NCI 122X User manual

User's Manual
Model 122X
MiniPrinter Series

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
2
Risk of electrical shock. Do not remove cover. No user serviceable
parts inside. Refer servicing to qualified service personnel.
Weigh-Tronix reserves the right to change
specifications at any time.
CAUTION
05/27/04 122X_U.P65 PN 7424-14954i e2 Printed in U.S.A.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 3
Specifications .....................................................................4
Introduction ........................................................................6
Installation ..........................................................................6
Installing the Paper.......................................................6
To Remove the Paper Roll ...........................................9
Operation .........................................................................10
Connecting and Powering up Your Printer .................10
Maintenance .....................................................................10
Changing the Printer Ribbon ...................................... 11
Inserting a Ribbon with Paper in the Printer...............12
Printer Test and Setup......................................................13
Printer Test .................................................................13
Accessing the Setup Menu ........................................14
CONFIGURE ..............................................................14
CUSTOM ....................................................................17
SET CLOCK... ............................................................19
RESET SEQ# .............................................................20
Communication ................................................................21
Model 1220 RS-232 Serial Version ............................21
Model 1221 Parallel Version.......................................23
Model 1222 Serial TTL Version ..................................25
Model 1223 20 mA Current Loop Version ..................26
Model 1224 RS-485 Serial Version ............................27
Control Codes ............................................................29
Default Table ....................................................................38
Table of Contents

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
4
Specifications
Interface-Serial
Character Buffering
Character Matrix
Character Spacing
Line Feed Spacing
Print Speed
Paper
Print Method
Power
AC Voltage
DC Voltage
External Dimensions
Operating Temp.
Available baud rates:
300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200
Voltage levels:
RS-232C: -9 Volts to + 9 Volts
TTL: 0 Volts to + 5 Volts
20mA current loop
RS-485: 200mV differential
Character format:
Standard ASCII character set—10 or 11 bits per
character, 7 or 8 data bits.
Even or odd parity selection for 7 data bits.
Bit mapped graphics—10 bits per character
required
Busy signal - Clear to Send (CTS) or XON-XOFF
36-pin Centronics
1.5K standard
8K optional
Approximately 9500 byte capacity with option in-
stalled.
Impact dot matrix
5 x 8 or 5 x 5
24 column: 12.8 characters/inch
32 column: 17 characters/inch
40 column: 21 characters/inch
7.6 lines per inch, character mode
9.1 lines per inch, graphic mode
38 lines per minute for 24 column
33 lines per minute for 32 and 40 column
Table top: 2.25"W x 2.75"D; 0.44" I.D.
Panel mount: 2.25"W x 1.25"D
1 Watts (idle), 10 Watts (while printing)
9VAC (120 VAC stepdown converter included)
Multi-national converters optional
Optional 9-12 VDC
100mA idle, 1500mA with 100% printing, 2.9A peak
with 100% printing
4.1"W x 4.5"L x 2"H
5°C to 40°C, 41°F to 104°F
Interface-Parallel

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 5
Ribbon Life
Paper
Print Head Life 500,000 lines mean character before failure.
Black- 200,000 characters
Purple- 250,000 characters
Large roll - 12,500 lines
Small roll - 3,000 lines

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
6
Introduction
Installing the Paper
The Model 122X impact printer series consists of
these models and electronic interfaces:
Model 1220 - RS-232
Model 1221 - Parallel
Model 1222 - TTL
Model 1223 - Current Loop
Model 1224 - RS-485
This manual is split into the following main sections:
• Introduction
• Installation
• Operation
• Maintenance
• Printer Test and Setup
• Communication
• Default Settings
Installation
Follow the precautions listed below when setting up
your printer. They are designed to help you keep your
printer working at its best.
- Plug your power supply into an appropriate
grounded outlet.
- Place your printer on a flat hard surface, like a
tabletop.
- Keep your printer out of direct sunlight.
1. Remove the printer cover by pressing on the
groove patterns to pop the front edge up. Lift off
the cover.
2. Press the rocker switch to the left. The light will
go off.
3. Unroll several inches of the paper.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 7
4. Cut a straight edge on the paper roll if it is
jagged. This will facilitate the entry of the paper
into the printer.
5. Slide the paper through the slot connecting the
paper compartment and the printer compartment.
You can slide it in about one-quarter inch before
it stops.
6. While holding the paper in place, press the
rocker switch to the Paper Feed position. The
printer will activate, and a rubber roller will pull
the paper into the printer compartment. Hold the
switch in the Paper Feed position until the paper
emerges from the top of the printer mechanism.
7. When an inch of paper has emerged from the top
of the printer, release the Paper Feed button.
8. Now pull the paper through the printer, until
several inches are exposed.
9. Slide the paper through the slot in the printer
cover.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
8
10. Push the back of the printer cover down and into
place.
11. Press the front of the printer cover down to lock
in place.
12. Put the paper spindle into the paper roll as
shown below, and place the roll with the spindle
onto the snaps near the back of the printer. Turn
the paper roll to take up any slack in the paper
feeding to the printer. Make sure the roll of paper
turns freely. If it does not turn freely, the paper
will jam and will possibly damage the printer
mechanism.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 9
To Remove the
Paper Roll
1. Advance the paper about one inch beyond the
paper cutter by using the Paper Feed switch.
2. Lift the paper roll away from the printer housing
and cut the paper feeding to the printer with
scissors. Try to make the cut as square as
possible to help the next time you reload the
paper.
3. Pull the remaining paper through the printer
mechanism. Be sure to pull the paper from the
top (paper cutter side).
Pulling the paper out
of the back of the
printer will damage
the print mechanism.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
10
Operation
Connecting and
Powering Up
Your Printer
1. Attach the appropriate cable between the printer
and your host device. The connector on the
printer side is “keyed” so that you cannot plug the
cable in the wrong way. This means that the pins
should be positioned so that a slight pressure will
seat the cable properly. Do not force the pins in.
Doing so could damage the cable.
2. Plug the power cord into the back of the printer.
Plug the transformer into an appropriate AC
outlet. The unit will power up automatically and
print Ready. This means the printer is ready to
print.
The Paper Feed switch on the printer is a rocker type
switch. Push the left side of the rocker switch to
toggle the printer on and offline. Push the right side of
the switch to advance the paper.
Your printer is now ready for printing.
The printer stores characters for printing until one of
two things happens:
1. Its line buffer is filled.
2. It receives a line feed (hexadecimal 0A) or a
carriage return (hexadecimal 0D) code.
When (1) or (2) occurs, the printer prints out the
contents of its line buffer. If the buffer is empty when
the carriage return is received, the printer simply
advances the paper one line, leaving a blank line in
the printout.
Maintenance
When printing becomes faint or difficult to see,
replace the ribbon in your printer with an Epson
ERC-09 cartridge ribbon.
NCI Part Numbers:
Black ribbon: 22332-0029
Purple: 22332-0011
Long-lasting Black: 22332-0045
Wall mount power: 114815534
Paper spindle: 109316536
Paper roll 1.25” dia: 22335-0018
Paper roll 2.75” dia: 22335-0026
Almond paper cutter 23019-0019
Grey paper cutter 23019-0043
Clear plastic paper
roll cover 115513184
For DC modified units
supplied with cable,
connect positive
voltage to striped
wire.
See the DC power
connection illustration
below:

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 11
If your printer is used infrequently, the print impres-
sion may become weak because the ribbon has dried
out. To advance the ribbon to a new section, hold
down the Paper Feed switch for several seconds.
Below are the steps for replacing the ribbon:
1. Turn the printer offline.
2. Four small grooves are embossed on each side
of the printer cover. Push down on one or both
of these areas until the printer cover tilts.
3. When the printer cover is tilted up, lift it com-
pletely off.
4. Push down on the right side of ribbon cartridge
where it is marked “PUSH”. Remove the car-
tridge.
Changing the Printer
Ribbon

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
12
If you get ribbon ink on
the printer case, wipe
it off immediately.
Once it dries it is
difficult to remove.
5. Install new cartridge. Be sure the ink cartridge is
inserted firmly to prevent weak or irregular
printing. The cartridge must be properly seated
and aligned for best printing.
6. Turn the cartridge “knob” (marked by an arrow)
clockwise to stretch the ribbon.
7. Replace the cover.
8. Replace the paper.
You may insert the ribbon cartridge if there is already
paper in the printer.
Hold the cartridge as shown above and slide it over
the paper and into the printer compartment. Be sure
the paper goes between the ribbon cartridge and the
ink ribbon.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 13
The printer can be tested and setup using the steps
described in this section. Testing and setup are done
using the rocker switch on the printer.
With the printer unplugged at the outlet or at the back
of the printer, press and hold the right side of switch
as you plug the unit in. The printer will print out a list
of the configuration as it currently exists then do a
continuous print test. To stop the print test, press
either side of the rocker switch. Below is a sample of
what is printed when you do the print test.
Printer Test
T & D will be printed in
the list to the right if
the Time and Date
option is installed.
Printer Test and Setup

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
14
To access the setup menu follow these steps:
1. Unplug the printer either at the outlet or at the
back of the printer.
2. Press and hold down the left side of the rocker
switch and plug in the printer. The printer will
advance the paper. After the paper advance has
stopped, count for 3 to 5 seconds and then
release the switch. The following is printed:
If you wait less than three or more than five seconds
Ready is printed and you will have to try steps 1 and
2 again to access the setup menu.
After you access the setup menu, if you press NEXT
(left side of switch) repeatedly you will see the
following list printed. If you keep pressing NEXT (left
side) the list repeats itself.
As you can see from the above printout the setup
menu contains the following items:
•CONFIGURE menu
•CUSTOM menu
•SET CLOCK menu
•RESET SEQ#
The following pages explain these items and how to
customize the printer to your needs.
The first setup menu item reads
CONFIGURE [NEXT/OK]
[NEXT/OK] is a visual clue so you know that pressing
the left side of the rocker switch will go to the NEXT
part of the menu and that pressing the right side of
the rocker switch will accept (or say OK to) what this
line of the setup menu says.
Accessing the Setup
Menu
Configure
This manual assumes
the time and date
option is installed and
operating. If you do
not have this option
you will not see
references to the clock
or date listed in most
menus.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 15
With the printer in the setup menu and with
CONFIGURE [NEXT/OK] as the last item printed,
press OK (right side) to access the CONFIGURE
menu. The following is printed:
LOAD DEFAULTS gives you the opportunity to reset
the printer to all default settings (shown below).
Choose OK to do this or NEXT to go to the next
parameter. The following is printed:
Baud rate is the next parameter you can set in the
CONFIGURE menu. The complete list of parameters
and their possible values is shown below.
The sample list above shows the current baud rate is
1200. To accept this, press OK (right side) or view the
next baud rate value by pressing NEXT (left side).
Press OK when the baud rate you want is displayed.
Choose from these baud rates;
300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, or 19200
DATA BITS is the next parameter. Choose the data
bit value the same way baud rate was chosen.
Choices are 7 or 8 data bits.
Baud Rate
Data Bits
Load Defaults
* The parallel interface
does not have these
selections.
The complete list of
defaults is shown in
the Default Table at
the end of this manual.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
16
Stop Bits
Handshake
Handshake is used for
serial interface only.
Parity
Columns
Invert
Font
Magnification
Parity can be selected only if 7 data bits are set.
Choose Odd or Even. If you choose 8 data bits, parity
defaults to None.
STOP BITS is the next parameter. Choose 1 or 2 stop
bits. 1 stop bit is used for 10 bit words, 2 stop bits are
used for 11 bit words.
HANDSHAKE is the next parameter. Choose from
the following settings:
BUSY-LINE
BUSY-BUFFER
XON/XOFF-LINE
XON/XOFF-BUFFER
NONE
COLUMNS is the next parameter. Select the number
of characters per line (columns) for this parameter.
The choices you have are 24, 32, or 40. Below are
samples of each:
INVERT is the next parameter. Choose OK if you
want inverted text (upside down) or NEXT if you want
non-inverted text (right side up) in your printouts.
Below is an example of inverted text.
FONT is the next parameter. Choose from a 5 x 5 dot
matrix print pattern or a 5 x 8 dot matrix pattern. The
5 x 5 dot pattern produces only upper case (capital)
letters.
The last parameter is MAGNIFICATION. This refers
to the size of printed type from your printer. Your
choices (with examples) are
NONE
DOUBLE WIDE

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 17
CUSTOM
DOUBLE HIGH
DOUBLE WIDE/HIGH
After you choose one of the magnifications the printer
will print Ready to show the printer is out of the
configuration menu and the setup menu and is ready
to print.
The next setup menu item after CONFIGURE is
CUSTOM. With the printer in the setup menu and with
CUSTOM as the last item printed, if you press OK
(right side) the printer will print the following:
If you press OK the printer will print the current
custom setup. A sample is shown below.
This printout shows you how each item is currently
set. Below is an explanation of each item and the
choices you can make for each.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
18
T/D Format
This feature is avail-
able only on units with
the time/date option
installed.
Time/date option is
Y2K compatible.
Auto Seq#
Auto T&D
Pound Sign
Zero
_Underscore
Busy Invert
Appears only if the
clock is installed.
TIME/DATE FORMAT is the next parameter. Choose
from the following formats.
MM/DD/YY hh:mm ?M
MM/DD/YY hh:mm ?M DOW MM = month
MM/DD/YY hh:mm DD = day
MM/DD/YY hh:mm DOW YY = year
DD-MM-YY hh:mm ?M hh = hour
DD-MM-YY hh:mm ?M DOW mm = minutes
DD-MM-YY hh:mm ?M = AM or PM
DD-MM-YY hh:mm DOW DOW=Day of week
DD-MON-YY hh:mm ?M
DD-MON-YY hh:mm ?M DOW
DD-MON-YY hh:mm
DD-MON-YY hh:mm DOW
NONE
AUTO TIME AND DATE is the next parameter.
Your choices are:
YES - autoprint after CR (carriage return)
NO - do not autoprint after CR
Autoprint of the time and date will not occur unless
three seconds has elapsed since the printer has
stopped printing.
AUTO SEQUENCE NUMBER is the next parameter.
Choices:
YES - autoprint sequence number after CR
NO - don’t autoprint sequence number after CR
Autoprint of the sequence number will not occur
unless three seconds has elapsed since the printer
has stopped printing.
ZERO is the next parameter. Choose how you want
the zero character to look in your printouts. Choose
between 0and Ø.
POUND SIGN is the next parameter. Choose to show
pound as #or as the British sterling pound symbol £.
_UNDERSCORE is the next parameter. Choose
which symbol the same ASCII code will print, an
underscore (_) or a left arrow (Ô).
BUSY INVERT is next. This controls the logic level for
a busy signal for the CTS line.
Choices:
YES - voltage will be in a low state until the
unit is busy then voltage level goes high.
NO - voltage will be in a high state until the
unit is busy then voltage level goes low.

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual 19
Ext Ch Set
The choice to use the
extended character set
is available only when
8 data bits are chosen.
Print Ready
SET CLOCK
Online/Offline
If you choose NO, then you will need
to hold the left side of the rocker
switch down for 4 to 6 seconds to
access the setup menu. Begin timing
when you plug in power to the unit
and the red light comes on. The
paper feed motor does not run upon
power up when Ready is disabled.
ONLINE/OFFLINE is next.
Choices:
YES - enables the rocker switch to turn the
printer offline.
NO - disables the ONLINE/OFFLINE ability.
EXT CH SET is next. This stands for Extended
Character Set.
Choices:
YES - Allows you to use hexidecimal numbers
above 80 (true only for 8 data bits.)
NO - Disables the Extended Character Set
ability.
PRINT READY is next.
Choices:
YES - Prints Ready upon power up.
NO - Disables printing Ready
The next item in the Setup Menu is SET CLOCK
With the printer in the setup menu and with SET
CLOCK as the last item printed, if you press OK (right
side) the printer will print the following:
The printout shows the year currently in memory. The
0is reversed (white on black) to show the position of
the cursor. This is the number which will be incre-
mented if NEXT (left side) is pressed. If the number is
correct press OK (right side) and the following is
printed:

Model 122X MiniPrinter User’s Manual
20
The cursor now appears over the 2nd position. Press
NEXT (left side) to increment this number if needed
and OK if it is right. Continue this sequence of
accepting or changing the year, month, day, and
DOW (Day Of Week).
When you have completed the SET DATE menu the
following is printed automatically:
Choose NEXT (left side) to increment the number or
OK (right side) to accept the 1. Repeat this same
procedure for hours and minutes as shown below.
When everything is as you want it and you press OK,
START CLOCK is printed. Press OK (right side) to
start the clock. The printer then prints Ready showing
you that it is out of the setup menu and ready to print.
RESET SEQ# is the last setup menu item. This menu
item lets you reset the sequence number. This
number is the number of print transactions since the
last reset. With the printer in the setup menu and
with RESET SEQ# as the last item printed, if you
press OK (right side) the sequence number will be
This feature is avail-
able only on units with
the time/date option
installed.
RESET SEQ#
DOW :
0=Sunday
1=Monday
2=Tuesday
3=Wednesday
4=Thursday
5=Friday
6=Saturday