APS EPM205-MRS Use and care manual

EPM205-MRS - Technical reference - Preliminary Page 1
Advanced Printing Systems
Front page
EPM205-MRS
Technical reference
“Preliminary”

EPM205-MRS - Technical reference - Preliminary Page 2
Advanced Printing Systems
Preface
·This manual provides a complete technical information for the EPM205-MRS
"Easy Loading Printing Module".
·For customized mechanisms, A.P.S. supplies documentation in addition to the
present specification.
·The present specification is valid also for customized types, where the different
condition has not effects for common data (e.g.: different colour of case parts).
·A.P.S. reserves the right to make changes to the product, without notice, to
improve reliability, functions or design.
·A.P.S. does not assume any liability arising out of the application or use of the
product or circuits described within.
·The warranty terms of the product are described in a separate document, ask
A.P.S. to obtain this document.
Revision history
Rev.
Index Date Page/Sec. Description Author
Prelim. 20-Feb-2002 -2.1 Firmware Rev. AF/GP/EV
- - - --

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sec. Page
1. INTRODUCTION 5
1.1 EPM205-MRS FEATURES...................................................................................................................................... 6
2. GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS................................................................................................................................. 7
3. PRINTER DEVICE INTERCONNECTION ................................................................................................................. 8
3.1 POWER SUPPLY CONNECTOR .................................................................................................................................. 8
3.2 SERIAL COMMUNICATION CONNECTOR ...................................................................................................................... 9
3.3 KEYBOARD CONNECTOR....................................................................................................................................... 10
3.4 PARALLEL COMMUNICATION CONNECTOR ................................................................................................................ 11
3.5 SLEEP MODE DISABLE CONNECTOR ........................................................................................................................ 11
4. EPM DEVICE OPERATIONS ................................................................................................................................ 12
4.1 KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 12
4.2 SELF TEST MODE................................................................................................................................................ 13
4.3 TIMING FOR PARALLEL COMMUNICATION ................................................................................................................. 14
4.3.1 COMPATIBILITY MODE TIMING (HOST WRITES TO THE PRINTER) ................................................................................... 14
4.3.2 BYTE MODE TIMING (HOST READS DATA FROM PRINTER)............................................................................................ 15
4.4 SERIAL / PARALLEL MODE SELECTION..................................................................................................................... 15
4.5 TEXT PRINTING FORMAT ...................................................................................................................................... 16
5. OPERATING CONTROL CODES .......................................................................................................................... 18
5.1 CONTROL CODES CROSS REFERENCE ..................................................................................................................... 18
5.2 SETUP AND HARDWARE CONTROL COMMANDS.......................................................................................................... 20
GS / n ........................................................................................................................................................................ 20
GS s n1 n2 ................................................................................................................................................................. 20
GS a n........................................................................................................................................................................ 20
GS D n....................................................................................................................................................................... 20
ESC @ ....................................................................................................................................................................... 21
ESC v ........................................................................................................................................................................ 21
ESC I......................................................................................................................................................................... 22
ESC S ........................................................................................................................................................................ 23
ESC A n..................................................................................................................................................................... 23
GS B n ....................................................................................................................................................................... 24
GS b n ....................................................................................................................................................................... 24
GS P n1 n2................................................................................................................................................................. 25
5.3 TEXT AND GENERAL COMMANDS ............................................................................................................................ 26
ESC % n.................................................................................................................................................................... 26
ESC R n..................................................................................................................................................................... 26
ESC 2 n ..................................................................................................................................................................... 26
ESC 3 n ..................................................................................................................................................................... 26
ESC SP n ................................................................................................................................................................... 27
ESC b n ..................................................................................................................................................................... 27
ESC c n...................................................................................................................................................................... 27
ESC C n..................................................................................................................................................................... 27
ESC ! n ...................................................................................................................................................................... 28
ESC { n...................................................................................................................................................................... 28
LF ............................................................................................................................................................................. 28
CR ............................................................................................................................................................................. 28
ESC J n ..................................................................................................................................................................... 29
ESC j n ...................................................................................................................................................................... 29
CAN .......................................................................................................................................................................... 29
5.4 GRAPHIC COMMANDS........................................................................................................................................... 30
ESC * n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 n6 <data> ................................................................................................................................ 30
ESC $ n1 n2............................................................................................................................................................... 31
ESC V n1 n2 n3 <data>.............................................................................................................................................. 31
5.5 BAR CODE COMMANDS ......................................................................................................................................... 32
GS k n [Start] <data> NUL ........................................................................................................................................ 32
GS h n ....................................................................................................................................................................... 32
GS w n....................................................................................................................................................................... 32
GS H n....................................................................................................................................................................... 32
GS R n....................................................................................................................................................................... 33
5.6 HOLE / BLACK MARK DETECTION COMMANDS ........................................................................................................... 34
GS L n ....................................................................................................................................................................... 34
GS T n1 n2 ................................................................................................................................................................ 34
GS E .......................................................................................................................................................................... 34
5.6.1 HOLE / BLACK MARK DETECTION EXAMPLES............................................................................................................. 35
6. MECHANICAL AND HOUSING ............................................................................................................................. 36
6.1 OVERALL DIMENSIONS AND FIXING POINTS .............................................................................................................. 36
6.1 MOUNTING PRECAUTIONS..................................................................................................................................... 37

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7. HANDLING THE EPM .......................................................................................................................................... 40
7.1 HOW TO OPEN THE COVER GROUP ......................................................................................................................... 40
7.2 HOW TO LOAD PAPER ROLLS ................................................................................................................................. 41
7.3 HOW TO CORRECTLY CLOSE THE COVER GROUP ...................................................................................................... 42
7.4 HOW CORRECTLY CUT THE PAPER.......................................................................................................................... 43
8. ORDERING CODE............................................................................................................................................... 44

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1. INTRODUCTION
The EPM205-MRS is the world’s first 2 inch 5V, Easy Loading Printing Module with an integrated
control board using serial and parallel communication protocols.
The EPM module consists of a set of mechanical and electronic parts.
These parts have been designed to have an high grade of integration and to perform many different
functions.
The sections that form the EPM module are described in the following image.
1. Printer mechanism (Easy Loading type)
2. Paper roll housing
3. Cover group, with Lever (for easy opening) and Roller
4. Tear bar, for paper cutting
5. Keyboard with 2 push buttons and 1 LED
6. Board housing
7. Electronic control board
3
12
4
7
6
5
Leve
r
Rolle
r

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1.1 EPM205-MRS Features
·Fully hot plug printer mechanism
·Software programmable consumption
Dynamic division, and high speed (up to 60mm/s)
·Full control over printing quality/speed
Speed clamping, acceleration smoothing… via control codes
·Sleep mode
Current consumption <10nA
Wake-up on serial/parallel port or external switch
·Integrated keyboard with Paper Feed and ON-OFF Line push buttons
·Single power supply
From 5 Volts to 8.5 Volts
·2 Communication ports
RS232 (speed up to 115200 Bds)
Centronics
·Three internal fonts
Easy font update
·Powerful Text Printing Modes
Horizontal
180 degree
Double and Quadruple width and height printing
·Powerful Graphic Modes
·Hole / Mark Detection
·10 Barcodes
Horizontal and vertical printing

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2. GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS
Item Specification
Dimension W x D x H (mm) 79.1 x 96.3 x 59.9
Paper width 58 +0/-1 mm
Paper roll size Max. Ø49.5mm (outside diameter)
Print method Thermal dot-line printing
Number of dots 384
Dot density 8 dots/mm
Print width 48 mm (centred on paper)
Heat element pitch 0.125 mm
Paper feed pitch 0.125 mm
Paper feed tension 50gf or more
Paper hold tension 80gf or more
Recommended Paper JUJO-AF50KS-E (standard grade)
JUJO-AF50KS-E3 (high sensitivity)
Equivalent types can be used
Voltage range From 5V to 8.5V
Current consumption From 1.5A to 5A at 5V (peak for 3ms)
£10nA (in OFF mode)
Operating temperature From 0°C to +50°C
Operating humidity (RH%) 20-85 (no condensation)
Storage temperature (°C) From -40°C to +90°C
Storage humidity (RH%) 10-90 (no condensation)
EMC standard Designed to comply with Level B – FCC - CE
Mechanism life
Durability Basic conditions Maximum variations
Thermal head
pulse resistance
100 million
pulses
Abrasion/wear
resistance
50 km of paper
Max. 15% in resistance
value (Ω) of any dot, from
its initial value
Cover Group,
Opening/closing
cycle
2000 operations
or more
-Room temp.: 20 ÷ 25 °C
-Mounting plane: parallel
to the ground plane
-

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3. PRINTER DEVICE INTERCONNECTION
This device is fully hot-plug : any connector hereafter can be connected or disconnected without
damaging the printer.
Refer to the attached drawing for location and pin 1 identification of each connector.
3.1 Power supply connector
EPM device connector
J1
User side
matching connector
Molex, 53048 Series 9 contacts (male) Molex 51021 Series (female)
Contacts: 50079/50058.
Pin number Signal name
1GND
2GND
3GND
4GND
5GND
6V bat
7V bat
8V bat
9V bat
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Wires AWG28 must be used in order to avoid current losses

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3.2 Serial communication connector
EPM device connector
J2
User side
matching connector
Molex, 53048 Series 5 contacts (male) Molex 51021 Series (female)
Contacts: 50079/50058.
Pin number Signal name
1Gnd
2Transmit data (Txd, output)
3Receive data (Rxd, input)
4CTS/DSR (input)
5RTS/DTR (output)

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3.3 Keyboard connector
This connector allow the user to connect his own external keyboard with ON/OFF Line, Paper-Feed
buttons and status LED.
Since the standard EPM is supplied with a own keyboard, the following information is to be considered as
indication on how to connect a possible external keyboard, predisposed by the user.
EPM device connector
J3
User side
matching connector
Molex, 53048 Series 4 contacts (male) Molex 51021 Series (female)
Contacts: 50079/50058.
Pin number Signal name
1Gnd
2ON/OFF line
3Paper FEED
4LED (cathode)
The external circuitry should be as follows:
(*) A serial resistor (390 Ohms) is placed on the EPM elec. board, setting the LED current at about 7 mA.
Pin 1 - Gnd
Pin 2 - ON/OFF Line
Pin 3 – Pa
p
er FEED
Pin 4 – LED *

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3.4 Parallel communication connector
EPM device connector
J4
User side
matching connector
Molex, 53048 Series 15 contacts (male) Molex 51021 Series (female)
Contacts: 50079/50058.
Pin number Signal name
1\AUTOFEED
2BUSY
3D7
4D6
5D5
6D4
7D3
8D2
9D1
10 D0
11 PE
12 \INIT
13 GND
14 \STB
15 \ACK
3.5 Sleep mode disable connector
EPM device connector
J5
User side
matching connector
Molex, 53048 Series 2 contacts (male) Molex 51021 Series (female)
Contacts: 50079/50058.
The EPM is supplied with sleep mode enabled at power up, thus the contacts on this connector are not
wired together. If pin 1 and 2 are wired together, the sleep mode feature is disabled.
See "ESC S" control code for more details about the sleep mode.

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4. EPM DEVICE OPERATIONS
4.1 Keyboard functions
The two push buttons and LED functions are described in the following table:
Printer
Status OFF OFF Line On Line End of Paper
Over/Under
Voltage or
Temperature
LED
Status OFF 1 Flash
“ON” Always "ON" 3 Flash “ON” 4 Flash “ON”
Push Button
#1
Switches ON the
Printer
Feeds
Paper
Feeds Paper if not
already printing N/A
On Line Off Line N/A
Push Button
#2
Executes self-test if
pressed during
Power-ON
(simultaneously
with push button #1)
Switches OFF the printer if pressed more than 2.5 seconds

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4.2 Self test Mode
This mode is done by pressing simultaneously the 2 push buttons of the keyboard. It prints the printer
type, the revision of the printer firmware and both internal character sets.
Example of self test
8x16 Internal Character set
7x16 Internal Character set
12x20 Internal Character set
Printer type Firmware Revision

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4.3 Timing for parallel communication
The communication protocol is Centronics compatible, and has the ability to handle the “Compatibility
Mode” (Write from the Host to the Printer), and also the “byte Mode”, for the host to read internal data
from the printer. The Byte mode is used to receive printer status back from the printer.
4.3.1 Compatibility mode timing (host writes to the printer)
Parameter Min. Typ. Max. Comments
Time STB (tSTB) 5 µs - - This time is given by the host
Time BUSY (tBUSY) 25 µs 90 µs 250 µs This hold time is controlled by GS b
control code
Time tVALDATA 25 µs - - Time in while the data must be stable.
This time is fixed by the host.
Time ACK (tACK) -3µs -
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The data (D0-D7) must be stable for tVALDATA. If not, please contact APS for additional cabling.
D0-D7 (Host Output)
STB
(
Host Out
p
ut
)
BUSY (Printer Output)
ACK (Printer Output)
DATA VALID
tSTB
tACK
tBUSY
tVALDATA

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4.3.2 Byte Mode timing (host reads data from printer)
In this mode, the data transfer controlled is given by the host, but tCycle must not exceed 0.5 seconds
4.4 Serial / Parallel mode selection
Serial or Parallel mode may be chosen via software automatically after the first character is received. At
power-up, both serial and parallel communications are active. If the first character is received on the
serial port, the communication will be serial, and vice versa for parallel. This first character will be
interpreted like any other incoming byte into the printer.
D0-D7 (Printer Output)
\AUTOFEED
(
Host Out
p
ut
)
STROBE (Host Output)
ACK (Printer Output)
DATA VALID
TC
y
cle

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4.5 Text Printing Format
The controller board has three resident sets of 224 characters : 8x16, 12x20, and 7x16.
All the three fonts include the Euro currency symbol (Position 128, 80h).
12 characters are selectable from the international character set : refer to ESC “R” command for more
information.
All character bitmaps will be shown with their hexadecimal code (row being the most significant nibble,
and column the least significant nibble). Example : ASCII code for ‘A’ is 41 hex (or 65 decimal).
·8x16 Character set: Character size is 9 pixels (8 “active dots” plus one inter-character) x 20 pixels
(16 “active” dots plus 4 interlines including underline), or 1.125mm x 2.5mm.
With double and quadruple height and width, maximum character size can go up to 4.5mm width x
10mm height.
Horizontal character spacing and line spacing may be adjusted via the software. Character per line is
up to 64 in standard text, 32 in double width, and 16 in quadruple width.

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·12x20 Character set: Character size is 13 pixels (12 “active dots” plus one inter-character) x 24
pixels (20 “active” dots plus 4 interlines including underline), or 1.625 mm x 3 mm.
With double and quadruple height and width, maximum character size can go up to 6.5mm width x
12mm height.
Horizontal character spacing and line spacing may be adjusted via the software. Character per line is
up to 44 in standard text, 22 in double width, and 11 in quadruple width.
·7x16 Character set : Character size is 8 pixels (7 “active dots” plus one inter-character) x 20 pixels
(16 “active” dots plus 4 interlines including underline), 1 mm by 2,5mm.
With double and quadruple height and width, maximum character size can go up to 4mm width by
10mm height.
Horizontal character spacing and line spacing may be adjusted via the software. Character per line is
up to 48 in standard text, 24 in double width, and 12 in quadruple width.
This font includes the Katakana characters set.

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5. OPERATING CONTROL CODES
Control codes are non-printable characters or sequences of characters that control the operation of the
printer. Within the following description, a control code causes the printer to interpret the following byte
as part of a command and not as a printable character.
5.1 Control codes cross reference
Setup and Hardware control
Command Description
GS / n Set printing speed / Maximum peak current
GS s n1 n2 Set maximum print out speed
GS a n Set acceleration smoothing
GS D n Set print Intensity
ESC @ Resets printer
ESC v Send printer status
ESC I Send printer identity
ESC S Puts the printer in sleep mode
ESC A n Set Auto-sleep time
GS B n Serial Communication setting
GS b n Set parallel port Busy line hold time
GS P n1 n2 Set paper feeding length
Text and General commands
Command Description
ESC % n Select internal Character Set
ESC R n Select international character Set
ESC 2 n Set line pre-spacing
ESC 3 n Set line spacing
ESC SP n Set character spacing
ESC b n Set inverse video printing
ESC c n Set maximum number of columns
ESC C n Set text justification
ESC ! n Set print mode
ESC { n Set/reset Rotated character
LF Line feed
CR Carriage return
ESC J n Feed paper (n dot lines) forward
ESC j n Feed paper (n dot lines) backward
CAN Cancel print data buffer (text mode)

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Graphics commands
Command Description
ESC * n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 n6 data Print graphics
ESC $ n1 n2 Horizontal dot positioning
ESC V n1 n2 n3 data Horizontal bit image
Bar code commands
Command Description
GS k n [Start] <data> NUL Print bar code
GS h n Barcode Height
GS w n Barcode magnification
GS H n Text position in Barcode
GS R n Set/Reset rotated Barcode
Hole and black mark detection commands
Command Description
GS L n Set Mark length
GS T n1 n2 Set TOF position
GS E TOF feed paper
GS X n1 n2 Set Mark to Cut position
GS x n1 n2 Set Cut Line to Head Dot line length
GS Y n1 n2 Set opto to head dot line length

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5.2 Setup and Hardware control commands
GS / n
Description: Set printing speed / Maximum peak current / Dynamic division
Format: <1Dh> <2Fh> <n>
Comments: n = 1 to 32: (Default n = 5) Software programmable consumption (Dynamic division).
The maximum number of black dots which are simultaneously heated is (n+1) x 8.
In default mode, n = 5.
Example : n = 5 Maximum black dots heated: (5+1)*8=48.
Printer Peak consumption @5V: (0.3A (Stepper Motor) + 5*48/160) = 1.8A
160 Ωis the dot resistance.
GS s n1 n2
Description: Set maximum print speed
Format: <1Dh> <73h> <n1> <n2>
Comments: This control code may be used to reduce the print speed (to have more paper feed tension).
It can also help to reduce noise and improve print quality.
Bytes n1, n2, set the time T (in µs) between each step:
T = (256*n1) + n2. 1500 < T < 8500.
Default: T = 2500 : n1 = 9, n2 = 196.
Example: T = 2500 µs
Maximum print out speed:
(1/( 8 * 2500e-6)) = 50 mm/s
8 dots/mm is the dot density.
GS a n
Description: Set acceleration smoothing
Format: <1Dh> <61h> <n>
Comments: n = 0 to 255: (Default n = 210) Software programmable acceleration smoothing. The print
cycle time is limited to the cycle time of the previous cycle multiplied by the acceleration
coefficient (coefficient = n/256). This improves print quality and reduces noise.
Example: n = 210: Cycle time can’t be smaller than 82% of previous cycle time.
GS D n
Description: Set print Intensity
Format: <1Dh> <44h> <n>
Comments: n=80h (128d) : (Default). Nominal print intensity
n>80h (128d) : Printout becomes darker
n<80h (128d) : Printout becomes lighter
(n from 0 to 255 (FFh)).