Star Micronics LC-8521 - Manual

Chapter 7: Paper Handling ... 57 Selecting paper types ... 57 Adjusting for paper thickness ... 58 Automatic fanfold feeding ... 59 Manual sheet feeding ... 60Clearing paper jams ... 62 Chapter 8: Optional Accessory ... 63 Serial-to-Parallel Converter (SPC-8K) ... 63 Connecting the Interface Convert...

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. In this chapter you will learn about: ❏ Choosing a place for the printer ❏ Unpacking and setting up the printer ❏ Ins...

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 your printer. Front cover Adjustment lever Paper guide Release lever Power switch Document table Control panel Platen knob Parallel Interface connector Serial Interface connector

4 Printer Setup Removing the protective materials Two packing materials are inserted into the printer to protect components during shipping. Before using the printer, be sure to remove all packing materials from inside the front cover and the document table as shown in the illustration. Document tab...

Installing the platen knob 5 Installing the platen knob The platen knob is packed into a recess in the packaging material. ❏ Install the knob on the shaft located inside the large hole on the right side of the printer. Make sure that the flat side of the shaft is aligned with the corresponding flat ...

6 Printer Setup Installing the ribbon cassette ❏ Make sure that the printer is unplugged from its power outlet. ❏ Open the front cover of the printer. ❏ By hand, move the cartridge holder to the center position of the paper guide where there is a cutout to allow easy installation and removal of the ...

Removing the ribbon cassette 7 ❏ Press down gently but firmly on the cassette until it snaps securely into place. ❏ Rotate the knob on the cassette again to take up any slack. ❏ Close the front cover of the printer. Important! Printing that is poor quality or too light is almost always due to a ribb...

Connecting to a power outlet and turning power on and off 9 Connecting to a power outlet and turning power on and off ❏ Lift up the back of the printer and insert two books or other similar objects underneath it to keep the printer raised and connect the power cord. ❏ Plug the power cord of the prin...

10 Printer Setup Caution! Whenever you turn off the power, wait at least five seconds before turning it back on; otherwise you may damage the printer.We recommend that you unplug the printer from the power outlet whenever you do not plan to use it for long periods. Because of the this, you should lo...

12 Printer Setup ❏ Unlock the tractor on the left (when viewing the printer from behind) by pulling its blue lever up, and adjust the position of the left tractor.Note that there is a guide inside the printer in front of the left tractor. The ▲ mark of the guide indicates where the left margin of th...

Loading fanfold paper 13 ❏ Plug the printer back into its AC power source. The printer will beep a number of times to indicate that paper is not loaded. ❏ Press the control panel’s PAPER FEED button and the paper will feed to the starting position.

14 Printer Setup Printing on fanfold paper When printing on fanfold paper, take care not to print too close to the perforations that separate each sheet. The following shows the recommended print area for fanfold paper, cut-sheet paper, Labels and Envelope. 4 mm (0.16") *1 18 mm First page Last ...

Parking fanfold paper 15 Parking fanfold paper It is not necessary to remove fanfold paper currently loaded in the printer in order to print on cut-sheet paper fed by hand. Instead, simply use the following procedure to park the fanfold paper. ❏ Tear off the paper at a perforation so there is no mor...

16 Printer Setup ❏ Tear off the paper. ❏ When you resume printing, the printer reverse feeds the paper to its former position. Connecting to your computer with a parallel cable The printer is equipped with a parallel interface as standard. It does not come with a cable, so you must separately purcha...

18 Printer Setup Connecting to your computer with a serial cable The printer is equipped with a serial interface as standard. It does not come with a cable, so you must separately purchase one that matches the needs of your computer. You will probably want to use a standard serial (RS-232C) cable wh...

Connecting to your computer with a serial cable 19 ❏ Plug one end of the serial cable into the serial port of your computer. The parallel port should be labeled “COM1,” “COM2,” or something similar. ❏ Lift up the back of the printer and insert two books or other similar objects underneath it to keep...

20 Control Panel Operations 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 perfor...

Selecting a font 21 Selecting a font ❏ Make sure the printer is off-line ( ON LINE indicator is not lit). ❏ Press FONT to change the font selection. An indicator lights to the left of the name of the font that is currently selected. Note: The font setting you make with the above procedure can be cha...

22 Control Panel Operations Setting the character pitch The character pitch setting controls how many characters are printed per inch. Use the following procedure to select the pitch you want. ❏ Make sure the printer is off-line ( ON LINE indicator is not lit). ❏ Press PITCH to change the pitch sele...

24 Control Panel Operations Setting the top of form position The current position of paper loaded in the printer is automatically set as the top of the page whenever you turn power on. You can also use the following procedure at any time to specify a different position as the top of the page. ❏ Make...

Changing the auto load position 25 Changing the auto load position Normally the printer automatically feeds paper to a standard position (1/6-inch from the top of the paper). This is called the auto load position. You can use the following procedure to specify a different auto load position. ❏ Make ...

26 Control Panel Operations Saving a macro Normally, any settings you make on the control panel are cleared when you turn the printer off. Use the following procedure to save the current control panel settings so that they are used whenever you turn the printer on. ❏ Make the control panel settings ...

Initializing the printer 27 Initializing the printer The following procedure initializes the printer to its power-on settings. If you have control panel settings stored in memory, this procedure sets up the printer using them. ❏ Use ON LINE to take the printer off line ( ON LINE indicator is not lit...

28 Using the EDS Mode 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 cha...

Selecting a bank 29 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 Modes (EDS-1 or EDS-2), use the control panel...

30 Using the EDS Mode Selecting a switch ❏ While in the EDS Modes (EDS-1 or EDS-2), use the control panel’s SWITCH button to select a bank switch. While the SW indicator is flashing, the lit indicator indicates the currently selected switch. Changing a switch setting ❏ After selecting a bank and swi...

EDS-1 Settings 31 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 the ...

32 Using the EDS Mode When Auto (SW5: ON and SW6: ON) is selected, the printer mode automatically switches between Multi-part Mode and Normal Mode. For example, if the adjustment lever is set to 3 or less, Normal Mode is selected; if the lever is set to 4 or more, Multi-part Mode is selected. BANK B...

EDS-1 Settings 33 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: Quiet When the Quiet Mode is ena...

EDS-1 Settings 35 Code Page SW1 SW2 SW3 SW4 SW5 SW6 #437 IBM-PC ON ON ON ON ON ON #850 Multi-lingual OFF ON ON ON ON ON #860 Portuguese ON OFF ON ON ON ON #861 Icelandic OFF OFF ON ON ON ON #863 Canadian French ON ON OFF ON ON ON #865 Nordic OFF ON OFF ON ON ON #866 Russian ON OFF OFF ON ON ON #3840...

36 Using the EDS Mode A code page is the set of symbols and characters that your printer can print. Your printer converts ASCII hexadecimal data according to a code page to print symbols and characters. By supporting different code pages, the printer can print in a variety of different languages. Th...

EDS-1 Settings 37 #852 Latin-2 Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia Preferred by Microsoft #1001 Arabic Egypt, Saudi Arabia Mainly in Arabic speaking countries #737 Greek Greece Almost 80% #851 Greek Greece #869 Greek Greece #928 Greek Greece For UNIX ...

38 Using the EDS Mode If your EDS settings specify Standard emulation (Bank A, Switch 1 ON) with the italic character table (Bank A, Switch 2 OFF), use the Bank E switches to select the international character set you want to use. This setting determines the assignment of 14 character codes in the S...

EDS-2 Settings 39 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 must be in the correct position before this setting has any effect. EDS-2 Settings The follo...

40 Switch 2: Parity Check This switch specifies whether or not a parity check should be performed on the data. Switch 3: Parity This switch specifies the parity as non, odd, or even. Switch 4: Protocol Protocol, which is sometimes referred to as “handshaking,” is the communications convention that i...

EDS-2 Settings 41 BANK B Switch 1, 2, 3: Baud Rate The baud rate is the speed, in bits per second, that the printer sends data to the computer. The common setting is 9600 or 19200. Switch 4: Not used Switch 5, 6: Waiting period for paper loading BANK C Switch 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: Paper Control Bank C l...

42 Using the Printer with Windows 3.1 Chapter 4: Using the Printer with Windows 3.1 This chapter contains specific information you need to know when using the printer with Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later. It also tells you how to install the printer driver on your computer so that it can control the ...

Setting up for printing with Microsoft Windows 3.1 43 ❏ Click Add and the dialog box will expand to show a List of Printers. ❏ In the List of Printers: box, select Install Unlisted or Updated Printer . ❏ Click Install . ❏ This causes the Install Driver dialog box to appear, which instructs you to in...

44 Using the Printer with Windows 3.1 ❏ In the List of Printers: box of the Add Unlisted or Updated Printer dialog box, select your printer driver and then click OK . This causes the Printers dialog box to appear. Your printer is now listed in the Installed Printers: list. ❏ Double-click on the name...

Printing a document 45 ❏ From this window you select buttons that let you control a wide variety of printer setup parameters. This manual does not include any information about how to do this because everything you need to know is included in an on-line manual that tells you how to use all the butto...

46 Using the Printer with Windows 3.1 Note: The actual appearance of the Print window may differ somewhat depending on the application you are using. Use this window to specify the range of the pages to be printed, the quality of the printing (in dots per inch), and the number of copies you want to ...

47 ❏ Insert the disk that contains the fonts into one of your computer’s disk drives. This explanation assumes you are using a drive named “A:”, but you could use any drive. Just remember to change the “A:” in the following steps to the name of the drive you are using. ❏ Select the letter that repre...

48 Using the printer with Windows 95 Chapter 5: Using the printer with Windows 95 This chapter describes how to use the printer with Microsoft Windows 95. The following topics are covered: ❏ Setting up the printer in Windows 95 ❏ Preparing for printing ❏ Printing a document ❏ Installing the TrueType...

50 ❏ Click on the OK button twice. ❏ Select the language or language group you want to use by clicking on it. ❏ Select the printer model name (“Star LC-8521”) by clicking on it and then click on the Next button. ❏ Select the printer port to which the printer is connected by clicking on it (usually “...

Preparing to print 51 Note: Windows applications always print to the currently selected default printer, unless the user chooses a different printer from within the application. ❏ Click on the Next button. ❏ Select whether to print out a test page by clicking on the appropriate radio button. ❏ Click...

Printing a document 53 This concludes the printing preparation. The printer which you selected is now the default printer, and the page size, paper source setting and any other settings which you made for the printer, apply to printing from all applications. To override these settings for a specific...

54 Using the printer with Windows 95 ❏ Select how many copies of the document will be printed by entering the appropriate number into the Number of copies field. If you want to print all the pages in your document, make sure that the All radio button is checked. If you do not want to print all the p...

Installing TrueType fonts 55 ❏ Select the fonts you wish to install by clicking on them. If you want to install all of them, click on the Select All button. ❏ Click on the OK button. The new fonts can now be seen in the Fonts folder window. This concludes the font installation.

56 Using the Printer with MS-DOS Chapter 6: 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 ❏ How to select fonts from within ...

57 Chapter 7: Paper Handling Your printer is designed to print on a variety of paper types. This chapter tells you everything you need to know about paper, and how to set the printer up for manual paper feed. In this chapter, you will learn about: ❏ Selecting the best type of paper ❏ Adjusting for p...

58 Paper Handling Labels Backing sheet: 3 ″ to 16 ″ / 76 to 406 mm Thickness: Backing sheet 0.0028 ″ to 0.0035 ″ / 0.07 to 0.09 mm Total thickness 0.0075 ″ / 0.19 mm * Use labels only under normal temperature and humidity conditions. Envelope #10: 9.4 ″ × 4.1 ″ / 240 × 104 mm #6: 6.5 ″ × 3.6 ″ / 166...

59 The following table provides a general guide for setting the adjustment lever. Experiment with different settings until you find the one that gives you the print quality you want. Important! Continuous use of the wrong adjustment lever setting can drastically reduce the print head life. Position ...

60 Paper Handling Manual sheet feeding You can use the following procedure to manually feed cut-sheet paper into the printer. ❏ Make sure that there is no fanfold paper in the printer. If there is, use the procedure under “Parking fanfold paper” on page 15 to park the fanfold paper and prepare for m...

62 Paper Handling Note: If you are inserting letterhead paper, insert the sheet so that it is face up with the letterhead portion up. Clearing paper jams Use the following procedure to clear paper jams from the printer. ❏ Turn the power off. ❏ Unplug the printer from its AC power outlet. ❏ Open the ...

63 Chapter 8: Optional Accessory This chapter explains how to connect and set up the following optional accessories that are available for this printer: ❏ Serial-to-Parallel Converter (SPC-8K) ❏ Push Tractor Unit (CT-15HA) Important! Always make sure that printer power is turned off whenever install...

64 Connecting the Interface Converter ❏ Unplug the printer from its AC power outlet. ❏ Set the DIP switches on the SPC-8K to the settings you want to use before you connect it to your printer.See the following section for details on how to set the DIP switches ❏ Plug the interface converter’s Centro...

Setting the converter’s DIP switches 65 Important! ❏ Make sure that the serial-to-parallel converter is resting on a stable, level surface where it will not be subject to vibration or damage. Setting the converter’s DIP switches [CORRECT METHOD] [INCORRECT METHOD] You should set the converter’s DIP ...

66 Optional Accessory Data Length Parity Protocol Baud Rate Switch 1 Data Length DOS/Windows Setting ON 8 bits 8 OFF 7 bits 7 Switch 2 Switch 5 Parity DOS/Windows Setting ON ON or OFF None N OFF ON Odd O OFF OFF Even E Switch 3 Switch 4 Protocol ON ON DTR ON OFF XON/XOFF OFF ON ETX/ACK Switch 6 Swit...

68 Optional Accessory Removing the push tractor unit from the back of the printer ❏ Make sure that the printer is unplugged from its AC power source. ❏ Open the cover where the push tractor unit is located.If the push tractor unit is located in the back of the printer, open the back cover. If it is ...

Installing the push tractor unit 69 Installing the push tractor unit ❏ Make sure that the printer is unplugged from its AC power source. ❏ Open the cover where you want to install the push tractor unit.If you want to install the push tractor unit in the back of the printer, open the back cover. If y...

70 Troubleshooting Appendix A: Troubleshooting The appendix will provide help 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 ...

Hexadecimal dump 71 Note: 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 codes ...

72 Troubleshooting ❏ While holding down the control panel’s PARK/SET/EJECT and ON LINE buttons, turn the printer back on to enter the Dot Adjustment Mode. The printer will print something like the following. Note that the printer will feed the paper forward and back each time during this operation s...

Troubleshooting guide 73 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...

Troubleshooting guide 77 Left margin moves to the right during printing. The paper is not loaded correctly, causing the print head to jam. Remove all paper from the printer and reload it. Try printing again. The ribbon cassette is not installed correctly, causing the print head to jam. Make sure tha...

Checking system software settings in Windows 79 Checking system software settings in Windows Whenever you have problems printing from a Windows application, you should check the following four things: ✓ Is the printer you are using set as the default printer? ✓ Is the drive setup correctly? ✓ Is the...

80 Troubleshooting To check the application printer selection ❏ Select Print from the application’s File menu, and a window appears listing available printers. ❏ Check to see that the name of your printer is selected. If it is not, select it and try printing from your application again. To check the...

Checking system software settings in MS-DOS 81 Appendix B: Specifications Printing System Serial Impact Dot-Matrix Printing Speed Pitch HS-Draft (cps/dpi) Draft (cps/dpi) LQ (cps/dpi) Pica (10 cpi) 400/80H 300/120H 100/360H Elite (12 cpi) 360/120H 120/360H Semi-condensed (15 cpi (S)) 450/120H 150/36...

82 Specifications Paper Cut-sheet Paper width: 2 ″ to 16.5 ″ / 51 to 420 mm Paper length: 2.75 ″ to 14 ″ / 70 to 356 mm Paper weight (1-ply): 14 to 42 lbs / 52 to 156 g/m 2 / 45 to 135 kg Multi-part: 11 to 14 lbs / 40 to 52 g/m 2 / 34 to 45 kg; pressure sensitive paper Total thickness: 0.014 ″ / 0.3...

Checking system software settings in MS-DOS 83 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 log...

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

85 IBM Character Set #2Code Page #437 (IBM-PC) Character Set #1 Other characters are the same as those for Character Set #2.

86 Character Sets 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 #8...

88 Character Sets Code Page #3843 Polish Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3841 Gost-Russian Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3845Hungarian Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3844 CS2 Other ch...

90 Character Sets Code Page #1001Arabic Code Page #737Greek Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #851Greek Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437.

92 Character Sets Code Page #3001 Estonian1 Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #774 Lithuanian Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3011 Latvian1 Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3002 Estonian2 Ot...

94 Character Sets Code Page #3860 Rajvitee KU Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3850 Standard KU Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3863STD988 TIS Other characters are the same as those for Code Page #437. Code Page #3861 Microwi...

96 Printer Control Codes 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, IBM, or Both), and the applicable ASCII code. Font and Character Set Control Commands Descript...

98 Printer Control Codes Special Print Mode Commands Description Mode ASCII Code Set master print mode STD ESC! Cancel underlining Both ESC-0 Select underlining Both ESC-1 Select emphasized print Both ESC E Cancel emphasized print Both ESC F Select double-strike print Both ESC G Cancel double-strike...

100 Printer Control Codes Horizontal Print Position Control Commands Description Mode ASCII Code Move print head to next horizontal tab position Both HT Return print head to left margin (carriage return) Both CR Move print head to absolute horizontal position STD ESC $ n1 n2 Add n dot spaces between...

101 Select uni-directional printing Both ESC U1 Control character height, width, line spacing IBM ESC [@ Set initial condition IBM ESC [K Select 1 x 1, 2 x 2, 4 x 4 sized printing STD ESC h n Stop printing IBM ESC j Select type face STD ESC k n Cancel double-high mode STD ESC w0 Select double-high m...

102 Glossary Appendix F: Glossary adjustment lever Controls the darkness of the printing by adjusting for the thickness of the paper you are printing on. Centronics cable Parallel cable normally used to connect the printer to the computer. control code A numeric code that instructs the printer to pe...

Checking system software settings in MS-DOS 103 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. Font & Pitch Lock Hex Dump Mode EDS-2 Mode EDS-1 Mode Dot-Adjustment...

Worldwide Headquarters STAR MICRONICS CO., LTD.536 Nanatsushinya, Shimizu,Shizuoka, 424, Japan North and South America Markets STAR MICRONICS AMERICA, INC.70- D Ethel Road WestPiscataway, NJ 08854-5950 European Market STAR MICRONICS DEUTSCHLAND GMBHWesterbachstraße 59D-60489 FrankfurtF.R. of Germany...