Star Micronics 8 Series manual Checking your connections

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DTR (DataTerminalReady)protocoldoes the same thing slightlydiffer- ently.The,printersendsa continuoushigh-voltagesignalover the cable as long as it can accept data, but drops the voltage to say “whoa” to the computer.

Conversely,it’s thecomputerthatholdsthe reinswiththeETX/ACK(End- of-text/Acknowledge)protocol.The computersendsan ETX controlcode aftereach stringof data,and whentheprinterfinallygetsthatcodeit sends an ACK code back to the computer,askingfor more. This protocolis less used by modem computersbecause it doesn’t hold back data when the printer’smemorygets swamped,

Look in your computer’soperationsmanual, in the section dealing with communicationsprotocols,to sce whichis best for your system. You can stickto the printer’sdefaultsif yourcomputerusesneithertheDTRnor the ETX/ACKprotocol,but doesuse XON/XOFF.

If you want to enable DTR or ETX/ACK,or disableXON/XOFF,you’ll have to set those parametervalues accordingly.Turning on onc of these protocolsautomaticallyflips off the others.

Checking your connections

Yourcomputerandprintermayhavetroublecommunicatingwhenyou first introducethcmto eachother.The quickway to findoutif yoursettingsand printercableare workingis to sendyourprintera printoutfromyourscreen (CHW-P with MS-DOS).

Whenthat’sdoneyou willalsohaveto presstheprintbuttonon theprinter, whichm’akestheprinteradvanceto a new sheet.No laserprinterprintsand ejectsa pageuntilit’stoldto feeda form,or untilit has receivedallthelines the page can hold.

If your Star LaserPrinter8 doesn’tprint what’s on the computerscreen, recheck your connections and interface settings. With an applications programlikeLotus1–2–3orMicrosoftWord,youuscapnntersctup routine to match your computerwith your printer’soperatingcharactcnstics.So double-checkyoursoftwaresettings;yourcomputer’soutput,forcxarnple, mightnot be goingto the properport.

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