Epson LX-90 - Impact Printer, User Manual

Page 1: ......

Page 2: ...sumes no responsibility for errors or omissions Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc Applesoft is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc Centronics is a registered trademark of Data Computer Corporation HomeWriter LX 90 PIG and QX 16 are trademarks of Epson America Inc IBM is a regis...

Page 3: ...ecType Exercise 11 Mode Combination 13 SelecType Tips 14 3 Elements of Dot Matrix Printing and Computer Printer Communications The Print Head Other Pitches NLQ Mode ESCape and ASCII 4 PIC Features 19 Demonstration Programs 19 Running BASIC Programs 20 Pica Printing 21 Changing Pitches 21 Cancelling Codes 22 Resetting the Printer 22 Pitch Comparison 23 Near Letter Quality Mode 23 5 Print Enhancemen...

Page 4: ...cess Definition program 1 Running the program Definition program 2 Running the program Defining NLQ Characters NLQgrid NLQ definition program 1 NLQ definition program 2 8 Introduction to Dot Graphics Dot Patterns The Print Head and Graphics Graphics Mode PinLabels First Graphics Program WIDTH Statements Multiple Line Exercise Density Varieties Reassigning Code Column Reservation Numbers Designing ...

Page 5: ... 15 Tabs C 16 Graphics c 19 User Defined Characters c 22 Other Codes C 23 D DIP Switches and Interface DIP Switches Interface E Troubleshooting and Advanced Features Installation of Commercial Software Programs SelecType Features and Solutions Reset codes Cancelling modes Printing on Self adhesive Labels Beeper Error Warnings Applesoft BASIC Solutions QX 10 and QX 16 Solutions Graphics Data Dump M...

Page 6: ...t waste your time with unnecessary information but it also won t neglect anything you need to know about the LX 90 and its features You can read as much or as little of this manual as you wish The first chapter tells how to test the printer and connect it to your com puter The second chapter explains SelecType a feature that offers you five special typefaces The other chapters explain the main fea...

Page 7: ...ug in your Printer Interface Cartridge PIG and begin printing Inserting the Printer Interface Cartridge Inserting the PIC is easy The cartridge slides into the rectangular opening as shown in the LX 90 manual Be sure the printer is OFF when you insert the PIC The PIC has a grounding wire Attach it as shown in Figure l 1 I Figure 1 l Attaching the grounding wire 3 ...

Page 8: ...ff and up when they are on Before you change any of the DIP switch settings make sure that the power switch on the right side of the printer is turned off The DIP switches are in two groups with eight in the first group and four in the second Turn on switches 6 7 and 8 in the first group Now you are ready to test your printer Printing the Self Test It s time to see the LX 90 in action You ll start...

Page 9: ...JKLM 0123456789 ABCDEFGHIJKLMN NLQ 0123456789 ABCDEFGHI 0123456789 ABCDEFGHIJ 0123456789 ABCDEFGHIJK a 0123456789 ABCDEFGHIJKL 0123456789 ABCDEFGHIJKLM 0123456789 ABCDEFGHIJKLM Figure 1 3 Self test printouts Connecting the Printer to Your Computer Now that the self test has shown that your printer is working well it s time to hook it up to your computer It is best to have both the printer and the ...

Page 10: ... power is on l The READY light glows green when the printer is ready to accept data Don t worry if this light flickers somewhat during printing this flickering is normal l The PAPER OUT light glows red when the printer is out of paper or the paper is loaded incorrectly l The ON LINE light glows green when the printer can receive data In addition to the lights the control panel has three buttons l ...

Page 11: ...ou have a word processing or other commercial software pro gram just load the program into your computer follow the printing instructions and watch your LX 90 print If your software program requires you to specify which printer you are using see Appendix E for instructions If you plan to use your LX 90 for printing program listings load a program and use the appropriate listing command for the pro...

Page 12: ...ells the printer which style you want and SelecType lets you choose the typestyle each time you print For example you can print the first draft of a letter or report in the stan dard mode and the final version in the NLQ mode SelecType Operation Using SelecType is simple You turn on SelecType and select a typestyle then turn off SelecType and print Turning SelecType on 1 Make sure that the printer...

Page 13: ... printer beeps l The READY light turns off l The ON LINE light begins flashing Selecting typestyles In SelecType each button has a function l ON LINE selects typestyles l FF sets the styles l LF turns SelecType off After turning on SelecType follow these three steps to select a typestyle 1 Find the typestyle you want in Table 2 l 10 ...

Page 14: ...SelecType mainly with commercial software but since there are so many different commercial software programs the sample exercises are in MicrosoftTM BASIC MBASIC the most widely used BASIC in personal computers Consequently most users can enter and run the programs exactly as the programs appear in these pages You don t need to know anything about programming for this exer cise because it is merel...

Page 15: ...o Therefore press the ON LINE button two times Remember to make sure you hear a beep each time you press the ON LINE button when you are in SelecType mode 4 Now that you have selected the emphasized mode push the FF button once to set it 5 Push the LF button once to return the panel to its standard opera tion 6 Press the ON LINE button so the LX 90 is ready to print Now you have set the LX 90 to p...

Page 16: ...n once again This makes a total of two times and thus sets the LX 90 for empha sized also 5 Press the LF button to return the panel to its standard operation 6 Press the ON LINE button to put the LX 90 on line Now print your sample document or run your sample program If your printing appears in e m p h a s i a e d N e a r L e t t e r Q u a l i t y as you see here you have successfully combined the...

Page 17: ...t can t com bine it uses only one of the codes SelecType Tips After you turn on a mode with SelecType it usually stays in effect until the printer is turned off If for example you use SelecType to print a document in emphasized anything you print after that will be emphasized unless you first turn the printer off and back on If you like NLQ or compressed well enough to use it most of the time you ...

Page 18: ...the paper to produce a dot This dot is about 1 72nd of an inch in diameter The size varies slightly depending upon the age of the ribbon and the type of paper used As the head moves horizontally across the page these pins are fired time after time in different patterns to produce letters numbers symbols or graphics For example to print a pica capital T shown in Figure 3 l the head fires the top pi...

Page 19: ...igure 3 2 shows enlargements of four sample letters in each of the three pitches These letters are chosen to show how the LX 90 prints letters that are uppercase and lowercase wide and narrow and with and without descenders the bottom dots of the j and y T h i s i s p i c a T h i s i s e l i t e This is compressed Figure 3 2 The three pitches of the LX 90 The dot pattern of each character is caref...

Page 20: ...LQ mode Figure 3 3 Near Letter Quality and draft characters compared With the two modes draft and NLQ the LX 90 lets you choose high speed or high quality each time you print You can print your ordinary work or preliminary drafts quickly in the draft mode and use the NLQ mode for final copies or special purposes SelecType makes it especially easy to change from draft to NLQ but you can also select...

Page 21: ... the escape code This code signals that the next number is a code for a printer function and its name is usually printed with the first three letters capitalized Escape or it is abbreviated ESC or ESC In the demonstration programs in this manual you ll see how ASCII and ESCape codes are used in the Microsoft BASIC program ming language l The CHR character string function is used for numerical code...

Page 22: ...ything about BASIC to type in and run these programs All the instructions you need are on the next page As you run the programs or even as you read the explanations and look at the printed examples you learn how the LX 90 responds to the messages your computer sends it by printing letters numbers symbols and graphics in various print modes Even if you never use BASIC again you will know the capabi...

Page 23: ...anual When you type these programs be sure to include all spaces and punctuation marks especially semicolons Press RETURN at the end of each line On your computer the RETURN key may be marked or ENTER Computers that use a 40 column display may break some lines into two parts on the screen but that does not affect the operation of the program If you make a typing mistake retype the whole line inclu...

Page 24: ... between the dots to produce the three different widths In elite mode there are 12 characters per inch and in compressed there are 17 16 The LX 90 prints in elite when it receives the ESCape M command and prints in compressed when it receives the ASCII 15 command Print a sample line of elite characters by adding the line below to your previous program Simply type this line and press RETURN you do ...

Page 25: ...cancel a mode one of two ways l With a specific cancelling code such as the ESCape I used above to cancel elite and the ASCII 18 to cancel compressed Each mode has a cancelling code which you can find in the discussion of the code and in Appendix B Pica is an exception to this rule To cancel pica turn on elite or compressed l By resetting the printer a method explained in the next section Resettin...

Page 26: ...maximum number of characters on a line In fact if you need even more than the 132 characters per line that compressed gives you you can combine elite and compressed for a mode called compressed elite It is not really another pitch because the size of the characters is the same as in the compressed mode only the space between the characters is reduced You can see this mode which allows 160 characte...

Page 27: ... it prints only in pica not in elite or compressed All the modes demonstrated in this chapter are compared in Table 4 l Table 4 1 Summary of LX 90 pitches Print sample CPI codes inch On Off N e a r L e t t e r Q u a l i t y 10 00 ESC x 1 ESC x 0 P i c a p r i n t 10 00 E l i t e p r i n t 12 00 ESC M ESC P Compressed print 17 16 15 18 Compressed elite print 20 00 ESC M 15 ESC P 18 Remember that yo...

Page 28: ...head must slow down so that it has time to fire retract and fire the pins quickly enough to produce the overlapping dots This method produces better looking more fully formed characters that are darker than single strike characters To see an example of emphasized type and run the following pro gram See Running BASIC Programs in Chapter 4 if necessary NEW 10 LPRINT This is standard printing 20 LPRI...

Page 29: ...y and prints the line again Each dot is printed twice with the second one slightly below the first as you can see if you run this program which uses ESCape G to turn on double strike 10 LPRINT This is standard printing 20 LPRINT CHR 27 G 30 LPRINT This is double strike printing 100 LPRINT CHR 27 T h i s i s s t a n d a r d p r i n t i n g T h i s i s d o u b l e s t r i k e p r i n t i n g Unlike ...

Page 30: ...ammers may be interested in another form of expanded In this alternate form called one line expanded the printing is the same as that in the example but it is turned on by ASCII 14 and is turned off by a line feed ASCII 20 or ESCape WO Mode Combinations You can also use control codes to combine modes For example you can make a title especially vivid by combining emphasized and expanded In fact you...

Page 31: ...to turn it on and a character combined with the numeral zero to turn it off You can see it in action with the following program NEW 10 LPRINT This text is not underlined 20 LPRINT CHR 27 1 30 LPRINT This text is underlined 100 LPRINT CHR 27 T h i s t e x t i s n o t u n d e r l i n e d T h i s t e x t i s u n d e r l i n e d As shown in the printout above the underline mode is continuous but some ...

Page 32: ...he modes you want and use the total as the number after ESCape For exam ple to calculate the code for expanded underlined pica add the fol lowing numbers together italic expanded pica 64 32 0 96 To print this combination therefore you use ESCape followed by the number 96 In the BASIC programming language the com mand is CHR 27 CHR 96 To try this number or any other enter and run this short program...

Page 33: ...ul feature that it may occa sionally be more powerful than you want it to be Because it controls seven different modes a Master Select code will cancel any of those seven that are not selected For example suppose that you have a page in elite and want part of it in double strike If you use ESCape I 16 to turn on double strike your LX 90 will begin printing in double strike pica instead of double s...

Page 34: ... 2 Germany 8 Japan 3 United Kingdom 9 Norway 4 Denmark I 10 Denmark II 5 Sweden You select the character set in one of two ways with an ESCape code or with a DIP switch The ESCape code in BASIC has the follow ing format LPRINT CHR 27 R CHR n in which n represents the appropriate number from the list above In other words the BASIC command to select the French character set is LPRINT CHR 27 R CHR l ...

Page 35: ...rs in NLQ mode Table 5 2 International characters in draft mode Table S 3 International characters in draft italic mode The number at the top of each column in the tables is the ASCII code that prints the characters in that column 32 ...

Page 36: ... top row of one of the figures in order to print the corresponding character in the row of the set you have chosen For example if you have reset the DIP switches for the UK charac ter set and you press the key the symbol will be generated Even though you will see the symbol on the screen the symbol will be printed on the paper For another example if you have selected the Swedish character set and ...

Page 37: ...ures that use straight lines To print these graphics characters you must use either a program ming language or a computer with a graphics shift or other special key that allows you to send graphics codes Sending the codes for these characters to the printer is a two step process just as it is for the international characters In BASIC first you send CHR 27 m CHR 4 to turn on the graphics character ...

Page 38: ...een the lines of graphics characters just as it does between lines of text you must change the line spacing when you combine line graphics characters to form boxes or other figures For most programs ESCape 1 gives you the best line spacing for combinations of graphics characters Further details on line spacing are in Chapter 6 Although you can use any print mode with the graphics characters it is ...

Page 39: ...followed by the number of the column you choose for the left margin The right margin command is ESCape Q followed by the column number of the right margin you want For the left margin command be sure to use a lowercase letter 1 not the numeral one If your word processing program does not allow you to change the margins you can send margin commands to your LX 90 with BASIC or another programming la...

Page 40: ...skip at the bottom of a page For example in BASIC the following line will make the LX 90 skip 6 lines after each 60 lines if your printer is set for 11 inch paper 10 LPRINT CHR 27 N CHR 6 Since an 11 inch page is 66 lines this will give you one inch of blank space at the bottom of each page If you prefer to have half of the blank space at the top of the page and half at the bottom simply set the t...

Page 41: ...a signal that sounds the beeper and stops your printing This saves wear on your print head ribbon and platen but because of the distance between the switch and the print head it stops the printing about 2 inches from the end of the page Therefore if you use single sheet paper in your LX 90 you can t print on the last two inches of each page without an adjustment If you need to print on the last tw...

Page 42: ...or the WIDTH statement Consult your software documentation for the proper format for your system 7 WIDTH LPRINT 255 This statement prevents BASIC from inserting unwanted carriage returns When you are using auto justification use carriage returns at the end of paragraphs only not at the end of each line of text Also keep in mind that changing the right margin may make justified text look better The...

Page 43: ...eem that designing a character and telling the LX 90 how to print it would be extremely complicated but in this chapter the task is reduced to a simple three step process planning your character run ning one program that tests your work and calculates the required DATA numbers and running another program to put the character in your printer s Random Access Memory RAM for use whenever you need it B...

Page 44: ...s that govern their design the column on the right side is always left blank so that there will be spaces between the characters on a line a character can use the top row or the bottom row but no character uses both the top and the bottom row and a dot can be placed on a vertical line only when the columns next to that line are not used Figure 7 l LX 90 dot matrix characters Designing Process Supp...

Page 45: ...ts on this grid remember that dots cannot go on horizontal lines but they can go on vertical lines so long as they do not overlap any other dots As you design your characters draw the dots as large as you see them in the example on the left in Figure 7 3 If you draw them smaller you may have overlapping dots with out realizing it Figure 7 3 Correct and incorrect designs If you do accidentally call...

Page 46: ... CHR 0 CHR 0 CHR 0 179 LPRINT CHR 27 CHR l CHR 0 180 LPRINT CHR 27 CHR 0 190 LPRINT CHR 128 200 FOR X 1 TO 9 210 LPRINT CHR F X NEXT X 220 LPRINT CHR l CHR 0 239 LPRINT YOUR CHARACTER IN PICA 240 LPRINT IN EXPANDED EMPHASIZED PICA 250 LPRINT CHR 27 260 LPRINT CHR 27 CHR 0 YOUR DATA NUMBERS 270 FOR K l TO 9 LPRINT F K NEXT K 300 LPRINT END So that you can see how the program works the next paragrap...

Page 47: ...them Then press RETURN to finish with column 3 and go on to column 4 For column 4 press RETURN only The rest of the directions assume that you know to press RETURN after each number and one extra time to end the entries for each column For column 5 enter 6 4 3 2 and 1 For column 6 press RETURN only for column 7 enter 8 6 4 and 2 for column 8 enter 7 and 5 and for column 9 press RETURN only Now wai...

Page 48: ...CHR 27 CHR CHR CHR 120 LPRINT CHR 27 CHR l CHR 138 LPRINT CHR 27 CHR 0 CHR A CHR A l K 140 FOR Z l TO K 150 LPRINT CHR 139 160 FOR X 1 TO 9 170 READ R 180 LPRINT CHR R NEXT X 190 LPRINT CHR 0 CHR 0 200 NEXT Z 210 DATA 0 80 170 0 47 0 170 80 0 290 FOR P 58 TO 63 LPRINT CHR P NEXT P 300 LPRINT END To use program 2 for your own character or characters change the DATA numbers in line 210 by substituti...

Page 49: ...of the characters in the top row the printer will print the corresponding character in the bottom row In the example above if you press your LX 90 will print although your screen will continue to show the character Because the program puts these new definitions in your printer s Random Access Memory RAM it will print the characters in the bottom row unless it is turned off or receives the reset co...

Page 50: ...ght side You should remember to leave one or two columns blank for space between characters however Each NLQ character definition requires 36 data numbers There fore each vertical column must be divided into three sections for the calculation of data numbers The process is not difficult once you get some practice using it Figure 7 7 shows a single column to make clear how the data num bers are cal...

Page 51: ...y dots that are used there Finally look at the bottom group 2 dot positions and add together the values used there If no dots are used in a group the data number for that group is zero All zeros must be entered in the DATA statements for the NLQ definition programs Figure 7 8 shows you how to use the NLQ character definition with a musical design The figure shows the design drawn on a grid and the...

Page 52: ...each column individually you can see how the data numbers are calculated NLQ definition program 1 Now type in and run the following program It has the data num bers for the musical design For a character of your own change the data numbers in lines 130 150 50 ...

Page 53: ...0 YOUR CHARACTER IN PICA IN EXPANDED EMPHASIZED PICA When you run this program for your own character you find out whether or not it looks right If it doesn t move the dots as needed recalculate and change the data numbers and run the program again NLQ definition program 2 When you are satisfied with the character you have created enter and run the next program Use your data numbers instead of the...

Page 54: ...0 NEXT X NEXT Y 110 FOR X 58 TO 63 LPRINT CHR X NEXT X 120 LPRINT END 130 DATA 0 1 0 0 3 128 0 3 128 7 255 0 140 DATA 4 128 0 4 128 0 4 130 0 4 135 0 150 DATA 7 135 0 7 253 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 When you run program 2 it prints six characters then redefines one or more of them and prints them again As with the draft charac ters you use this two line printout as a guide to the new characters your LX 90 wil...

Page 55: ...phics mode prints dots column by column and line by line You plan where you want the dots to appear and then use a program to tell the LX 90 where to put them Because many software programs use dot graphics you may be able to print pictures and graphs like the ones on this page and the next by simply giving your software a few instructions A chart like the one on the next page can be created and p...

Page 56: ...e same way that pictures in newspapers and magazines are printed If you look closely at a newspaper photograph you can see that it is made up of many small dots The LX 90 also forms its images with patterns of dots as many as 240 dot positions per inch horizontally and 72 dots per inch vertically The images you print on the LX 90 can therefore be as finely detailed as the one on the first page of ...

Page 57: ...ich can be as tall or short and as wide or narrow as you desire You don t have to fill the whole page or even an entire line with your graphics figures In fact you can use as little or as much space as you like for a figure and put it anywhere on the page Graphics Mode The graphics mode command is quite different from the other com mands covered so far in this manual For most of the other LX 90 mo...

Page 58: ...ou want your next step is to tell the print head which pins to fire in each column There are 256 possible combinations of eight pins and you send only one number for each column The num bering system that allows you to use a single number to specify which of the 256 possible patterns you want is shown in Figure S 1 Figure 8 l Pin labels To fire any one pin you send its number To fire more than one...

Page 59: ... but it is difficult to see the pattern in a single column of dots so your first graphics program prints the same pattern 40 times The first line is the code for 40 columns of single density graphics As usual the example is in BASIC but you can adapt it to the pro gramming language you prefer NEW 10 LPRINT CHR 27 K CHR 40 CHR 0 The second line is the data that is printed as pin patterns Be sure th...

Page 60: ...f your pro grams than to examine each one to see whether or not such a state ment is necessary Multiple Line Exercise Now that you ve entered and run a simple graphics program you can go on to an exercise that shows you how the LX 90 combines several lines of graphics for a figure taller than eight dots Start with a line for 100 columns of single density graphics and lines to print two pin pattern...

Page 61: ...he dot patterns used in the program Therefore there is no space between the print lines Line 30 begins a loop to produce multiple print lines Lines 40 and 50 were explained previously Lines 70 and 80 are similar to lines 40 and 50 except that line 80 uses a reversal of the patterns in line 50 As the loop is executed the program prints lines 50 and 80 alternately so that the patterns of the print l...

Page 62: ...s Mode 1 but faster does not print consecutive dots in a row Quadruple ESC Z 3 240 dot positions per inch 1920 dots per 8 line does not print consecutive dots in a row 4 CRT none graphics 80 dots per inch 640 dots per 8 line One to one none plotter 72 dots per inch 5 576 dots per 8 line produces the same density horizontally as vertically 6 CRT none 90 dots per inch graphics II 720 dots per 8 line...

Page 63: ...r graphics printouts Column Reservation Numbers Now that you ve seen the rest of the 8 pin graphics densities and the reassigning code this section explains in more detail the part of the graphics command that reserves the number of columns for graphics the numbers nl and n2 in the examples If you need fewer than 255 columns of graphics n1 is the number of columns you want and n2 is zero As you ca...

Page 64: ...Designing Your Own Graphics This section takes you through the development of a graphics pro gram The example is not especially complicated but it does include the same steps you would use for a more complex figure so that you have the basis for designing graphics on your LX 90 You should plan your figure with dots on graph paper but before beginning to place the dots you must decide which graphic...

Page 65: ...ows using only seven pins pro duces three lines of seven rows each After plotting all the dots as in Figure 8 4 you calculate the num bers for each pin pattern by dividing the design grid into separate print lines For the arrow design the grid was divided into three lines each seven dots high Then each column was examined and the sums of the pin values determined This process for the first line is...

Page 66: ...intout then an explanation of two techniques not used before NEW 90 WIDTH LPRINT 255 100 LPRINT CHR 27 A CHR 7 590 FOR K 1 TO 3 600 LPRINT CHR 27 Y CHR 50 CHR 0 610 READ N IF N 128 THEN 650 620 IF N 0 THEN LPRINT CHR N GOT0 610 630 READ P R FOR J 1 TO N 632 LPRINT CHR P CHR R NEXT J 640 GOT0 610 650 LPRINT NEXT K LPRINT CHR 27 END 800 DATA 8 4 10 1 6 8 0 4 0 2 0 1 9 0 0 0 805 DATA 23 8 4 2 1 2 0 0...

Page 67: ...m but it does allow you to type fewer data numbers Otherwise the program is a straightforward graphics program that uses 7 dot line spacing and reads numbers from DATA statements and sends them to the printer If you want to see the figure in other densi ties change the Y in line 600 to L or Z String variables In a long and complicated graphics program typing in the graphics command or repetitive d...

Page 68: ...of the command Once you have done this at the beginning of the program each time you enter LPRINT G you have issued the graphics command Lines 20 and 30 do the same thing with the data used in this program As you can see the use of string variables saves some typing even in this short program In a long program it can save you much more time and effort 66 ...

Page 69: ... and a printout of the character that is printed by that code Char If the code does not produce a printable character the word none or the abbreviation for its control code is in the Char column This listing is given twice once for draft and once for NLQ See Chapter 5 for the international characters The codes for printer instructions such as expanded and empha sized printing are in Appendixes B a...

Page 70: ... 49 31 50 32 51 33 52 34 53 35 54 36 55 37 56 38 57 39 58 3A 59 3B 60 3C 61 3D 62 3E 63 3F 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dec Hex Char 64 40 65 41 66 42 67 43 68 44 69 45 70 46 71 47 72 48 73 49 74 4A 75 4B 76 4C 77 4D 78 4E 79 4F 80 50 81 51 82 52 83 53 84 54 85 55 86 56 87 57 88 58 89 59 90 5A 91 5B 92 5C 93 5D 94 5E 95 5F A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z _ Dec Hex Char 96 60 97 61 98 62...

Page 71: ... BO 177 B1 178 B2 179 B3 180 B4 181 85 182 B6 183 B7 184 B8 185 B9 186 BA 187 BB 188 BC 189 BD 190 BE 191 BF Dec Hex Char 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 192 co 193 Cl 194 C2 195 C3 196 C4 197 C5 198 C6 199 C7 200 C8 201 C9 202 CA 203 CB 204 CC 205 CD 206 CE 207 CF 208 DO 209 D1 210 D2 211 D3 212 D4 213 D5 214 D6 215 D7 216 D8 217 D9 218 DA 219 DB 220 DC 221 DD 222 DE 223 DF A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q ...

Page 72: ...9 63 c 36 24 68 44 D 100 64 d 37 25 69 45 E 101 65 e 38 26 70 46 F 102 66 f 39 27 71 47 g H 103 67 40 28 72 48 G 104 68 h 41 29 73 49 I 105 69 i 42 2A 74 4A J 106 6A j 43 2B 75 4B K 107 6B k 44 2C 76 4C L 108 6C 1 45 2D 77 4D M 109 6D m 46 2E 78 4E N 110 6E n 47 2F 79 4F 0 111 6F 0 48 30 0 80 50 P 112 70 p 49 31 1 81 51 Q 113 71 q 50 32 2 82 52 R 114 72 r 51 33 3 83 53 S 115 73 s 52 34 4 84 54 T 1...

Page 73: ...BO 177 B1 178 B2 179 B3 180 B4 181 B5 182 B6 183 B7 184 B8 185 B9 186 BA 187 BB 188 BC 189 BD 190 BE 191 BF 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dec Hex Char 192 C0 193 C1 A 194 C2 B 195 C3 C 196 C4 D 197 C5 E 198 C6 F 199 C7 G 200 C8 H 201 C9 I 202 CA J 203 CB K 204 CC L 205 CD M 206 CE N 207 CF O 208 DO P 209 D1 Q 210 D2 R 211 D3 S 212 D4 T 213 D5 U 214 D6 V 215 D7 W 216 D8 X 217 D9 Y 218 DA Z 219 DB 220 DC 221 ...

Page 74: ... 20 24 127 14 15 25 33 37 38 42 45 BEL B e e p e r C 23 BS Backspace C 23 HT Tab Horizontally C 16 LF Line Feed C 12 VT Tab Vertically C 16 FF Form Feed C 15 CR Carriage Return C 23 s o Select Expanded Mode one line C 5 SI Select Compressed Mode C 4 DC1 Select Printer C 24 DC2 Cancel Compressed Mode C 4 DC3 Deselect Printer C 24 DC4 Cancel Expanded Mode one line C 5 CAN Cancel Line C 24 DEL Delete...

Page 75: ...or C 25 Enable Paper Out Sensor C 25 Copy ROM Into RAM C 22 Select Unidirectional Mode C 26 Reassign Graphics Mode C 21 Initialize Printer C 26 Select n 72 Inch Line Spacing C 14 Select Vertical Tabs C 17 Select Page Length in Lines C 15 Select Page Length in Inches C 15 Set Horizontal Tabs C 16 Select Emphasized Mode C 7 Cancel Emphasized Mode C 7 Select Double Strike Mode C 7 Cancel Double Strik...

Page 76: ...SC e Set Horizontal and Vertical Tabs C 18 ESC 102 ESC f Print Spaces or Line Feeds C 18 ESC 108 ESC l Set Left Margin C 11 ESC 109 ESC m Select Special Graphics Characters C 10 ESC 115 ESC s Select Half Speed Mode C 27 ESC 120 ESC x Select NLQ or draft C 3 B 3 ...

Page 77: ...has a format section and a comment section The format section gives the ASCII decimal and hexadecimal codes for the command In some cases there is also a control key code because some commercial software programs can use a control key for a code between 0 and 27 decimal In this section CTRL 0 for example means hold down the control key while you press 0 Letters in parentheses such as n or d are va...

Page 78: ... n Hexadecimal 1B 51 n In BASIC you can send the command to set the right margin to 60 in three ways Decimal LPRINT CHR 27 CHR 81 CHR 60 Hex LPRINT CHR HlB CHR H51 CHR H3C Decimal with quotes LPRINT CHR 27 Q CHR 60 ESCape sequences that require a 0 or 1 with a letter such as ESC Wl to turn on expanded can use either the ASCII code or the numeral in quotation marks for the 0 or 1 For example in BAS...

Page 79: ... 97 n Hexadecimal 1B 61 n Comments This sequence selects justification as follows n 0 Selects left justification n 1 Selects centering n 2 Selects right justification n 3 Selects full justification The default setting is n 0 Full justification n 3 is performed when the buffer becomes full HT and BS are invalid except in n 0 mode For n 3 a WIDTH command may be required For n 3 there should be no ca...

Page 80: ...d mode has 17 16 characters per inch Not available in NLQ ESC SI Format ASCII code ESC SI Decimal 27 15 Hexadecimal 1B OF Comments Duplicates the SI command Select Compressed Mode DC2 Cancel Compressed Mode Format ASCII code DC2 Decimal 18 Hexadecimal 12 Control CTRL R Comments Cancels compressed printing set by SI or ESC SI c 4 ...

Page 81: ...age return DC4 ESC W0 or ESC ESC SO Select Expanded Mode one line Format ASCII code ESC SO Decimal 27 I 4 Hexadecimal I B 0E Comments Duplicates the SO command DC4 Cancel Expanded Mode one line Format ASCII code DC4 Decimal 20 Hexadecimal I4 Control CTRL T Comments Cancels one line expanded printing selected by SO or ESC SO but not expanded printing set by ESC W or ESC c 5 ...

Page 82: ...ls it ESC M Select Elite Pitch Format ASCII code ESC M Decimal 27 77 Hexadecimal 1B 4D Comments Elite pitch has 12 characters per inch Not available in NLQ ESC P Select Pica Pitch Format ASCII code ESC P Decimal 27 80 Hexadecimal I B 50 Comments Selects pica pitch 10 characters per inch Because pica is the default character width this command is normally used to cancel elite pitch C 6 ...

Page 83: ...first Reduces print head speed Valid only in pica mode ESC F Cancel Emphasized Mode Format ASCII code ESC F Decimal 27 70 Hexadecimal I B 46 Comments Turns off the mode selected by ESC E ESC G Select Double Strike Mode Format ASCII code ESC G Decimal 27 71 Hexadecimal I B 47 Comments In double strike each line is printed twice with the second printing slightly below the first Not valid in NLQ mode...

Page 84: ...uperscript Format ASCII code ESC s 0 Decimal 27 83 0 Hexadecimal I B 53 0 Comments Selects superscript mode ESC S1 Select Subscript Format ASCII code ESC s I Decimal 27 83 I Hexadecimal I B 53 I Comments Selects subscript mode ESC T Format ASCII code ESC Decimal 27 Hexadecimal I B Comments Cancels either mode Cancel Superscript Subscript T 84 54 C 8 ...

Page 85: ...B 21 n Comments Selects any valid combination of the following modes pica elite compressed emphasized double strike expanded italic under line Elite compressed double strike and italic are not available in NLQ Further details in Chapter 5 E S C 4 Select Italic Mode Format ASCII code ESC 4 Decimal 27 52 Hexadecimal I B 34 Comments Causes characters to be printed in the italic character set Not vali...

Page 86: ... n Hexadecimal I B 52 n Comments See Chapter 5 for details on this command ESC m Format ASCII code ESC Decimal 27 Hexadecimal I B Comments Select Special Graphics Characters m n 109 n 6D n Selects the special graphics character set which is stored in ASCII positions 128 to 159 Format in BASIC CHR 27 m CHR n where n toggles the character set on and off 4 turns the graphics characters ON 0 turns the...

Page 87: ...ca 3 96 in elite 4 137 in compressed 4 160 in compressed elite ESC I Set Left Margin Format ASCII code ESC Decimal 27 Hexadecimal I B I n 108 n 6C n Comments Sets the left margin n first printing column in the current pitch Maximum value of n is 78 in pica 93 in elite 133 in compressed 156 in compressed elite Clears previous tab settings therefore should be set before tabs are set Use lowercase 1 ...

Page 88: ...or line spacing and page length 66 lines ESC N 6 will cause the LX 90 to print 60 lines and then skip 6 ESC O Cancel Skip Over Perforation Format ASCII code ESC O Decimal 27 79 Hexadecimal I B 4F Comments Cancels the mode selected by ESC N Line spacing LF Line Feed Format ASCII code L F Decimal IO Hexadecimal OA Control CTRL J Comments When this command is received the data in the print buffer is ...

Page 89: ...Format ASCII code ESC I Decimal 27 49 Hexadecimal 1B 31 Comments Sets the line spacing to 7 72 of an inch for subsequent line feed commands The 1 is the digit one and not lower case L or ASCII code 1 ESC 2 Select l 6 Inch Line Spacing Format ASCII code ESC 2 Decimal 27 50 Hexadecimal I B 32 Comments Sets the line spacing to 1 6 of an inch for subsequent line feed com mands The 2 is the digit two a...

Page 90: ...II code ESC J n Decimal 27 74 n Hexadecimal 1B 4A n Comments Advances the paper by one line at a spacing of n 216 of an inch The value of n should be in the range 0 to 255 This produces an immediate line feed but does not affect subsequent line spacing and does not produce a carriage return ESC A Select n 72 Inch Line Spacing Format ASCII code ESC A n Decimal 27 65 n Hexadecimal I3 41 n Comments S...

Page 91: ...according to the current page length ESC C Select Page Length in Lines Format ASCII code ESC C n Decimal 27 67 n Hexadecimal 1B 43 n Comments Sets the page length to n lines The value of n should be between 1 and 127 ESC CO Select Page Length in Inches Format ASCII code ESC C 0 n Decimal 27 67 0 n Hexadecimal 1B 43 00 n Comments Sets the page length to n inches where n has a value of 1 to 22 c 15 ...

Page 92: ...e are entered as nl n2 n3 etc in the range 1 to 255 with ASCII 0 as the terminator The tab settings nl n2 n3 etc must be entered in ascending order If nl 0 all tabs are cleared The settings on power up or after an ESC command are every eight characters VT Tab Vertically Format ASCII code VT Decimal 11 Hexadecimal 0B Control CTRL K Comments Advances the paper to the next tab setting in the channel ...

Page 93: ... tab ESC b Select Vertical Tabs in Channels Format ASCII code ESC b c n1 n2 0 Decimal 27 98 c n1 n2 0 Hexadecimal 1B 62 c n 1 n 2 0 0 Comments c 0to7 Sets up to 16 vertical tabs for channel c The tab settings can be cleared by giving a value of zero to nl Tab settings are not affected by subsequent changes in line spacing ESC I Select Vertical Tab Channel Format ASCII code ESC c Decimal 27 47 c He...

Page 94: ... CHR 27 el CHR n where n is the number of line feeds and equals INT 255 x for x 216 inch line spacing INT 85 x for x 72 inch line spacing 7 for 12 dot line spacing ESC f Format ASCII code ESC Decimal 27 Hexadecimal 1B Comments Print Spaces or Line Feeds f n1 n2 102 n1 n2 66 n1 n2 Prints spaces or line feeds without carriage returns Horizontal format when nl 0 In BASIC CHR 27 fO CHR n where n is th...

Page 95: ...ne If d is the total number of columns required nl d MOD 256 n2 INT d 256 This command must be followed by d data numbers ESC L Select Double Density Graphics Mode Format ASCII code ESC L n1 n2 Decimal 27 76 n1 n2 Hexadecimal 1B 4C n1 n2 Comments Turns on low speed double density graphics mode with 960 possi ble dots per 8 inch line If d is the total number of columns required n1 d MOD 256 n2 INT ...

Page 96: ...total number of columns required nl d MOD 256 n2 INT d 256 This command must be followed by d data numbers ESC Z Select Quadruple Density Graphics Mode Format ASCII code ESC Z n1 n2 Decimal 27 90 n1 n2 Hexadecimal 1B 5A n1 n2 Comments Turns on quadruple density graphics mode with 1920 possible dot positions per B inch line Will not print consecutive dots in a row If d is the total number of column...

Page 97: ...27 63 s n Hexadecimal 1B 3F s n Comments Changes one graphics mode to another The variable s is a character K L Y or Z which is reassigned to a mode O 6 ESC Select 9 Pin Graphics Mode Format ASCII code ESC m n1 n2 Decimal 27 94 m n1 n2 Hexadecimal 1B 5E m n1 n2 Comments Turns on 9 pin graphics mode Where m defines density of print 0 for single and 1 for double and d is the total number of dots req...

Page 98: ...e Only characters from ASCII 58 through 63 can be re defined ESC Copy ROM Into RAM Format ASCII code ESC 0 0 0 Decimal 27 58 0 0 0 Hexadecimal 1B 3A 00 00 00 Comments This code allows the characters in the LX 90 ROM to be copied into RAM so that specific characters can be redefined ESC Select User Defined Set Format ASCII code ESC n Decimal 27 37 n Hexadecimal 1B 25 n Comments This code selects th...

Page 99: ...ut data in the print buffer then moves the print position one space to the left If this code is received immediately after graphics printing the print position of subsequent data is moved back to the point at which graphics printing started CR Carriage Return Format ASCII code C R Decimal 13 Hexadecimal 0D Control CTRL M Comments Prints the data in the buffer and returns the print position to the ...

Page 100: ... on line if it has been switched off using the ON LINE switch on the control panel D C 3 Deselect Printer Format ASCII code DC3 Decimal 19 Hexadecimal 13 Control CTRL S Comments Places the printer in off line mode until the select printer code DC1 is received C A N Cancel Line Format ASCII code CAN Decimal 24 Hexadecimal 18 Control CTRL X Comments Removes all text in the print buffer but does not ...

Page 101: ...r Format ASCII code ESC 8 Decimal 27 56 Hexadecimal 1B 38 Comments Turns off the paper out sensor so that you can print to the end of a single sheet of paper This command duplicates the function of DIP switch 1 5 Some computer systems ignore this command See page D 3 ESC 9 Enable Paper Out Sensor Format ASCII code ESC 9 Decimal 27 57 Hexadecimal 1B 39 Comments Turns on paper out sensor so that the...

Page 102: ...rmat ASCII code ESC Decimal 27 64 Hexadecimal 1B 40 Comments Resets the printer to the power on state including top of form Clears the buffer of all data entered before the command but not after ESC U Select Unidirectional Mode Format ASCII code ESC U n Decimal 27 65 n Hexadecimal 1B 55 n Comments Selects unidirectional printing for more accurate positioning during text printing n 1 selects the fe...

Page 103: ... 1B 73 n Comments n 1 selects the mode n 0 cancels it DEL Delete Character Format ASCII code DEL Decimal 127 Hexadecimal 7F Comments Removes the last text character in the print buffer but does not affect control codes It cannot be guaranteed in the italic mode Not valid in NLQ C 27 ...

Page 104: ...witches are in the back of your LX 90 printer These switches control a number of important printer functions This appendix also describes the interface DIP Switches The design of the LX 90 gives you easy access to the switches which you can locate using Figure D l Figure D l DIP switch location D l ...

Page 105: ...ive CR only Active Switch 1 1 selects pica or compressed printing ON is compressed OFF is pica Regardless of the setting you can still select compressed with SelecType and either compressed or pica with ESCape codes Switch Z 2 selects draft or Near Letter Quality When it is ON the printer prints in the NLQ mode When it is OFF it prints in the draft mode If the switch is off you can still select th...

Page 106: ... 2 Table D 2 International DIP switch settings Country Switch 1 6 Switch 1 7 Switch 1 8 USA F r a n c e I On On On O n On Off Germany United Kingdom On Off On On Off Off Denmark Sweden Italy Spain Off On On Off On Off Off Off On Off Off Off Switch 2 1 controls the printing of zeroes When it is ON the zeroes are slashed 0 when it is OFF they are not Switch 2 2 regulates printer selection When it is...

Page 107: ... the receiving terminal IN These signals represent information of IN IN the 1st to 8th bits of parallel data respectively Each signal is at HIGH IN level when data is logical 1 and LOW IN when it is logical 0 IN IN OUT Approximately 12 microsecond pulse LOW indicates that data has been received and that the printer is ready to accept more data OUT A HIGH signal indicates that the printer cannot re...

Page 108: ...e than 50 microseconds at the receiving terminal This level becomes LOW when the printer is in 1 Paper end state 2 Off line 3 Error state Unused Unused Unused Unused Notes 1 The column heading Direction refers to the direction of signal flow as viewed from the printer 2 Return denotes the twisted pair return to be connected at signal ground level For the interface wiring be sure to use a twisted p...

Page 109: ...W 5 Under normal conditions printer cable pins 11 12 and 32 are acti vated when the paper out condition is detected The ESCape 8 code disables pins 11 and 32 but not pin 12 Those computers that monitor pin 12 halt printing when the paper is out making ESCape 8 ineffective Data Transfer Sequence Interface timing Figure D 2 shows the timing for the parallel interface Figure D 2 Parallel interface ti...

Page 110: ... the name or type of printer you are using select one of the following from the menu The ones at the top of the list are preferable to the ones at the bottom Epson LX 90 Epson HomeWriter Epson FX Epson RX Epson printer Epson MX Draft printer Some programs allow you to install the LX 90 as a custom printer and specify its characteristics If you choose to do this follow the instructions in your soft...

Page 111: ... controlled by SelecType simply enter SelecType mode and then press the FF button without pressing the ON LINE button This is useful when you make a mistake while setting codes and want to start over again and it does not interfere with top of page user defined char acters or other items that are not controlled by SelecType If you do make a mistake while using SelecType just press the LF button to...

Page 112: ...Type mode 6 Press the ON LINE button to put the printer on line Now you have cancelled emphasized without affecting any other modes Some users think that this procedure is too complicated and prefer to cancel all the SelecType settings and then reset the ones they want Use whichever method you prefer If you want to cancel modes indi vidually remember to watch the ON LINE light It blinks mainly on ...

Page 113: ... this manual that contain INPUT statements put the line that states PR l after the INPUT statement QX l0 and QX l6 TM Solutions The format for the WIDTH statement for the Epson QX 10 and QX 16 computers is WIDTH LPRINT 255 Graphics There are two common sources of problems with graphics pro grams in BASIC 1 Unwanted codes for carriage returns and line feeds may be inserted by BASIC if lines are ove...

Page 114: ...ertain place in the list of codes Each character in the guide section corresponds to one of the codes If the code is for a printable character that character is printed If the code is for a non printable character such as the ESCape code or the code for a line feed or carriage return a dot is printed Therefore if you ran the following BASIC program while your LX 90 was in the data dump mode you wo...

Page 115: ...w a data dump printout on your own Some software changes one or more codes when sending them to the printer The ability of the LX 90 to dump in hexadecimal lets you determine which codes are creating problems for your system A data dump printout of a program shows exactly what the printer is receiving regardless of what the computer is sending The following program run in the data dump mode can sh...

Page 116: ... 58 59 5A 5B 5C 5D 5E 5F 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6A 6B 6C 6D 6E 6F 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 7A 7B 7C 7D 7E 7F 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 8A 8B 8C 8D 8E 8F 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 9A 9B 9C 9D 9E 9F A0 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 AA AB AC AD AE AF BO B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 BA BB BC BD BE BF C0 Cl C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 CA CB CC CD CE CF D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 DA DB DC ...

Page 117: ...18 CHR 27 See ESCape code Codes See ASCII Control codes ESCape code cancelling 22 Commands listed by function Cl C27 listed by number Bl B3 Commercial software installation El Communications computer printer 18 Compressed mode 16 21 22 24 Can also be set with SelecType or a DIP switch compressed elite 23 24 Computer printer connection 5 Control codes data dumping in hexadecimal E5 E7 listed by fun...

Page 118: ...ized mode 25 26 Can also be set with SelecType Error warnings E3 E4 ESCape code 18 listed by function Cl C27 listed by number Bl B3 Expanded mode 27 F FE See Control panel Foreign characters See International characters Formatting page 37 40 Function switches See DIP switches G Graphics 53 66 characters Cl0 designing your own 62 66 nine pin C21 pin labels 56 57 reassigning code 61 summary table 60...

Page 119: ...LE See Control panel Line feed 38 automatic DIP switch setting for D3 Line spacing 38 39 Listing programs 7 M Margins 37 38 Master Select 29 30 Matrix See Dot matrix printing Mode combinations 27 28 See also Master Select N Near Letter Quality NLQ mode 17 23 24 A4 A5 Can also be set with SelecType or a DIP switch justification 39 40 self test 5 Nine pin graphics See Graphics NLQ See Near Letter Qu...

Page 120: ...rforation PIC See Printer Interface Cartridge Pica mode 16 21 24 Pins numbering of 56 57 Pitch comparison table 24 See also Pica Elite Compressed POWER light 6 Print enhancements 25 35 Print head 15 and dot graphics 54 55 Print mode combinations 13 14 See also Master Select Print pitch summary table 24 Printer Interface Cartridge PIG 3 Program listings 7 R READY light 6 Reset code 22 23 with user ...

Page 121: ...ngle sheet printing 39 Skip over perforation 38 Spacing See Line spacing Special graphics characters Cl0 Subscript mode 30 31 Superscript mode 30 31 Switches See DIP switches Test pattern See Self test Top of page 23 Underline mode 28 User defined characters 41 52 WIDTH statement 40 58 Zero slashed D2 D3 T U W Z Index 5 ...

Page 122: ...tteries not supplied by Epson or by accident misuse neglect or improper packing shipping modification or servicing by other than Epson or an authorized Epson Service Center SOME EPSON PRODUCTS HAVE A COMPARTMENT CONTAINING STATIC SENSITIVE ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY THIS COMPARTMENT IS CLEARLY LABELED DO NOT OPEN IT THIS WARRANTY WILL BECOME VOID IF YOU ATTEMPT TO MODIFY OR ADJUST ANY ROM OR OTHER PART ...