User’s Manual LABEL PRINTER MODEL LP-50 1 DATECS, Bulgaria
1 DATECS LP-50 THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT CANNOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL OR ELECTRONIC WAY AND UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT FROM DATECS LTD. Sofia 1784 - BULGARIA, tel: +359 2 974 00 55, fax: +359 2 974 11 00, e-mail: sales@datecs.
User’s Manual CONTENTS: 1. OUTLINE ...................................................................................................... 1 3 1.1. Features ................................................................................... 1 3 1.2. Unpacking ............................................................................... 1 4 2. BASIC RULES FOR OPERATING THE LP-50 ...................................... 1 5 3. OUTER VIEW - CONTROL ..............................................................
1 DATECS LP-50 4
User’s Manual IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS y Read all of these instructions and save them for future reference. y Follow all warnings and instructions marked on the product. y Unplug this product from the wall outlet before cleaning. Do not use iquid or aerosol cleaners. Use a damp cloth for cleaning. y Do not use this product near water. y Do not place this product on an unstable cart, stand or table. The product may fall, causing serious damage to the product.
1 DATECS LP-50 y B. If liquid has been spilled into the product. C. If the product has been exposed to rain or water. D. If the product does not operate normally when the operating instructions are followed. Adjust only those controls that are covered be the operating instructions since improper adjustment of other controls may result in damage and will often require extensive work by a qualified technician to restore the product to normal operation. E.
User’s Manual SAFETY PRECAUTIONS – BE SURE TO OBSERVE In order to prevent hazards to an operator or other persons and damage to property, be sure to observe the following precautions. y The following describes the degrees of hazard and damages that can occur if the given instructions are neglected or the printer is incorrectly operated. ! WARNING Negligence of this precaution may result in death or serious injury. ! CAUTION Negligence of this precaution may result in injury or damage to property.
1 DATECS LP-50 ! WARNING y Never handle the equipment in the following manners, as it may break, become out of order, or overheat causing smoke and resulting in fire or electric shock. If the equip ment is used in an abnormal condition, such as when broken, then problems, smoke emission, abnormal odor/noise, and fire can result. If an abnormal condition exists, be sure to disconnect the power plug from a plug socket, and contact our dealer. Never repair the equipment on your own – it is very dangerous.
User’s Manual ! PRECAUTIONS FOR INSTALLATION y Do not use or store the equipment in a place exposed to fire, moisture, or direct y y y y y y y y y y y y y sunshine, or in a place near a heater or thermal device where the prescribed operating temperature and humidity are not met, or in a place exposed to much oil, iron powder, or dust. The equipment may become out of order, emit smoke, or catch fire.
1 DATECS LP-50 y Use a shielding wire or twisted pair wire for a signal line, in order to minimize noise effect. Do not route the cable too long or connect it to a noisy device. Connection to a noisy device could cause erroneous printing due to corrupt data, and so on. y Use the equipment in an environment where there is s plug socket near the main body and you can easily disconnect the power plug from it, to shut off the power.
User’s Manual ! PRECAUTIONS FOR HANDLING Do not handle the equipment in the following manners, because problems may result. y Do not use any other power source besides the accessory DC/AC adapter. Also, do notg use the AC adapter for other purposes. y Do not print without paper. y Do not drop or put any foreign object, such as a clip, pin, or the like, inside the printer. y Do not spill any liquid or spray any chemical-containing liquid over the equipment.
1 DATECS LP-50 ! DAILY MAINTENANCE y At the time of maintenance, be sure to turn off the power switch of the printer and unplug it from the socket. y Use a dry soft cloth to wipe off stains and dust from the surfaces of the main body case. For severe soiling, dip the cloth in water and wring it, for wiping off the soil. Never use organic solvents, such as alcohol, thinner, trichlene, benzene, ketone, or chemical dusters.
User’s Manual 1. OUTLINE This small line thermal printer is designed for various types of data communication terminals and measuring instrument terminals. Its abundant built-in features allow you to widely use this printer for different applications. Prior to using it, read and understand this manual thoroughly. 1.1. Features 1. Small, lightweight and installable in a narrow area 2. High speed and low noise, owing to line thermal print 3.
1 DATECS LP-50 1.2. Unpacking When unpacking the package, confirm that the following parts are provided: y Printer body ...................... 1 unit y Sample paper roll ............ 1 roll y AC adapter ....................... 1 piece y User’s manual .................. 1 copy y Disc ................................... 1 piece ! CAUTION y Install the printer body on a flat and stable desk or mount it onto the wall, etc., using a hook, etc.
User’s Manual 2. BASIC RULES FOR OPERATING THE LP-50 ! FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS CLOSELY. ! MAY CAUSE DAMAGE TO THE UNIT. • The LP–50 is operated ONLY with its own DC/AC adapter. • Attempts to print on other types of paper, stickers, folio not specified as acceptable in this MANUAL may seriously damage your printer. • When inserting the paper roll be careful not to let any pins, paper clips or other hard objects fall inside the printing mechanism. • Do not spill liquids of any kind on the device.
1 DATECS LP-50 3. OUTER VIEW – CONTROL 3.1. General description of the LP-50 The LP-50 is a thermal printer designed to print small sized labels and graphics on thermo-sensitive paper. It is particularly useful when printing information, arranged in a template form, which has to be partially modified under customer demand.
User’s Manual Capital and small letters are identified. A detailed description of the commands follows but it must be underlined that if a command starts with “;” it will not generate any action on the part of the printer. This command may be used for comments if we register the commands in a text file. The fastest and easiest way to work with this printer is to use the accompanying program DATECS Label Editor (LPeditWH.
1 DATECS LP-50 3 Designing the appearance of the label. Setting the elements, which will not be subject to changes - they will need no counters or variables. 3 Setting and defining the elements subject to changes for each label. When some of them are whole numbers and will change at regular rates a counter may be defined for them. The rest must be variables. Depending on the case in question the information on a given inscription or bar code may be set in several different variables and/or counters.
User’s Manual 3 At the end of the file the command FE is added - “Form End”. 3 The ready file is then sent to the printer: the form should be loaded into the memory and be printed out in the list with the FI command. With the FR command the form may become active. Values of the variables and counters are added with the command “?” from a terminal program. The forms, the graphics and loadable fonts use a common memory of the printer, i.e.
1 DATECS LP-50 3.3. DIP switches and buttons 3.3.1. Configuration switches Sw1 Sw2 Sw3 Baud rate (bps) OFF OFF OFF Local keyboard ON OFF OFF 2 400 OFF ON OFF 4 800 ON ON OFF 9 600 OFF OFF ON 19 200 ON OFF ON 38 400 OFF ON ON 57 600 ON ON ON 115 200 OFF ON Sw4 Hardware protocol XON / XOFF protocol Sw6 Paper roll printing Sticker label Sw8 Normal operation mode LP-50 compatible 3.3.2. Operation buttons The FEED button extracts paper until it is released.
User’s Manual 3.4. Indicators POWER ERROR PAPER Lights in green when printer is ON. Normally when printer is ON it is not active. Blinks in red when printer is overheated. Off during normal printer status. Lights in red when paper is over and blinks in red if no label is found. 3.5. List of commands 3.5.1.
1 DATECS LP-50 • Generating a graphic image Generating a line of text Drawing a bar-code Drawing rectangles in XOR mode Drawing rectangles in black Drawing rectangles in white Drawing diagonal lines Drawing a frame Drawing out a loaded PCX file Drawing a 2D bar-code (PDF417) A B LE LO LW LS X GG b • Working with forms (command files) Start of a new form End of a new form Loading a form Deleting a form Recovering the name of the active form Listing of the leaded forms * * * * * * FS FE FR FK FA FI • Wo
User’s Manual • Clearing the memory Clearing the operational memory Clearing current forms and graphic buffer Entering default settings * * * M N RESET * * P PC * * * * * * U U@ UM UF UG UE • Print Printing a label Resuming an interrupted printing session • Information and diagnostics Printing diagnostic information Retrieving diagnostic information Info on occupied memory Returning a list of loaded forms Returning a list of loaded graphics Returning a list of loaded fonts 3.5.2.
1 DATECS LP-50 Deleting a form Loading a form Start of a new form Drawing out a loaded PCX file Listing of loaded PCX files Deleting a PCX file Saving a new PCX file Direct printing of graphic info Selecting the character table Set / Cancel condensed text mode Drawing a rectangle or a line Clearing the operational memory Clearing current forms and graphic buffer Printing a label Resuming an interrupted printing session Setting the page length Setting the starting point Entering default settings Setting dat
User’s Manual 4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COMMANDS 4.1. Setting the printer’s functional mode Select / Cancel direct text printing mode The command sets the printer to a mode, in which all lines received are printed and not executed as a command. In the “sticker labels” mode the margin between the labels is skipped. Format: @n Where n may be 0, 2, 3 or 4; 0 cancels this mode while the other values sets the direct text printing mode using the corresponding font number.
1 DATECS LP-50 Setting the printing speed Format: Sn Where n may be between 0 and 2 , the value being approximately 25.0, 37.5 and 50 mm/sec. At higher density rates the printer may not be able to print at this speed. Example: S2 Printing speed is set at 50 mm/sec. Selecting the code table The printer supports 13 code tables. There are no images for the symbols with ASCII codes 0 - 31.
User’s Manual When paper rolls are used sets the vertical size of the printing area and the automatic space added after it. Both sizes are in dots: 8 dots/mm or 203 dots/inch. If there are elements outside of this size when the image is generated they will be cut off. Example: Q240,80 Sets the length of the page - 30 mm - and dividing space 10 mm. When sticker-labels are used sets the borders of the label, and prints exactly one image per label.
1 DATECS LP-50 Setting date format The command sets the mode in which the string will generate the current date. Format: TDAxByC With capital letter the fields for the date have been marked. A, B and C may have the following values, which may be used not more than once: Y2 or Y4 The current year, marked with 2 or 4 digits. ME or MN The current month shown in three letters or two digits. DD The current day of the month. The small letters mark the spaces between the fields.
User’s Manual 4.2. Working with variables and counters Defining a counter Offers the option to define up to 8 counters, which are whole digit variables, the values of which change automatically after printing at a previously set rate. Initialization starts with the command ‘?’ It is used alone or in combination with other variables and counters when generating a text or a bar code. Format: a b c N R L C d e f Ca,b,c[d],e,f Logical number of the counter (0 - 7) Maximum Length (1 - 24) Alignment.
1 DATECS LP-50 Format: a b c N R L C d e Va,b,c,d,e The number of the variable (0 - 31) Maximum length (1 - 63) Alignment - possible values: No alignment - actual length is used. The string of the variable is right aligned - on the left the set length is filled with the additional symbol. The string of the variable is left aligned - on the right the set length is filled with the additional symbol.
User’s Manual 4.3. Generating a graphic image Generating a text The command is used for inserting textual information in the image. Format: a b c d d e f g h Aa,b,c,d[*],e,f,g,[*]h Starting coordinate on X for the upper left angle of the text: 0 - 2047. Starting coordinate on Y for the upper left angle of the text: 0 - 4095. Text orientation: 0=0o, 1=90o, 2=180o, 3=270o where rotation is clockwise.
1 DATECS LP-50 data. If the symbol ‘*’ is placed after the font name, then code table 0 (CP437) is used for this text line independent of the last command ‘I’ executed. Example: A10, 10, 1, 3, 2, 2, N, “Something” Will create an image of the text “Something” from the coordinate (10,10) rotated to 90o with font 12 x 20 multiplied times 2 in a horizontal and vertical direction. The text is not inverted. Generating bar-codes The command is used for inserting a bar code in the image.
User’s Manual j Data for imaging. The format is similar to the generation of text and bar code and is described further in the text. When the bar code functions with a set number of symbols the command will be rejected at an unacceptable symbol. The same is valid in the case of invalid bar code lengths demanding a certain number of symbols.
1 DATECS LP-50 Drawing a rectangle There are three commands designed for this operation. LO prints in black, LE inverts the dots located below the line (in the XOR mode), while LW prints, unconditionally, in white. Format: LOa,b,c,d or LEa,b,c,d or LWa,b,c,d a Starting coordinate for X: 0 - 2047 b Starting coordinate for Y: 0 - 4095 c Size for X: 1 - 2047 d Size for YL: 1 - 4095 Example: LO10, 10, 100, 200 Draws a rectangle with coordinates (10,10), (110,10), (110,210) and (10, 210) in black.
User’s Manual d e X coordinate of the opposite angle: 0 - 2047 Y coordinate of the opposite angle: 0 - 4095 Example: X10, 10, 3, 360, 250 Draws a rectangle with a size of 250 x 240 and frame thickness of 3 dots. Generating 2D bar-codes The command is used for inserting 2D bar-code in the image. Only PDF417 is supported. Format: bp1,p2,p3,p4,p5[,pi...],”Data” p1 Starting coordinate on X for the upper left corner of the bar-code: 0 to 2047.
1 DATECS LP-50 p7 (c) p8 (p) x p9 (f) p10 (x) p11 (y) p12 (r) p13 (l) p14 (o) Data Data compression method. c0 Auto-encoding (default). c1 Binary mode. Print human readable data. Non-standard PDF417 and should be used for troubleshooting purposes only.Internal format: px,y,n X start coordinate. 0 – 2047. y Y start coordinate. 0 – 4095. n Maximum characters per line. 1 – 40. Bar-code origin point. f0 Bar-code origin point is defined by parameters p1 and p2.
User’s Manual Example: b0,0,P,320,100,f0,”DATECS Ltd.\ 10www.datecs.bg\10" will print the a PDF417 bar-code containing the data: DATECS Ltd.www.datecs.bg Upper left corner of the image will be (0,0). Starting from module width 6, the printer reduces the size until the barcode can be printed. The resulting bar-code has 9 columns and 5 rows. Error correction level is automatically set to 1 (4 error correction codewords).
1 DATECS LP-50 Current hour: Variable: n m Modifiers > < Rn Ln Mm.n # Xmn G Counter: n Modifiers 38 Coded with TT Format: Vn[-m|+m] [Modifiers] Number of the variable. Not obligatory parameter – an integer between 0 and 10000. If present and the variable can be interpreted as an integer number, then this value is addred to the value of the variable. Instructions for separating some of the symbols from the variable. Their number is arbitrary.
User’s Manual The order in which the printer processes the variables and the counters is as follows: - The present values of the counter/variable is taken as a starting point - Its formatting is performed depending on the way it is defined with the command V or C; - All modifiers are executed from left to right; - The resulting string is added to the end of the string, resulting from the processing of the previous elements. Examples: “Date: “TD” Time:”TT will generate something like this: Date: 02.APR.
1 DATECS LP-50 4.4. Working with forms Starting to save a new form This command starts the entry of a new form in the operational memory of the printer. All valid commands, which are sent to the printer between this command and FE will be saved in this form. If any of the commands is rejected due to syntax error because it has not been accepted in a form it will not be saved. If there is a previous form with this name it must be deleted with FK - in the opposite case the command will be rejected.
User’s Manual Loading of a form The command announces the information entered earlier as active. From this point on the information in question will be executed automatically at each command for printing. The closing of the activity of the form comes when a new form is loaded or with the commands M or N. Of course, the result will be the same when the form is deleted. Format: Name: FR”Name” The name of the form. A form with this name must be loaded into the memory.
1 DATECS LP-50 4.5. Working with graphic files Loading a new graphic Saves a new graphic file in the memory of the printer. The rules concerning names are the same as with the forms. The command will be rejected if there is a graphic file of that name or the entered size of the file is greater than the size of the free operational memory. The file must be in the PCX format, monochrome - in any other case it will not be loaded. It can be produced in different programs under Windows - for example PhotoShop.
User’s Manual Deleting graphic files The command deletes an existing graphic file or all graphic files. After deletion the memory is freed. Format: GK”Name” Name: The name of the file (a file of that name must be found in the memory). Information on loaded graphic files Format: Prints out a list of all loaded graphic files. GI 4.6. Working with loadable fonts Loading a font The command is used for loading additional fonts in the printer.
1 DATECS LP-50 Dj Data on the j-th symbol. (p3*cj ) bytes arranged in the j order line by line from left to right where each byte corresponds to a dot, “1” are black dots. Deleting fonts The command deletes an existing loadable font or all fonts. The engaged memory is freed. Format: EK”Name” Name of the font. String, which consists of only one letter, which must be found in the memory of the printer. If as ‘*’ is entered all loadable fonts will be deleted.
User’s Manual 4.7. Clearing the memory Clearing the operational memory The command leads to the deletion of the whole information loaded into the printer, including forms, graphics, and fonts. All adjustments to the printer, accessible via commands acquire their default values. Format: M De-activation of the current form and deletion of the graphic buffer The command clears the memory where the image for printing is generated and places the printer in the mode “working without active forms”.
1 DATECS LP-50 4.8. Print Printing a label The command initiates the printing out of the contents of the printer’s graphic buffer. After the completion of this action it is automatically cleared and ready for generating a new label. After the end of the printing session the last label is pushed out of the printer in away so that it is completely visible and ready for use. Format: P[m,]n m The number of identical labels which will be printed out.
User’s Manual 4.9. Diagnostics and returning of data Printing out of diagnostic data This command activates the printing of data on the status of the printing head as well as the model of the printer, available free memory the baud rate of the serial port and the values of the cur rent printer settings.
1 DATECS LP-50 Returning data on loaded graphics Format: UG or GI”NAME” The first form of the command returns a list of the graphics, loaded in the printer. It has the following structure: nnn The overall number of loaded graphics. 3 digits. Gr1 mmm The name and the size of the first graphic image. ... Grn mmm The name and the size of the n-th graphic image. Each element of the above structure ends in the combination .
User’s Manual n2 D Least significant byte of the total number of bytes - i.e, (n1* 256 +n2) Font data. The total bytes count is n1*256+n2. The format of the data is described in the command for loading fonts (FS). 4.10. Direct printing of a text Format: =Line Prints out a text directly, without savings in the graphic buffer. The printing results are always of a size 12 x 20 (No.3). When printing sticker labels the margin between the labels is skipped.
1 DATECS LP-50 5. WORKING WITH THE LOCAL KEYBOARD EKP - 30 The 1200 bps baud rate is reserved for operating with the local keyboard. The local keyboard may be used to select forms, saved in advance, for printing; to print out a set number of labels; to change the value of the variables V0, V1 and V2 as well as the counters C0 and C1 plus the option to print a list of the loaded forms, graphic images and fonts.
User’s Manual Description of the keys: V0, V1, V2, C0, C1: When pressing anyone of these keys the information entered is saved in the printer as a value of the respective variable or counter. Esc: The entered information is canceled. Form: A “D” is added at the beginning of the information entered previously and a new form is loaded with the respective name. Depending on the signal from the printer one can identify whether such a form exists or not.
