Dascom T2150 User manual

User guide T2150 T2250 Matrix printer

User guide Table of contents
I
Table of contents
Introduction 1
Printer features 1
Symbols used 1
Printer at a glance 2
Printer in tractor mode 3
Printer in single-sheet mode 3
Paperway 4
Installation 5
Unpacking the printer 5
Placing your printer 6
Checking the printer voltage 7
Connecting the printer 8
Switching on the printer 9
The control panel 10
The LC display 11
Online mode 12
Offline mode 12
Setup mode 13
Messages in the LC display 14
Key functions when turning on the printer 15
Changing the ribbon cassette 16
Printer drivers 19
Installing a printer driver in Windows 95/98/ME 19
Installing a printer driver in Windows 2000/2003/XP 19
Installing a printer driver in Windows 7 21
Installing a printer driver in Windows Vista 22
Other operating systems 23
Changing printer settings 24
Form settings (Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/Windows 7) 24
Loading optional firmware 25
Troubleshooting 25

Table of contents User guide
II
Paper handling 27
Changing the paper type 27
Changing the paper type in the setup menu 28
Selecting character density and font 29
Loading paper 30
Fanfold paper 30
Single sheets 34
Paper transport 36
Moving the paper to the tear position 37
Removing paper 37
Settings 38
Setting the print head gap 38
Setting the tear position 39
Setting the first printing line (TOF) 40
The Menu 41
Programming via the control panel 41
Enabling access to menu mode 41
Calling up the menu 41
Menu configurations 42
Menu handling 43
Save settings 43
Selecting the LC display language 44
Terminating Setup mode 45
Menu structure 46
Menu parameters 47
Printing out menu configurations (Print) 47
Loading menu configurations (Menu) 47
Reset to default values (Reset) 48
Quietmode (Quietm.) 48
Selecting font (Font) 49
Setting character density (CPI) 50
Setting line spacing (LPI) 50
Skiping perforation (Skip) 51
Selecting start signal for escape sequence (ESCChar) 51
Selecting emulation (Emulate) 52
Bidirectional printing (Bidir) 52

User guide Table of contents
III
Settings for interfaces (I/O) 53
Serial interface (Serial) 53
Data transmssion rate (Baud) 53
Data format (Format) 54
Further Settings (Special) 55
Error handling (ErrMode) 55
Block end character (Blockend) 55
Signal feedback (Remote) 56
Transparence (Handthr) 56
Protocol (Protocol) 57
Signal Processing (DTR) 57
Selecting interface (Interf.) 58
Interface buffer (Buffer) 58
Ethernet interface (ETH-EXT) option 59
Selecting character set (CG-Tab) 59
IBM character set (CharSet) 59
National character set (Country) 60
Slashed zero (Sl.Zero) 60
Automatic carriage return (Auto-CR) 61
Automatic line feed (Auto-LF) 61
Menu lock (MenLock) 62
Language (Language) 62
Paper parameters (Paper) 63
Form length (Forml) 63
First printing position (FormAdj) 65
Printhead gap manually (Head) 66
View and tear position (AutoTear) 67
Line length (Width) 68
Barcode (Barcode) 68
Normal characters and barcode (Barmode) 69
Form feed mode (FFmode) 70
Setting and activating options (PapOpt) 71
Activation of tractors (AutoTra) 71
Activation of automatic sheet feeder (AutoASF) 72
Setting the left margin (LeftMrg) 72
Setting the right margin (RightMrg) 73
Local copy (screen print) from a Coax or Coax/IPDS
(FFaftLC) 73
Enable/Disable Paper Handling Features (Paphand) 74
Menu settings (example) 75

Table of contents User guide
IV
Advanced menu 77
Test functions 77
Printer self-test (Rolling ASCII) 78
Exiting Rolling ASCII test mode 79
Interface test (Hex-Dump) 80
Printout in Hex-Dump 80
Terminating Hex-Dump 81
Advanced settings 82
Form length (Forml) 84
Automatic gap adjustment (AGA) 85
Paper handling (Paphand) 85
Increasing the printhead gap (Head up) 86
Paper width (Pagewid) 86
Left-hand area (Leftzon) 87
Right-hand area (Rightzo) 87
Physical left margin (Physlm) 88
Bidirectional parallel interface (CX-bid) 88
Line wrap (Wrap) 89
Beep at paper end (Sound) 89
Deactivate single sheet feeder (Single) 90
Settings for paper with dark back (Pap.back) 90
Setting for printing copy paper (HvyForm) 91
Power save mode (Sleepmod) 91
Serial number (SerialN) 92
Asset number (AssetN) 92
Graphic Print Speed (GrSpeed) 93
Troubleshooting 95
General print problems 96
The display remains dark 96
The display is lit, but the printer does not print 96
Problems with the paper feed 97
Paper jam (fanfold paper) 97
Paper jam (single sheets) 98
Paper does not move to tear off position 98
Problems with the print quality 99
Print is too pale 99
Smudged print 99
Prints undefined characters 99
The first line is not completely printed out at the top 99

User guide Table of contents
V
Dots within characters are missing 99
Error messages via the display 100
Additional display messages 103
Care and maintenance 105
Replacing the fuse 105
Cleaning the housing 106
Cleaning the interior 106
Cleaning the platen 107
Ribbon 107
Cleaning the upper friction 108
Carriage shafts 108
Specifications 109
Printer specifications 109
Interface specifications 113
Paper specifications 114
Character sets 117
MTPL standard character set 118
MTPL, international substitution characters 119
OCR-A character set 120
OCR-B character set 121
Available character sets and fonts 122
Emulations 125
General 125
Escape sequences 125
What are escape sequences? 126
MTPL sequences 126
Control codes 126
The $$ procedure 126
Example: 126
How are escape sequences used? 127
MTPL 127
Example in BASIC 127
Example in Pascal 127
Printout 127
List of available control codes 128

Table of contents User guide
VI
Barcode 138
List of available barcodes 138
US Postnet barcode 139
Royal Mail Customer barcode 139
KIX barcode 140
USPS Intelligent Mail barcode 140
LC printing 141
List of additional control codes 142
Interfaces 143
Parallel interface 144
Connector assignment 144
Optional serial interface V.24/RS232C 145
Connector assignment 145
Interface cable (serial interface) 146
Input signals 146
Output signals 146
Protocols 147
Memory mode XON/XOFF 147
Memory mode Robust XON/XOFF 147
Extended menu functions with the ENQ/STX and
ETX/ACK protocols selected 147
ENQ/STX protocol 148
ETX/ACK protocol 148
Options and accessories 149
Options 149
Automatic cut sheet feeder, front (ASF-F) 149
Automatic cut sheet feeder, rear (ASF-R) 149
Tractor 2, front 149
Tractor 3, rear 149
Serial interface adapter 149
Optional paper support 149
Serial interface RS232/TTY 149
Pocket Ethernet interface 149
Others 149
Accessories 150
Ribbon cassettes 150
Programmer’s application manuals 150
Index 151

User guide Introduction
1
Introduction
Printer features Your printer has outstanding product features, e.g. high printing speed
and print quality plus flexible paper management, making it a highly
professional solution for many industrial sectors – particularly those
which use continuous paper and generate large volumes of print on a
daily basis.
Symbols used Important information is highlighted in this manual by two symbols.
CAUTION highlights information which must be observed in order to
prevent injuries to the user and damage to the printer.
NOTE highlights general or additional information about a specific
topic.
STOP

Printer at a glance User guide
2
Printer at a glance
1
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Control panel
Front cover
Power switch
Power inlet and
fuse
Interface connector
Paper support
Top cover Latches
Tear edge
Bottom cover
Single sheet feeder closed
Print head
Ribbon cassette
Rear cover

User guide Printer at a glance
3
Printer in tractor mode
Printer in single-sheet mode
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Tractor 1
Single sheet feeder open

Printer at a glance User guide
4
Paperway
Tractor 2 and tractor 3: option, modular
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Single sheet
Single sheet
A
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F
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-
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F
A
A
S
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F
F
-
-
R
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`Fanfold paper mode
Standard printer: Tractor 1
Single sheet
Options: Tractor 2
Tractor 3
ASF-F
ASF-R
If you install the ASF-Ffeeder, the
paper sources Trac2 and Single are
omitted.

User guide Installation
5
Installation
Unpacking the printer
Place your printer on a solid surface (see Placing
your printer, page 6).
Make sure that the “Up” symbols point in the cor-
rect direction.
Open the packaging, take out the accessory cas-
sette and unpack it. Pull the printer out of the card-
board box towards youand remove the remaining
packaging material.
Check the printer for any visible transport damage
and completeness. Apart from this CD-ROM (c)
the Quick start guide (d), the power cable (e),
theribbon(f)andthepapersupport(g) must be
included.
If you find any transport damage or if any accesso-
ries are missing, please contact your dealer.
2
➀
➁
➂
➃
➄

Installation User guide
6
Placing your printer
Place the printer on a solid, flat, surface, ensuring
that the printer is positioned in such a way that it
cannottopple,andthatthereiseasyaccesstothe
control panel and paper input devices. Also ensu-
re that there is sufficient space for the printed out-
put.
If you expect that frequent forward and reverse
feeds will occur, you should place the printer as
shown in the figure, if possible.
The power supply cable may be dama-
ged if the paper edges constantly chafe
the insulating sheath. The user must
always ensure that there is sufficient
distance between the power supply
cable and the paper.
When selecting the printer location, observe the
following additional instructions:
Never place the printer in the vicinity of
inflammable gas or explosive sub-
stances.
Do not expose the printer to direct sunlight. If you cannot avoid plac-
ing the printer near a window, protect it from the sunlight with a cur-
tain.
When connecting the computer with the printer, make sure not to ex-
ceed the permitted cable length (see Interface specifications,
page 113).
Ensure sufficient distance between the printer and any heating radi-
ators.
Avoid exposing the printer to extreme temperature or air humidity
fluctuations. Above all take care to avoid the influence of dust.
It is recommended to install the printer in a place which is acousti-
cally isolated from the workplace because of the noise it may
produce.
STOP
STOP
12
0
10
0
-10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
C

User guide Installation
7
Checking the printer
voltage Make sure that the device has been set to the correct voltage (e.g.
230 V in Europe, 120 V in the USA). To do this, check the type plate
above the power inlet at the back of the printer. Contact your dealer
if the setting is incorrect.
Never switch on the printer if the voltage setting is incorrect,
since this may result in severe damage.
You can set the printer to the correct mains volta-
ge yourself. To do this, cautiously tilt the printer to
the rear.
Make sure that the fixing clips of the
parallel connection are not bent.
Use a suitable object (e.g. a screwdriver, but ne-
verapencil)toset theslideswitchon theleftat the
bottom of the printer to the correct voltage.
STOP
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poo
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STOP
120
V
Front side of the printer
Rear side of the printer
230
V

Installation User guide
8
Connecting the printer
Connect the power cable to the power inlet of the
printer. Connect the power cable plug to a mains
socket.
Make sure that the printer and the computer are
switched off and connect the data cable between
the printer and the computer.
The printer by default is provided with a
parallel interface. For further informa-
tion about the interfaces, refer to the
section Interfaces, page 143.

User guide Installation
9
Switching on the printer
The power switch for switching on the printer is lo-
cated at the bottom right at the front of the printer
when viewed from the front.

The control panel User guide
10
The control panel
The control panel keys are used for controlling your work with the
printer. The control panel is located on the front right side of your
printer and consists of a two-line LC display and six keys.
The functions of the keys depend on the printer’s current mode (sta-
tus). There are four basic modes.
`The Online mode is the printer’s normal operating mode. Data from
your computer can be received and printed.
`In the Offline mode the link between printer and computer is inter-
rupted, i.e. no data can be received and printed.
`In the Setup mode you can either select the printer menu or carry
out the so-called quick-switch function. The quick-switch option was
included so that you can change the most important parameters(for
example adjustments, character density, font, paper path, adjust-
ments i.e. head gap) directly without having to enter them via the
menu. The settings for the parameters character density and font
are lost when the printer is switched off. They can be selected per-
manently in the menu mode of the printer.
`In the Menu mode further printer settings (line spacing, size of the
interface buffer etc.) can be altered and saved permanently.
3

User guide The control panel
11
The LC display TheLC displaytellsyou alltheimportantprintersettingsandinforms
you which functions are currently assigned to which keys.
Theupperline informsyouthat theprinteris eitherinonline oroffline
mode (in the example below the printer is in the Online mode), and
the selected paperpath (below: Tractor1 = tractor mode).
Example:
Online Tractor1
Tear Online
Setup
21 34
Printer status
Key functions
Paper path

The control panel User guide
12
Online mode After switching on, the printer is automatically set to online mode.
Only in this mode can it receive data from the computer.
`Tear key (4): Activates the tear function when fanfold paper is
loaded, see (see Moving the paper to the tear position, page 37).
If Load is displayed above this key, no paper is loaded in the prin-
ter or the printer is in park position. In this case the display swit-
ches between Online and Park Position. Press the key to feed
paper to the printing position.
`Setup key: Sets the printer to setup mode.
`Online key: Sets the printer to offline mode.
Offline mode Only in this mode is it possible to perform step, line, or form feeds
from the control panel, see (see Paper transport, page 36); howe-
ver, data cannot be received.
`Park key (1): Clears the paper path with paper loaded and acti-
vates paper path quick selection, see (see Changing the paper
type, page 27).
`Key (2): Short keypress: Microstep forward. Long keypress:
Continuous paper feed.
`Key (3): Short keypress: Microstep reverse. Long keypress:
Continuous paper reverse feed up to the park position.
`Load key (4): If no paper is loaded, see above.
If paper is loaded: Loads paper from the selected paper source;
the display changes to LF/FF
Short keypress: Line Feed (LF).
Long keypress: Form Feed (FF).
`Setup key: Sets the printer to setup mode.
`Online key: Sets the printer to online mode.
Online Tractor1
Tear
Online
Setup
21 34
Offline Tractor1
Load
Online
Setup
Park Load
21 34