Star Micronics 4 manual Controllingthe Printer, TheINTERFACEparameter

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It’s actuallyprettyeasy. Flippingthroughand settingparametersfrom the panel is describedin detailin the StarL.userPrinter4 OperationsManual.

Basically,all you do is press the [ < ] or [ > ] buttonsto scrollthroughthe sequenceof possibleparametersandvalues,whichis clearlyshownon the paneldisplay.Youpress [ v ] whenyouwantto go downandscrollthrough a lower menu level. And you also press [ v ] when you want to save a particularmenu item as the valuefor a currentparametersetting.

SETPOWER-UPenablesyouto savenew settingsin a permanentmemory calledEEPROM.The new settingscan be storedeven when the power is turnedoff.Thefinalmenu(LOADFACTORYSET)isusedwhenyouwant to start from the beginning,with the originalfactorysettings.

2.2CONTROLLINGTHE PRINTER

In this sectionyou’llmeet two separatecontrolsover how the Star Laser- Printer4 itself works.The INTERFACEparametercontrolscommunica- tions between the printer and your computer. And the EMULATION parameter determines,among other things, which set of commandsthe printerwill use. You can set these INTERFACEand EMULATIONpara- meterson the controlpanel.

2.2.1 TheINTERFACEparameter

The INTERFACEparameter,the most basic of the Star LaserPrinter4’s configurationsettings,defineshow yourcomputerconnectsto the printer. You can set the INTERFACEto either Serial or Parallel. In most single- computetenvironrnentsyou’lloptforthefasterParallelinterface;in amulti- user networkyou may be betteroff with Serial.

Theparticularprinterinterfacesettingsdon’tmatterasmuchasmakingsure

theymatchthoseon yourcomputer.If youuse an MS-DOScomputer,you

can set your computer’sparameterswith the MODE command.See your

MS-DOSmanual.

Most MS-DOSand AT-compatiblecompute~ supportup to threeparallel and two serialports, whichcome on expansionboardsyou plug into your computer.When you installsuch boardsyou must set switchesto indicate thenumberandaddressesof theseports.If youspecifythewrongaddresses, you won’tbe ableto print.

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