Dascom 1500 User manual

User Guide 1500 Matrix Printer

TRADEMARK ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
“IBM” is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
“EPSON” is a trademark of Epson America Incorporated.
“DEC” is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
“Centronics” is a trademark of Centronics Data Computer Corporation.
“DOS” is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
“Windows”, “Windows 95”, “Windows 98“, “Windows NT”, “Windows 2000”, “Windows 2003 Server”,
“Windows XP” and “Windows Vista” are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
All other product names and company names appearing in this manual are the registered trademarks or
trademarks of the individual companies.

I
Table of contents
Chapter 1
Introduction 1-1
Features 1-2
Options 1-2
Symbols used 1-3
Important safety instructions 1-4
Safety Precautions 1-4
Chapter 2
Operating the printer 2-1
Overview 2-1
Setting up your printer 2-2
Unpacking the printer 2-2
Placing the printer 2-3
Installation procedure 2-4
Installing the ribbon cassette 2-5
Connecting the printer 2-7
Checking the printer voltage 2-7
Connecting the mains power 2-7
Connecting the interface cable 2-8
Switching on the printer 2-8
Printer components 2-9
Front view 2-9
Rear view 2-10
Internal view 2-11
Operations of the Control Panel 2-12
LED indicators 2-12
Control panel keys 2-13
Print quality key 2-15
Print qualities 9 wire printer 2-15
Print qualities 24 wire printer 2-15
Character pitch key 2-16

Table of contents
II
Paper handling 2-17
Paper types 2-17
Paper Specifications 2-17
Paper Size 2-17
Paper Thickness and Number of Copies 2-17
Loading paper 2-18
Overview of Paper Operations 2-18
Paper select lever 2-18
Print Gap Lever 2-19
Fanfold paper 2-20
Unloading Continuous Forms 2-21
Single sheets 2-22
Ejecting Single Sheets 2-23
Paper Parking Function 2-24
Switching from fanfold paper to single sheets 2-24
Switching from single sheets to fanfold paper 2-24
Feeding and Positioning Paper 2-25
Print Area Definition 2-25
Continuous forms 2-26
Single sheets 2-27
Setting the first printing line (TOF) 2-28
Selecting Tear-off mode 2-29
Using the tractor as pull tractor 2-31
Chapter 3
Printing 3-1
Starting or Stopping Printing 3-2
Starting Printing 3-2
Stopping Printing 3-2
Resuming Printing 3-2
Resuming from a Paper-Out 3-2
Chapter 4
Special mode 4-1
Special Mode Functions 4-1
Set-Up mode 4-2
How Set-Up Works 4-2
Entering the Set-Up Mode 4-3

Table of contents
III
Overview of the Set-Up Mode 4-4
Options with Pre-determined Values 4-6
Options with Undetermined Values 4-7
Points to Remember 4-7
Functions, parameters and values 4-8
PRINTER CONTROL menu 4-8
FONT menu 4-9
SYMBOL SETS menu 4-10
SET-UP menu 4-11
INTERFACE menu 4-12
NETWORK menu 4-13
COMMON (PUSH TRAC) menu 4-14
FRICTION menu 4-16
Recalling Factory Settings (RCALL-FACT) 4-18
Saving and Exiting 4-18
Using the Diagnostic Functions 4-19
Print Configuration Function 4-19
Printing Test Function 4-21
Hex Dump Mode 4-22
Printing Alignment Adjustment 4-23
Top of Form Adjustment Function 4-25
Setting of The First Dot Position on the Left Side 4-26
Menu access 4-28
Setting Setup Mode to Default Value (Standard) 4-29
Chapter 5
Maintenance 5-1
Cleaning 5-1
Cleaning and Vacuuming the Printer 5-1
Cleaning the Paper Rollers 5-3
Replacing the Ribbon Cartridge 5-4
Removing the Ribbon Cartridge 5-4
Installing the Ribbon Cartridge 5-5
Replacing the Print Head 5-7

Table of contents
IV
Chapter 6
Troubleshooting 6-1
Solving problems 6-1
Print Quality Problems and Solutions 6-2
Paper Handling Problems and Solutions 6-4
Operating Problems and Solutions 6-5
LED states in error conditions 6-6
Printer Failures 6-7
Diagnostic Functions 6-8
Chapter A
Specifications A-1
Printer specifications A-1
Paper specifications A-4
Print Area A-5
Continuous forms A-5
Single sheets A-6
Paper Thickness A-7
Chapter B
Interfaces B-1
Parallel interface B-1
Parallel Interface Pin Assignment B-2
B-2
Compatible mode B-3
Nibble mode B-4
Data Transmission Timing B-5
USB interface B-6
Descriptor B-6
Standard Device Descriptor B-6
Configuration Descriptor B-7
Interface Descriptor Alternate Setting B-7
Endpoint 1 Descriptor B-8
Endpoint 2 Descriptor B-8

Table of contents
V
Serial interface (option) B-9
Serial attachment characteristics B-9
Signal Description for RS232C B-9
Serial Interface Timings B-10
Serial Interface Error Handling B-12
Data rates B-13
Configuring the serial interface of the PC B-15
Auto Select Interface B-16
Chapter C
Command Sets C-1
9 wire printer C-2
Printer basic functions C-2
Emulation C-3
Command list C-3
Printer unique commands C-9
24 wire printer C-10
Printer basic functions C-10
Emulation C-11
Command list C-11
Printer unique commands C-17
Barcodes C-20
IBM mode C-20
Available barcode types C-20
Epson mode C-20
Available barcode types C-20
Chapter D
Character Sets D-1
IBM Proprinter Emulation D-2
IBM Set 1 and 2 D-2
Epson ESC Emulation D-3
National Character Sets D-3
Common Characters D-3
National Characters D-4
Restriction of fonts D-5
9 wire printer D-5

Table of contents
VI
24 wire printer D-7
Non scalable fonts D-7
Scalable Fonts and Code Pages D-9
Chapter E
Supplies and Options E-1
Supplies E-1
Options E-1
Interface Modules E-2

1-1
1
Introduction
Congratulations on purchasing the Matrix Printer Tally Dascom 1500. The printer is equipped
with a small printhead, which allows printing in draft mode and letter quality.
The printer lends itself to a wide range of applications, accepting a variety of data from
host computers. It caters to word processing functions with the high print quality and im-
age processing with its ability to print bit image graphics.

Introduction Features
1-2
Features
Key printer features and options are listed in the next two sections.
•Software compatibility. The printer operates with EPSON ESC/P2, IBM
Proprinter X(L)24e emulations. For both emulations are OKI superset commands
available.
•Various character sets. For IBM Mode: IBM Set 1 and Set 2. For EPSON Mode: 15
National Character Sets.
•Multiple fonts. The printer has eleven resident fonts: Draft, Roman, Sans Serif,
Courier, OCR-B, OCR-A, Prestige, Script, Orator, Gothic, Souvenir.
•High-speed printing. The print speed is up to 500 characters per second.
•Memory. The printer is equipped with ROM and RAM memory: 16 MBit of ROM
memory and 256 Kbytes of receiving buffer are available for storing input data and
downloading custom fonts.
•Simple switching of paper types. The ability to “park” continuous forms to switch
between continuous forms and single sheets.
•Automatic tear-off advancing. With factory settings of the Set-Up mode, continuous
forms’ perforations are automatically advanced up to the tear bar at the end of each job
so that forms can be torn off.
•Maintenance-free. The printer only requires periodic cleaning and changing of the rib-
bon cartridge.