SATO M-8400RV manual Using the RS232C Serial Interface

Section 6. Troubleshooting

USING THE RS232C (SERIAL) INTERFACE

1.Is the RS232C Serial cable connected securely to your serial port on the PC (DB- 25S Male) and to the RS232C connector on the printer?

WARNING: Never connect or disconnect interface cables (or use a switch box) with power applied to either the printer or the host. This may cause damage to the interface circuitry and is not covered by warranty.

2.Is the cable defective? At the very least, you should be using a “Null Modem Cable,” which crosses pins in a specific manner. This should enable your printer to print. But we recommend that you eventually use a cable built to specifications as described in Section 5: Interface Specifications.

3.Check for obvious errors in the data stream. Remember that all print jobs for serial data must be framed by an STX and ETX. Again, see Section 5 if necessary.

4.If after sending your job to the printer, it only “beeps” (or displays a Framing Error message on the LCD panel) indicating a “framing error” message, you may have a configuration problem. There may be some inconsistencies with the Baud Rate, Parity, Data Bits, or Stop Bits in relation to your host computer. If you are confused as to what the printer’s current RS232 settings are, you may choose the SATO defaults (all DIP switches in the OFF position) to achieve 9600 baud, no parity, 8 databits, and 1 stop bit.

5.If you still are unable to get printer output, try the Hex Dump as described in Step 5 under the Centronics Interface troubleshooting. In this case, the printer monitors its RS232C interface for incoming data.

6.From the Hex Dump, if you are seeing extra 0D 0A (CR and LF) characters, and are using BASIC, refer to the beginning of the Command Code section. It provides hints for writing a SATO program in BASIC.

SATO M-8400RV 9001041 Rev. D Page 6-3