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Contents 1. 2. 3. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Installation and Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Inserting the Printer Interface Cartridge . . . . . . . . . . . Printing the Test Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting the Printer to Your PCjr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Your Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. Print Enhancements and Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bold Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Emphasized Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Double-Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Expanded Mode.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mode Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Underline Mode . . . . . . .
Appendixes A. LX-90 Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Standard Character Mode (Draft) Standard Character Mode (NLQ) Alternate Character Mode (Draft) Alternate Character Mode (NLQ) B. ................ ................ ................ ................ Control Codes in Numeric Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Control Key Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-l A-2 A-4 A-6 A-8 B-l B-9 C. Control Codes by Function . . . . . . . .
Introduction The Epson LX-90 printer combines low price with the high quality and advanced capabilities formerly available only on more expensive printers. The LX-90 User’s Manual tells you how to set up your printer. This Printer Interface Cartridge Operation Manual gives you the specific information you need to use the LX-90 with your PCjr computer. This manual won’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.
E x p a n d e d e m p h a s i z e d Typewriter-style Near Letter Quality Emphasized bold printing Double-strike bold printing Compressed narrow printing Elite printing
Chapter 1 Installation and Operation After you have set up your printer and loaded the paper (following the directions in the LX-90 User’s Manual), you are ready to plug in your Printer Interface Cartridge (PIP™) 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. Once the PIC is installed, you are ready to test your printer.
Draft / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : : < = > ? @ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\ .
Figure 1-2. Control panel You have already used the control panel for a special purpose, printing the test patterns. Here are the main functions of the lights and buttons on this panel: l l l l l The POWER light glows green when the power is on. 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. The PAPER OUT light glows red when the printer is out of paper or the paper is loaded incorrectly.
l l FF (Form Feed)-advances continuous paper to the top of the next page or ejects a single sheet of paper. LF (Line Feed)-advances the paper one line at a time. The control panel can also be used to turn on several printing functions using SelecType, a feature which is described in the next chapter. Using Your Printer If you have a word processing or other commercial software program, just load the program into your computer, follow the printing instructions, and watch your LX-90 print.
Chapter 2 SelecType The LX-90 enables you to use a feature called SelecType to produce five special typestyles: Typewriter-style Near Letter Quality, Emphasized bold printing, Double-strike bald printing , Compressed narrow printing, or Elite printing. Choosing typestyles with SelecType is simple. A few taps on the printer’s control panel tell the printer which style you want, and SelecType lets you choose the typestyle each time you print.
Figure 2-1. Turning SelecType on When you press the ON LINE and FF buttons, the LX-90 signals in three ways that SelecType is on. l The 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. . 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 2-1.
Table 2-1. SelecType modes Mode 1 2 3 4 5 Typestyle ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz NLQ Emphasized ABCEDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz Double-strike ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz Compressed Elite ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz 2. Press the ON LINE button the number of times indicated in the mode column. Be sure that the printer beeps each time you press the ON LINE button. 3. Press the FF button to set the typestyle. 4. Press the LF button to turn SelecType off.
Now, run the program by typing RUN and pressing ENTER, or print your file or document by following the printing instructions of your software. The LX-90 will print your example in standard singlestrike printing, as shown below: This is an example of LX-90 printing. Now that you have created a sample, follow these steps to print it in emphasized mode: 1. See that both the ON LINE and READY lights are on. 2. Press the ON LINE and FF buttons at the same time. You hear a beep to signal that SelecType is on.
Mode combination Two of the SelecType modes (NLQ and emphasized) can be combined to create an impressive effect. If you want to see this combination, turn your printer off and back on and follow the instructions below : 1. See that the ON LINE and READY lights are on. 2. Press the ON LINE and FF buttons at the same time. 3. Press the ON LINE button once and then the FF button once. Since one is the code for NLQ, you have now set the LX-90 for NLQ. 4.
Table 2-2. Mode combinations Mode NLQ Emphasized NLQ Emphasized Doublestrike Compressed Elite • • Double-strike • • • Compressed • Elite • • • • Don’t worry about harming your printer if you try to combine two modes that the LX-90 can’t mix. Your settings cannot damage the printer because it is prepared for the possibility of receiving codes for conflicting modes. If it receives codes for two modes that it can’t combine, it uses only one of the codes.
Chapter 3 Elements of Dot Matrix Printing and Computer/Printer Communications This chapter is for those of you who want to know something about how your printer works. It’s a simple, non-technical explanation of the basics of dot matrix printing that will help you understand some of the later chapters, particularly the ones on user-defined characters and graphics. The Print Head The LX-90 uses a print head with nine pins or wires mounted vertically.
Changing Pitches In addition to pica, in which there are 10 characters per inch, the LX-90 can also print in other widths, or pitches. It does so by reducing the distance between pin firings. In the elite mode it prints 12 characters per inch and in the compressed mode it prints slightly more than 17 characters per inch. The pattern of the dots is not changed, but the horizontal space between them is reduced. Figure 3-2 shows enlargements of four sample letters in each of the three pitches.
NLQ Mode The preceding examples are in the LX-90’s draft mode, but the LX-90 also has the high-quality NLQ (Near Letter Quality) mode that you have seen in previous chapters. The NLQ letters are more fully-formed than the draft letters because they are made up of many more dots as you can see below. Figure 3-3 shows enlargements of two letters in draft mode compared with the same two in the NLQ mode. Figure 3-3.
ESCape and ASCII The details of printer-computer communication are complex, but for most purposes all you need to know is that the computer sends a series of codes (each consisting of one or more numbers) to the printer, and the printer interprets them. Some codes tell the printer to print a character, and other codes tell it to turn on or off certain printer functions, such as emphasized or Near Letter Quality.
Chapter 4 LX-90 Features The next four chapters describe many of the printing features of the LX-90. You can read these chapters if you wish, but you may not need to. Whether or not you use the rest of this manual depends upon your expertise, your interest, and the software you plan to use. Demonstration Programs Along with discussion and examples of the LX-90 features, these chapters include demonstrations in the BASIC programming language so that you can see these features in action.
printer for you and all you have to know about the printer is how to turn it on and how to load paper. If you need help with the installation program for your software, see Appendix E. How to Run BASIC Programs If you want to know just enough about BASIC to run the demonstration programs in this manual, here’s all you need. For more information, see the manuals for the PCjr. Even if you don’t have a BASIC cartridge, you can still use the version of BASIC that’s built into the PCjr’s memory.
In Chapter 3 you saw the enlargements of the three LX-90 pitches. Now you’ll learn how to produce them. Pica Printing The first exercise is a simple three-line program to print a sample line of characters in pica, the standard pitch. Enter this program: 40 FOR X=65 TO 105 50 LPRINT CHR$(X); 60 NEXT X: LPRINT: LPRINT Now run the program. You should get the results you see below, 10 pica characters per inch. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ[\]ˆ-'acdefghi Changing Pitches Now you can try other pitches.
Now run the program to see the line printed in compressed mode. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ-'abcdefghi Cancelling Codes As you saw in the third version of the print pitch program, you must cancel a code when you don’t want it any more. With very few exceptions, the LX-90 modes stay on until they are cancelled. It is important to remember this because an LX-90 mode can stay on even if you change from BASIC to another type of software.
you may have turned on, and the current position of the print head becomes the top of page setting. Some of the demonstration programs end with a reset code (Escape “@“) so that the commands from one program will not interfere with the commands in the next one. After you run a program with a reset code in it, remember to change the top of page setting before you begin printing full pages.
Enter and run the following program to see how the NLQ mode is turned on by an ESCape sequence: NEW 10 LPRINT CHR$(27)"x"CHR$(l); 20 FOR X=65 TO 105 30 LPRINT CHR$(X); 40 NEXT X: LPRINT ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ-'abcdefghi Note that you use a lowercase x, not a capital X, in line 10. Because of the high resolution of the NLQ mode, it prints only in pica, not in elite or compressed. All the modes demonstrated in this chapter are compared in Table 4-1. Table 4-1.
Chapter 5 Print Enhancements and Special Characters Besides the pitches (pica, elite, and compressed) covered in Chapters 3 and 4, the LX-90 offers many other typestyles. Bold Modes Two of the typestyles (emphasized and double-strike) are bolder than standard printing. Emphasized Mode In the emphasized mode the LX-90 prints each dot twice, with the second dot slightly to the right of the first.
Emphasized works only in draft pica and NLQ modes. In elite and compressed the dots are already so close together that even with the reduced print speed, the LX-90 cannot fire, retract, and again fire the pins quickly enough to print overlapping dots. You do sacrifice some print speed with emphasized, because the print head slows down and prints twice as many dots, but the increase in print quality is well worth it.
Expanded Mode Perhaps the most dramatic mode on the LX-90 is expanded. It produces extra-wide characters that are good for titles and headings. For this mode, the dot pattern of each character is expanded and twice as many dots are printed. You can see the difference between pica and expanded pica if you enter and run this program: l0 LPRINT "This is standard printing." 20 LPRINT CHR$(27)"W1"; 30 LPRINT "This is expanded." 100 LPRINT CHR$(27)"@" This is standard printing T h i s i s e x p a n d e d .
When you run the program, your printout should match the one below, showing that the two modes combine with no ‘trouble. This is standard printing. E m p h a s i z e d e x p a n d e d . A later section in this chapter explains a special ESCape code, Master Select, which allows you to control seven features with one ESCape sequence. Underline Mode The LX-90 also has a mode that will underline characters and spaces. You turn it on with ESCape “-1” and off with ESCape “-0”.
Master Select The LX-90 has a special ESCape code called Master Select that allows you to choose any possible combination of seven different modes: pica, elite, compressed, emphasized, double-strike, expanded, and underline.
The printer’s priority list causes a combination of emphasized and elite to produce elite only, a combination of emphasized and compressed to produce emphasized only, and a combination of all three to produce compressed elite. Also remember that elite or compressed will cancel pica. Master Select is a powerful code that gives you an easy way to produce multiple combinations with a single command.
Chapter 6 Page Formatting Although the LX-90 printer has many sophisticated commands to set margins, line spacing, and horizontal and vertical tabs, this chapter won’t take up your time with extensive discussions of these because most are taken care of by applications programs. Instead, this chapter describes a few commands that the average user might need. For more information, see Appendixes B and C, where all the commands are listed and described.
You should be aware that a few applications programs reset the printer before each document or file they print. These programs will, of course, cancel your new margin settings. If your program resets the printer, use its installation program to remove all codes from the initialization sequence. See Appendix E. The maximum right margins on the LX-90 printer are 80 in pica, 96 in elite, 132 in compressed, and 160 in compressed elite. For further information on this command see Appendix B.
The standard line spacing is the only one you need for almost all printing of text, but in some cases you may want to increase or decrease the space between lines. The LX-90 has several commands to do this. ESCape “0” or ESCape “1” decreases the line spacing to l/9-inch, and ESCape “2” returns it to l/6-inch. In addition there are commands to specify the line spacing in 72nds of an inch and 216ths of an inch.
The centering command centers a line of text between the margins. This is handy for headings, titles, and captions. Right justification is the opposite of left justification. The right margin is even and the left is not. Auto justification puts extra spaces between words where necessary so that both the left and right margins are even. This is the way most magazines, newspapers, and books (including this one) are printed. With this command, you need a WIDTH statement at the beginning of your program.
Chapter 7 User-Defined Characters The LX-90 has several hundred different characters stored in its Read Only Memory. Although this number includes draft, Near Letter Quality, international, and graphics characters, sometimes you would like to have a few more. For those occasions when you need a special character or a few letters in a different typeface, the LX-90 allows you to create your own characters and print them just as if they were ordinary letters.
Your user-defined characters can be utilitarian or imaginative, anything from a scientific symbol to script letters for your initials. Just follow the simple steps below. The only restriction on your creativity is that the characters you define must follow the same rules that govern the rest of the characters printed by the LX-90. In Figure 7-l are four pica letters with a grid of lines behind them so that you can see how they are designed.
123456789 Figure 7-2. Grid for designing draft characters Because the last two columns are reserved for the space between characters, they are not included in the grid. And since most characters do not use the bottom two rows, a heavy line indicates the usual lower limit for an LX-90 character. When you place your dots 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.
Definition program 1 The BASIC program below will help you translate your design into a character your LX-90 can print. Type it in now so that you can run it soon.
Running the program Now run the program. For each of the nine columns, the program asks for the numbers of the rows in which you want dots to appear. Enter the row numbers one at a time, pressing the ENTER key after each one. When you have entered all the numbers for a column or when you want no dots in a column, press ENTER without a number. Remember that the vertical lines in the grid are the even numbered columns.
123456789 Figure 7-5. Using the bottom eight rows Definition program 2 Once the character looks right, type in the next program. The program as listed creates the symbol for Mercury, but you can use it for any characters you create if you make one or two changes explained after the program listing.
210 DATA 112,8,0,138,116,138,0,8,112 220 DATA 58,68,2,128,0,128,2,68,58 Check your work by making sure that there are nine numbers in each DATA line and that the numbers are separated by commas. To define more than one character, use the total number of characters you are defining instead of the 1 in line 100. (You can define as many as six characters at a time. Just run program 1 several times and enter all the DATA numbers in program 2.
NLQ grid Because the NLQ characters can use as many as 18 dots vertically and 12 dots horizontally, you plan your designs on a different grid than the one for draft characters. 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 128 64 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 Figure 7-6. Grid for NLQ characters On this grid you can use any numbered line or space. As you can see, that includes the bottom line and the line on the right side.
Figure 7-7. Data numbers for one column To calculate the data numbers for this column, note which dots are used in the top group (the top eight positions) and add their values together. Then go down to the middle group (the next 8 positions) and add the values of any 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.
0 3 128 7 255 0 4 128 0 4 135 0 7 253 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 126 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 128 64 1 0 1 0 2 3 4 0 3 128 5 6 4 128 0 7 8 9 4 130 0 1 0 4 135 0 0 0 0 Figure 7-8. Musical design and data numbers If you look at 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 numbers for the musical design.
NEW 10 LPRINT CHR$(27)"x"CHR$(1) 20 LPRINT CHR$(27) ":"CHR$(0)CHR$(0)CHR$(0); 30 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(1)CHR$(0); 40 LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(~)~(("; 50 LPRINT CHR$(0)CHR$(12)CHR$(0); 60 FOR X=1 TO 36 70 READ C: LPRINT CHR$(C); 80 NEXT X 90 LPRINT "YOUR CHARACTER IN PICA: < < <" 100 LPRINT "IN EXPANDED EMPHASIZED PICA: "; 110 LPRINT CHR$(27)"!*< < <" 120 LPRINT CHR$(27)"!" CHR$(0) 130 DATA 0, 1, 0, 0, 3, 0, 128, 0, 3, 128, 7, 255, 0 140 DATA 4, 128, 0, 4, 128, 0, 4, 130, 0, 4, 135, 0 150 DATA 4, 135, 0, 7, 2
NEW 10 J=1: IF J>3 THEN A=58 ELSE A=60 20 LPRINT CHR$(27)"x"CHR$(1) 30 FOR X=58 TO 63: LPRINT CHR$(X)" ";: NEXT X 40 LPRINT CHR$(27) ":"CHR$(0)CHR$(0)CHR$(0) 50 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(1)CHR$(0); 60 LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(0)CHR$(A)CHR$(A-1+J); 70 FOR Y=1 TO J 80 LPRINT CHR$(0)CHR$(l2)CHR$(0); 90 FOR X=1 TO 36: READ C: LPRINT CHR$(C) 100 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, 1
Chapter 8 Introduction to Dot Graphics The dot graphics mode allows your LX-90 to produce pictures, graphs, charts, or almost any other pictorial material you can devise. Instead of using the standard letters and numbers, the graphics 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.
INSTALLATIONS BY MONTH 0 JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC The quickest and easiest way to print graphics on your LX-90 is to use a commercial graphics program. With such programs you usually create an image on your monitor or TV screen and then give a command to send the image to the printer. If you use commercial software that produces graphics, all you need to know about dot graphics is how to use the software.
In the main graphics mode, however, the LX-90 prints only one column of pins for each code it receives, and it uses only the top eight of the nine pins. Therefore, your graphics program must send codes for dot patterns, one number for each column in a line. For each of those columns the print head prints the pattern of dots you have specified. To print figures taller than eight dots, the print head makes more than one pass.
The graphics command requires more than one number to specify how many columns to reserve because as many as 1920 columns are possible in graphics printing. Since the LX-90 doesn’t use decimal numbers larger than 255, the graphics mode command uses two numbers for reserving columns. To figure the number of columns reserved, multiply the second number by 256 and add it to the first number. Since the command is set up for two numbers, you must supply two even if you only need one.
Figure 8-2. Calculating numbers for pin patterns With this numbering system, any combination of the eight pins adds up to a decimal number between 0 and 255, and no numbers are duplicated. Now that you know the principles of Epson graphics, you’re ready for two simple exercises, more densities, and then something more complex as a basis for writing your own programs.
WIDTH Statements Some software (including IBM Personal Computer BASIC) automatically inserts the control codes for a carriage return and a line feed after every 80 - 130 characters. This insertion is usually no problem with text, but it can spoil your graphics. In the graphics mode it may insert the control codes in the middle of a line. You can usually prevent these unwanted control codes with a WIDTH statement.
10 WIDTH "LPT1:",255 20 LPRINT CHR$(27)"A"CHR$(7) 30 FOR R=1 TO 3 40 LPRINT CHR$(27)"K"CHR$(100)CHR$(0); 50 FOR X=1 TO 50: LPRINT CHR$(85)CHR$(42); 60 NEXT X: LPRINT 70 LPRINT CHR$(27)"K"CHR$(100)CHR$(0); 80 FOR X=1 TO 50: LPRINT CHR$(42)CHR$(85); 90 NEXT X: LPRINT: NEXT R 100 LPRINT CHR$(27)"@" Now run the program to see the six print lines combine into a pattern: Because the short and simple program that produced the pattern demonstrates many elements of graphics programming, each line is explained below
Density Varieties Although all the examples so far in this chapter have been in the single-density graphics mode, the LX-90 offers five other eight-pin density modes and two nine-pin ones. Nine-pin graphics is not necessary for most uses, but you can find its command (ESCape “A”) in Appendix B. All the eight-pin densities and their commands are described in Table 8-l. Table 8-1.
Reassigning Code The LX-90 has a graphics command that changes one graphics mode to another. You can use it with many commercial graphics software programs to change the density and shape of your printouts. The code is ESCape “?s” n, where s is one of the four alternate graphics codes (K, L, Y, or Z) and n is the number of the new code (O-6).
Once you have chosen the number of columns you want to use, you can have your program do the calculations for you with the following format: CHR$(27)"L"CHR$(N MOD 256)CHR$(INT(N/256)); N is the total number of columns you want to specify. The MOD (modulus) function calculates the value for n1, and the INT (integer) function calculates the value for n2. For programming languages other than BASIC, consult your manual for the proper form for these functions.
lines, but no dots can overlap. In low-speed double density dots can be placed on vertical lines and they can overlap. Now look at the figure designed for high-speed double density. It should point you in the right direction for your own designs. Figure 8-4. Arrow design After plotting all the dots as in Figure 8-4, you calculate the numbers for each pin pattern by dividing the design grid into separate print lines. For the arrow design, the grid was divided into three lines, each seven dots high.
8 10 8 8 8 8 8 8 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23 4 1 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 2 0 0 0 Figure 8-5. First line of arrow figure The numbers for the second and third lines were calculated in the same manner. Once the numbers for the pin patterns are calculated, they go in DATA statements, separated by commas.
In this program the number 128 in the DATA statements signals the end of a print line. This is the reason for the IF-THEN statement in line 610 that skips to line 650 and causes a line feed. The other special technique used in this program is found in lines 620 and 630. Since some of the data numbers are repeated many times, using negative DATA numbers for repetitions saves typing.
Notice that the first line stores the whole graphics command in a single string variable. In order to do this you must put plus signs between the elements of the command. Once you have done this at the beginning of the program, each time you enter LPRINT G$; 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.
Appendix A LX-90 Characters This appendix is a listing of the characters produced by the decimal codes from 0 through 255. For each code the listing provides the decimal number (Dec), the hexadecimal number (Hex), 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 four times: standard draft, standard NLQ, alternate draft, and alternate NLQ.
Standard Character Mode (Draft) Dec Hex Char 0 00 none 1 01 none 2 02 none 3 03 4 04 5 05 6 06 7 07 8 08 9 09 HT 10 0A LF 11 0B VT 12 0C FF 13 0D CR 14 0E SO 15 OF SI 16 10 17 11 18 12 DC2 19 13 !! 20 14 DC4 21 15 22 16 23 17 24 18 CAN 25 19 26 1A 27 1B ESC 28 1C 29 1D 30 1E 31 1F A-2 Dec Hex Char 32 20 blank 33 21 34 22 35 23 36 24 37 25 38 26 39 27 40 28 41 29 42 2A 43 2B 44 2C 45 2D 46 2E 47 2F 48 30 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 ? Dec Hex Ch
Standard Character Mode (Draft) Dec Hex Char 128 80 129 81 130 82 131 83 132 84 133 85 134 86 135 87 136 88 137 89 138 8A 139 8B 140 8C 141 8D 142 8E 143 8F 144 90 145 91 146 92 147 93 148 94 149 95 150 96 151 97 152 98 153 99 154 9A 155 9B 156 9C 157 9D 158 9E 159 9F Dec Hex Char 160 A0 161 A1 162 A2 163 A3 164 A4 165 A5 166 A6 167 A7 168 A8 169 A9 170 AA 171 AB 172 AC 173 AD 174 AE 175 AF 176 B0 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 Dec
Standard Character Mode (NLQ) Dec Hex Char 0 00 none 1 01 none 2 02 none 3 03 4 04 5 05 6 06 7 07 8 08 9 09 HT 10 0A LF 11 0B VT 12 0C FF 13 0D CR 14 0E SO 15 0F SI 16 10 17 11 18 12 DC2 19 13 20 14 DC4 21 15 22 16 23 17 24 18 CAN 25 19 26 1A 27 1B ESC 28 1C 29 1D 30 1E 31 1F A-4 Dec Hex Char 32 20 blank 33 21 ! 34 22 " 35 23 # 36 24 $ 37 25 % 38 26 & 39 27 ' 40 28 ( 41 29 ) 42 2A * 43 28 + 44 2C , 45 2D 46 2E .
Standard Character Mode (NLQ) Dec Hex Char 128 80 129 81 130 82 131 83 132 84 133 85 134 86 135 87 136 88 137 89 138 8A 139 8B 140 8C 141 8D 142 8E 143 8F 144 90 145 91 146 92 147 93 148 94 149 95 150 96 151 97 152 98 153 99 154 9A 155 9B 156 9C 157 9D 158 9E 159 9F Dec Hex Char 160 A0 161 A1 162 A2 163 A3 164 A4 165 A5 166 A6 167 A7 168 A8 169 A9 170 AA 171 AB 172 AC 173 AD 174 AE 175 AF 176 B0 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 Dec He
Alternate Character Mode (Draft) Dec Hex Char 0 00 none 1 01 none 2 02 none 3 03 4 0 4 5 05 6 06 7 07 8 08 9 09 HT 10 0A LF 11 0B VT 12 0C FF 13 0D CR 14 0E SO 15 0F SI 16 10 17 11 18 12 DC2 19 13 !! 20 14 DC4 21 15 22 16 23 17 24 18 CAN 25 19 26 1A 27 1B ESC 28 1C 29 1D 30 1E 31 1F A-6 Dec Hex Char 32 20 blank 33 21 34 22 35 23 36 24 37 25 38 26 39 27 40 28 41 29 42 2A 43 28 44 2C 45 2D 46 2E 47 2F 48 30 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 Dec Hex Ch
Alternate Character Mode (Draft) Dec Hex Char 128 80 none 129 81 none 130 82 none 131 83 132 84 133 85 134 86 135 87 136 88 137 89 HT 138 8A LF 139 8B VT 140 8C FF 141 8D CR 142 8E SO 143 8F SI 144 90 145 91 146 92 DC2 147 93 !! 148 94 DC4 149 95 150 96 151 97 152 98 CAN 153 99 154 9A 155 9B ESC 156 9C 157 9D 158 9E 159 9F Dec Hex Char 160 A0 161 Al 162 A2 163 A3 164 A4 165 A5 166 A6 167 A7 168 A8 169 A9 170 AA 171 AB 172 AC 173 AD 174 AE 175 AF 176 B0 177 B1 178 B2 179 B3 180 B4 181 B5 182 B6 183 B7 184 B
Alternate Character Mode (NLQ) Dec Hex Char 0 00 none 1 01 none 2 02 none 3 03 4 04 5 05 6 06 7 07 8 08 9 09 HT 10 0A LF 11 0B VT 12 0C FF 13 0D CR 14 0E SO 15 0F SI 16 10 17 11 18 12 DC2 19 13 !! 20 14 DC4 21 15 22 16 23 17 24 18 CAN 25 19 26 1A 27 1B ESC 28 1C 29 1D 30 1E 31 1F A-8 Dec Hex Char 32 20 blank 33 21 ! 34 22 " 35 23 # 36 24 $ 37 25 % 38 26 & 39 27 ' 40 28 ( 41 29 ) 42 2A * 43 2B + 44 2C , 45 2D 46 2E .
Alternate Character Mode (NLQ) Dec Hex Char 128 80 none 129 81 none 130 82 none 131 83 132 84 133 85 134 86 135 87 136 88 137 89 HT 138 8A LF 139 88 VT 140 8C FF 141 8D CR 142 8E SO 143 8F SI 144 90 145 91 146 92 DC2 147 93 !! 148 94 DC4 149 95 150 96 151 97 152 98 CAN 153 99 154 9A 155 9B ESC 156 9C 157 9D 158 9E 159 9F Dec Hex Char 160 A0 161 A1 162 A2 163 A3 164 A4 165 A5 166 A6 167 A7 168 A8 169 A9 170 AA 171 AB 172 AC 173 AD 174 AE 175 AF 176 B0 177 B1 178 B2 179 B3 180 B4 181 B5 182 B6 183 87 184 B8
Appendix E Troubleshooting and Advanced Features This appendix presents explanations of the LX-90’s advanced features and solutions for possible problems. If you have trouble or want to know more about some of the LX-90 features, consult the appropriate section in this appendix. Installation of Commercial Software Programs Many commercial software programs require that you specify which printer you are using.
SelecType Features and Solutions Some software sends a reset code before it begins printing. This cancels any SelecType settings. If you find that SelecType does not change your printing, the reset code is probably the reason. The solution is to use the installation program for your software to remove all codes from the initialization sequence. See your software manual for details.
1. See that the ON LINE and READY lights are on. (Be sure that you do not touch the power switch and cancel all the modes.) 2. Press the ON LINE and FF buttons to enter SelecType. 3. Press the ON LINE button twice. (This is the code for emphasized.) Notice that the ON LINE light is blinking and that it is on more than it is off. This tells you that the emphasized mode is set. 4. Press the FF button once. Now the ON LINE light is still blinking, but it is off more than it is on.
If the printer beeps and stops printing when it is not out of paper, turn the printer off and check to see if the paper is loaded correctly. If the paper is loaded correctly, turn the printer back on and try to print again. If the printer beeps and does not print again, take it to a qualified service person. Graphics There are three common sources of problems with graphics programs in BASIC: 1.
The hexadecimal numbers are the codes received by the printer, and the guide section helps you find a certain 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.
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 you exactly what the printer is receiving, regardless of what the computer is sending. The following test program lets you check to see what codes, if any, are problems for your software. This program is in BASIC; use an equivalent program for another programming language.
Here is the way to adjust the width when it is the only problem. Tell the computer that the print line is wider than 80 characters with this WIDTH statement: WIDTH "LPT1:",255 The 255 is a special number that prevents the computer system from inserting a CR-LF into the line. Unless, of course, there’s one in your program. The extra line feed-CHR$(10)-that accompanies each carriage return-CHR$(13)-is no problem except when you need to use CHR$(13) in a graphics program.
Appendix B Control Codes in Numeric Order Different programs use different methods to send these control codes to your LX-90. If you use BASIC, you send a control code using LPRINT CHR$(27) followed by CHR$(n), where n is a number from the decimal (Dec) column below. For a few codes, those with a dash in the ESC column, you omit the ESCape code. For the codes above decimal 27, you can use either the character in the symbol column (in quotation marks) or CHR$(n).
13 0D CR Carriage return. Prints the contents of the buffer and resets the buffer character count to 0. 14 0E SO Shift out. Turns expanded mode ON for the length of the line. Can be cancelled by ASCII 20 or ESC “W0”. Works with pica, elite, or compressed mode. 15 OF SI Shift in. Empties the buffer and turns compressed mode (17.16 cpi) ON. Cannot work with emphasized or pica mode. Can also be set with DIP switch l-l. 18 12 DC2 Device control 2.
ESC 38 26 & Defines user characters in RAM. Format: ESC “&” 0 c1 c2 a d1 . . . d11 The 0 is for future use, cl is the starting character, c2 is the ending character. Both cl and c2 must be between 58 and 63 inclusive. If a> = 128, character uses top 8 pins; if a< 128 character uses bottom 8 pins. Each character in the range c1 - c2 requires an attribute byte (a) and 11 data bytes (d1 - d11). If NLQ mode is selected first, the command requires 3 bytes for a.
ESC 53 35 5 ESCape “5” 1 causes the LX-90 to perform an automatic line feed with each carriage return. ESCape “5” 0 cancels ESCape “5” 1. ESC 54 36 6 Selects standard character set if alternate character set has been previously selected. See Appendix A for character set tables. ESC 55 37 7 Selects alternate character set. See Appendix A for character set tables. ESC 56 38 8 Disables the paper-out sensor. Can also be disabled with DIP switch 1-5. ESC 57 39 9 Enables the paper-out sensor.
ESC 66 42 B Sets up to 16 vertical tabs in the current line spacing. Tab settings are not affected by subsequent changes in line spacing. Format: ESC “B” n1 n2 ... nk O where nk = 1 - 255. Terminate this tab sequence with 0 or a number less than the last defined tab (nk). ESC 67 43 C Sets the form length ton lines in the current line spacing. The default line is 66 lines. Also resets top of form. Format: ESC “C” n where n = l-127.
ESC 74 4A J Forces an immediate line feed of n/216 inches without changing the current line spacing. Prints the contents of the buffer without a carriage return. Format: ESC “J” n where n = O-255. ESC 75 4B K Turns single-density graphics mode ON. Prints 480 dots per 8-inch line. Format: ESC “K” n1 n2 followed by n data numbers, where n = total number of dot columns, n1 = n MOD 256, n2 = INT (n/256). For example, to print 480 dots, n1 = 244, n 2 = 1 .
ESC 81 51 Q Sets the right margin. Also cancels all text that is in the print buffer. Format: ESC “Q” n where n ranges from: 2 - 80 in pica 3 - 96 in elite* 4 - 137 in compressed* 4 - 160 in compressed elite* * You may need a WIDTH statement. ESC 82 52 R Returns tabs to default setting. ESC 83 53 S Turns subscript or superscript mode ON. Either type of script is printed in double-strike. Format: ESC”S”CHR$(n) where n = 0 produces superscript, and 1 produces subscript.
ESC 90 5A Z Turns quadruple-density graphics mode ON. Prints 1920 dots per 8-inch line. Format: ESC “Z” n1 n2 followed by n data numbers, where n = total number of dot columns, n1 = n MOD 256 n2 = INT (n/256). For example, to print 1920 dots, n1 = 128, n2 = 7. ESC 94 5E ^ Turns nine-pin graphics ON. Format: A ESC " " d n1 n2 followed by 2 times n data numbers, where n = total number of dot columns, n1 = n MOD 256, n2 = INT (n/256). The printer expects 2 data numbers for each column of print.
Control Key Chart Some applications programs can use control key codes for decimal values O-27. The table below gives you the proper values. The Control key column indicates that you press the control key at the same time you press the key for the letter or symbol in that column. For example, you press the control key and A at the same time to send the value 1. Some programs that use this system cannot use control-@.
Appendix C Control Codes by Function This appendix shows the control codes that are in Appendix B, but this time they are arranged by categories. This appendix enables you to find a particular code quickly but does not give all the details on the format and use of each code. See Appendix B or the appropriate chapter for further information. Near Letter Quality Mode ESC “x” 1 Turns NLQ mode ON. ESC “x” 0 Turns draft mode ON. Activates NLQ justification modes.
Print Enhancement ESC “SO” ESC “S1” ESC ‘7” ESC “-0” ESC “-1” Turns Turns Turns Turns Turns superscript mode ON. subscript mode ON. either script mode OFF. underline mode OFF. underline mode ON. Mode and Character-Set Selection ESC “!” n Master select. Returns to standard character mode. ESC “6” Selects alternate character mode. ESC “7” ESC "@” Reset code. Special Printer Features ESC 25 ESC “5” ESC "<“ ESC “U0” ESC “U1” ESC “so” ESC “s1” Enables and disables the optional cut-sheet feeder.
Forms Control ESC “8” ESC “9” ESC “C” 0 ESC “C” ESC “N” n ESC “0” Turns the paper-out sensor OFF. Turns the paper-out sensor ON. Sets the form length in inches. Sets the form length in lines. Turns variable skip over perforation ON. Turns skip over perforation OFF. Page Format Horizontal tab. ASCII 9 ASCII 10 Line feed. ASCII 11 Vertical tab. ASCII 12 Form feed. ASCII 13 Carriage return. ESC “D” Sets horizontal tab stops. ESC “Q” n Sets the right margin. ESC "1” n Sets the left margin.
Appendix D The DIP Switches Several tiny switches called DIP (for Dual In-Line Package) switches are in the back of your LX-90 printer. These switches control a number of important printer functions. Although the factory settings are the best for most uses, you may want to change some of them. The design of the LX-90 gives you easy access to the switches, which you can locate using Figure D-l. Figure D-1.
Always turn the power OFF (with the switch on the right side of the printer) before you change the setting of any of these switches. Any changes made while the power is on will be ignored until you turn the printer off and back on. So set all switches with the power off. Table D-l shows you the functions of all the switches, and the rest of the appendix explains each of them. Table D-l. DIP switch functions Switch 1 No.
Switch 1-5 controls the paper-end detector. When it is ON, the detector is inactive, causing printing to continue even when the printer is out of paper. When it is OFF, the printer stops when the end of the paper passes the paper-end detector. See Paper Out Sensor in Chapter 6. Switch 1-6 selects the character set. When it is OFF, the standard character set is used, when it is ON, the alternate character set is used. See Appendix A for listings of both character sets.
INDEX A Alternate character mode, Al, A6-A9, D3 American Standard Code for Information Interchange. See ASCII Applications programs. See Commercial software Artpak, El ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), 16 codes listed for all characters, Al-A9 Automatic test. See Test pattern Automatic line feed, D3 B BASIC programs, how to run, 18 BASIC, IBM PC, E6-E7 Baud rate, D3, El Beeper, D3, E3-E4 Bold modes.
D Data dump mode, E4-E6 Default settings, 20 DIP switches, Dl-D3 Dot graphics. See Graphics Dot matrix printing, 13-15 Double-strike mode, 24, 27 Can also be set with SelecType Draft mode, 3, 15, D2 Dumping data in hexadecimal, E4-E6 E Elite mode, 14-15, 19-22 Can also be set with SelecType Emphasized mode, 23-28 Can also be set with SelecType ESCape code, 16 listed by function, C1-C3 listed by number, B1-B8 Expanded mode, 25-27 F FF (form feed), 6, E2-E3 Formatting, page, 29-32 Function switches.
I IBM Personal Computer BASIC, E6 Installation. See Set-up operations; Commercial software Interface. See PIC I Justification with NLQ, 31-32 L Left margin. See Margins Length of page. See Page LE, 6, E2-E3 See also Control panel, Line feed Line feed, 30 automatic, DIP switch setting for, D3 Line spacing, 30-31 in graphics, 47 Listing programs, 6 LPRINT 16 M Margins, 29-32 Master Select, 27-28 Matrix.
P Page, top of, 21 Page formatting. See formatting Panel buttons, selecting typestyles with. See SelecType Paper length, D2 Paper-out light, 5 Paper-out sensor, 31 DIP switch control of, D3 Perforation. See Skip over perforation PIC. See Printer Interface Cartridge Pica mode, 14-15, 19-22 Pins, numbering of, 48 Pitch comparison table, 22 See also Pica; Elite; Compressed Power light, 5 Preparation.
S SelecType feature, 7-12 cancelling functions with, E2-E3 troubleshooting, E2-E3 Self test. See Test pattern Set-up operations for printer, 3-6 Single-sheet printing, 31 Skip over perforation, 30 Spacing. See line spacing Spreadsheets. See commercial software String variables in graphics, 57-58 Subscript mode, 28 Superscript mode, 28 Switches.
EPSON AMERICA, INC. LIMITED WARRANTY Epson America, Inc. hereby warrants that it will repair or replace, at its option, any part of the Epson product with which this warranty is enclosed which proves defective by reason of improper workmanship and/or material, without charge for parts or labor, for a period of one (1) year.