Star Micronics 150 manual Chapter Hex-dump Mode, Hex-dump Mode PcOS Series

Hex-dump Mode PcOS Series 150 Programmer's Guide

Chapter 8:

Hex-dump Mode

Hex-dump mode is entered by pressing and holding the RESUME and RELEASE keys at power up. This mode is used to diagnose communication problems with the printer. As information is received by the printer, the information is converted to a HEX/ASCII format and printed. No translation is made which means that no commands are interpreted. All information is converted to HEX/ASCII and printed on the receipt tape. If a carriage return is sent to the printer, it will be translated to 0D in the HEX field and "." in the ASCII field.

The format is as follows:

54 68 69 73 20 69	73	20	This is
61 20 74 65 73 74	0D	0A	a test..

There are several indications of printer and host communication problems that can be deduced from this test. If the printer is printing all 40 "@" symbols, the parity or the number of bits is wrong. If the printer is printing some Hex 40 "@" symbols when it should be printing other characters, either the parity, baud rate, or the bit length setting is wrong. If the printer prints incorrect characters (like Hex C1 instead of Hex 41 "A"), it is set for 8-bit data, and the host is set for 7-bit. In most cases, the print problem can be traced to the host and printer not being configured in the same way.

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