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Star Micronics NX-2450 User's Manual

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1. Elite pitch MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt ESC gt M 27 77 1B 4D lt ESC Err 27 58 In Standard mode changes from either pica or semi condensed to elite pitch 12 cpi or from condensed pica to condensed elite 20 cpi In IBM mode changes from pica or condensed to elite 12 cpi Semi condensed pitch Decimal Hexadecimal Std 27 103 Changes from either pica or elite to semi condensed pitch 15 cpi Condensed printing Decimal Hexadecimal OF lt ESC gt lt I gt 1B OF In Standard mode changes from pica to condensed pica 17 cpi or from elite to condensed elite 20 cpi In IBM mode changes from pica to condensed pica Page 116 Cancel condensed printing MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt DC2 gt In Standard mode changes from condensed pica to nor mal pica or from condensed elite to normal elite In IBM mode always changes to normal pica Proportional spacing moo as omame roraaeama Std LESC p n 27 112 n IBM lt ES gt P n 27 80 n 18 50 n Causes subsequent characters to be proportionally spaced when nis 1 and cancels it when nis 0 Select font and pitch Oe ee a the print font and pitch according to the value of n as shown below n Font 0 Draft Letter Quality Letter Quality Pr
2. 27 61 Sets the most significant bit of each subsequent byte received to 0 Accept MSB as is MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt ESC gt ffm 27 35 1B 23 Cancels the preceding commands and accepts the most significant bit as it is when it is sent to the printer Hexadecimal 1B 3D Page 140 Delete last character sent MODE ASCII Decimal Std lt DEL gt 127 Hexadecimal 7E Deletes the last character received Ignored if the last character received has already been printed or if the last character received was part of a command Cancel last line Move ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt CAN gt 24 18 Deletes the last line currently in the print buffer Set printer off line MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt DC3 gt 19 13 CESC Q g 27 81 36 1B 51 24 Sets the printer off line into not ready mode The printer disregards all subsequent characters and com mands except lt DC 1 gt which puts it back on line into ready mode The printer s READY indicator will not go OIE Set printer on line MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt DC1 gt Ly 11 Puts the printer back on line into ready mode allow ing it to receive and process all subsequent characters and commands This command is ignored if the printer was set off line into not ready mode by pressing the
3. Code page 437 U S A 850 Multi Lingual 3 92 860 Portuguese 861 Icelandic 863 Canadian French 865 Nordic One of these code pages can be selected as the power up default using EDS switches D3 to D5 The various code pages are shown in the Appendix start ing on page 157 Page 114 Enable printing of all character codes Decimal Hexadecimal 28 92 ni n2 1C 5C nl n2 27 92 nil n2 1B 5C nl n2 Enables printing of all characters in the IBM character set including those characters which are normally con sidered control codes This command remains in effect for the next n1 n2 x 256 characters where n1 and n2 are between O and 255 During this time no control functions are executed If a code with no assigned char acter is received the printer prints a space Enable printing of all character codes on next character Decimal Hexadecimal This command operates like the previous command Enable printing of all character codes except that it remains in effect for only one character Page 115 Character size and pitch commands Pica pitch MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std CESC P 27 80 1B 50 IBM lt DC2 gt 18 12 In Standard mode changes from either elite or semi condensed to pica pitch 10 cpi or from condensed elite to condensed pica 17 cpi In IBM mode changes from elite or condensed to pica 10 cpi
4. SEES LEASE asa aaa ays Page 163 Character set 1 The other characters are the same as in each version of character set 2 pw 130 i 131 14 122 1 1 Ea gg aah aE i s bet eo E 15 EARS Dip A ER EB 143 ee ee eee a Page 164 IBM special character set These characters can be printed using the Enable printing of all character codes and Enable printing of all character codes on next character commands R pa a e l fe als lie tery KENNS ob ir khe be oe ea Sa KE AS AS Aee E Page 165 Page 166 Glossary Adobe Type Manager Adjustment lever AEC mode Application Auto line feed Auto load position AUTOEXEC BAT Software for Windows and Macin tosh which allows you to print PostScript fonts Lever which lets you adjust the position of the print head for dif fering paper thicknesses See Automatic Emulation Change mode Software program such as a word processor from which you can print out documents Printer function in which the printer automatically performs a carriage return and line feed whenever it receives a carriage return control code Position of the print head after paper is loaded relative to the physical top of the page MS DOS set up file containing statements which determine to which port the printer output is to be sent
5. 6 47 Setting up the printer with an MS DOS computer 48 Setting up the printer with a Macintosh csseeseeeserees 49 Using fonts and varying the appearance of text 50 Introduction to fonts and typefaces c cccceeseeeeessseneesereeenes 50 PIECE POE E AAE EEE E T 51 Weight sais scicecc Lec ciseivagicts acai enesdtacedacedscanivadacavsoeseddatadusencestseaceseavertestasts 51 Bitmap LOS 2 s2 cacecsestsesisetesieeeszicobevsnsecesievatletecetinceacutiacssaccsediserd sivevane 51 Scalable fonts iviscovicsssiesenecessancessetetvacececesacievesesdbedatasvecesicscseotersndatsuess 52 In WINGOWG cccesenseeeteeeeeeeecenseeceecaeesesannestscnucnseensereeeeenssnsaeees 52 Installing TrueType fOnts c s cccccecccsssssseensesssseasessssscssresssseresssssreseas 52 Selecting different fonts 1 cccccccccsseesseescensceseeesnseessssesescenestaseeenes 53 Ih MS DOS iri ni shies Rteavtice save cedeati inch tna tnentaSainseatveareantesess 53 Selecting different fonts sneneesererrrrerereervrsererrasnnerennrneneannnennenneres 53 Changing the character pitch ccccccceccescesencnteeuesstesstetnetsesnenes 53 Preventing software font selection ccsccssscsseetseenscsrsestsneenenes 54 Using different types Of PAPel ccccccssesssssecesessseesssseenaes 55 Useful printing features cccccccccecsscscssesstenesersnesstsssssssensnans 57 Portrait and landscape prin
6. e Make sure that the printer is in ready mode and that the release lever is forward Press the key The printer now automatically feeds the paper backwards until it is no longer in contact with the platen e Push the release lever backwards Now you can load and print on single sheets When you want to resume using fanfold paper you can unpark it as described in the following section Unparking paper To resume using fanfold paper you can unpark the fanfold paper as follows e Remove all single sheets from the printer e Pull the release lever forward e Press the key The printer feeds the parked fanfold paper back into position ready for printing Note You can always unpark paper whether the printer is in ready mode or not ready mode Page 81 Using the tear off function You can remove finished fanfold output without disturb ing the current position of the paper Page 82 Make sure that the printer is in ready mode hold down the key and then hold down the key Keep both keys held down The printer starts to feed the paper through the printer Release both keys The printer automatically goes into not ready mode Tear off the paper using the paper delivery selec tor s tear assist edge Press the key again The printer winds the paper back to its former position so that printing can be resumed The printer remains in ready mode Serial to parallel interface
7. Keys using 34 L Letter Quality default font selection 45 Letter Quality printing 43 Lights 35 Line feed enabling automatic 4 Loading paper 19 Long test 67 M Macintosh printer set up 49 Macro feature 62 Macro indicator 26 35 Manual by pass 57 Monospaced fonts 50 MS DOS AUTOEXEC BAT file 17 checking settings 103 font selection 30 PRINT command 48 printer driver selection of 28 printer set up 17 48 printing from applications 49 selecting printer in 27 serial connection 88 using control panel with 25 Multi part forms 55 N No paper automatic detection of 42 Non color printers 28 Not Ready mode 24 O Over printing unwanted 41 P Page length setting 42 Paper delivery selector 3 Paper feed 59 Paper guides 5 key 25 34 Paper loading 19 Paper out automatic detection of 42 Paper size setting 42 Paper tray 5 fitting 12 Parallel cable length of 13 Parallel interface pin outs 151 Parallel port 13 Parking paper 57 81 Pausing printing 57 Pin outs 151 152 Pitch 51 saving selection 62 setting 43 53 Platen 6 PostScript fonts 49 53 Power switch 5 PRINT command 48 Print gap setting 63 Print head 5 Print quality setting 43 Printable area 56 Printer components amp Printer driver installing I5 selection of 28 Printer emulation automatic switching 40 selecting 46 Printer emulation mode setting 40 Printer location 7 Printing a text file in MS DOS 48 Proporti
8. Click Install A window prompts you to put in the floppy disk supplied with the printer e Insert the disk with the printer driver file on it and click OK A new list of printers appears If you have inserted the disk into a drive other than drive A you must type in the drive letter followed by a colon and a backslash e g B before selecting OK e Select NX 2450 Rainbow Colour from the new list of printers e Click OK A list of installed printers appears which now includes the NX 2450 Rainbow Colour e Click on Set As Default Printer e Click on Close to return to the Control Panel win dow For instructions on how to configure the printer see Chapter 5 of the Microsoft Windows User s Guide enti tled Control Panel If you cannot print from your application programs suc cessfully after installing the driver refer to the section Setting up the printer with a Windows computer on page 47 of Chapter 4 For a description of how to install the TrueType fonts supplied on the 3 1 2 floppy disk accompanying the printer see page 52 of Chapter 4 Note Windows applications always print to the currently selected default printer unless the user chooses a different printer from within the application Page 16 Setting up the printer in MS DOS IBM PC s and compatibles running MS DOS will usually work with a printer connected to the parallel port with out any special set up Try printing out some
9. MODE COM2 9600 N 8 1 p will set up COM2 to run at 9600 baud with no parity a data length of 8 bits and 1 stop bit an MS DOS byte terminating convention The p indicates that the printer will continually try to re transmit data should an error occur Refer to your MS DOS User s Guide if you need further information on the MODE command Page 88 Chapter 6 Troubleshooting Your NX 2450 Rainbow Colour printer should perform without any problem most of the time However things will go wrong from time to time A list of common prob lems and corresponding suggestions for curing them is given below A further section Checking system software settings suggests ways for you to check whether your system software MS DOS or Windows is correctly set up for printing If the suggested remedies do not cure the problem con sult the store where you purchased your printer for assistance Note The printer contains high voltages Do not try any repair oper ation other than those described in this chapter Otherwise you could receive an electric shock or cause damage to the printer Attempting such an operation will void your warranty Page 89 Common problems and solutions Possible cause Action Printer is not receiving power Check whether the power cord is correctly connected If it is try a different power cord Check whether the power source is workin
10. The control panel is also used to make Electronic DIP Switch settings These feature settings come into effect each time the printer is switched on See the following section for an explanation of how to make Electronic DIP Switch settings Note If you are using Windows most printer settings such as Font and Zoom will be determined by the software you are using MS DOS users however will use the control panel to set these functions Page 36 Making Electronic DIP Switch settings Dot matrix printers usually have rows of thin two posi tion switches DIP switches with which you can select various power on settings such as emulation Epson or IBM default font and print quality Letter Quality or draft The NX 2450 Rainbow Colour does not have DIP switches Instead you can use the control panel directly to select imaginary DIP switches and make power on feature settings These power on settings are known as Electronic DIP Switch settings and are numbered A1 to E5 Switch settings are either ON or OFF Like the control panel Electronic DIP Switch settings have more significance for MS DOS users since Windows ignores most of these settings Use the control panel to make the settings you want First switch the printer off Then switch it on again while holding down all three control panel keys The printer comes on in Electronic DIP Switch EDS mode and beeps once The and keys can now be used to select a letter bet
11. Unchanged Single line Unchanged Single height Single line Double height Single line Double line Unchanged 33 Double line Single height 34 Double line Double height m Character width 0 Unchanged VA C 1 Single width same as lt ESC gt W 0 2 Double width same as lt ESC gt W 1 Page 122 Vertical position commands Set line spacing to 1 8 inch MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal lt ESC gt 0 27 48 1B 30 Sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in sub sequent line feeds to 1 8 inch Set line spacing to 1 6 inch Std lt ESC gt 2 27 50 1B 32 Sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in sub sequent line feeds to 1 6 inch Set line spacing to n 360 inch wo asc nat Hoenn td lt FS gt 3 n 28 51on 1C 33 n Sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in sub sequent line feeds to n 360 inch where n is between O and 255 Page 123 Set base unit for line spacing MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal IBM SESC 27 91 92 1B 5B 5C lt 4 gt lt 0 gt lt 0 gt 4 0 0 04 00 00 lt 0 gt l n2 O nl n2 00 nl n2 Sets the base unit for the line spacing commands lt ESC gt 3 and lt ESC gt J as shown below n1 n2 Line spacing unit 1 180 inch 1 216 inch 0 180 0 216 1 104 1 360
12. Cancels the bottom margin Form feed Feeds the paper to the top of the next page according to the current page length and moves the print position to the left margin When friction feed is used this com mand ejects the current page Set vertical tab stops Decimal Hexadecimal 27 66 ni 1B 42 ni 2 cotas 20 12 manO Cancels all current vertical tab stops and sets new verti cal tab stops at lines n1 n2 etc where n1 n2 etc are numbers between 1 and 255 A maximum of 16 vertical tab stops can be set The tab stops must be specified in ascending order any violation of ascending order termi nates the tab stop list Standard termination is by the lt 0 gt control code The vertical tab stops are set in terms of the current line spacing and do not move if the line spacing is changed later Page 128 Set vertical tab stops in channel MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt ESC gt b nO 27 98 no 1B 62 nO nl H2S 2 2 80 gt nln2 0 nln2 00 Cancels all current vertical tab stops in channel nO where nO is between O0 and 7 and sets new vertical tab stops in this channel A channel is a set of vertical tab stops selected with the lt ESC gt command See the lt ESC gt B command for parameters n1 n2 lt O gt Select vertical tab channel MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt ESC gt nO 27 47 nO 1B 2F nO Selects a set of ver
13. or lt ESC gt Z commands to a den sity mode defined by lt ESC gt nis K L Y or Z indicating the mode to be converted mis a code from lt O gt to lt 4 gt or lt 6 gt indicating one of the modes of lt ESC gt Page 137 Download character commands Define download characters MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt ESCD amp lt O gt 27 38 0 1B 26 O00 nl n2 m0 nl n2 m0 ni n2 mo ml m2 dl ml m2 dl ml m2 dl AZ ose AX d2 dK ATE e D Defines one or more new characters and stores them in RAM for later use EDS switch A3 must be set to OFF otherwise RAM is used as an input buffer only not for storing downloaded characters and this command is ignored nl is the character code of the first character to be defined and n2 is the character code of the last charac ter to be defined n must be equal to or less than n2 The data for each character starts with three bytes spec ifying proportional spacing attributes the first byte mO specifies the left of the character the second byte m1 specifies the character width the third byte m2 speci fies the right of the character These values must not exceed the following maximum limits Character mode m0 m1 m2 Draft 12 LQ pica 36 LQ elite 30 _ LO semi condensed 24 LQ proportional 42 Draft super subscript 12 LO super subscript 36 lz LQ prop super sub
14. Itt Cereb eh Sl El Bl N pawa i o E Bl 1 1 12 kra Page 157 Code page 437 U S A continued Pepp Eppu DES SEE GREE REAR NM PALO S BREA RGU DSR GSREE AERA GBM DSSS a a a aaa h a LG b D AAA N ULAN Eit ehee r He ase a Page 158 Code page 850 Multi lingual The other characters are the same as in code page 437 E E nn hh Sa Sa Salaa DSSS a a aa ele eee ih mee ee eb ee oe ee eb ee wi eee eere n ee ee eee ee a a a ep phe eeek ee ee i de eae ae eee e See Page 159 The other characters are the same as in code page 437 Code page 860 Portuguese Ca Pa Par i PPP lB lee ee eee eee ee eee ee eee ee le ele eee leas ee peed fe fede fe fe be lee ete fe ee fe fe dee ee ee ee ee ee eee eee ee lee ele lee dee bebe le sees esr ee oe ele es se ee er Page 160 The other characters are the same as in code page 437 Code page 861 Icelandic Ca a a Pe PP Pl lB Ei Pi Be PF OP Page 161 Code page 863 Canadian French The other characters are the same as in code page 437 Ca Pa PB T ede ede fe de fede Jo ee eee fe ee ee eel le me eee fee dole NGG eee fe fee eee ee pp fe Kii A en PP oa le fe de de ee dee de ee eek pe ee ee ee fe fee ee fs ees ea ono ms roe Pee ay i a Page 162 Code page 865 Nordic The other characters are the same as in code page 437
15. Paper specifications Cut sheet Width Length Thickness Weight Friction feed with paper tray Push tractor feed 2 9 inches second maximum 5 8 11 0 148 279 4 mm 5 5 14 0 139 7 355 6 mm 0 08 0 12 mm 16 24 Ib 60 90 g m 52 77 kg Fanfold continuous Width Length Thickness Weight Copies 4 0 10 0 101 6 254 0 mm Minimum 5 5 139 7 mm Single ply paper 0 07 0 12 mm Total for multi part forms 0 25 mm 14 22 Ib 52 82 g m 45 70 kg Original 2 copies Page 147 Maximum buffer size _ Without Download 15 0 kB With Download 512 bytes Emulations Standard mode Epson LQ 860 850 NEC 24 wire graphics commands IBM mode IBM Proprinter X24E Interface Centronics parallel standard RS 232C serial option Ribbon type On carriage dedicated Monochrome black only Color black magenta cyan violet yellow orange green Ribbon life Monochrome Y24W 2 5 million characters draft pica Color Y24CL 0 4 million characters color draft pica Dimensions and Weight Width 386 mm 15 2 Depth 275 mm 10 8 Height 195 mm 7 67 Weight 6 4 kg 14 1 Ib Power supply 120VAC 220VAC 230VAC 240VAC 50 60 Hz varies according to the country of purchase Options Push Tractor Unit PT 10Q Serial Parallel Converter SPC 8K Page 148 Default Electronic DIP Switch settings EDS setting Function Default setting Emulation Stand
16. Product Manager European Market STAR MICRONICS DEUTSCHLAND GMBH Westerbachstrafe 59 D 60489 Frankfurt F R of Germany Attn Product Manager U K Market STAR MICRONICS U K LTD Star House Peregrine Business Park Gomm Road High Wycombe Bucks HP13 7DL U K Attn Product Manager French Market STAR MICRONICS FRANCE S A R L 25 rue Micha l Faraday F 78182 St Quentin en Yvelines Cedex Attn Product Manager Asian Market STAR MICRONICS ASIA LTD 18 F Tower 2 Enterprise Square 9 Sheung Yuet Road Kowloon Bay HONG KONG Attn Product Manager PRINTED IN JAPAN
17. R 21 29 82 1B 19 52 Ejects the current page Eject paper MODE Both Set print start position on paper tray feeding woot asc poea noaea Both lt ESC gt lt EM gt T n 27 25 84 n 1B 19 54 n Skips n 6 inches at the top of the page where nis equal to or greater than 1 Reset printer MODE ASCH Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt 27 64 1B 40 Std lt FS gt 28 64 1C 40 Re initializes the printer Clears the print buffer and returns settings to their power up values Does not clear the input buffer Page 143 Set initial conditions MODE Decimal Hexadecimal IBM CESC SAR ok 3 27 91 75 3 1B 5B 4B 03 lt O gt lt 909 gt lt 3 gt n O 0 3 n 00 00 03 n Re initializes the printer to the initial conditions deter mined by the value of n The value of nis the sum of the values given below for the desired characteristics Function nvalue 12 inch forms 4 Function nvalue Disable alarm 32 2 Auto CR with LF 16 Slashed zero Character set 2 1 Auto LF with CR Page 144 Appendix Specifications Printing system Serial Impact Dot matrix Printing speed 10 cpi 12 cpi 15 cpi Semi Pica Elite condensed Draft 160 cps 192 cps 240 cps Letter Quality 53 cps 64 cps 80 cps Print direction Bi directional logic seeking Uni directional logic seeking
18. i n 27 106 n 1B 6A n Feeds the paper once by n 180 inches in the reverse direction where n is between 0 and 255 If n O the line feed distance is set to 0 Does not move the print position right or left Does not change the line spacing setting Set page length to n lines MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt C n 27 67 1B 43 n Sets the page length to n lines at the current line spac ing where nis between 1 and 127 Changing the line spacing later does not alter the physi cal page length The current line becomes the first line of a new page Set page length to n inches Both lt ESC gt C lt O gt n 27 67 On 1B 43 00 n Sets the page length to n inches where nis between 1 and 32 in Standard mode or between 1 and 64 in IBM mode The current line becomes the first line of a new page Set top of page at current position woe asc _ Henna IBM lt ESC gt 4 27 52 1B 34 Sets the current position as the top of page top of form position Page 127 Set bottom margin MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt N n 27 78 n 18 4E n Sets the bottom margin to n lines where nis between 1 and 127 in Standard mode or between 1 and 255 in IBM mode The bottom margin is reset when you change the page length Cancel bottom margin MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESG gt 0 1B 4F 27 79
19. is overriding the control panel font selection This does not apply to systems running Windows Use the control panel to _ inhibit font selection by application software See the section Preventing software font selection on page 54 of Chapter 4 Page 91 Possible cause Action properly closed The paper tray cover is not The release lever is in the wrong position Close the paper tray cover Make sure that the lever is pushed back if you are printing on single sheets or pulled forward if you are using fanfold stationery Paper is jamming Remove all paper from the printer Reload paper The print gap is not set correctly The printer will not print in color gt o 7v Check the print gap If _ necessary use the _ adjustment lever to set the print gap See Setting the print gap on page 63 of Chapter 4 Possible cause Action A monochrome ribbon cartridge is installed Install a color ribbon cartridge A printer that does not support color has been selected either in Windows or in your application program Select a different printer driver see Setting up the printer in Windows on _ page 15 of Chapter 2 and Printing out your documents on page 27 of Chapter 3 Page 92 Possible cause Action Ele
20. selectable Print head 24 pins Life 100 million dots pin Line spacing 1 6 1 8 n 60 n 72 n 180 n 216 n 360 inches Typeface Draft Roman Sanserif Courier families Prestige Script Page 145 Characters ASCII 96 International 16 sets IBM special 111 IBM block graphic 50 IBM code page 6 sets Download 120 USA France Germany England Denmark I Sweden Italy Spain I Japan Norway Denmark II Spain II Latin America Korea Irish Legal 437 USA 850 Multi Lingual 860 Portuguese 861 Icelandic 863 Canadian French 865 Nordic Number of columns Pica 10 CPI 80 Elite 12 CPI 96 Semi condensed 15 CPI 120 Condensed pica 17 CPI 137 Condensed elite 20 CPI 160 Proportional Variable Character matrix Draft LQ Pica 24x9 24x31 Elite 24 x9 24 x 27 Semi condensed 16 x 7 16x21 Condensed pica 24x9 24x 16 Condensed elite 24x9 24x16 Proportional 24xn Page 146 Bit image dot matrix 8 pin normal 60 DPI 8 x 480 8 pin double 120 DPI 8 x 960 8 pin high speed double 120 DPI 8 x 960 8 pin quadruple 240 DPI 8 x 1920 8 pin CRT I 80 DPI 8 x 640 8 pin CRT II 90 DPI 8 x 720 24 pin normal 60 DPI 24 x 480 24 pin double 120 DPI 24 x 960 24 pin CRT III 90 DPI 24 x 720 24 pin Triple 180 DPI 24 x 1440 24 pin Hex 360 DPI 24 x 2880 Itis impossible to print adjacent dots in modes marked with an asterisk Paper feed Standard Option Paper feed speed
21. 48 When you can print using the MS DOS print command try printing from an application Start up an application program such as your word processor and select a printer to print to as described on page 27 of Chapter 3 you may also need to consult the application s manual Now try printing a document from your application If you have problems printing either with the PRINT command or from your application refer to Chapter 6 Troubleshooting Note Unlike Windows applications DOS application programs select printers individually You will have to select the printer in each application before you can print a file from it Setting up the printer with a Macintosh You can connect the printer to a Macintosh using spe cial commercially available kits such as Orange Micro Inc s Grappler which include all necessary equipment and software Buy the Serial RS 422 to Centronics Parallel converter version of the Grappler or a comparable product and follow the accompanying installation instructions Using a Macintosh also allows you to print using True Type and Adobe PostScript type 1 fonts To use Post Script fonts you will also need to install Adobe Type Manager on your Macintosh Page 49 Using fonts and varying the appearance of text Introduction to fonts and typefaces A font is a collection of characters letters digits and punctuation symbols of a particular design and size The typeface of a font is t
22. 67 Flashing 100 Off Press the key to confirm your selection and put the printer back in ready mode The printer beeps once to indicate that 50 zoom has been selected twice for 67 or sounds a very short beep to indicate that Zoom mode has been cancelled that is 100 has been selected You can disable the Zoom feature by setting Electronic DIP Switch setting A4 to OFF see page 41 Note This setting has no effect if you are printing from a computer running Windows Selecting Quiet mode To reduce the level of noise generated by the printer during operation you can put the printer into Quiet mode To do this put the printer in ready mode and press the key The printer will beep once and the Page 61 Quiet indicator will light up indicating that the printer is in Quiet mode Printing will be slightly slower To turn off Quiet mode press the key again while the printer is in ready mode The printer will beep again to indicate that you have quit Quiet mode Saving current settings the Macro feature You can save the following settings for future use font quiet zoom resolution auto load position for single sheets and auto load position for fanfold forms for a description of how to set the auto load position refer to page 60 Put the printer in not ready mode hold down the key then press and hold down the key Wait until the printer beeps twice and then release both keys The current settings a
23. Consult the application s manual for details Preventing software font selection To prevent the font selection from being altered by a software application and to ensure that selections can be made from the control panel only power up the printer while holding down the key The printer will sound a very short beep as it comes on Now you can put the printer in not ready mode and select a font Put the printer back in ready mode again and begin printing From now on the font selection will not be affected by any commands received from your computer To enable software font selection again turn the printer off and on again Page 54 Using different types of paper You can use any of the following types of paper with your NX 2450 Rainbow Colour printer single sheets fanfold paper and multi part forms Single sheets are individual unconnected pieces of paper They are also referred to as cut sheets Up to fifty five single sheets can be stacked in the paper tray and fed automatically into the printer You can load single sheets into the printer in either por trait upright or landscape widthwise orientation pro vided that the width of the paper does not exceed 11 See Chapter 3 for a description of how to load single sheet paper Fanfold forms are sheets of paper joined with perfora tions Fanfold forms usually have a column of holes punched into each edge which enables the printer to grip the paper as
24. It should not be on the same electric circuit as appliances that cause spikes such as copiers or refrigerators Use a power supply of the voltage indicated on the printer s identification plate Make sure that the room is not too humid Page7 Unpacking the printer There should be five items in the box the printer a color ribbon cartridge the paper support a 3 1 2 floppy disk and this user s manual If anything is missing contact the store where you bought the printer and ask them to supply the missing part Itisa good idea to keep the original box and all the packing materials in case you later need to pack the printer up again and send it somewhere at a later date A push tractor unit PT 10Q and a serial to parallel converter SPC 8K are available as optional accessories Installation of these two options is described in Chapter 5 Page 8 Preparing the printer Place the printer in the spot you have chosen and carry out the following steps Opening the front cover e Hook your fingers under the two small projecting tabs on either side of the front cover grip the cover firmly and pull upwards The front cover should open e Now pull the cover up and forwards so that it swings open as shown Note If you wish you can remove the front cover completely How ever we strongly recommend that you put it back on the printer again as soon as you have installed the ribbon car tridge This co
25. graphics mode 80 dots per inch t CRT graphics mode II 90 dots per inch 60 dots per inch 24 bit Normal density 33 24 bit Double density 120 dots per inch 38 24 bit CRT graphics 90 dots per inch 39 24 bit Triple density 180 dots per inch 40 24 bit Hex density 360 dots per inch Page 136 Select graphics mode MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal IBM LESC E eo 27 91 103 1B 5B 67 nl n2 mo nl n2 m0 ni n2 m mi M2 s mi m2 ml m2 Selects one of eight graphics modes depending on the value of mO and prints bit image graphics in this mode The graphics image is n1 n2 x 256 1 dots wide See the lt ESC gt K command for 8 bit graphics or the lt FS gt Z command for 24 bit graphics for information on ml m2 etc mo Graphics mode 8 bit Normal density 60 dots per inch 1 8 bit Double density 120 dots per inch 8 bit Double density double speed 120 dots per inch 8 bit Quadruple density 240 dots per inch 8 24 bit Normal density 60 dots per inch 9 24 bit Double density 120 dots per inch 11 24 bit Triple density 180 dots per inch t 12 24 bit Hex density 360 dots per inch Convert graphics density Decimal Hexadecimal 27 63 nm 1B 3F nm Converts graphics defined by subsequent lt ESC gt K lt ESC gt L lt ESC gt Y
26. in your applications software Your Windows system version 3 1 or later already includes several fonts such as Arial Times New Roman and Symbol You can also take advantage of the fifteen TrueType fonts included on the floppy disk packaged with the printer For instructions on how to install these fonts see page 52 of Chapter 4 Roerican Test Broadway Cloister Black Cooper Black Dom Casual Exotic 750 Demi Bold Handel Gothic Hobo Humanist 521 Extra Boid Kanjmann P T Barnum Raleigh Demi Bold Schadow Black Cendensed Seagull Heavy Windsor 1234567890 1234367890 1234567890 1234567890 1234567890 1234767890 1234567890 1234567890 1234567690 1 1234567890 1234567890 1234567890 1234567888 1234567890 1234567890 ABBE ABCDE ABEDE ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE ABODE ABCDE ABCDE ARCDE ABCDE ABCDE abede abcde abtde abcde abede abcde abode abcde abcde abode abode abcde abcde abcde abcde Page 29 In MS DOS If you are using a computer running MS DOS you can use the control panel to select one of the 6 typeface fam ilies built into the printer Roman 1234567890 ABCDE abcde Sanserif 1234567890 ABCDE abcde Courier 1234567890 ABCDE abcde Prestige 1234567890 ABCDE abcde Script 1234567890 ABCDE abcde Draft 1234567890 ABCDE abecede The lights on the control panel s left hand column show the selected font The lights come on and off as yo
27. inch This command becomes effective only after lt ESC gt 3 or lt ESC gt J is received The default base unit is set to 1 216 Set line spacing Both lt ESC gt 3 n 27 51 on 1B 33 n Sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in sub sequent line feeds to n 180 inch STD and IBM mode n 216 inch or n 360 inch IBM mode only according to the preceding base unit The value of nis between O and 255 If n 0 in Stan dard mode the line feed distance is set to 0 but in IBM mode the command is ignored Page 124 Set line spacing to n 60 inch or n 72 inch MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt A n 27 65 0 1B 41 n In Standard mode sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in subsequent line feeds to n 60 inch where nis between 0 and 255 If n 0 the line spacing is set to O In IBM mode this command defines the distance the paper advances or reverses in subsequent line feeds to n 72 inch where nis between 1 and 85 The new line spacing does not take effect until the next lt ESC gt 2 command Execute lt ESC gt A MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal IBM lt ESC gt 2 27 50 1B 32 Sets the line spacing to the value defined by the last pre ceding lt ESC gt A command Sets the line spacing to 1 6 inch if there is no preceding lt ESC gt A command Line feed MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadeci
28. on page 54 of Chapter 4 Page 31 Using other printer features There are a number of other printer features that you may want to use These features include the ability to use different types of paper the ability to adjust the position of the paper very accurately and the zoom fea ture which allows you to print documents at a reduced size These are all described in Chapter 4 Printer reference Dealing with printing problems The NX 2450 Rainbow Colour is designed to be easy to use and trouble free However from time to time you may come up against difficulties while printing If you have any problems it will be helpful to refer to Chapter 6 Troubleshooting Also you may need to refer to your MS DOS User s Guide or Microsoft Windows User s Guide and to your applications software manuals as some printing problems are caused by incorrect software set tings Page 32 Chapter 4 Printer reference Introduction This chapter is intended as a comprehensive guide to the printer s functions It covers a wide range of topics some that have been briefly described in the first three chapters and some that are new Among the topics covered are the following Using the printer s control panel Making power on default settings Electronic DIP Switch settings Selecting which emulation to use Epson or IBM Setting up the printer to work with your computer Using different fonts Using different types
29. paper Page 56 Useful printing features Portrait and landscape printing You can load paper into the printer in either portrait upright or landscape widthwise orientation provided that the width of the paper does not exceed 11 Hence you can load Letter sized paper in landscape orienta tion but not A4 paper Note Although Letter sized paper can be loaded into the printer in either landscape or portrait orientation the print width is lim ited to 8 20 3cm If you are using Windows you can choose between Por trait and Landscape orientation using your application s Printer Setup menu option Face up and face down printing You can choose whether single sheet printed output will be delivered face up only one page or face down in sequential order To do this simply adjust the position of the paper delivery selector Push the paper delivery selector towards the back of the printer to select face down printing Pull it forward to select face up printing Manual by pass If one type of paper is loaded in the paper tray but you wish to print on a single sheet of paper of a different type for example a sheet of letter head paper you can do so without unloading the paper already in the tray Insert the new sheet of paper into the printer in front of the tray cover and press the key The printer automatically feeds in the new sheet ready for printing Note If you are using letter head paper you will ne
30. printed at any size In Windows Installing TrueType fonts To install the TrueType fonts that are on the floppy disk accompanying this printer follow the procedure below Double click the Control Panel in Windows Double click on Fonts The Fonts dialog box appears Click Add The Add Fonts dialog box appears Insert the disk in your computer s floppy disk drive Select the drive by letter this is usually A some times B The names of the fonts stored on the disk are displayed in the List of Fonts window Each font name is followed by the word TrueType Select the fonts you wish to install If you want to install all of them click SelectAll Click OK The Fonts dialog box reappears and instal lation is carried out The names of the newly installed fonts are automatically added to the Installed Fonts list Within your application program select Printer Setup from the application s File menu and reselect the printer The application can now display text on screen and print text on your printer using the new fonts Note The TrueType fonts that are supplied can only be used on IBM Page 52 PC compatible computers running Windows 3 1 or higher Selecting different fonts If you are running applications software under Windows you will select fonts from within your applica tion refer to your application s manual for details Your applications software manual will tell you the vari ous w
31. ready mode It flashes when it is in not ready mode The three lights arranged in the left hand column of the panel show which font is currently selected If a single light is on the font next to that light is the currently selected font For example if the top light only is on Roman font is selected Similarly the middle and bot tom lights on their own signify that Courier and Script respectively are selected If two lights are on the font whose name is between the two lights is the selected font If the upper two lights are on Sanserif is the selected font If the lower two lights are on Prestige is selected If none of the three lights is on Draft font is selected is Roman me Sanserif B Courier SEE C Prestige Seupt mm Micro Feed 2 ww w 7w S WY quiet a e FONT PAPER READY cae EA CE Go Ca Coa ALT Macro 4 Zoom eee a Sanserif is the selected font To select a font from the control panel put the printer in not ready mode Press the key until the lights show the correct combination for the desired font The combination of lit and unlit LEDs changes with each key press The three lights in the right hand column indicate the status of the zoom quiet mode and macro features The lights are on if these features are in effect Conversely Page 35 the lights are off if these features are not in effect These features are explained later on in this chapter
32. the following e Vertical alignment mode has been selected e Zoom resolution has been set to 50 e Quiet mode has been selected e Electronic DIP Switch mode has been selected Two short tones One of the following e Macro saved settings mode has been selected e Zoom resolution has been set to 67 e Quiet mode has been cancelled Three short tortes Macro saved settings mode has been cancelled Single quarter tone One of the following e Hexadecimal dump mode has been selected e Prevention of software font selection has been selected e Zoom resolution has been set to 100 i e zoom is cancelled Page 150 Interface pin outs Parallel interface SIGNAL GND T oF Pin Name Function 1 STROBE Goes low for 2 0 5us when active 2 DATAO High when active 3 DATAI High when active 4 DATA2 High when active 5 DATA3 High when active 6 DATA4 High when active 7 DATA5 High when active 8 DATAG High when active 9 DATA7 High when active 10 ACK 5us to acknowledge receipt of data 11 BUSY Printer sets line low when ready to receive data 12 PAPER High when paper runs out Can be disabled with EDS setting 13 SELECT High when printer is on line Signal ground CHASSIS Chassis ground isolated from signal ground 18 5V 5V DC output from printer an 19 30 GND Twisted pair ground return 31 RESET When this signal i
33. the sum of the values given below for the desired characteristics Function nvalue Function Underline 128 Emphasized Italic 64 Condensed Expanded 32 Proportional T sie 16 Elite 1 Page 120 Increase character spacing MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal T Sta lt ESC gt lt SP gt n 27 32 n 1B 20 n Increases the space between characters by n dots where nis a number from O to 127 Used in micro justification Print double height characters MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal LESC w lt I gt 27 119 1 1B 77 O1 Std lt Es gt y lt 1 gt 28 86 1 1C 56 Ol Prints subsequent characters double height without moving the base line and without changing the line spacing Return to normal height ste lt ESC gt w lt 0 27 119 0 td lt FS gt y lt 00 gt 28 86 0 Cancels double height printing and prints subsequent characters normal height Page 121 Select character height width and line spacing MODE ASCII Decimai Hexadecimal IBM lt ESC gt 27 91 64 1B 5B 40 lt 4 gt K gt lt O gt 4 0 0 04 00 00 lt a gt n m QO on m 00 n m Selects a combination of character height width and line spacing according to the values of n and m as shown below Does not move the base line n Line spacing Character height 0 Unchanged 1 Unchanged Unchanged Single height Double height
34. wide however the maximum length of a printed line is limited to 8 To use fanfold paper you need to install the push tractor unit which is available as an option A simple control panel operation lets you park fanfold paper so that you do not have to remove it from the printer when switching to single sheets When you want to resume printing on the fanfold paper you can simply unpark it Page3 The printer The printer with the front cover removed Page 4 Parts The main components are shown in the two diagrams opposite The paper guides and paper support hold single sheets setting their position so that they are fed into the printer correctly The release lever grips single sheets as they are fed in The lever should be pushed towards the back of the printer to hold single sheets properly and released pulled forward when fanfold paper is in use The front cover protects internal components and reduces printing noise The extension cover holds printed output from the printer The stack wire supports printed output as it rests on the extension cover The paper tray holds up to 55 single sheets for feeding into the printer The paper delivery selector allows you to choose whether print outs are delivered face up in reverse for fanfold paper or face down in sequence for single sheets The control panel displays information about the print er s current working and allows you to c
35. 237 Courier Normal Pica condensed 1 238 Courier Normal Elite condensed oe ae 1 239 Prestige Normal Elite Normal 240 Prestige Semi condensed Expanded printing Causes subsequent characters to be expanded to double width when nis 1 and cancels it when nis 0 Expanded printing for one line m MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal lt SO gt 14 OE Both lt ESC gt lt S0 gt 27 14 1B OE Causes subsequent characters in the current line to be expanded to double width Characters return to normal width after the next line feed lt LF gt The lt DC4 gt lt VT gt lt FF gt and lt ESC gt W 0 commands also cancel expanded printing Page 119 Cancel one line expanded printing MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt DC4 gt 20 14 Cancels one line expanded printing set with lt SO gt or lt ESC gt lt SO gt Does not cancel expanded printing set with lt ESC gt W 1 Select character width MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Sta lt FS gt E n 28 69 n 1C 45 n Selects a character width according to the value of n as shown below Character width 0 Normal wide 1 Double wide Triple wide Select master print mode MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std LESCH n 27 33 n PBF 2 Loon Selects a combined print mode according to the value of n The value of nis
36. IBM PC IBM Proprinter X24E Icon Interface International character set Landscape Page 172 A printout of all character codes and control codes as they are received by the printer along with their hexadecimal base 16 values Mode in which the printer emu lates an IBM Proprinter X24E A personal computer that can run the same system and appli cations software as an IBM PC Personal computer made by IBM capable of running MS DOS and Windows system software See also IBM compatible Dot matrix printer which the NX 2450 Rainbow Colour printer can emulate On screen symbol in Windows or Macintosh which represents a program or document You can double click on an icon to start the program or open the docu ment Physical link between the printer and the computer Variant of the Standard character set containing characters for a particular country or region Landscape mode is when a docu ment is printed on paper with the longest sides of the paper at the top and bottom Letter Quality Line feed Long test Macintosh Macro Manual by pass Micro feed Printing mode in which the built in fonts are used to produce high quality suitable for corre spondence text output An instruction from the computer which tells the printer to advance the paper by one line Repetitive printer test showing every available font and pitch set ting all characters sets current vertical alignmen
37. P switches On a Windows computer Double click the Control Panel icon in the Main win dow Double click the Printers icon Make sure that NX 2450 Rainbow Colour is selected in the Installed Printers list Click on Connect Click on the serial port COMn to which the serial to parallel converter is connected Click OK to return to the Printers window Click Close to return to the Control Panel window Double click on Ports The Ports dialog box appears Click on the name of the port to which the serial to parallel converter is connected Click on Settings For each setting Baud Rate Data Bits Parity Stop Bits and Flow Control protocol select the appropri ate setting from the pull down menu alternatively you can type in your selections directly Click OK to return to the Ports window Click Close to return to the Control Panel window Page 87 On an MS DOS computer If you are using an IBM PC or compatible running MS DOS edit the AUTOEXEC BAT file to include a line that reads MODE LPT1 COMn n stands for a number 1 2 3 etc COMn must match the name of the serial port to which the serial to parallel converter is connected Usually it will be COM2 This line sends printer output to the COMn serial port Also add a line of the form MODE COMn baud parity data length stopbits p to set up the COMn port to match the DIP switch set tings on the serial to parallel converter For example
38. Page 167 Automatic Emulation Change mode Bi directional printing Bit Bitmap fonts Carriage return Centronics connector Character code Page 168 Printer mode in which the printer automatically senses which emu lation mode Standard or IBM the computer requires and changes mode accordingly Mode in which the printer prints graphics both from left to right and from right to left Short for binary digit The smallest unit of information On or Off 1 or O Fonts that can only be printed at a particular size The fonts which you can select from the printer s control panel are bitmap fonts An instruction from the printer which tells the printer to move the print position to the start of the current line See auto line feed The type of connector which plugs into the printer s interface connector socket A number which stands for a let ter digit or symbol A computer sends text to the printer in the form of character codes Character set Character table Code page Compatible Computer paper Control code Control panel Cut sheets Default Printer A fixed set of characters which can be printed A character set normally includes upper and lower case letters the digits 0 9 punctuation symbols and various other characters for example accented characters for foreign languages or block graphic char acters See character set A variant of t
39. SC gt nil n2 27 92 pio nz Moves the print position right or left a specified dis tance Ignored if the resulting position is beyond the right or left margin The formula for the distance and direction are as follows Hexadecimal 1B 5C nl n2 If n2 is between 0 and 63 the print head moves right by nl n2 x 256 dots If you want to move the print head to the left n1 and n2 are obtained by subtracting the value from 65536 and dividing the result into high and low bytes The unit of movement is fixed at 1 120 inch in draft mode and 1 180 inch in LQ mode Relative horizontal tab in inches IBM lt ESC gt d nl n2 27 100 nl n2 1B 64 nl n2 Sets the next print position to n1 n2 x 256 120 inches from the current position Ignored if this position is beyond the right margin The maximum tab position is 8 inches Absolute horizontal tab in inches Std lt ESC gt nl n2 27 36 nl n2 1B 24 nl n2 Sets the next print position to n1 n2 x 256 60 inches from the left margin on the current line Ignored if this position is beyond the right margin Page 133 Graphics commands Print normal density 8 bit graphics ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal lt ESC gt K nl n2 ml m2 27 75 nil n2 ml m2 1B 4B nl n2 ml m2 Prints bit image graphics at 60 dots per inch horizon tally The graphic image is 8 dots high and n1 n2 x 256 dots wid
40. Sitar USERS MANUAL NX 2450 cotour NX 2450 RAINBOW COLOUR USERS MANUAL NOT INTENDED FOR SALE Federal Communications Commission Radio Frequency interference Statement The 120V version equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radi ate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television which can be determined by turning off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is con nected Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help Unauthorized modifications of this product by the user will void his authority to operate the equipment unless expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance For compliance with the Federal Noise Interferenc
41. a monospaced font but will usually have different widths if a proportionally spaced font is used An example sentence in Courier Identical number of characters An example sentence in Bookman Identical number of characters Pitch The pitch of a monospaced font is the number of charac ters printed per inch Proportionally spaced fonts do not have a consistent pitch value since different characters have different widths Weight Font weight is the thickness of the lines which make up the font s characters The standard weight is known as medium Bold fonts with thicker lines are commonly used Bold text is often used for emphasis or for head ings Light stroke weight fonts have lines that are nar rower than the standard weight Some examples of different stroke weights are shown below Light Medium Bold Black Bitmap fonts Each character in a bitmap font is defined as a matrix of dots that the printer prints on the page As a result bit map fonts are available in particular point sizes only For example the printer s built in fonts are all bit mapped and may only be printed out at certain fixed sizes Page 51 Scalable fonts Each character in a scalable font is defined as an outline shape The computer converts the outline shape to a matrix of dots that forms the printed character Hence scalable fonts such as the TrueType fonts on the floppy disk accompanying the printer can be displayed on screen and
42. ain Click on Close to return to the Control Panel win dow Secondly check that the printer is correctly selected in your application Select Print from the application s File menu A dia log box appears listing available printers Make sure that NX 2450 Rainbow Colour is high lighted If it is not click on it and try printing again Thirdly check that the correct port is selected Double click the Control Panel icon in the Main win dow Double click the Printers icon Click on NX 2450 Rainbow Colour in the list of installed printers Click Connect Page 102 e Make sure that your cable is connected to the port highlighted in the port list If you are using a paral lel cable you will probably be using LPT 1 If you are using the serial to parallel convertor you will be using COM1 or COM2 Click on the appropriate port name e Click OK e Click on Close to return to the Control Panel win dow If you still cannot print successfully consult your soft ware dealer for assistance MS DOS If you cannot print a text file using the MS DOS PRINT command check the AUTOEXEC BAT file to see whether it contains a statement like either of the follow ing MODE LPT1 COM1 or MODE LPT1 COM2 These statements indicate that the computer is set up to print to a printer via a serial cable not a parallel cable So if you are using a parallel cable delete the line from AUTOEXEC BAT Resave AUTOEXEC BAT a
43. alled causing the print head to jam Make sure that the ribbon cartridge is correctly installed Refer to Preparing the printer on page 9 of Chapter 2 The paper is not loaded properly causing the print head to jam Remove all paper from the printer Reload paper The print gap is not set correctly Static electricity caused by interference from nearby electrical devices or by a low level of humidity is affecting the printer s operation Use the adjustment lever to set the print gap See Setting the print gap on page 63 of Chapter 4 Make sure that the printer is not too close to any devices with electric motors or raise the humidity level Inappropriate settings have been selected from your application program _ Choose different settings in your application Page 99 Possible cause Action The wrong emulation is selected Check the emulation selection see Selecting which emulation to use on page 46 of Chapter 4 and change it if necessary The wrong character table code page or international character set is selected Check Electronic DIP Switch settings D2 D3 D4 and D5 see Making Electronic DIP Switch settings on page 37 of Chapter 4 Static electricity caused by interference from nearby electrical devices or by a low level of humidity is affecting the printe
44. andard Epson mode and IBM mode In the Standard Epson mode the printer emulates the Epson LQ 860 850 and can also recognize the graphics commands of NEC 24 wire printers In IBM mode the printer emulates the IBM Proprinter K24E Some addi tional command codes which are a superset of these emulations are also supported The emulation can be changed by changing Electronic DIP Switch EDS setting Al When A1 is ON the printer is in Standard Epson mode when it is OFF the printer is in IBM mode see Selecting which emulation to use on page 46 of Chapter 4 In addition when EDS switch A2 is ON the printer can automatically sense which emulation is required and will change emulation as necessary This chapter describes the printer s control commands Some commands are common to both Standard and IBM modes All commands will grouped by function The name of each command is followed by a table like the one below MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt ESC gt x lt 1 gt 27 120 1 1B 78 01 MODE Indicates the mode in which the command is recognized Std Standard Epson mode EDS switch Al is ON IBM IBM mode EDS switch Al is OFF Page 105 Both Both Standard Epson and IBM modes ASCII Indicates the ASCII coding of the command Control characters are enclosed in angle brackets For example lt l gt means character code 1 Decimal Gives the command in decimal character codes Hexad
45. ange this setting after saving settings using the macro function see page 62 the current Zoom setting will be cancelled A5 Auto line feed If A5 is ON your computer needs to send both a line feed code and a carriage return code at the end of each line Most applications will do this automatically If A5 is set to OFF the printer will automatically perform a line feed each time it receives a carriage return As a result your software only needs to send a carriage return at the end of a line If your output is double spaced when it should not be you may need to set this setting to ON If a line of your output is printed on top of another line you should set this setting to OFF B1 Graphics direction When the printer prints graphics rather than text it can either print bi directionally the print head prints as it moves from left to right and again as it returns from right to left or uni directionally the head prints from left to right only Bi directional printing is faster while uni directional printing may give higher quality output If B1 is ON bi directional printing is selected If B1 is OFF the default setting uni directional printing is selected Page 41 B2 Paper out If B2 is ON the printer can detect when there is no more paper and will stop printing If B2 is OFF the printer can print right down to the bottom of the page However there is also the danger that it may print past the end of the pape
46. any technical difficulties with your Star printer please refer to Chapter 6 Troubleshooting on page 89 This chapter describes easy methods to diagnose and resolve some of the problems which you may encounter For further technical support you should first contact your Authorized Star Dealer If you require additional support Star Micronics offers a wide variety of technical support services Please use one of the telephone num bers listed below depending on the country in which your Star printer was purchased Star Micronics Technical Hotline North America 1 908 572 3300 Hong Kong 852 795 2335 Australia 61 2 748 4300 New Zealand 64 9 570 1470 Star Micronics FaxBack Document Retrieval System Requires access to a facsimile machine or board with receive capability North America 1 908 572 4004 Star Micronics Bulletin Board Service Requires a computer modem North America 1 908 572 5010 United Kingdom 44 494 461395 France 33 1 305807 Germany 49 69 780929 Netherlands 31 73 424485 Australia and New Zealand 61 2 748 2960 Customer response Star Micronics Co Ltd invites your suggestions and com ments on your printer and this manual Please address your correspondence to Worldwide Headquarters STAR MICRONICS CO LTD 20 10 Nakayoshida Shizuoka Japan 422 91 Attn Product Manager North and South America Markets STAR MICRONICS AMERICA INC 70 D Ethel Road West Piscataway NJ 08854 Attn
47. ard Epson ON AEC Automatic Emulation Change Mode Enabled ON A3 RAM usage Input buffer ON A4 Color and Zoom Enabled ON A5 Auto LF with CR Disabled ON B1 Uni directional OFF C1 C2 C3 Page length Letter all 3 switches ON 10 cpi both switches ON Print mode Letter Quality ON D2 Character table Standard mode Graphics ON IBM mode Set 2 ON se z EA D4 D5 IBM code page or International character set Standard mode graphic character set Standard mode italic character set U S A character set all 3 switches ON E1 E2 ES LQ font selection Roman all 3 switches ON Code page 437 U S A IBM mode Code page 437 U S A Both switches ON Reserved Page 149 Printer beep tones The printer beeps both to warn you that something is wrong and to indicate various aspects of normal opera tion for example to indicate that a particular setting or selection has just been made The table below gives a full list of printer beeps and their meanings Meaning Tone sequence The printer has detected an error condition Switch the printer off and on again Single tone lasting 2 seconds The printer has detected an error condition Switch the printer off and on again Single tone lasting several seconds Four short tones repeated The printer is out of paper twice Single short tone One of
48. ated by abbreviations in angle brackets e g lt LF gt Page 153 Standard character set 2 S E E 8E 8 9 5 8 5 ERASE SS _ ot _ _ ot _ A et _ K g _ _ a Daad _ co oC a yr ee a ee ee eee e fee el ee cE tee ee m A eE E eS Se SS ee 1s eee ese eee eee Page 154 Standard character set 2 continued Ea Ba a on nS Ea Ba Pa a PP chee eh ee Se Ca Sa Seca el eee ee Ea Sa net a on Pe Ea a so le ee ee ee fe ee oes ceed eee ere eee Page 155 International character sets The character codes shown are in decimal Country 35 36 e ef sJ s1 91 98 9 96 i i tas 1x USA felsielxiz ip ip France jsjalxjz jelsi l Teol GERMANY S S X Z xj ole alsa ENGLAND fejsjejxja ANI Tet i po DENMARK 1 e x Zz Al e s al SWEDEN el 2 x z xf o alo e a sl alal may f iste x z fe falalo al SPAINT RI sje xizfiim el i aly saan j stelxi 2 nn tty noray iaielx z alolalolele sala DENMARK IT s ejxjz jojajojejejsjafu sean TT s a x z ifatele i a ofa mwaa s e xi Z ifstefelal i al ofa gorea isfeixizicyeii yt tio t mis J jsjele Jop fatal sfe jing Jelsjsixiz i isiiejej j Page 156 IBM character set 2 Code page 437 U S A aaah N Ea alfel l l El fs el lel Gl el el EJ 0 107 108 109 110
49. ays in which you can type set your text on screen so that it is ready to print out on the printer Your Windows system already includes several fonts such as Arial Times New Roman and Symbol You can also use the 15 TrueType fonts included with the printer If you have installed Adobe Type Manager soft ware on your computer you can also display and print Adobe PostScript fonts In MS DOS Selecting different fonts If you are running applications software under MS DOS you can either use the printer s control panel to select the printer s built in fonts as described on page 30 of Chapter 3 or use your application to select fonts installed on your computer refer to your application s manual for details You can also set up the printer to ignore font selections made by your applications soft ware so that font selections can only be made from the control panel This is described on page 54 Changing the character pitch Changing the font pitch allows you to condense text into a smaller area It also enables you to vary the appear ance of text in a single font The character pitch of printed text is determined by the current Electronic DIP Switch print pitch setting see page 43 There are four pitch settings available 10 12 15 and 17 characters per inch Page 53 Unless you have altered the setting the pitch is set to 10 characters per inch You can also select character pitch from software appli cations programs
50. by horizontal tabulation are not overlined Select score MODE asc Decimal Std lt ESC gt lt 3 gt 27 40 45 311B 28 2D 03 sas ms nl 0 1oni 00 01 ni n2 n2 Start score according to the values of n1 and n2 as shown below po ee tet Single continuous line a through Double continuous line Overlining Single broken line Double broken line Page 110 Select ornament character n MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt esc gt q on 27 113 n IE 71 n Selects an ornament character according to the value of n as shown below n Character 0 Normal 1 Outline 2 Shadow i 3 Shadow and outline Superscript lt ESC gt s lt 0 gt 27 83 0 1B 53 00 Causes subsequent characters to be printed as super scripts Does not change the character pitch Subscript MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt S lt 1 gt 27 83 1 1B 53 01 Causes subsequent characters to be printed as sub scripts Does not change the character pitch Cancel superscript or subscript MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt T 27 84 1B 54 Cancels printing superscripts or subscripts and returns to normal printing Page 111 Character set commands Select character table MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt E
51. ces joined by two silver metal rods The metal rods have two black sliding tractor units and a black sliding support piece mounted on them Install the push tractor unit using the following steps e Make sure the printer is switched off e Open the front cover by hooking your fingers under the two small projecting tabs on either side of the front cover Grip the cover firmly and pull upwards The front cover will come loose e Now pull the cover up and forwards so that it swings open e Open the rear cover by pushing it backwards so that it folds back and down e Pull the release lever forward Page 72 Hold the push tractor unit with your thumb and forefinger on the ridges near the top and with the slot facing towards you End pieces F ss Ridges Ridges Hook the slots in the end pieces over the shaft just behind and above the platen roller As seen from behind the printer Page 73 e Using your forefinger and thumb squeeze the end piece levers against the rear part of the end pieces Rotate the tractor feed unit downwards until the bottom of the levers fit snugly into the indentations in the metal plate inside the printer body End piece Bottom of lever_ Indentation in metal plate ____ As seen from behind the printer Page 74 e Release the two levers and check that the tractor unit is properly secured The unit is now locked in place Make sure that the covers on bo
52. converter You can connect the printer to your computer via one of your computer s serial ports using the serial to parallel converter SPC 8K To do this you will also need an additional serial converter cable To connect the printer to your computer using the serial to parallel converter proceed as follows you will also find it helpful to refer to the SPC 8K User s Manual and your MS DOS or Windows User s Guide Connecting the serial to parallel converter Serial connector _DIP switches Centronics connector ie e Turn off the printer and unplug the printer s power cable Page 83 e Plug the interface converter s Centronics connector into the socket on the side of the printer Secure it with the retaining clips e Connect the interface connector s 25 pin D type connector to one end of the serial converter cable e Plug the other end of the serial converter cable into one of your computer s serial ports The computer s serial ports are usually labelled COM1 COM2 etc COM 1 is normally a 9 pin serial port and COM2 is normally a 25 pin port COM2 e Make sure that the serial to parallel converter is resting on a stable level surface so that it will not be prone to vibration or damage Note Consult your dealer if you are unsure about the type of serial converter cable that you need Page 84 Setting the converter s DIP switches e Set the DIP switches on the converter so that the set
53. ctronic DIP Switch settings prevent use of color Switch settings on page 37 Check Electronic DIP Switch setting A4 and B3 Turn both settings to ON to enable color printing see Making Electronic DIP of Chapter 4 Possible cause Paper is jamming Check the print gap If necessary use the adjustment lever to set the print gap See Setting the print gap on page 63 of Chapter 4 The wrong line spacing or leading has been selected from your application program Choose a different setting in your application Auto line feed with carriage return is selected i _ of Chapter 4 Check Electronic DIP Switch setting A5 Turn the setting ON to turn off automatic line feed see Making Electronic DIP Switch settings on page 37 Page 93 Possible cause Action F Auto line feed with carriage return is not selected Check Electronic DIP Switch setting A5 Turn the setting to OFF to select automatic line feed see Making Electronic DIP Switch settings on page 37 of Chapter 4 Paper is jamming oo Oe Check the print gap If necessary use the adjustment lever to set the print gap See Setting the print gap on page 63 of Chapter 4 per page Possible cause Action Printing is starting from the wrong place on the page Adjust the auto load position see Setting the auto load posi
54. d Switch off the printer and allow it to cool down Check the air vents on the underside of the printer to see if they are clogged or obstructed in any way Remove the obstruction or clogging material if possible If the problem persists return the printer to your dealer for repair Possible cause The front cover is off Action Replace the front cover The p inter is vibrating Move any unrelated objects that are touching the printer Make sure that the printer is on a level steady surface Page 97 Possible cause Action The paper guides are positioned incorrectly Remove the paper Adjust the position of the paper guides and reload the paper The ribbon is jammed causing the print head to jam Make sure that the ribbon cartridge is correctly installed Refer to Preparing the printer on page 9 of Chapter 2 The paper is jamming g causing the print head to jam Remove all paper from the printer Reload paper Check the print gap If necessary use the adjustment lever to set the print gap See Setting the print gap on page 63 of Chapter 4 Inappropriate margin settings have been selected from your application program Choose different margin settings in your application Page 98 Possible cause Action The ribbon cartridge is incorrectly inst
55. d later The right margin must be within the limits below Pica 4 lt n lt 80 Expanded pica Elite 5 lt n lt 96 Expanded elite Semi condensed 6 lt n lt 120 Expanded semi condensed 3 lt n lt 60 Condensed pica 7 lt n lt 137 j _ Condensed elite 8 lt n lt 160 Expanded condensed pica 4 lt n lt 68 Expanded condensed elite 4 lt n lt s80 Page 130 Set left and right margins MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal IBM lt ESC gt X nl n2 27 88 nl n2 1B 58 nl n2 Sets the left margin at column n1 and the right margin at column n2 See the preceding commands for margin restrictions and other notes Carriage return MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt CR gt 13 OD Prints the current line and sets the print position to the left margin If EDS switch A5 is set to OFF this com mand also performs a line feed Set automatic line feed IBM lt ESC gt 5 lt 1 gt 1B 35 01 Causes the printer to perform both a carriage return and line feed each time it receives a lt CR gt code This command overrides EDS switch A5 Cancel automatic line feed MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal IBM lt ESC gt 5 lt O gt 27 530 1B 35 00 Causes the printer to perform only a carriage return when it receives a lt CR gt code This command takes pri ority over EDS switch AS Backspace MODE ASCII Decima
56. d positions can be saved as part of a macro so that you do not have to reset them each time you switch the printer off and on again Setting the auto load position is described on page 60 of Chapter 4 Saving macro settings is described on page 62 of Chapter 4 When printing on continuous stationery take care not to print too close to the perforations which separate each sheet This can cause poor quality output paper misalignment or paper jamming The recommended printable area for fanfold paper is shown in the following diagram Page 79 S mm 18 mm 18 mm o0o0000000000 000 40000 Perforation Bottom of Form CO00GCTOO000ODOHO0000000007DT00000000000000 040000 oo0o000000000000000000 0 If you need to use continuous multi part forms use the type which has both side edges glued together Do not use forms with more than three parts Make sure that the print gap is correctly set for the thickness of paper that you are using Setting the print gap is described on page 63 of Chapter 4 Page 80 Parking paper If you want to use single sheets but do not want to remove the fanfold paper you can park the fanfold _ paper e Tear off the paper at a perforation so that not more than half a page protrudes above the paper delivery selector if necessary put the printer in not ready mode and feed paper through by pressing the key until a perforation is just visible above the paper delivery selector
57. ds again to fix the paper in position Close the rear cover by swinging it forwards and upwards Click it firmly back into place Close the front cover Pull the paper delivery selector forwards and down Turn the printer on The printer will beep to indicate that the paper is not completely loaded yet Page 77 e Press the key The fanfold paper will be fed in to the starting position if you want to adjust this position use the procedure for setting the auto load position described on page 60 of Chapter 4 Note Keep the release lever in the forward position while printing on fanfold paper Page 78 Printing on fanfold paper Two useful features of the NX 2450 Rainbow Colour that facilitate the use of continuous stationery are paper parking fanfold paper can remain installed in the printer while you temporarily switch to printing on sin gle sheets and the tear off function you can remove printed output without losing the current paper posi tion These are described in the following sections You can also use the same paper position adjustment techniques such as line feed and form feed that you use with single cut sheets These are described on page 59 of Chapter 4 You can also set a new auto load position the distance from the top of each new page at which the printer auto matically starts printing specifically for fanfold paper This is independent of the cut sheet auto load position Both auto loa
58. e Maximum width is 8 inches 480 dots ml m2 are the dot data each a 1 byte value from O to 255 representing 8 vertical dots with the most signif icant bit at the top and the least significant bit at the bottom The number of data bytes must be n1 n2 x 256 Dots beyond the right margin are ignored On com pletion of bit image printing the printer returns auto matically to character mode Print double density 8 bit graphics woe asc ear Hert Prints bit image graphics at 120 dots per inch horizon tally maximum 960 dots wide See the lt ESC gt K com mand for other information Print double density double speed 8 bit graphics Prints bit image graphics at 120 dots per inch horizon tally maximum 960 dots wide skipping every second dot in the horizontal direction See the lt ESC gt K com mand for other information Page 134 Print quadruple density 8 bit graphics MODE ASCII Both Decimal Hexadecimal lt ESC ye gil n2 mli m2 27 90 nl n2 mi m2 1B 5A nl n2 ml m2 Prints bit image graphics at 240 dots per inch horizon tally maximum 1920 dots wide skipping every second dot in the horizontal direction See the lt ESC gt K com mand for other information Print hex density 24 bit graphics MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt FS gt Z ni 28 90 nl 1C 5A nl n2 ml m2 n2 ml m2 n2 ml m2 m3 MI
59. e Standard this equipment requires a shielded cable with the limits for a Class A digital igned to provide reasonable protec The 220V version equipment has been tested and found to comply device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are de tion against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual may cause harmful interference to radio communications Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his own expense For compliance with the Federal Noise Interference Standard this equipment requires a shielded cable The above statement applies only to printers marketed in the U S A Statement of The Canadian Department of Communications Radio Interference Regulations This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio noise emissions from digital appara tus set oul in the Radio Interference Regulations of the Canadian Department of Communications Le pr sent appareil num rique n met pas de bruits radio lectiques d passant les limites applicables aux appareils num riques de la classe B prescrites dans le R glement sur le brouillage radio lectrique dict par le Minist re des Communications du Canada The abo
60. e not color printers You will not be able to print in color if you select one of them If none of the printers above is listed choose one of the following in order of preference These two printers are not color printers You will not be able to print in color if you select one of them Note You cannot print in color unless you select the name of a printer which can print in color To print out your document follow the instructions for printing given in the manual Typically you will select the application s PRINT command Make any necessary selections such as the number of copies and press the RETURN key to start printing Note MS DOS applications select printers independently You will need to select the printer in each application before printing Page 28 Using different fonts You can vary the appearance of your printed text by using different fonts If you are unfamiliar with fonts or typefaces please refer to the section Introduction to fonts on page 50 of Chapter 4 The way in which you select different fonts depends on whether your computer is running Windows or MS DOS If you are using Windows you will select fonts from your applications software e g your word processing program If you are using MS DOS you can either select fonts using the printer s control panel or from your applica tion In Windows If you are running Windows you will select fonts
61. e printer prints more quietly and slightly more slowly Printer mode in which the printer can receive and print data from the computer Lever that grips single sheets as they are fed into the printer Control panel operation which to feeds paper backwards through the printer in small steps Cartridge that contains the rib bon which the head uses to mark the paper Fonts which you can print at any size TrueType fonts are scalable A computer interface which transfers data one bit at a time Optional accessory that allows you to connect the printer to a serial port on your computer Printer test in which seven lines of characters are printed If you have fitted a color ribbon each line will be printed in a different color Wire that pulls out to support printed pages resting on the extension cover Mode in which the printer emu lates an Epson LQ 860 printer Page 177 System software Tear off function Thumb wheel Tractor TrueType font Typeface Uni directional print ing Vertical alignment Weight Windows Zoom mode Page 178 Software that runs on your com puter to control basic computer functions screen display key board input disk access and printer output Printer function which allows you to remove fanfold output without altering the current position of the fanfold paper Printer wheel that allows you to advance paper manually Part of the push tractor unit wh
62. e printer settings using the control panel The printer cannot print in not ready mode The rotation in which paper is loaded See landscape orientation and portrait orientation Printing text on top of existing text This may be caused by an incorrect auto line feed setting Printer part that lets you choose whether print outs are delivered face up or face down Control panel operation which allows you to feed paper through the printer one line at a time Paper guides Paper out Paper tray Parallel cable Parallel interface Parity checking Parking paper Pitch Platen Port Devices which hold single sheets so that they are fed into the printer correctly Printer function which automati cally detects when the paper has run out and stops printing Part of the printer which holds paper for feeding into the printer The tray can hold up to fifty five single sheets Standard cable for connecting the printer to a computer An interface which transfers data between the computer and the printer 8 bits at a time A way of checking that informa tion sent over a serial interface has been received correctly Printer function that allows you to print on single sheets without removing fanfold paper The number of characters in a one inch line of text Roller that guides paper through the printer and provides a solid surface against which the print head can make an impression on the paper Socket in t
63. e your soft ware to version 3 1 In particular Windows 3 1 will allow you to use TrueType fonts Fifteen TrueType fonts are included on the floppy disk packaged with this printer To use the printer with Windows you need to install a file known as the printer driver onto your computer This file is supplied on the floppy disk that comes with the printer The following description assumes that you are using a mouse Click and double click refer to the action of using the mouse to point at an item with the on screen pointer and then clicking either once or twice in quick succession If you are not using a mouse you can still carry out the installation Refer to the Microsoft Windows User s Guide to find out how to use the keyboard instead of a mouse to operate Windows To install the printer driver under Windows 3 1 use the following steps Turn on the printer and start up your computer e If Windows does not start up automatically type WIN and then press Enter or Return e Double click the Control Panel icon in the Main win dow e Double click the Printers icon e If you have never previously installed a printer on your system under Windows 3 1 a list of supported printers is displayed If you have already installed one or more printers click on Add to display the list of supported printers Page 15 e Click on Install Unlisted or Updated Printer in the list so that this option is highlighted e
64. each sheet Total thickness Position aerae STITT Single 14 24 Ibs 52 90 gsm 0 07 0 12 mm 2o0r3 2 ply 11 14 Ibs 40 52 gsm 0 12 0 14 mm 3 3 ply 11 14 Ibs 40 52 gsm 0 18 0 21 mm 4 Note Persistent use of the wrong setting may drastically reduce the print head life Page 64 Adjusting vertical alignment Note You may never have to use this function Use it only if graph ics print outs appear strange as in the illustrations below After you have been using your printer for some time you may find that when you print graphics the printed dots are slightly out of line with each other For exam ple what you intend to look like this ii may come out like this LLLI or like this HLL me VRE This is due to the mechanical parts of the printer work ing slightly out of alignment It happens very rarely and you may never meet this problem However if it does occur you can cure it as follows e Turn the printer off and make sure that it is loaded with paper cut sheet or fanfold Hold down both the and the keys e Turn on the printer The printer will beep once e After a second or two release both keys The printer will then print something like DOT ADJUSTMENT SETTING LO oe Ferre gc es ee er eee The number before the vertical bars may not be 3 After printing the bars the printer will feed the paper so that you can see the print out clear
65. ecimal Gives the command in hexadecimal char acter codes Parameters for which values must be supplied are indi cated by letters such as n mor d Page 106 Font control commands Select print quality MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std CESC x n 27 120 n 1B 78 n Changes the print quality according to the value of n as shown below Print quality Letter quality Ignored if the FONT LOCK mode was selected during power up Select T quality ASCII Decimal mal Hexadecimal K o 100 E 5B 64 lt 1 gt a 01 00 Changes the print quality according to the value of n as shown below gt Print quality Unchanged Letter quality Ignored if the FONT LOCK mode was selected during power up Page 107 Select LQ font MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt k n 27 107 n 1B 6B n Selects an LQ font according to the value of n In draft mode this command remains dormant and takes effect later when LQ is selected Ignored if the FONT LOCK mode was selected during power up Font n Font Roman 3 Prestige Sanserif 4 Script 2 Courier Select italic characters woo ms oeae peaa Causes subsequent characters except IBM block graphic characters to be printed in italics 3 Select upright characters MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Sta ESE 5 2
66. ed to put the sheet into the tray face down and upside down Page 57 Pausing printing To temporarily interrupt printing press the key This puts the printer in not ready mode This allows you to check your print out or change a setting using the control panel To resume printing press the key again to put the printer back in ready mode Parking fanfold paper If you are using fanfold paper and want to switch to sin gle sheets temporarily you can do so without removing the fanfold paper This is known as parking the fanfold paper When you are ready to resume using the fanfold paper you can unpark it again These operations are described on page 81 of Chapter 5 The tear off function If you are using fanfold paper you can remove printed output without disturbing the current position of the paper This operation is described on page 82 of Chapter 5 Page 58 Controlling the paper position There are a number of ways in which you can adjust the position of the paper in the printer You can feed paper through a line at a time paper feed eject the current page form feed and feed the paper forwards and back wards in very small steps forward and reverse micro feed You can also adjust the top of form position the position at which printing starts on each new page You can set separate top of form positions for single sheets and fanfold paper Paper feed To feed the paper through the printer a
67. ff the printer e Turn on the printer while holding down the and keys The printer beeps once e Begin printing from your computer Instead of a nor mal print out data will be printed in sixteen col umns two groups of eight of hexadecimal numbers The equivalent printable characters or dots for unprintable codes are printed to the right of each row of hexadecimal numbers Page 68 e When the printer stops printing put the printer in not ready mode The printer now prints the final line of the hexadecimal dump e To resume normal operation turn the printer off and on again Unless you switch it off and on the printer will continue to print in hexadecimal Page 69 Page 70 Chapter 5 Options The two optional accessories that you can purchase with your NX 2450 Rainbow Colour printer are the push tractor unit PT 10Q which allows you to print on fan fold paper continuous stationery and the serial to par allel interface converter SPC 8K which allows you to connect the printer to your computer via your comput er s 25 pin serial port Note Make sure that the printer is switched off when installing either the push tractor unit or the serial to parallel interface converter Push tractor unit Installing the push tractor unit The push tractor unit allows you to print on continuous fanfold paper up to 10 wide The push tractor unit con sists of two end pie
68. g an MS DOS application that does not list any Star printers in its list of sup ported printers You will probably never need to worry about changing the emulation mode The NX 2450 Rainbow Colour can automatically sense which emulation is required and switch modes accordingly provided that Electronic DIP Switch setting A2 is ON However you may wish to set the emulation mode to IBM This could be done in case the Automatic Emula tion Change setting is ever turned off or if you know that the printer will always be used in IBM mode When you first take delivery of the printer it will be set to Epson emulation mode To change the emulation setting to IBM mode use the following steps e Switch the printer off then switch it on again while holding down all three control panel keys Switch Al the emulation mode setting is selected If Epson emulation mode is the current setting the READY light will be ON e Press the key once to change the setting to IBM mode The READY light will go OFF indicating that IBM emulation mode is now the current setting Hold down the key and press the key to save the new setting and exit Electronic DIP Switch mode Page 46 To change the setting back to Epson mode simply per form the reverse procedure From now on the printer will turn on in the mode you have selected Connecting the printer to your computer There are two stages to connecting the printer and your computer F
69. g by unplugging the printer and plugging in another device Possible cause The ribbon is jammed twisted or not set properly between the print head and the print head shield Action Make sure that the ribbon i cartridge is correctly installed Refer to Preparing the printer on page 9 of Chapter 2 The print gap is not set correctly Use the adjustment lever to set the print gap Move the lever to a lower darker setting See Setting the print gap on page 63 of Chapter 4 Page 90 Possible cause E Action The wrong emulation is selected Check the emulation selection See Selecting which emulation to use on page 46 of Chapter 4 and change it if necessary The wrong printer has been selected by your application program or system software Check the printer selection in your application or system software See the following section Checking system software settings The computer system software is not set up properly for the printer or for the type of interface cable that you are using The interface cable is incorrectly connected or damaged Check the system software settings See the following section Checking system software settings Check that the printer interface cable is correctly connected If it is try a different cable i Possible cause Action Your application software
70. g the printer to your computer The printer and computer must be connected with a cable The computer sends the documents that you want to print to the printer via this cable A cable is not supplied with the printer Make sure that the printer and computer are both switched off before you connect them You will probably use a parallel cable to connect the printer to your computer The type of parallel cable you need is a standard 36 pin Centronics parallel cable The parallel cable should be no longer than 6 2m Other wise the transfer of information between your computer and the printer may not work properly The parallel cable has a 25 pin D type plug at one end and a 36 pin Centronics connector at the other Plug the 25 pin plug into the parallel socket on your computer This will probably be labelled Printer Parallel PRN LPT 1 or something similar Printer Page 13 Plug the cable s Centronics connector into the socket on the side of the printer Secure the connector with the clips as shown Note Connection using the optional serial to parallel converter is described in Chapter 5 Page 14 Setting up the printer in Windows The NX 2450 Rainbow Colour is ideally suited for use with computers running Microsoft Windows system soft ware It works best with the newest version of Windows Windows 3 1 If you are running a version of Windows earlier than 3 1 we recommend you upgrad
71. h D3 1B 35 Cancels italic printing and causes subsequent charac ters to be printed upright Emphasized printing MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt E 27 69 1B 45 Causes subsequent characters to be emphasized by adding extra thickness to horizontal strokes Page 108 Cancel emphasized printing _ MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Cancels emphasized printing Double strike printing MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt G 2h FI 1B 47 Causes subsequent characters to be printed in double strike mode with a slight horizontal motion in between causing a thickening of vertical strokes For bold print use of double strike is recommended in LQ mode and combined use of emphasized and double strike is recommended in draft mode Cancel double strike printing C Ha lt ESC gt H 27 72 1B 48 Cancels double strike printing Underlining MODE ASCH Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt i 27 45 n 18 2D n Causes subsequent characters to be underlined when n is 1 and cancels underlining when n is 0 Block graph ics characters and spaces skipped by horizontal tabula tion are not underlined Page 109 Overlining Hexadecimal MODE ASCII Decimal SESS titr 27 95 n Causes subsequent characters to be overlined when nis 1 and cancels overlining when nis 0 Spaces skipped
72. he IBM character set with characters for a particular country or region for example code page 860 Portuguese See IBM compatible See fanfold paper A code number which instructs the computer to perform a partic ular operation For example the computer sends the printer a form feed control code 12 to make it eject the current page 1 Panel on the printer that dis plays information about the printer s current working and allows you to operate the printer 2 Windows utility which allows you to make system settings such as printer selection and port set up Single sheets of paper The printer which Windows appli cations automatically use Page 169 Default setting DOS Dot adjustment mode Double spacing Downloaded character Draft EDS settings Electronic DIP Switch settings Emulation Epson LQ 860 Epson mode Extension cover Page 170 Feature setting adopted if no user setting has been made some times called factory setting See MS DOS Mode in which you can realign the print head in bi directional graphics mode Printed text with a blank line between each printed line User defined character created on the computer Sent to and stored in the printer for later printing Printing mode in which only the Draft font is used The printer can print more quickly in Draft mode than in Letter Quality mode See Electronic DIP Switch set tings Printer setting
73. he back of a computer through which a computer com municates with other devices such as the printer Page 175 Portrait PostScript font Print gap Print head Print head shield Print pitch Printable area Printer driver Proportionally spaced font Protocol Push tractor unit Page 176 Portrait mode is when a docu ment is printed on paper with the longest sides of the paper at the sides Type of scalable font similar to TrueType fonts PostScript fonts can be printed if you have installed the Adobe Type Manager program on your computer The distance between the print head and the platen This dis tance can be adjusted to suit dif ferent thicknesses of paper Printer part that transfers the image to the paper A thin metal plate between the print head and the platen See pitch The part of the page on which the printer can print Computer file which enables sys tem or application software to print to a particular printer Font in which different charac ters can be of different widths Method of regulating information transfer between the computer and the printer Sometimes called handshaking Optional accessory that allows you to print on fanfold paper Quiet mode Ready mode Release lever Reverse micro feed Ribbon cartridge Scalable fonts Serial interface Serial to parallel interface converter Short test Stack wire Standard mode Mode in which th
74. he design style of the charac ters The typeface lends a font its distinctive appear ance There are hundreds of different typefaces in existence Commonly used typefaces include Times Palatino Helvetica Univers and Courier Some exam ples of different typefaces are shown below Courier Palatino Bookman Univers Helvetica Senppt Some typefaces for example Times and Palatino have small curly hooks on the ends of the lines that form the characters These hooks are known as serifs and make body text more readable by leading the eye on from one letter to the next Other typefaces for example Univers and Helvetica do not have these hooks and are referred to as sans serif without serif typefaces Characters in these typefaces stand out on their own Generally fonts with serif typefaces are used for body text and sans serif typefaces are used for headings and captions Fonts are either monospaced fixed or proportionally spaced Font spacing is inherent in the typeface Of the typefaces shown above Courier is monospaced and the rest are proportionally spaced The characters in a monospaced font all have equal width and occupy an equal amount of space on a line The characters of a proportionally spaced font take up varying amounts of space depending on each individual Page 50 character s design As a result two different sentences that contain the same number of characters will occupy the same width if printed using
75. he new settings and exit Electronic DIP Switch mode Your newly selected settings will automatically come into effect each time the printer is switched on unless you decide to change the Electronic DIP Switch settings in the future Page 38 When the printer is shipped from the factory all switch settings are set to ON except for B1 the graphics direc tion which is set to OFF uni directional printing The full list of Electronic DIP switch settings is as fol lows EDS setting Function ON OFF A1 Emulation Standard Epson IBM A2 AEC Automatic Enabled Disabled Emulation Change Mode A3 RAM usage Input buffer Download buffer A4 Color and Zoom Enabied Disabled A5 Auto LF with CR Disabled Enabled B1 Graphics direction Bi directional Uni directional B2 Paper out Disabled B3 Ink Ribbon Type Monochrome B4 Reserved Leave ON BS Time out printing Enabled Disabled C1 C2 Page length See below l C3 C4 Print pitch See below C5 D1 Print mode LQ Draft D2 Character table Standard mode Graphics Italics IBM mode Set 2 Set 1 D3 IBM code page or D4 international charac See below ter set D5 Page 39 EDS setting Function ON OFF 1 E2 LO font selection See below E3 E4 Reserved E5 Reserved A1 Emulation The NX 2450 Rainbow Colour can emulate either an Epson LQ 860 or an IBM Proprinter X24E T
76. ich grips the fanfold paper Type of scalable font which you can install on your computer and print on the printer provided you are using Windows 3 1 or later The design style of a font Com mon typefaces are Times and Helvetica Mode in which the printer prints graphics from left to right only See dot adjustment mode The thickness of the lines which make up a font s characters Common weights are Medium Bold and Black System software for the IBM PC which has an easy to use inter face Printer mode that allows you to print documents scaled to 50 or 67 Index A Adjustment lever 6 Adobe Type Manager 53 Auto load position 60 AUTOEXEC BAT 17 Automatic emulation change 2 40 46 Automatic line feed enabling 4 B Beep tones 150 Bi directional graphics 4 Bitmap fonts 5l C Cable length of 13 parallel 47 selecting which type to use 47 serial 47 Centronics parallel cable 3 Character pitch 5i setting 43 53 Character set selecting 43 Character set commands 2 Character sets 153 165 international 44 Character size and pitch commands 116 Choosing a place for the printer 7 Code page 44 Color enabling use of 41 42 Color ribbon cartridge enabling use of 42 Commands character set 112 character size and pitch 116 download character 738 font control 107 graphics 134 horizontal position 730 other 140 vertical position 123 Computer port 13 Connecting the printer to yo
77. ignment ccccscssssesestserteseneereeeneneaes 65 Testing the printer ssccccssssssssccsensnssscscssnranersersrsnessaeaeas 67 SHOE test i oead ren eeraa ee aeaa SE a a a eda iscets a ETA 67 LONG A E E A 67 Printing out a hexadecimal CUMP 1 ccscessineee 68 Chapter 5 Options Push tractor unit c ccscccccccccnscenecncccnseenessenecesenenansonenssnnnencenans 72 Installing the push tractor unit ss seesssessessnserseresrrereerereresressees 72 Loading fanfold paper sccccecseessereeeceneenenneeesteetennenseenanenes 76 Printing on fanfold paper ccceseeseseseeseeteneneetseeteeneaneeesenteees 79 Parking paper ssessesseesessersrrsrrsserssnrsrassesetnnsuntnenrentnsrenserereenrnereneernt 81 Unparking paper cccccceccseseeeseeeseeeseeeeseeeetaeereeseneasenneeneneentens 81 Using the tear off function ssseseesessrsnesierrsrrrnerrerresnrnsenrnseres 82 Serial to parallel interface converter cccccccsirrrees 83 Connecting the serial to parallel converter cceseeeeeees 83 Setting the converter s DIP switches cssessserserere seen 85 Setting up a serial COMMECTION ccecceecees tee teeteeseneteneteeeennens 87 ON a Windows COMPUTED cscsseseessersscssetsssensnensstasenensensasensonnanaes 87 On an MS DOS computer u ccccceccecsenesetseenentasesnneeteeesranenenenanens 88 Chapter 6 Troubleshooti
78. ings D3 to D5 select a character set as shown in the following table Country D3 D4 D5 5 rearen U S A ON O ON France OFF O ON Germany lt i ON OFF O England OFF OFF O Denmark ils ON on OFF Sweden OFF ON OFF taly ON OFF OFF Spain OFF OFF OFF These code pages and character set variations are listed in the Appendix starting on page 153 Page 44 E1 to E3 LO font selection If Letter Quality print mode is selected D1 is set to ON any of the following five fonts may be selected as the default font the font that is current when the printer is powered on Settings E1 to E3 select a font as shown in the table Sanserif Courier Prestige Script If you change the font setting after saving settings using the macro function see page 62 the new font setting will replace the original font in the macro settings E4 and E5 Reserved These are both reserved Page 45 Selecting which emulation to use The NX 2450 Rainbow Colour can emulate both Epson and IBM dot matrix printers This means that the soft ware applications you use on your computer can treat the printer as if it were an Epson or an IBM printer As a result when you select a printer in your software application you can select certain types of Epson or IBM printer instead of a Star printer This can be useful if for example you are usin
79. irst you must physically connect them with a cable Secondly you must set up your software to print to the printer Choosing which type of cable to use Before connecting your printer to the computer make sure that both are turned off A cable is not supplied from Star with this printer There are two types of cable that you can use a standard 36 pin Centronics parallel cable or the serial to parallel convertor cable that you can purchase as an option with the NX 2450 Rainbow Colour Connecting the printer to a computer using a parallel cable is generally simpler However the length of the parallel cable should not be more than 6 2m Other wise the transfer of information between your computer and the printer may not work properly A serial connec tion can be as long as you like but it is a little more complicated to set up To summarize it is best to use a parallel cable unless either you need to have your printer located more than 6 2m from your computer or you have another device connected to your computer s parallel port Buy the type of cable which will best suit your needs Setting up the printer with a Windows computer To use the printer with Windows you need to install the printer driver which is supplied on floppy disk into your computer This installation procedure is described on page 15 of Chapter 2 Page 47 If you are using the serial to parallel converter you will need to make some switch setti
80. it is fed through Fanfold paper is also sometimes referred to as computer paper continuous forms or sprocket forms If you want to use fanfold paper you will need to install the optional push tractor unit PT 10Q Installation of the push tractor unit is described on page 72 of Chapter 5 When using fanfold paper be careful not to print too close to the perforations at the top and bottom of each sheet This can cause poor quality output paper mis alignment or paper jamming The recommended print able areas for fanfold paper and for cut sheets are shown in the diagram on the next page See Chapter 5 for a description of how to load and use fanfold paper Multi part forms consist of several sheets one on top of another enabling several copies to be made simulta neously Multi part forms may be joined together as fanfold stationery If you want to use multi part forms use the type that has both side edges glued together Do not use forms that have more than three parts Page 55 You can also print using sheets of labels We recom mend that single sheet labels are used in preference to fanfold label paper Note Do not reverse feed label sheets Fanfold forms Single sheets 5mm Smm 18 mm 5 mm 5 mm 000000000000000 040000 Perforation Bottom of Form bcoooooo0o000090000000 00 000000000000000 0 ofo o0 o0 oooo0o0o00000000000000000 Printable areas for single sheet and fanfold
81. key on the control panel Page 141 Stop printing MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal IBM lt ESC gt j 27 106 Prints the entire contents of the input buffer then sets the printer off line into not ready mode The READY indicator on the control panel will go off Bell Both lt BEL gt 7 07 Sounds a brief beep tone on the printer Bi directional printing MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Causes subsequent printing to be performed in the nor mal bi directional mode which is faster than uni direc tional printing Uni directional printing mone ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt U lt 1 gt 27 85 1 1B 55 O01 Causes subsequent printing to be performed uni direc tionally ensuring maximum vertical alignment preci sion One line uni directional printing asc ss ei Std LESC S 27 60 1B 3C Immediately returns the print head to the left margin then prints the remainder of the line from left to right Normal bi directional printing resumes on the next line Page 142 Manual feed MODE ASCH Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt lt EM gt lt 0 gt 27 25 0 18 19 00 Selects manual sheet feeding even when the paper tray is in use Auto feed MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt lt EM gt lt 4 gt 27 25 4 1B 19 04 Selects automatic sheet feeding from the paper tray ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal lt ESC gt lt EM gt
82. l Hexadecimal l Both lt BS gt 8 08 Moves the print position one column to the left Ignored if the print position is at the left margin This command can be used to overstrike or combine characters Page 131 Set horizontal tab stops Decimal Hexadecimal 27 68 nl 1B 44 nl nZ 0 AZ ya 00 Cancels all current horizontal tab stops and sets new tab stops at columns n1 n2 etc in the current charac ter pitch pica pitch if proportional spacing is currently selected where n1 n2 etc are numbers between 1 and 255 The maximum number of horizontal tab stops allowed is 32 in Standard mode and 28 in IBM mode The tab stops must be specified in ascending order any violation of ascending order terminates the tab stop list Standard termination is by the lt 0 gt control code To clear all tab stops specify lt ESC gt D lt 0 gt Reset all tab stops Resets the horizontal tab stops to their power up values in which a tab stop is set every 8 columns starting at column 9 Also clears all vertical tab stops Horizontal tab mone ast Bema Wo Both lt HT gt 9 09 Moves the print position to the next horizontal tab stop Ignored if there is no next horizontal tab stop on the current line Note that when underlining is selected spaces skipped by horizontal tabulation are not under lined Page 132 Relative horizontal tab MODE ASCII Decimal Std lt E
83. line at a time put the printer in not ready mode by pressing the key Then press the key Form feed A form feed operation feeds paper through the printer so that the print head is positioned ready to resume print ing at the top of form position on the next page If you are using single sheets of paper this operation will sim ply eject the current page If you are using continuous fanfold paper the paper is fed through so that printing can continue from the top of the next sheet To perform a form feed operation put the printer in not ready mode by pressing the key and then hold down the key The printer will start feeding the paper through one line at a time Keep holding the key down and press the key again then release both keys at the same time The printer now per forms a form feed Forward micro feed To feed the paper through the printer in small steps first put the printer in not ready mode Hold down the key and press the key Each time you press the key the paper is advanced by a small amount Page 59 Reverse micro feed To feed the paper through the printer in reverse in small steps first put the printer in not ready mode Hold down the key and press the key Each time you press the key the paper is fed backwards by a small amount Setting the auto load position Each time the printer feeds in a sheet of paper it always starts printing at the same distance from the top of the page This is referred to a
84. ly Each vertical bar is actually two bars You can use the key to move the bottom row of bars to the left and the key to move them to the right Page 65 DOT ADJUSTMENT SETTING LO 2832 Gob A Font PAPER Each time you press either of these two keys the printer prints a new test line and a new offset value If you are using fanfold paper the printer will reverse feed the paper before printing the test pattern again After printing the pattern the printer will feed the fan fold paper back up again so that you can see it clearly In the illustration above you would want to move the bottom row to the right pressing the key would give you the following print out xxx DOT ADJUSTMENT SETTING LQ SES ee Ewen tee del e The bars are better aligned now Keep using the key until the two rows are aligned e You have now aligned the printer in Letter Quality LQ mode By pressing the key you can now correct the dot alignment of draft mode There are five modes in which the dot alignment may need to be corrected LQ DRAFT DRAFT COND con densed GRAPHICS A and GRAPHICS B Each mode must be adjusted separately Cycle through these modes by pressing the key cycling means that if you are in the last mode GRAPHICS B and you press the key the printer will go back to LQ mode The dif ferent modes may have different alignments because of the way in which the printer s electronics drive the
85. mal Both lt P gt 10 OA Prints the current line and advances the paper to the next line The line spacing is set by one of the com mands listed previously Page 125 Reverse line feed MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Std lt ESC gt lt LF gt lt ESC gt 27 10 i Ne 27 93 Prints the current line and moves the paper in the reverse direction to the preceding line Ignored when the printer is in friction feed mode The line spacing is set by one of the commands listed previously Select forward feed mode MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Sta lt FS gt PR 28 70 1c 46 Cancels the reverse feed mode and selects forward feed mode This is the default setting at power on Select reverse feed mode ee eo Std lt FS gt R 28 82 1C 52 Selects reverse feed mode Reverses the direction of all vertical movements Ignored when friction feed is used Perform one time line feed MODE ASCII Decimal lt ESO gt Both J n 27 74 n 1B 4A n Feeds the paper once by n times the defined base unit n 180 inches in Standard mode The value of n is between O and 255 If n O the line feed distance is set to O Does not move the print position right or left Does not change the line spacing setting Page 126 Perform one n 180 inch reverse line feed Decimal Hexadecimal sti lt Esc gt
86. mov ing parts e When you have adjusted all the dot alignments hold down the key and press the key The printer will print END eject the current page and go into ready mode Page 66 Testing the printer Short test A short test prints out the version number of the soft ware contained in the printer s ROM followed by seven lines of text Each line is offset by one character from the line above If the color ribbon is in use each line will be printed in a different color To perform a short test power up the printer while hold ing down the key The test print out should appear as shown below ver PMUESSE CPt 0123456789 lt gt 7QACBDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUVWXYZ i _ abcdefgni tk_mno rMeSial e 49223456795 lt gt SACBDEFGHI JKUMNOPORS TUVWXYZ Xj _ abedefghi ximnor HS3E 0123456789 lt gt ACBDEFGHI JKLMNOPORSTUVWXYZ _ abcdefghijklmnopa Seu 40123456789 5 lt gt ACBOEFGHICKUMNOPORSTUVWXYZ _ abcdefghiikinnepgr SR amp V 012345 789 5 lt gt ACBDEFGHIJXLMNOPCRSTUVWXYZ _ abcdefghiikimnopaqrs S amp 0123456789 lt gt ACBDEFGHI JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ _ abcdefghijk mnoparst GS 7 01234567892 lt gt GACBDEFGH OKLMNOPORSTUVAXYZ 40 abcdefghijkinnepgrste fe ee ee Ak a a Note This test prints across the entire width of the carriage It is a good idea to make sure that the prin
87. nd restart your computer Now try printing again Conversely if you are using a serial to parallel con verter make sure that one of these statements is included in the AUTOEXEC BAT file Also make sure that it refers to the correct serial port COM1 COM2 etc See Setting up a serial connection on page 87 of Chapter 5 If you still cannot print refer to the MS DOS User s Guide or consult your software dealer If you can print from MS DOS but cannot print from your application check to see which printer driver is selected in the application See Printing out your docu Page 103 ments on page 27 of Chapter 3 and check the applica tion s manual for details of printer selection If you still cannot print consult your software dealer Warning beeps The printer beeps both to give you warnings that some thing is wrong and to indicate certain conditions that are part of normal operation A full list of printer beeps is given on page 150 of the Appendix The table below shows the beep combinations that are associated with printer problems Beep combination as Sequence of four short tones twice Meaning The printer is out of paper Single tone two seconds The printer detects an error condition Turn the printer off and on again Single tone continuous Page 104 Chapter Software commands Introduction The NX 2450 Rainbow Colour has two emulation modes St
88. ng Common problems and solutionS ssssnsserseererereerreernrnna 90 Checking system software S tEINGS cc1ccceeeneeeees 102 In WINKOWS c ccc ceceeseeeeeteneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseneeeneneuseneeeeeeneesesaaaaganaaaaes 102 HMS DOS ipren Fac cavhatecs cnchcdotetenenssaestaelideteateesteteaaes 103 Warning beeps ccsccccssecscsssecssensvsssessnsessseeserenecenenenenenes 104 Chapter 7 Software commands INEPFOCUCTION 0 ccccccccccccecenceccesseennensccensesessuceeessenscacenersreeeensauas 105 Font control COMMANG eeeeeeteeeeeeseesesuneeeseneensanenaanages 107 Character Set commands ccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneaeeeeeensssseseeerenenenenes 112 Character size and pitch commands ssesrersesrrrrereerreersene 116 Vertical position COMMANAG c sce cette tere ereenteneneenties 123 Horizontal position commandsS c eee e teeter re eee e renee 130 Graphics COMMANGS ccccccecese eee eeeeteettenteeetentenenannnenseeeaes 134 Download character COmmMaAaNAS ccceccneeeeeeeeeeeeeeneneeenaens 138 Other printer COMMANAS ce cc eeseste tee etee settee tee reetteeeneneaes 140 Page iii Appendix Specifications aisin Mi eat ncaa ainda esis 145 Default Electronic DIP Switch settingS cccccccseceseees 149 Printer beep tones cccccesesesssececeeeeensnneneseesesessssnenenesenasens 150 Interface pin OUTS ii
89. ng out your documents In Printing documents is dependent on your operating sys tem Windows or MS DOS Windows Unless you select otherwise in the application Windows applications always print to the current Windows Default Printer You have probably already made the NX 2450 Rainbow Colour the Default Printer when you installed the printer driver file see page 15 of Chapter 2 If you did not you can set it as follows e Double click the Control Panel icon in the Main win dow e Double click the Printers icon e Make sure NX 2450 Rainbow Colour is selected in the Installed Printers list e Click on Set As Default Printer e Click on Close to return to the Control Panel win dow To print from your application select Print from the File menu Make the desired on screen selections such as the number of copies and click on OK MS DOS To print from an MS DOS application you first need to select the printer you are going to use from within the application itself The way in which you do this depends on the application Refer to the application s manual Typically the program will feature an INSTALL or SETUP command that allows you to select from a list of possible printers Page 27 Start up the application program and select a printer Choose one of the following in the order of preference shown Star NX 2450 Rainbow Colour Star NX 2420 Rainbow Colour Epson LQ 860 1060 The shaded printers ar
90. ngs on the converter and corresponding serial port settings in Windows This is described in the section Serial to parallel interface con verter in Chapter 6 You should now be able to print from your Windows applications Try printing a document from an applica tion following the steps outlined on page 27 of Chapter 3 If you have problems printing refer to Chap ter 6 Troubleshooting Note Unless you choose a different printer from within the applica tion Windows applications always print to the currently selected default printer Setting up the printer with an MS DOS computer IBM PC s and compatibles running MS DOS should print automatically to a printer connected to the parallel port However you must first select a printer from your application program If you are using the serial to parallel converter you will need to enter some set up statements into a file on your computer named AUTOEXEC BAT See page 88 of Chapter 5 for details If you are using a parallel cable you will probably not need to make any changes to AUTOEXEC BAT To check that your printer and computer are correctly connected try printing out some text using the MS DOS print command To do this type PRINT followed by a space and then the name of a text file Then press the Enter or Return key Press Enter or Return again in response to the prompt Name of list device PRN The printer should now print out the text file Page
91. o emulate means to perform in the same way as The two print ers offer different sets of printable characters Unless you are using an MS DOS system and specifically need the IBM character sets you will probably use the printer in Epson mode The character sets used by both the Epson and IBM emulations are listed in the Appendix starting on page 153 If you want to use the printer in IBM emulation mode you will also need to select an IBM printer driver see page 27 of Chapter 3 A2 Automatic Emulation Change AEC mode If this function is ON the printer will automatically select the correct emulation mode Epson or IBM according to the printer driver selected in your applica tion For example if the printer is in Epson mode and you select an IBM printer from your word processor running in MS DOS the printer will automatically switch over to IBM emulation mode This will allow you to print characters from the IBM character sets Page 40 A3 RAM usage If A3 is OFF the printer is able to store patterns repre senting characters that you have defined with the Epson or IBM printer commands see Chapter 7 If A3 is ON the printer can store the data it receives from the com puter This speeds up the printing process However it cannot store user defined character patterns A4 Color and zoom If A4 is ON you can print in color and use the zoom fea ture If it is OFF these features are unavailable If you ch
92. of paper Useful printer features Feeding paper through the printer Selecting Zoom resolution Using Quiet mode Saving current settings for future use the Macro feature Making necessary adjustments to the printer Performing print tests Page 33 Using the control panel The control panel allows you to control the printer s var ious functions and to see the printer s current set up The control panel has more significance for MS DOS users since Windows takes care of feature selections such as font selection MS DOS users must use the printer s control panel to manage the printer s func tions Control panel The panel has three keys FONT and READY The keys are pressed to select and control printer functions Sometimes keys are pressed on their own and some times they are pressed in combination For example pressing the key on its own selects a font Press ing the key while holding down the key feeds a sheet of paper through the printer The panel has seven green lights which give you infor mation on feature selections When the printer is on the green light on the right hand side of the panel indicates whether the printer is in ready mode ready to receive data from the computer or not ready mode not ready to receive data In not ready mode you can make changes to printer settings Page 34 such as the current font The light is on when the printer is in
93. ogether caus ing problems when the paper is drawn through the printer To prevent this flick through the stack of paper with your thumb This helps ensure that each sheet of paper is loose within the stack and will be fed through the printer separately ea Now make sure that all the sheets are properly lined up by tapping the end of the stack gently but firmly on a flat surface such as a table top Page 21 e Now place the paper in the paper tray Paper guides e Adjust the right hand paper guide so that the paper stack fits snugly between the guides The paper must be able to slide down freely into the printer but should not be able to move from side to side e Push the paper tray cover closed Page 22 Push the paper delivery selector up and back Printed pages will now be delivered in a stack face down When you turn the stack of printed pages right side up the sheets will be in the order in which they were printed Paper delivery selector Pull out the extension tray and pull out the stack wire to support the printed sheets Extension tray Stack wire Page 23 Ready mode and Not Ready mode The printer is in ready mode when it is ready to receive and print documents sent by the computer When the printer is in not ready mode you can use the control panel keys to change various printer settings In not ready mode the printer cannot print anything When the prin
94. onally spaced fonts 50 Protocol 86 Page 181 Push tractor unit 71 installing 72 Q Quiet mode 6l Quiet mode indicator 26 35 R READY indicator 24 key 25 34 READY light 26 Ready mode 24 Release lever J Reverse micro feed 60 Ribbon cartridge o installing 10 S Saving current settings 62 Scalable fonts Scaled output 6l Selecting the printer in MS DOS 27 in Windows 27 Serial connection 87 88 Serial interface pin outs 52 Serial to parallel converter connecting 83 Serial to parallel interface converter 71 83 setting DIP switches 85 Serif 50 Setting up with a Macintosh 49 Setting up with MS DOS 17 48 Setting up with Windows 15 47 Short test 67 Stack wire 5 Standard emulation mode 705 Standard mode 40 46 Page 182 T Tear off function 58 82 Thumb wheel 5 Troubleshooting 89 TrueType fonts 15 29 52 installing 52 Typeface 50 U Uni directional graphics 4 7 Unpacking the printer amp Unparking amp l Using the control panel 25 34 V Vertical alignment adjustment 65 Vertical position commands 123 W Weight Sl Windows checking settings 102 font selection 29 printer set up 1S printer set up in 47 selecting fonts in 53 selecting printer in 27 serial connaction 87 using control panel with 25 Windows Default Printer setting printer as 27 Windows printer driver installing 15 Z Zoom indicator 26 35 Zoom mode 61 enabling use of 4 Customer service information If you experience
95. ontrol the print er s functions and operation The power switch turns the printer on and off The interface connector accepts the cable connector that links the printer to the host computer The print head transfers the image to the paper The ribbon cartridge contains the ribbon which the head uses to mark the paper The thumb wheel lets you advance paper manually Page 5 The platen guides the paper through the printer and provides a solid surface against which the print head can make an impression on the paper The adjustment lever lets you adjust the position of the print head for differing thicknesses of paper and for multi part forms Page 6 Chapter 2 Unpacking and setting up Choosing a place for the printer Keep the following points in mind when deciding where to put your printer Choose a firm level surface where the printer will not be exposed to vibration Make sure that the printer is close enough to your computer for you to connect the two with your printer cable Allow 6 15cm of free space on either side of the printer If you are going to use fanfold paper make sure that there is adequate space for paper behind the printer Make sure that the printer is not in direct sunlight Make sure that the printer is well away from heaters Make sure that the surrounding area is clean dry and free of dust Make sure the printer is connected to a steady power supply
96. oportional Draft Letter Quality 16 Draft 18 Letter Quality Pica condensed Pica condensed Page 117 Select print mode Decimal 26 91 73 2 Hexadecimal 1B 5B 49 02 00 nl n2 Changes the print mode according to the values of n1 and n2 as shown below Page 118 n1 n2 Font Mode Pitch 0 11 Courier Pica 0 12 Prestige Pica 0 18 Courier Italic Pica Courier Emphasized Pica Courier Italic emphasized Pica 0 60 Prestige Emphasized Pica 0 85 Courier Elite 0 86 Prestige Normal Elite 0 92 Courier Italic Elite 0 108 Courier Emphasized Elite 0 11 f Prestige Emphasized Elite 0 112 Prestige Italic Elite a a 0 116 Courier Italic emphasized Elite a a S 0 164 Prestige Normal Proportiona 0 171 Courier Proportiona 0 172 Courier Italic Proportiona 0 f Courier Emphasized Proportiona 0 185 Courier Italic emphasized Proportiona 0 221 Prestige Normal Semi condensed 0 253 Courier Emphasized Pica condensed oo 254 Courier Normal Pica condensed nt n2 Font i 4 1 Prestige 1 ae 201 Prestige Hee 202 Prestige Mode Pitch Normal Pica condensed Norma Pica condensed Normal Elite condensed 235 Courier Normal Elite ears et 236 Courier Normal Semi condensed ke 1
97. r s operation Make sure that the printer is not too close to any devices with electric motors _ or raise the humidity level Inappropriate settings have been selected from your application program Choose different settings in your application There are wires missing from the print head Page 100 Return the printer to your dealer for repair Possible cause Action incorrectly connected or damaged The interface cable is Check that the printer interface cable is correctly connected If it is try a different cable Static electricity caused by interference from nearby electrical devices or by a low level of humidity is affecting the printer s operation Make sure that the printer is not too close to any devices with electric motors or raise the humidity level Page 101 Checking system software settings In Windows If you cannot print from your Windows application there are three things that you can check You may also wish to refer to the Microsoft Windows User s Guide Firstly check that the printer has been set as the Default Printer Double click the Control Panel icon in the Main win dow Double click the Printers icon Click on NX 2450 Rainbow Colour in the list of installed printers Make sure that Set As Default Printer is checked If it is not click on the check box and try printing from your application ag
98. r which may cause damage to the print head and platen B3 Ink ribbon type If B3 is ON you can use either a color or a monochrome ribbon If B3 is OFF you should only use a monochrome ribbon You can use a monochrome ribbon with B3 ON however its life will be shorter If you try to use a color ribbon with B3 OFF colors will be printed in unexpected ways B4 Reserved This switch should be left ON B5 Time out printing If B5 is ON the printer prints data as soon as it is received from the computer If B5 is OFF the printer accumulates data in its buffer and prints out pages at regular intervals C1 to C3 Page length If you are using 11 sheets these three switches should be ON The settings appropriate to various page sizes are shown in the table Page length C1 Page length 11 Letter i 8 OFF ON ON 8 5 Letter 14 Legal OFF ON OFF we is aes 11 7104 ON ofr ON 10 5 Executive ON OFF OFF pi 12 OFF OFF ON 7 25 Executive OFF OFF OFF Page 42 C4 and C5 Print pitch Pitch is the number of characters in a one inch line of text If you want to print using 10 characters per inch text C4 and C5 should be set to ON The settings for other pitches are as shown in the table Print pitch C4 C5 D1 Print quality If D1 is ON text is printed in Letter Quality mode If it is OFF Draf
99. r in MS DOG ccccssceeneieens 17 Chapter 3 Using the printer Loading PAPER cccssesoerceccsesscsscnsssssennaccsenssasssssananecssaznocsses 19 Ready mode and Not Ready mode ssscsscsssersersrenerees 24 Using the control pateel ssssssssssesressersseesssesentessesess 25 Printing Out your documents sssseseseereerererenrrnreeerereeenen 27 I WINdKOWS 00 ccceeceseneeceeseconeeeeeesensueaenensenesersnseneerecesssssseeansnenees 27 In MS DOS ncaccssccnscetccen hesecin sce cseccahctertieetedesevece ssacuanteaasetectedsdesenenten 27 Using different fOnts cc1ccccccscesrsessnersecsnsennnrseetieentnnenes 29 IN Wind WS rreken irri ensina NENE eNi AERAN DE EEEN NEARNE 29 hi MS DOS endai eran e a a dats tae iaeiei eaa AEs 30 Using other printer features sesssersueeseresrsrrenennraerererenne 32 Dealing with printing problems cccccccsccrseennsereeees 32 Chapter 4 Printer reference WACO CUCTION 3 3sicodiio oct ee ieaectinnstcaetan ieee 33 Using the control panel ccccccccccecssssesssesecsssnssenesersseseenses 34 Making Electronic DIP Switch settings cccssecsseenees 37 Selecting which emulation tO USC ccccssesersrseteeneeeneernees 46 Connecting the printer to your COMPUTEL cccceneeeneseneee 47 Choosing which type of cable to USE ccccescseeesteeestnenenenes 47 Setting up the printer with a Windows computer
100. r reference For normal everyday use you may never need to refer to Section II at all We strongly recommend however that you read all of Section I before connecting and using the printer for the first time Chapter 1 Features and parts Chapter 2 Unpacking and setting up the printer including setting up your computer system software Using the printer including loading paper using the control panel choosing different fonts and printing Chapter 3 Further technical information Appendix Glossary Simple explanations of printer and computer jargon Table of contents Guide to this manual Table of contents Chapter 1 Introduction FATES AREE E E E aaa eee ea de aR T ET et 1 Chapter 2 Unpacking and setting up Choosing a place for the Printer ccsscecessesesseceeensenieee 7 Unpacking the printer ccccccccccssscssssesrsssnssasenessnneenseesennenes 8 Preparing the printet ccsccccccsessersecsssessseneeeessestsesteneneenenenes 9 Opening the front Cover ccccceesseeecseeneneseeseeseeteenennereenietenay 9 Installing the ribbon Cartridge c cscccsesseseeeseeeserseensereens 10 Fitting the paper Support sss sessssserseressrssensnenererrnnenseneernnerenennen 12 Connecting the printer to your COMPUTET 0cccssereeeee 13 Setting up the printer in WINGOWS 1 ccseserereeeeneees 15 Setting up the printe
101. ras MI ati Prints 24 bit dot graphics at 360 dots per inch horizon tally The graphics image is 24 dots high and n1 n2 x 256 dots wide Maximum width is 8 inches 2880 dots In the data m1 m2 m3 each three bytes represent 24 vertical dots In the leftmost position the most signifi cant bit of m1 is the top dot the least significant bit of ml is the eighth dot from the top the most significant bit of m2 is the ninth dot the least significant bit of m2 is the sixteenth dot from the top the most significant bit of m3 is the seventeenth dot from the top the least sig nificant bit of m3 is the bottom dot The rest of the data is organized in the same way The number of data bytes must be 3 x n1 n2 x 256 Dots beyond the right mar gin are ignored On completion of dot graphics printing the printer returns automatically to character mode Page 135 Select graphics mode Hexadecimal Decimal Selects one of eleven graphics modes depending on the value of nO and prints bit image graphics in this mode See the lt ESC gt K command for 8 bit graphics or the lt FS gt Z command for 24 bit graphics for information on nl n2 ml m2 etc Graphics mode 8 bit Normal density 60 dots per inch 120 dots per inch 8 bit Double density 120 dots per inch t Double density double speed t Quadruple density 240 dots per inch 8 bit CRT
102. re saved and the Macro indicator lights up to indicate that the settings have been saved From now on each time you switch on the printer the saved settings will come into effect Note If you wait too long before releasing the keys the printer will beep three times The settings will not be saved and the indi cator will go off p Note This setting has no effect if you are printing from a computer running Windows Page 62 Making adjustments to the printer Setting the print gap Paper comes in different weights normally quoted in gsm grams per square meter 60 gsm and 90 gsm are typical figures Heavier paper is thicker Multi part forms are generally thicker than single sheets or ordi nary fanfold paper The distance between the print head and the platen can be adjusted to suit the current paper thickness The adjustment lever is located inside the printer s main body at the right hand side of the platen There are five settings Push the lever up to narrow the gap between the print head and the platen and downwards to widen the gap The top position is referred to as position 1 and the lowest position as position 5 Position 2 which is marked with a black dot is the one most suited to single sheets Page 63 It is a good idea to try out different settings in order to find out which setting gives the best print quality results The table below gives recommended settings Paper type Weight of
103. s make appropriate settings and determine the printer s current status by means of the control panel The panel has only three keys and is straightforward to use Zooming print outs can be scaled to 50 or 67 of actual size in this way wide documents such as spreadsheets can be printed on a single sheet of paper Landscape or portrait paper loading paper can be loaded into the printer in either landscape widthwise or portrait upright orientation Land scape printing also facilitates the printing of wide documents Note Letter size paper can be loaded into the printer in either land Page 2 scape or portrait orientation However the length of a printed line is limited to a maximum of 8 20 3cm Automatic emulation change the printer sup ports Epson NEC and IBM printer command sets it can automatically sense which emulation is required and change driver accordingly Easy to use long lasting design the front panel power key and interface socket are all easy to get at and you can make most adjustments without removing the printer s front cover In addition to these features the printer can print on a variety of different sizes and types of paper single sheets also called cut sheets fanfold paper continuous computer paper with holes in the edges and multi part forms allowing you to print several copies at once Sin gle sheets can be up to 11 wide and fanfold paper can be up to 10
104. s set low the printer is reset 32 ERROR Low when printer cannot continue due to an error 33 EXT GND External ground Page 151 Serial interface Pin Name Function 1 GND Printer chassis ground 2 TXD Data from printer 3 RXD Data to printer 4 RTS Always low J 5 CTS Low when the computer is ready to transmit data Printer ignores this signal Signal ground Soe Printer sets line low when ready to receive data Same signal as pin 20 Ea te El iis RE Printer sets line low when ready to receive data Page 152 Character sets The following tables show the Standard and IBM char acter sets Also shown are the IBM code pages interna tional variations of IBM character set 2 and the standard Epson mode international character sets international variations of the Epson Standard charac ter set The decimal character code for each character is shown in an inset at the bottom right of the character The hexadecimal character code for a character can be found by reading the hexadecimal column and row numbers which are at the top and on the left of the table For example the character A is in column 4 and row 1 so its hexadecimal character code is 41 This is equivalent to decimal 65 4 x 16 1 65 which is the decimal number shown in the inset Control codes are indic
105. s the auto load position If you want to change this setting you can do so as follows e Load one or more sheets of paper into the tray e Press the key twice to feed in the top sheet of paper ready for printing Note You can only alter this setting immediately after loading paper If you feed the top sheet further through the printer by pressing the key more than once a new auto load setting cannot be saved e Put the printer in not ready mode e Hold down the key and adjust the position of the paper by pressing either the key to advance the paper or the key to wind the paper back in small steps e When you have positioned the paper as you want it press the key to save the setting This setting will remain in effect until you change it again or until you turn off the printer Note You can also save the current auto load setting so that it is retained even when the printer is switched off and on again See Saving current settings on page 62 Page 60 Selecting Zoom mode print size You can print at either 50 half or 67 two thirds normal size by using the Zoom mode This is useful for printing wide documents such as spreadsheets on a single sheet Change the zoom size as follows Put the printer in not ready mode Hold down the key and press the key to cycle through the three zoom settings The zoom light indicates the current selection as shown in the table below Zoom Zoom light 50 On
106. s which take effect when you switch on the printer You can make these settings using the control panel Imitation by one type of printer of the functions of another type of printer Dot matrix printer which the NX 2450 Rainbow Colour can emulate See Standard mode Part of the printer which holds printed output Face down printing Face up printing Factory settings Fanfold paper Fixed pitch font Font Font lock mode Form feed Forward micro feed Graphics direction Handshaking Output is delivered face down in sequential order You can select face down printing by pushing the paper delivery selector up and back Output is delivered face up in reverse order You can select face up printing by pulling the paper delivery selector forward See Default settings Sheets of paper joined by perfora tions Fanfold paper has small holes at the edges See monospaced font A set of characters of a particular typeface which you can select for printing Mode in which font selection can only be made from the printer s control panel Printer operation which ejects the current page and feeds the next sheet into position ready for printing Control panel operation which feeds paper through the printer in small steps The printer s method of printing graphics See bi directional and uni directional printing See protocol Page 171 Hexadecimal dump IBM mode IBM compatible
107. sc gt om on 27 116 ao 1B 74n Sta lt ES gt Th on 2B 9S a 1C 49 n Selects a character table according to the value of n as shown below n Character table oO Standard character set i IBM character set 2 Shift download character area Standard mode only Select character set 1 Selects character set 1 Select character set 2 MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both SESCH 6 27 54 1B 3 6 Selects character set 2 Page 112 Select international character set i MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Sta lt ES gt R n 27 82 n Selects an international character set according to the value of n n Character set n Character set 0 U S A 8 Japan 1 France 9 Norway 2 l any 10 Denmark 3 England 11 Spain 4 4 Denmark 12 Latin America Any one of the first eight of these character sets from U S A to Spain I can be selected as the power up default using EDS switches D3 to D5 International character set variations are shown on page 156 of the Appendix Page 113 Select IBM code page MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Both lt ESC gt An EA 27 91 84 1B 5B 54 lt 4 gt lt 0 gt LOS 4 0 0 04 00 00 lt o gt ni n2 O nl n2 00 ni n2 Changes the code page of the current IBM character set according to the values of n1 and n2 as shown below
108. script 42 Page 138 Next comes the dot data Normal character height is 24 dots so there must be 3 x m1 bytes of dot data If the printer is in super subscript mode however the char acter height is 16 dots so there must be 2 x m1 bytes of dot data Each data byte represents eight vertical dots with the most significant bit representing the top dot and the least significant bit representing the bottom dot Select download character set Hexadecimal Decimal LESC 1B 25 Ol Selects the download character set Ignored when EDS switch A3 is ON Select ROM character set Stops using the download character set and returns to the built in ROM character set Ignored when EDS switch A3 is ON Page 139 Other printer commands Select print color MODE Decimal Hexadecimal Both 27 1l4 n ss ae oP Selects the printing color according to the value of nas shown below Ignored if EDS switch A4 is OFF EDS switch B3 is OFF or if a color ribbon is not installed ASCII SESC gt rn j n Color Color o Black 4 Yellow 1 Magenta 5 Orange 2 Cyan 6 Green Violet Set MSB to 1 ascent Herne Sets the most significant bit of each subsequent byte received to 1 allowing users with a 7 bit interface to access characters with ASCII codes greater than 127 Set MSB to 0 MODE ASCII Decimal Sta lt ESC gt
109. sieizaiivcuiiciesvecicsinsecss opine cercevensdesnsseeecsensoives 151 Parallel interface cccsssssseseseeeeeeceseteneeseneeeaecneeeaeaenenenaoanes 151 Serial int rface c ccescecsaccscssccosdsosesuesteveevssscidvececccveveecceeceassrenseectes 152 Character SOUS os isccccccceccccceveccvscieiccndeiatenes seeiithedssisuedbeviverevesiees 153 Standard character set 2 ccccscceesessnsecesenssneeesenteeneenensneeeees 154 International character sets sessseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesenaeeenenanen 156 IBM character Set 2 ccccccceeseesenseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesesncnenneeeeeeeneneeees 157 Code page 437 U S A cccccscccscccerscescessrscesscceessssssesaseeeteesrensersenees 157 Code page 850 Multi lingual ccccccscssssscesssssscssereeesssesssensees 159 Code page 860 Portuguese ccccccscccssssescsrsnsenteettecsssesensneees 160 Code page 861 Icelandic ccccccccsessecessesessrssssnsnsseraneesensesseenens 161 Code page 863 Canadian French ccsccccsscssssssecstsessesressvensnee 162 Code page 865 NOrdic c ccsscssssessesessesasscnsassssesseesseasenescanes 163 Character set 3 Vii seiivcsesivcsshessccede ici tvccscaceneedesdhcasinceusscseentieenedsenste 164 IBM special character Set ccsssescssssesssersssensseesseereserene 165 Glossary 167 Index 179 Customer service information Page iv Chapter 1 Introduction Feat
110. t and to take advantage of the printer s other features such as the zoom and quiet printing modes There are three keys on the panel FONT and READY Each key has a number of different functions Sometimes they are used on their own and sometimes they are pressed together Chapter 4 provides a full description of the different control panel operations Page 25 The green READY light on the right hand side of the panel indicates whether the printer is in ready mode or not ready mode as already mentioned The other six lights are always either on or off The three lights on the left indicate the currently selected font If you are printing from Windows this set ting has no effect However if you are using MS DOS this setting can determine which font is used for print ing The settings of these three lights on or off indicate the current font selection This is explained in the next section The three lights in the right hand column indicate whether the Zoom Quiet mode and Macro saved set tings features are currently in effect or not The Zoom and Macro settings do not apply if you are using Win dows The control panel can also be used to make Electronic DIP Switch EDS settings These are the feature settings that come into effect automatically each time the printer is switched on An explanation of how to make Elec tronic DIP Switch settings is given in Chapter 4 starting on page 37 Page 26 Printi
111. t and current Electronic DIP switch settings Easy to use personal computer which allows you to print using TrueType and PostScript fonts to use PostScript fonts you must have installed Adobe Type Man ager To use the printer with a Macintosh you need an addi tional interface cable Printer function which allows you to save the font pitch zoom reso lution single sheet auto load position and fanfold auto load position Macro settings come into effect each time the printer is switched on Printer feature which allows you to print on a single sheet of spe cial paper such as letter head paper without removing the paper already in the paper tray See forward micro feed and reverse micro feed Page 173 MODE statement Monospaced font MS DOS Multi part form NCR sets Not ready mode Orientation Over printing Paper delivery selector Paper feed Page 174 Statement in an MS DOS AUTOEXEC BAT file that deter mines to which port the computer should send printer output Font in which all characters are of the same width The most common operating sys tem software for the IBM PC and compatible machines Forms such as invoices consist ing of several sheets one on top of another enabling several cop ies to be made simultaneously No Carbon Required multi part forms which use pressure sensitive chemicals to mark the lower copies Printer mode in which you can chang
112. t quality text is printed Letter Quality allows you a choice of different fonts Draft text is less attrac tive but can be printed faster than Letter Quality text D2 Character table The D2 setting selects which characters can be printed Selectable characters are grouped into sets known as character tables The character table selected depends on the current emulation switch A1 Emulation ON Standard Epson Graphic character set Italic character set IBM character set 1 IBM IBM character set 2 These character tables are listed in the Appendix start ing on page 153 Page 43 D3 to D 5 IBM code page or international character set Various special characters for example accented char acters are needed for different languages For this rea son you can select variations on the standard character tables These are known as code pages or international character sets If the printer is in IBM emulation mode A1 is OFF or if it is in Epson emulation mode A1 is ON and the Epson graphic character set is selected D2 is ON settings D3 to D5 select a code page as shown in the following table Code page D4 D5 t 437 U S A ON ON 850 Multi lingual ON ON 860 Portuguese celandic 863 Canadian French 865 Nordic If the printer is in Epson emulation mode A1 is ON and the Italic character set is selected D2 is OFF sett
113. ter is loaded with the widest possible paper available to avoid the possibility of damage to the print head or the platen Long test A long test prints out the version number of the software in the printer s ROM followed by the current Electronic DIP Switch settings the current vertical alignment adjustment settings and the complete character set in each available font and pitch setting The printer prints this sequence repeatedly until powered off To perform a long test power up the printer while hold ing down the key This test prints across the entire width of the carriage It is a good idea to make sure that the printer is loaded with the widest possible paper available to avoid the possibility of damage to the print head or the platen This test can generate many lines of text and graphics so it is a good idea to use continuous fanfold paper rather than single sheets The test continues indefinitely until the printer is turned off Printing out a hexadecimal dump If you are writing your own programs to send output to the printer it is sometimes useful to print out the raw data that the printer is receiving When you perform a hexadecimal dump all codes char acter codes and control codes are printed out in hexa decimal format The printer does not execute any of the normally executable codes it receives such as OA line feed It simply prints them out Perform a hexadecimal dump as follows e Turn o
114. ter is on the READY indicator light on the right hand side of the panel indicates whether the printer is in ready mode or not ready mode The light is on continuously if the printer is in ready mode It flashes when the printer is not ready Ready light is on Vs Sanserif Courier i Prestige Sergpt VY Quiet Te PAPER a EADY Micro Feed Maco Q Macro a Ready mode Ready light is flashing Roman Sanserif Courier Hi Prestige Soupt ZZ Micro Feed a VY Quiet rs e FONT PAPER READY C CD C Co CE Gx ALT Macro A Zoom s fF J Not ready mode Page 24 You can press the key to switch the printer between the two modes Pressing once puts the printer in ready mode pressing again puts the printer in not ready mode Using the control panel The control panel s purpose is to allow you to control the printer s various functions and to see at a glance the printer s set up Sanserif Courier WE Prestige Script Micro Feed WY Quiet i o a FONT PAPER READY Co e T CA Co Co ALT Macro A Zoom eee FF Windows users will have most settings such as font selection and zoom resolution determined by their computer rather than the printer s control panel If you try to make these settings using the control panel keys it will have no effect MS DOS users can use the control panel to change fon
115. text as follows e Turn on the printer and start up your computer e Type PRINT followed by the name of a text file for example AUTOEXEC BAT and then press Enter or Return If a message Name of list device PRN comes up on the screen press Enter or Return again e The printer should print out the named text file If you cannot print refer to the section Setting up the printer with an MS DOS computer on page 48 of Chapter 4 To print from specific MS DOS applications refer to the section Setting up the printer with an MS DOS computer on page 48 of Chapter 4 and if necessary to the appli cation s own manual Note Unlike Windows applications MS DOS application programs select printers individually For each application that you use you will have to select the printer in the application before you can print a file from it Page 17 Page 18 Chapter 3 Using the printer Loading paper The paper tray can hold up to 55 sheets of paper To load the paper use the following steps for a description of how to load fanfold paper refer to page 76 of Chapter 5 e Move the release lever towards the back of the printer and pull the paper tray cover forward Paper tray cover Page 19 Adjust the left hand paper guide to the position you want The paper guides move freely from side to side Pick up your stack of paper Page 20 Cut sheet paper can sometimes stick t
116. th tractors are closed e Close the rear cover by swinging it forwards and upwards Click it firmly back into place e Close the front cover Page 75 Loading fanfold paper Position the stack of fanfold paper behind the printer Turn the printer off Pull the release lever forward If there is a single sheet that has been fed into the printer remove it Open the front cover by hooking your fingers under the two small projecting tabs on either side of the front cover Grip the cover firmly and pull upwards The front cover will come loose Now pull the cover up and forwards so that it swings open Pass the fanfold paper through the horizontal slot in the back of the printer Open the rear cover by pushing it backwards so that it folds back and down Pull the paper through Pull the gray levers on the tractors forward and adjust the tractors positions by sliding them side ways Page 76 Lock the tractors in position by pushing the levers back down again Open the covers on both tractors and position the paper by aligning the holes in the paper with the pins on the tractors Ensure that the paper is properly aligned on the tractor pins Otherwise it may tear or jam Close the tractor covers If necessary make any final adjustments to the paper position Release one or both of the tractors by pulling the gray levers for ward and moving the tractors sideways Push the gray levers backwar
117. tical tab stops designated by a chan nel number nO from O to 7 The tab stops in each chan nel are set by lt ESC gt b Vertical tab moos ASG att lt VT gt 11 OB Feeds the paper to the next vertical tab stop and moves the print position to the left margin Performs a line feed if no vertical tabs are set such as at power up Feeds to the top of the next page if vertical tabs are set but the current line is at or below the last vertical tab stop Page 129 Horizontal position commands Set left margin MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Sta lt ESC gt 1 n 27 108 n 1B 6C n Sets the left margin at column n where n is between O and 255 at the current character pitch pica pitch if proportional spacing is selected The left margin does not move if the character pitch is changed later The left margin must be at least two columns to the left of the right margin and within the limits given below Condensed pica O lt n lt 130 Expanded condensed pica Expanded condensed elite Condensed elite Set right margin MODE ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal Sta lt ESC gt Q n Sets the right margin at column n in the current charac ter pitch pica pitch if proportional spacing is currently selected Column n becomes the last character position in the line The right margin does not move if the char acter pitch is change
118. ting cescccsesssseetessssrereessseeeees 57 Face up and face down printing csccssseresseersnneetereteeeeeees 57 Manual by pass ccccccseceseneeeessreseensengessessesaeeesessseeenesssaenenss 57 Pausing Printing cccccccesccsreeseeeereecseeesesenerstenserneseeesseeeseeeeaeees 58 Parking fanfold paper cce ssc csseeessreenste ee eneneennen ersten enneneenees 58 The tear off function cceceeeeceeeereeeseeeeseneasennueneaeesesseeenseeeseeetns 58 Controlling the paper POSITION cccsccssesnsnsesessssneseneesnenens 59 Paper feed cssccceesserereenseees sas tain teAanadeadt nimaaniseseietes 59 Form FOG sins iccececccceteiecend dec descecesse va seeci2e oes ctecaseanddustbaenceatsbesenteeascaces 59 Forward micro feed ccccccsessceeeeseseeeeseseesesensnneneueucusseneeeasesseees 59 Reverse micro feed ccccseseceeeessseeeeeeeeeseeeesessseuenssanaensneeaeseees 60 Setting the auto load position sssessrrsssrsrserersrrsrernrernerererrereree 60 Selecting ZOOM mode print SIZE csccsecccessse este tteeeeeeeeete 61 Selecting Quiet MOC cccccccssesccsssenssesesnssnensnsseesnniresens 61 Saving current settings the Macro feature 200000008 62 Page ii Making adjustments to the Printer ccscccceeeneen 63 Setting the print gap 0 0 0 0 cece esse cseseerseeseeneeeteeetenteeenenenenes 63 Adjusting vertical al
119. tings match the settings you intend to make on your computer e The DIP switches on the serial to parallel converter correspond to the following settings The equivalent settings that you will need to make in MS DOS s AUTOEXEC BAT file or in the Ports option in Win dows Control Panel are also listed The converter s default settings are shown in gray Switch Function 1 Datalength oe 3 Protocol 4 Protocol 5 Parity 6 Baud rate 7 Baud rate 8 Baud rate Data length is the length in bits of the data unit or byte that the computer transmits Normally this is set to 8 Switch 1 Data length l DOS Windows setting Switch 2 Switch 5 Parity DOS Windows setting Page 85 Protocol or handshaking is the communications con vention used between the computer and printer to regu late the flow of data DTR is the most commonly used protocol Switch 3 Switch 4 Protocol XON XOFF OFF ON ETX ACK Baud rate is the rate in bits per second at which data is sent to the printer Typically 9600 or 19200 is used Switch 6 Switch 7 Switch 8 Baud rate DOS Windows setting 150 bps OFF OFF ON 300 bps 300 600 bps 600 1200 bps 1200 2400 bps 2400 4800 bps 4800 9600 bps baid ARO Page 86 Setting up a serial connection Make settings on your computer to correspond to the settings you have made using the DI
120. tion on page 60 of Chapter 4 Auto line feed with carriage return is selected Check Electronic DIP Switch setting A5 Turn the setting ON to turn off automatic line feed see Making Electronic DIP Switch settings on page 37 of Chapter 4 Page 94 Possible cause Action The wrong line spacing or leading has been selected from your application program in your application Choose a different setting Possible cause The print gap is not set correctly Action Use the adjustment lever to alter the print gap See Setting the print gap on page 63 of Chapter 4 The print head is damaged Return the printer to your dealer for repair Page 95 Possible cause Action The print gap is not set correctly 7 Use the adjustment lever to set the print gap Move the lever to a higher lighter setting See Setting the print gap on page 63 of Chapter 4 The ribbon is jammed twisted or not set properly between the print head and the print head shield Print head shield is damaged or missing Page 96 Make sure that the ribbon cartridge is correctly installed Refer to Preparing the printer on page 9 of Chapter 2 Return the printer to your dealer for repair Possible cause Action L The printer s air vents are blocked or obstructe
121. u press the key If a single light is on the font next to that light is the selected font For example if only the top light is on the Roman font is currently selected Sanserif Courier EE Prestige Sorp a Q Qu P Quet A g TOT PAPER EADY ean A Macro Zoom Roman typeface selected Page 30 Similarly if only the middle light or bottom light is on Courier or Script is selected _ If two lights are on the font whose name is between the two lights is the selected font For example if the lower two lights are on Prestige is the selected font Roman A EDS 1 Sanserif Fe 2 Courier oe 3 Prestige 4 Sergot 5 mE Micro Feed _ Feed a gm w 3 WY Quiet e ao PAPER READY Co lt Maco A Macro Zoom Prestige typeface selected Similarly if the top two lights are on Sanserif is selected If n ne of the lights is on the draft font is selected To select a font for printing use the following steps e First put the printer in not ready mode by pressing the key e Keep pressing the key until the lights show the desired font is selected e Press the key again to confirm your selection and put the printer back in ready mode To select fonts using your software application consult the application s manual You can also prevent your software from making font selections so that font selection is controlled completely from the control panel This is described
122. ur computer 13 47 Control panel 5 25 34 Control panel keys 34 25 34 25 34 25 34 Control panel lights 35 Font selection 26 Macro 26 Quiet mode 26 READY 24 26 Zoom 26 Currently selected font 26 D Default Printer setting printer as 27 Dot adjustment mode 65 Page 179 Double spacing unwanted 4 Download character commands 138 E Electronic DIP Switch settings default settings 149 list of 39 making settings 37 Emulation automatic switching 40 46 selecting 40 46 Epson emulation mode 40 46 105 Extension cover B F Face down printing 57 Face up printing 57 Fanfold paper 39 loading 76 parking 8l printable area 80 printing on 79 unparking 8l Fixed space fonts 50 Font control commands 707 key 25 34 Font pitch 5I setting 53 Font selection 26 default 45 in MS DOS 30 in Windows 29 53 using control panel 35 Font weight 51 Fonts bitmap fonts 5I fixed space 50 introduction to 50 monospaced 50 Page 180 PostScript 49 53 preventing selection by applications software 54 proportionally spaced 50 50 sans serif saving selection 62 scalable fonts 52 serif 50 TrueType 15 29 52 Form feed 59 Forward micro feed 59 Front cover 5 how to open 9 G Graphics commands 134 Graphics direction setting 41 H Hexadecimal dump 68 Horizontal position commands 130 I IBM code page 44 IBM emulation mode 40 46 Installing the ribbon cartridge 10 Interface connector 5 International character sets 44 K
123. ures This printer the NX 2450 Rainbow Colour lets you print sharp impressive looking text and graphics and has a wide range of features that will make it an indis pensable companion for your personal computer at home or in the office High speed the printer can print text at speeds of up to 240 characters per second Letter quality text the NX 2450 Rainbow Colour has 11 built in bitmapped fixed size fonts featur ing the following typefaces Roman Sanserif Cou rier Prestige Script and Draft Scalable fonts for users of Windows version 3 1 or later 15 TrueType fonts are supplied on a floppy disk High resolution the printer can print at resolu tions of up to 360 dots per inch Vibrant color the printer can print both text and graphics in a range of colors including magenta cyan violet yellow orange and green Each printer comes with a color ribbon as standard allowing you to choose between black and white and color print ing Easy paper handling loading paper is simplicity itself the paper tray holding up to 55 sheets of paper Printed output can be delivered face down in sequential order Pagel Easy set up Electronic DIP Switch mode allows you to make power on settings from the control panel Utility software for IBM PC and compatible comput ers also allows you to make these settings from your computer Easy to use control panel you can control the printer s function
124. ve statement applies only to printers marketed in Canada Trademark acknowledgments NX 2450 Rainbow Colour NX 2420 Rainbow Colour NX 2420 PT 10Q SPC 8K Star Micronics Co Ltd LQ850 LQ860 LQ1050 LQ1060 Seiko Epson Corporation IBM PC IBM Proprinter X24E IBM Proprinter XL24E IBM Proprinter X24 IBM Proprinter XL24 Internationa Business Machines Corporation TrueType Macintosh Apple Computer Inc PostScript Adobe Svstems Incorporated MS DOS Microsoft Windows Windows 3 1 Microsoft Corporation Grappler Orange Micro Inc Notice All rights reserved Reproduction of any part of this manual in any form whatsoever without STAR s express permission is strictly forbidden The contents of this manual are subject to change without notice All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this manual at the time of printing However should any errors be found STAR would greatly appreciate being informed of them The above notwithstanding STAR can assume no responsibility for any errors in this manual Copyright 1993 Star Micronics Co Lid Guide to this manual The NX 2450 Rainbow Colour is essentially a very easy printer to use However it is also capable of a number of complex functions This manual is divided into two main sections Section 1 consists of Chapters 1 to 3 Section 2 consists of Chapters 4 to 7 A glossary table of contents appendix and index are also provided fo
125. ver prevents objects that may damage the printer from getting inside it and also reduces printing noise Page 9 Installing the ribbon cartridge e Turn the tension knob on the cartridge clockwise to take the slack out of the ribbon Tension knob e Gently lower the cartridge into the cartridge holder Make sure that the spindle on the cartridge holder fits into the socket on the base of the cartridge Page 10 e Carefully position the ribbon between the print head and the print head shield as shown Ribbon Print head shietd Print head e Push down gently but firmly on the cartridge to make sure that it is properly in place You should be able to feel a small amount of play about 1 10 2 5mm in the cartridge as you press down on it e Check that the ribbon is properly in place between the print head and print head shield Turn the car tridge s tension knob clockwise again to take up any remaining slack Note itis important to make sure that the ribbon is properly posi tioned between the print head and print head shield Other wise the quality of printed output will be poor and the ribbon may get damaged Page 11 e Close the front cover by swinging it down and push ing down on the raised parts at the rear so that it fits firmly into place Fitting the paper support e Fit the two tabs on the paper support into the rear cover slots as shown Page 12 Connectin
126. ween A and E and a number between 1 and 5 respectively The three lights on the left indicate the current letter selection The three lights on the right indicate the num ber selection If a single light is on the letter or number next to that light is the one that is currently selected If two lights are on the letter or number between the two lights is the one that is currently selected For example if the lower two left hand lights and the top right hand light are on the D1 setting print quality mode is selected Page 37 A EDS 1 Bm Zoom Sanserif B Courier WE C Prestige es Micro Feed Feed A WY Quiet F l 5 READY Maco Macro Zoom Na Electronic DIP Switch D1 print quality selected Press the and keys until the letter and number corresponding to the desired setting are shown The READY light shows the current switch setting ON or OFF Use the key to change the setting For example to set the print quality setting to Draft select D press the key until the lower two lights in the left hand column are on and 1 press the key until the top light in the right hand column is on Press the key to turn the READY light off You can print out the current Electronic DIP Switch set tings by holding down the key and pressing the READY key When you have made all the desired Electronic DIP Switch settings hold down the key and press the key to save t

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