Epson Printer Interface Cartridge User manual

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other-
wise, without the prior written permission of Epson America, Inc. No patent liability is
assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. While every precaution
has been taken in the preparation of this book, Epson America, Inc. assumes no responsibility
for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of
the information contained herein.
Commodore 64 and VIC-20 are registered trademarks of Commodore Business Machines, Inc.
HomeWriter and PIC are trademarks of Epson America, Inc.
Middle Earth by Wayne Schmidt.
Doodle! art courtesy of City Software.
Doodle! is a trademark of City Software.
Copyright© 1985 by Epson America, Inc.
Torrance, California 90505
P8492053
ii

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
2
3
Installation and Operation
......................
Inserting the Printer Interface Cartridge
...........
Printing the Test Patterns
.......................
Connecting the Printer to Your Commodore
.......
Control Panel
.................................
Using Your Printer
.............................
SelecType
....................................
Dot Matrix Printing
............................
Near Letter Quality
..........................
Emphasized
................................
Double-Strike
...............................
Compressed
................................
SelecType Operation
...........................
Turning SelecType mode on
...................
Using SelecType
.............................
SelecType practice
...........................
SelecType exercise
...........................
Mode combination
..........................
SelecType Tips
................................
HomeWriter- Features ........................
Demonstration Programs
.......................
The HomeWriter- and BASIC .................
HomeWriter- Features ........................
Expanded printing
...........................
Reverse printing
.............................
Uppercase/Graphic/Lowercase modes
..........
Tabs.. .....................................
Line spacing
................................
1
3
3
3
4
5
6
7
8
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
11
11
13
14
15
15
16
17
18
19
19
22
23
. . .
111

4
Introduction to Dot Graphics
....................
25
Dot Patterns
..................................
26
The Print Head
...............................
27
Graphics Mode
...............................
27
Pin Labels
....................................
28
First Graphics Program
.........................
29
Multiple-Line Exercise
..........................
30
Design Your Own Graphics
.....................
31
A HomeWriter- Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-l
B HomeWriter- Control Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-l
CThe DIP Switches
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-l
DUsing the Optional Tractor Unit
..................D-l
Printer Location
...............................D-l
Tractor Unit Installation
........................
D-2
Loading Continuous Paper
...................... D-4
E
Troubleshooting and Advanced Features
...........E-l
Problem/Solution Summary
....................E-l
Beeper Error Warnings
.........................E-l
Hex Code Dump Mode
......................... E-2
Installing Applications Programs
................. E-3
iv

Introduction
The Epson HomeWriter- printer combines low price with the
high quality and advanced capabilities formerly available only on
more expensive printers.
HomeWriter- Features
In addition to the reliability and quality you’ve come to expect from
Epson printers, the HomeWriter- has many features. A few of the
highlights are:
l Draft mode for quick printing of ordinary work
l Near Letter Quality mode for top quality printing
l A variety of print styles, including expanded, reversed, and two
kinds of bold printing
l Graphics for charts, diagrams, and illustrations
l Easy paper loading
l Ribbon cassette for quick and clean ribbon changing
About This Manual
The HomeWriter-10 Setup Instructions tell you how to set up your
printer. This Printer Interface Cartridge Operation Manual gives you
the specific information you need to use the HomeWriter- with your
Commodore computer.
1

We’re not going to waste your time with unnecessary information,
but we won’t neglect anything you need to know about the
HomeWriter- and its many features.
You can read as much or as little of this manual as you wish. If you
have used printers before and have a specific program that you want
to use with the HomeWriter-10, a quick reading of the first chapter
may be all you need.
For a preview of what your HomeWriter- can do, look at the
following samples of graphics and typestyles:
Your HomeWriter- can produce:
EXPANDEDPRINTING
REVERSED PRINTING
Emphasized printing
Double-strike printing
Compressed printing
The Near Letter Quality mode offers
high quality,
typewriter-style print.
2

Chapter 1
Installation and Operation
After you have set up your printer and loaded the paper (following
the directions in the Setup Instructions), you are ready to plug in your
Printer Interface Cartridge (PIC™) and begin printing.
Inserting the Printer Interface Cartridge
Inserting the PIC is easy. Simply follow the directions on the
HomeWriter- instruction card. Once the PIC is installed, you are
ready to test your printer.
Caution: Be sure you turn OFF all your computer equipment and
printer before inserting or removing the cartridge.
Printing the Test Patterns
It’s time to see the HomeWriter- in action. You’ll start with a test
pattern. Don’t connect the printer to your computer yet-just follow
these steps:
1) Make sure that your printer has paper in it and that the power
switch (on the right side of the printer) is off.
2) Press LF on the control panel while you turn the printer on with the
power switch.
3

The HomeWriter- will begin printing letters, numbers, symbols,
and graphics characters in the draft mode. It won’t stop until you turn
it off or until it gets near the end of the paper.
To see the same test in the NLQ (Near Letter Quality) mode, turn
the printer on while pressing FF. Figure l-l shows what both test pat-
terns look like.
NLQ
Standard
Figure 1-1. Test patterns
Connecting the Printer to Your Commodore
Before connecting the HomeWriter-10, be sure that all your com-
puter equipment is turned off.
If you have a disk drive, plug the cable into the serial bus port in the
back of the disk drive. If you do not have a disk drive, plug the cable
into the serial port connector in the back of your computer. See the
manual for your computer or disk drive if you are not sure which
connection to use.
4

Control Panel
When your HomeWriter- is connected to your computer system,
turn on the printer and look at the control panel on the top.
Figure 1-2. Control panel
You have already used the touch-sensitive control panel for a spe-
cial purpose, printing the test patterns. Here are the main functions of
the lights and rectangles on this panel:
l The POWER light glows green when the power is on.
l The READY light glows green when the printer is ready to accept
data. Don’t worry if this light flickers somewhat during printing;
such flickering is normal.
l The PAPER OUT light glows red when the printer is out of paper or
the paper is loaded incorrectly.
l The ON LINE light glows green when the printer can receive data.
(If it does not come on when you turn the printer on, check to see
that the computer and disk drive are on.)
5

In addition to the lights, the control panel has three touch-sensitive
rectangles. Their functions are:
l ON LINE switches the printer between on-line and off-line status.
When the printer is on-line, the ON LINE light glows and the
printer is ready to accept data.
The following two functions work only when the ON LINE light is
off. If the ON LINE light is on, press ON LINE before you use these.
l FF (Form Feed) advances continuous paper to the top of the next
page.
l LF (Line Feed) advances the paper one line at a time.
The control panel can also be used to turn on several printing func-
tions using a feature called SelecType, which is described in the next
chapter.
Using Your Printer
If you have a word processing or other commercial software pro-
gram, just load the program in your computer, follow the printing
instructions, and watch your HomeWriter- print.
If you plan to use your HomeWriter- for printing program list-
ings, load a program and use the appropriate listing command for the
programming language you are using. For the BASIC that is built in to
the Commodore computer, type the following:
OPEN9,4: CMD9: LIST
After the printer has listed the program, restore normal operation by
typing this:
PRINT#9: CLOSE9
You can now begin using the HomeWriter-10 with your software, or
you can find out about the special features of the printer in the next
chapters.
Note: If you need to print on the last 2 inches of single-sheet paper, see
Appendix C.
6

Chapter 2
SelecType
Your HomeWriter- offers several methods of enhancing your
printing. In addition to reversed and expanded print, which are stan-
dard on Commodore printers, your Epson printer has four special
typestyles. These typestyles are especially easy to use with Epson’s
SelecType feature.
Choosing print modes on the HomeWriter- with SelecType is
simple. This feature changes the function of the three touch-sensitive
rectangles on the control panel-ON LINE, FF, and LF. After turning
on SelecType, you can use a few taps on the panel to change from
standard single-strike printing to
Near Letter Quality,
emphasized,
double-strike, or
compressed printing.
You can also turn on these typestyles with switches in the back of
the printer. See Appendix C for information on these switches.
7

Dot Matrix Printing
To understand the difference between standard printing and the
four typestyles available with SelecType, it will help to know some-
thing about dot matrix printing-the printing method of the
HomeWriter-10.
In dot matrix printing all letters, symbols, and graphics are made up
of patterns of dots. The standard printing mode uses 10 to 15 dots for
most letters. In this mode the letters are clear and readable and the
printing is extremely fast.
Near Letter Quality
The Near Letter Quality (NLQ) mode uses many more dots for each
character than the standard mode does. This makes the letters more
fully formed, as you can see in the printout below, but it does decrease,
the speed of your printing.
This is standard printing, and
this is Near Letter Quality (NLQ) printing.
With the two modes, draft and NLQ, the HomeWriter- gives you
a choice of high speed or high quality each time you print. You can
print your ordinary work or preliminary drafts quickly in the draft
mode and use the NLQ mode for final copies or special purposes.
Because the NLQ mode is designed for printing words and num-
bers, you can’t print pictures or graphics characters in this mode.
Therefore, be sure that there are no graphics characters in the docu-
ments or files you print in the NLQ mode.
Emphasized
In the emphasized mode, the HomeWriter- prints each dot twice,
with the second dot slightly to the right of the first. This mode pro-
duces letters that are darker and more fully formed than standard
ones, as shown in the printout below.
This is standard printing, and
this is emphasized printing.
8

Because emphasized is faster than the NLQ mode, for some purposes
you may want to use it instead of NLQ.
Double-Strike
In the double-strike mode, the HomeWriter- prints each line
twice, with the second slightly below the first. Therefore, it is like
emphasized except that the dots are offset vertically rather than hor-
izontally. Both modes are bolder than standard printing-you can
look at the printout below and decide which one you prefer.
This is standard Printing, and
this is double-strike printing, and
this is emphasized printing.
Compressed
In the compressed mode, the HomeWriter- squeezes the dots
together horizontally to make each letter narrower. With this mode,
over 130 characters (instead of 80) will fit on a standard eight-inch
line.
This is standard printing, and
this is compressed printing.
SelecType Operation
SelecType lets you use the Epson typestyles discussed above
whether or not your word processing or business program supports
them.
For example, you can print the first draft of a letter or report in the
standard mode and print the final version in the NLQ mode without
putting any print codes in the document.
SelecType is also handy for selecting compressed printing to
squeeze more information on a line.
Using SelecType is a simple four-step process:
1) Turn SelecType on.
2) Select a print function.
3) Set the function.
4) Turn SelecType off.
9

Turning SelecType mode on
To turn SelecType on make sure that the printer is on (with the
POWER, READY, and ON LINE lights all on), and then press both
ON LINE and FF at the same time, as illustrated in Figure 2-l. The
HomeWriter- beeps to signal that the SelecType mode is on; the
READY light turns off; and the ON LINE light begins flashing. Now
that SelecType mode is on, the panel has new functions (also shown in
Figure 2-l).
Figure 2-1. SelecType setting and functions
In SelecType, each touch-sensitive rectangle has a function: ON
LINE selects typestyles, FF sets the styles, and LF turns SelecType off,
returning the panel to its standard operation.
Using SelecType
Once you have turned on SelecType, you select the typestyle you
want according to Table 2-l. The mode number in the table is the
number of times you press ON LINE to select each function. Each time
you press ON LINE, the printer beeps.
10

Table 2-1. SelecType modes
Mode
Function
1
NLQ
ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz
2
Emphasized
ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz
3
Double-strike
ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz
4 Compressed ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz
After you press ON LINE the required number of times, you press
FF to set your selection. Then you press LF to turn off SelecType and
return the panel to its standard operation. After returning the control
panel to its standard operation, press ON LINE so that the printer will
be ready to print.
SelecType practice
For practice in using SelecType, try setting emphasized. First turn
the printer off and back on with the switch on the right side of the
printer.
Now press ON LINE and FF at the same time. The HomeWriter-
beeps to tell you that SelecType is on, the READY light turns off, and
the ON LINE light begins blinking. Then press ON LINE two times to
select emphasized. (The printer beeps each time you press ON LINE
while SelecType is on.) Finally, press FF once to set the function.
Emphasized mode is now set. Press LF once to turn SelecType off.
Now your panel returns to its normal operation, but your printer is in
the emphasized mode. Since this is only an exercise, turn the
HomeWriter- off and back on again to cancel all settings and pre-
pare for the next exercise.
SelecType exercise
You will probably use SelecType mainly with commercial software
(although you can also use it with BASIC or other programming lan-
guages). Since we don’t know what software you’ll use, our sample
exercises are in BASIC because every Commodore computer has
BASIC built in.
11

You don’t need to know anything about programming for this exer-
cise. It is merely for practice. If you would rather not use BASIC, use
your word processing or business program to create a short file or
document of the type you will usually print. When you create your
file, remember that SelecType is designed for letters and numbers
rather than graphics.
If you do want to use BASIC for this exercise, simply turn on your
computer, printer, (and disk drive if you have one). Then type the
short program listed below. Only the words inside the quotation
marks will be printed. You can put anything you want there.
10 OPEN3,4
20 PRINT#3,"THE LETTERS IN THIS EXAMPLE"
30 PRINT#3,"ARE MADE UP OF TINY DOTS."
50 CLOSE3
Now, run the program by typing RUN and pressing RETURN, or
print your file or document by following the printing instructions of
your software. The HomeWriter- will print your example in stand-
ard single-strike printing, as shown below:
THE LETTERS IN THIS EXAMPLE
ARE MADE UP OF TINY DOTS.
Now that you have created a sample, follow these steps to print it in
compressed mode:
1) See that both the ON LINE light and the READY light are on.
2) Press ON LINE and FF at the same time. You hear a beep to signal
that SelecType is on.
3) As you see in Table 2-1, the code for compressed is four. Therefore,
press ON LINE four times. (Remember that you hear a beep each
time you press ON LINE when you are in SelecType mode).
4) Now that you have selected the compressed mode, push FF once to
set it.
5) Push LF once to return the panel to its standard operation.
12

Now you have set the HomeWriter- to print in compressed
mode. Merely push ON LINE to put your printer back on-line and
print your sample once more. It should appear in compressed mode
just as ours does below:
THE LETTERS IN THIS EXAMPLE
ARE MADE UP OF TINY DOTS.
Turn off your printer to cancel the compressed setting, and-if you
wish-try this exercise with other modes.
Mode combination
Two of the SelecType modes (NLQ and emphasized) can be com-
bined to create a striking effect. If you want to see how this combina-
tion looks, follow the instructions below:
1) See that the ON LINE and READY lights are on.
2) Press ON LINE and FF at the same time.
3) Press ON LINE once and then FF once.
Since one is the code for NLQ, you have now set the HomeWriter-
for that mode.
4) Press ON LINE one more time and then FF once again.
This makes a total of two times, and thus sets the HomeWriter- for
emphasized also.
5) Press LF to return the panel to its standard operation.
6) Press ON LINE to put the HomeWriter- on-line.
Now print your sample document or run your sample program. If
your printing appears in
emphasized Near Letter Quality
as you see here, you have successfully combined the two modes. If
you get any other results, turn your printer off and back on and then
try the steps again.
13

SelecType Tips
Any mode you turn on with SelecType usually stays in effect until
the printer is turned off. If, for example, you use SelecType to print a
document in emphasized, anything you print after that will be empha-
sized unless you turn the printer off and back on first.
Remember that if you like one of the typestyles in this chapter well
enough to use it most of the time, you can turn it on and keep it on
with a special switch in the back of your printer. See Appendix C for
instructions.
14

Chapter 3
HomeWriter-10 Features
In this chapter and the next we describe the printing and graphics
features of the HomeWriter-10, but many of you won’t need these
chapters. How much of the rest of this manual you use depends upon
three things:
l How much you already know about computers and printers
l What kind of printing you are interested in
l What software you plan to use.
If you have quite a bit of experience with computers, you may want
to skip to Appendix B, which has a full description of the
HomeWriter- commands. On the other hand, even if you are a
computer novice, your software manual may contain all the printing
instructions you need.
Just about any program for a Commodore computer that is
designed to produce single-color printed copy will work with the
HomeWriter-10.
Demonstration Programs
The demonstration programs included in these chapters are written
in the BASIC programming language. Although we know that you
will probably not use BASIC for most of your printing, we chose to
include these programs because every Commodore has built-in
BASIC.
You don’t need to understand BASIC programming to run these
programs. Although we supply a few notes about using Commodore
BASIC with a printer in the next section, in most cases all you need to
15

do is turn on your computer and type in the programs exactly as you
see them in this manual. If you have any questions, see your Commo-
dore User’s Guide.
Although all the example programs are in BASIC, you can of
course change them to any programming language that you prefer to
use. Simply follow the instructions in the manual for your program-
ming language.
The HomeWriter- and BASIC
In order to send any information to the printer, you must first open
a file for it. A sample statement for opening a file is:
10 OPEN1,4
The 1 in the line above is the file number, and the 4 is the device
number. You can use any number from 0 to 255 for the file number,
but the device number should be 4 unless you have two printers.
If you have two printers connected to your Commodore, you will
sometimes use another device number. See Appendix C for further
information.
After you have opened a file, you send information to the printer
with a PRINT# statement, such as the sample below:
20 PRINT#1,"THE PRINTER PRINTS THIS"
The PRINT# statement is much like the PRINT statement in BASIC
except that it must be followed by the number of a file that has been
opened and a comma. Anything inside quotation marks after that will
be sent to the printer and printed.
As you will see in programs later in this chapter, you can also send
instructions to the printer with a PRINT# statement.
After you have finished with a file, you should close it using the
format below:
30 CLOSE1
All you need for this statement is the word CLOSE and the file num-
ber. If you wish, type in and run the three lines above, which form one
program.
Each time you want to see the results of a program, type RUN and
then press RETURN.
16