SATO XL400/410, M8460S manual Status Response, STX 2 Byte ID1 Status Byte6 Byte Label RemainingETX

5. Interface Specifications Programming Manual

Bi-Directional Communications

This is a two-way communications protocol between the host computer and the printer, thus enabling the host to check printer status. When this protocol is selected, there is no busy signal from the printer (pin 20, DTR, is always high). The host must request the complete status from the printer, including ready/busy. Whenever the host requests printer status, it transmits an ENQ to the printer and the printer will respond with its sta- tus within five milliseconds. If printing, it will respond upon finishing the current label, then resume printing. In order for this protocol to work prop- erly, pin 6 (DTR) and pin 5 (CTS) must be held high by the host. One way to ensure these pins are always in the correct state is to tie pin 20 (DTR) to pin 6 (DSR) and pin 4 (RTS) to pin 5 (CTS) at the printer end of the cable.

Cable Requirements

HOST	INTERCONNECTION	PRINTER
FG		1 FG (Frame Ground)
RD		2 TD (Transmit Data)
TD		3 RD (Receive Data)
		4 RTS (Request to Send)
		5 CTS (Clear to Send)
		6 DSR (Data Set Ready)
		20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)
SG		7 SG (Signal Ground)

If a CAN (18 hexadecimal) is received by the printer, it will cancel the cur- rent print job and clear all data from the receive buffer.

Status Response

The Bi-Com protocol is an advanced version of bi-directional communica- tions where the printer can also report the number of labels remaining to be printed for the current print job. Upon receipt of an ENQ command, the printer responds with nine bytes of status information bounded by an STX/ ETX pair. The Bi-Com protocol works only in the Multi Job Buffer mode. The status information is defined as follows:

<STX>{ 2 Byte ID}{1 Status Byte}{6 Byte Label Remaining}<ETX>

ID - This is a two byte number identifying the current print job ID. The print job ID is defined using the <ESC>ID Job ID command transmitted with the print job (see Job ID Store in the command listing for more information on how to use this command). The range is from 00 to 99.

176 SATO RISC Printers