure to insert t...

12 Printer Setup To connect with a parallel cable For connection to the parallel interface, you will probably want to use a standard parallel cable, like the one shown below. Note: In addition to using the parallel interface as-is to connect a parallel interface, you can also connect an optional ser...

Connecting to your computer 13 ❏ Plug one end of the parallel cable into the parallel port of your computer. The parallel port should be labeled “Printer,” “Parallel,” “PRN,” “LPT1,” or something similar. ❏ Plug the other end of the parallel cable into the socket on the back of the printer and secur...

14 Printer Setup ❏ Attach one end of the serial cable to a serial port of your computer (COM1, COM2), and secure the connector with the screws provided on the plug. ❏ Plug the other end of the cable into the socket on the back of the printer and secure it in place with the screws. Note: The parallel...

15 Chapter 2: Control Panel Operations The control panel gives you push-button control over the printer’s operations. It includes indicator lights, which tell you the current status of the printer at a glance. This chapter describes control panel functions that can be performed while the printer is ...

16 Control Panel Operations Selecting a font The printer normally prints at letter quality (LQ) using the default font you select in the EDS Mode (page 19). You can also use the following procedure to enter the Draft Mode for faster draft printing, or the OCR B Mode for bar code printing (page 24). ...

Changing the auto load position 17 Changing the auto load position Normally the printer automatically feeds paper to a standard position (1/6-inch from the top of the paper) before printing. This is called the auto load position. You can use the following procedure to specify a different auto load p...

18 Control Panel Operations Clearing the printer’s buffer When the printer receives data from a computer, it temporarily stores it in a memory called a buffer. If you stop a printing job partway through, there is the chance that some data will remain in the buffer. The following procedure clears the...

19 Chapter 3: Using the EDS Mode The letters “EDS” stand for “Electronic DIP Switches.” Just like the small DIP switches that are used by many computers, printers, and other devices, the EDS lets you configure the printer so that it matches your system and software needs. This chapter describes how ...

20 Using the EDS Mode Note: The contents of the above message are the same, regardless of whether you enter EDS-1 or EDS-2. The asterisks indicate the current EDS Mode switch settings for all the banks in both sub-modes. Selecting a bank ❏ While in the EDS Mode (EDS-1 or EDS-2), use the control pane...

Selecting a switch 21 Selecting a switch ❏ While in the EDS Mode (EDS-1 or EDS-2), use the control panel’s EJECT button to select a bank switch. While the DATA indicator is off, the lit indicator indicates the currently selected switch. Changing a switch setting ❏ After selecting a bank and switch, ...

22 Using the EDS Mode EDS-1 Settings The following details all of the settings you can make for EDS-1. BANK A Switch 1: Emulation Selects Standard emulation (ON) or IBM emulation (OFF). Standard emulation causes the printer to act like the Epson ESC/P (24-pin), while IBM emulation makes it act like ...

24 Using the EDS Mode BANK C Switches 1, 2: Print Mode Turn these switches on or off to select the print mode you want to use. Switches 3, 4, 5: Print Pitch Turn these switches on or off to form the pattern that matches the print pitch setting you want to make. Switch 6: Not used Print Mode SW1 SW2 ...

26 Using the EDS Mode BANK E Switches 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: Code Page/International Character Set If your EDS settings specify IBM emulation (Bank A, Switch 1 OFF) with either character table (Bank A, Switch 2), or Standard emulation (Bank A, Switch 1 ON) with the graphics character table (Bank A, Switc...

30 Using the EDS Mode BANK F Switches 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: LQ Font Selection Turn these switches on or off to form the pattern that identifies the font you want to use for LQ printing. Note: Bank C switches 1 and 2 need to be in the correct positions before the above setting will have any effect. Latin...

32 Using the EDS Mode Switch 4: Protocol Protocol, which is sometimes referred to as “handshaking,” is the communications convention that is used to allow the printer and computer to regulated the flow of data. DTR is the most commonly used protocol. Switches 5, 6: Not used BANK B Switch 1, 2, 3: Ba...

34 Chapter 4: Using the Printer with MS-DOS This chapter contains information about how to use the printer with applications software running under MS-DOS. In this chapter, you will learn about: ❏ How to set up for printing with MS-DOS Setting up for printing with MS-DOS To print from an application...

35 Chapter 5: Paper Handling This chapter tells you about the type of paper you can print on and how to feed paper into the printer. Selecting paper types Use the following information when selecting paper. Cut-Sheet Paper Width: 3.0 ″ to 8.3 ″ / 76.2 to 210mm Length: 2.5 ″ to 11 .7″ /63.5 to 297mm ...

36 Paper Handling Feeding a passbook into the printer Use the following procedure to feed a passbook into the printer. ❏ Open the pass book to the page you want to print on. ❏ Check that the control panel’s POWER indicator is flashing, which shows that there is no paper in the printer. ❏ Check to ma...

Feeding cut-sheet paper into the printer 37 Feeding cut-sheet paper into the printer Use the following procedure to feed cut sheet paper into the printer. When feeding large paper, such as A4-size paper, pull out the document table extension. ❏ Check that the control panel’s POWER indicator is flash...

38 Paper Handling Print area ❏ The following shows the recommended print area for passbook and cut-sheet paper. 2.54 mm (0.1") 2.54 mm (0.1") 10 mm (0.4") Never allow printing to extend outside the print area, otherwise the print head may be damaged. *1 *14 mm (0.16")*14 mm (0.16"...

39 Chapter 6: Optional Accessories This chapter explains how to install and use the following optional accessories that are available for this printer: ❏ Serial Interface Unit (IS-NP192) ❏ Serial-to-Parallel Converter (SPC-8K) Important! Always make sure that printer power is turned off whenever ins...

40 Optional Accessories Serial-to-Parallel Interface Converter (SPC-8K) Connecting the serial-to-parallel converter to the printer’s parallel connector provides a second serial connection, which allows serial connections for two separate computers. Dip switch Serial connector Clear button Parallel c...

41 Appendix A: Troubleshooting The appendix tells you what you need to know if you experience problems with your printer. It tells you how to test the printer, how to check system software settings, and how to adjust the vertical alignment. In addition, there is information on actions to take for sp...

42 Troubleshooting Note: The test printing prints across the entire width of the carriage. Make sure that the printer is loaded with the widest paper available in order to avoid damage to the print head and platen. Hexadecimal dump This procedure prints in hexadecimal format all codes (character cod...

Adjusting the dot alignment 43 ❏ While holding down EJECT and ON LINE , turn the printer back on to enter the Dot Adjustment Mode.The printer will print something like the following. ❏ If the two lines do not align properly, use MULTI-PART to move the lower line to the left or EJECT to move it to th...

44 Troubleshooting Troubleshooting guide Use the following table to help track down the causes of problems and to determine the best solution to deal with them. Problem Possible Cause Recommended Action The ON LINE indicator does not light. The printer is not receiving power. Check whether the power...

Checking system software settings in MS-DOS 49 Checking system software settings in MS-DOS If you are using a parallel cable and cannot print a text file using the MS-DOS PRINT command, you may have a problem with your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Open the file and look for the following line: MODE LPT1:=COM ...

50 Appendix B: Specifications Printing System Serial Impact Dot-Matrix Printing Speed Pitch Draft (cps/dpi) LQ (cps/dpi) Pica (10 cpi) 250/120H 83/360H Elite (12 cpi) 300/120H 100/360H Semi-condensed (15 cpi(S)) 375/120H 125/360H Semi-condensed (15 cpi (I)) 150/240H 125/360H Condensed pica (17 cpi) ...

52 Appendix C: Interface Pin Outs Parallel Interface Pin Name Function 1 STROBE Goes low for ≥ 0.5 µ s when active. 2 DATA0 These signals represent information for the 1st through 8th bit of parallel data, respectively. Each signal is HIGH when data is logical 1, and LOW when logical 0. 3 DATA1 4 DA...

53 Appendix D: Character Sets Standard Italic Character Set International Character Set The character codes shown in the table are hexadecimal.

55 IBM Special Character Set The following characters can be printed using the <ESC> ^ command. Code Page #850Multi-lingual Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #860Portuguese Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #861Icelandic Oth...

56 Character Sets Code Page #863Canadian French Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #865Nordic Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3840 IBM-Russian Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #866 Russian Oth...

58 Character Sets Code Page #3847Brazil-ABNT Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3846Turkish Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #852Latin-2 Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3848Brazil-ABICOMP The...

60 Character Sets Code Page #928 Greek Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #869 Greek Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #772 Lithuanian Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #2001 Lithuanian-KBL Other ...

62 Character Sets Code Page #3021 Bulgarian Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3012 Latvian2 Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3041Maltese Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3031 Hebrew Other ch...

65 Appendix E: Printer Control Codes This appendix lists the printer’s control commands. It gives the name of each control command, along with the applicable emulation mode (Standard or IBM), and the applicable ASCII code. Standard Mode ASCII Code Function BEL Beeper BS Backspace HT Tab horizontally...

66 Printer Control Codes ESC % n n = 00 01 Select user defined characters Normal (ROM) charactersUser-defined (RAM) characters ESC & 00 n m a 1 a 2 a 3 d 1 ...d k Define user defined characters ESC (- n L n H m d 1 d 2 d 1 = 01 0203 d 2 = 00 01020506 Select line/score UnderlineStrikethroughOvers...

68 Printer Control Codes ESC R n n = 00 0102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E40 Select an international character set #0 U.S.A. #1 France #2 Germany #3 England #4 Denmark I #5 Sweden #6 Italy #7 Spain I #8 Japan #9 Norway #10 Denmark II #11 Spain II #12 Latin America #13 Korea #14 Irish #64 Legal ESC S n n =...

71 IBM Mode ASCII Code Function BEL Beeper BS Backspace HT Tab horizontally LF Line feed VT Tab vertically FF Form feed CR Carriage return SO Select double width printing (1 line) SI Select condensed printing DC1 Select printer DC2 Select pica pitch DC4 Cancel double width printing (1 line) CAN Canc...

72 Printer Control Codes ESC H Cancel double strike printing ESC I n n = 00 0810020A1203040C14060E1607 Select print pitch and download Resident draft picaResident draft eliteResident draft condensedDefault LQ picaDefault LQ eliteDefault LQ condensedDefault LQ proportionalDownload draft picaDownload ...

74 Appendix F: Glossary Centronics cable Parallel cable normally used to connect the printer to the computer. control code A numeric code that instructs the printer to perform an operation. For example, the computer sends the printer a form feed control code (12) to tell it to eject the current page...

75 Appendix G: Control Panel Operation Guide Note: A dot means press and hold and an arrow means to just press. A dot and arrow tied together means hold one while pressing the other. Multi-part Eject Line feed Draft/LQ Off line Hex dump Self test 2 EDS-1 mode Dot- adjustment mode EDS-2 mode BANK SW ...