Manuel d'utilisation / d'entretien du produit LC24-30 du fabricant Star Micronics
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LC24-30 COLOUR USERS MANUAL NOT INTENDED FOR SALE.
VDE Statement This device carries the VDE RF1 protection mark to certify that it meets the radio inter- ference requirements of the Postal Ordinance No.
Guide to this manual The LC24-30 Colour is essentially a very easy printer to use. However, it is also capable of a number of complex functions. This manual is divided into two main sec- tions: Section 1 consists of Chapters 1 to 3, Section 2 consists of Chapters 4 to 7.
Guide to this manual Table of contents Chapter 1 - Introduction Features ~~...,..~~.,.....,.~.....~~..,...~~.., ..~.,,...~~.,~.....,~~..~,.,~...,,.......~..... 1 Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~.....~~...,,.~.~.......,,..~~~.~~..~,..~~..,,.
Chapter 4 - Printer reference Introduction ............................................................................. 33 Using the control panel.. ........................................................ 34 Making Electronic DIP Switch settings ...
Making adjustments to the printer ....................................... 63 Setting the print gap ..................................................................... .63 Adjusting vertical alignment .................................................
Appendix Specifications ........................................................................ 145 Default Electronic DIP Switch settings.. ............................. 149 Printer beep tones ........................................................
Chapter 1 Introduction Features This printer, the LC24-30 Colour, lets you print sharp, impressive-looking text and graphics, and has a wide range of features that will make it an indispensable companion for your personal computer at home or in the office.
Easy set-up - Electronic DIP Switch mode allows you to make power-on settings from the control panel. Utility software for IBM PC and compatible comput- ers also allows you to make these settings from your computer.
In addition to these features, the printer can print on a variety of different sizes and types of paper: single sheets (also called cut sheets), fanfold paper (continuous computer paper with holes in the edges), and multi-part forms (allowing you to print several copies at once).
Paper guides Paper delivery selector Release lever Extension cover Interlace connector The printer I The printer with the front cover removed Page 4 level.
Parts The main components are shown in the two diagrams opposite. The paper guides and paper support hold single- sheets, setting their position so that they are fed into the printer correctly. The release lever grips single sheets as they are fed in.
The platen guides the paper through the printer and provides -a solid surface against which the print head can make an impression on the paper. The adjustment lever lets you adjust the position of the print head for differing thicknesses of paper and for multi-part forms.
Chapter 2 Unpacking and setting up Choosing a place for the printer Keep the following points in mind when deciding where to put your printer. . Choose a firm, level surface where the printer will not be exposed to vibration. . Make sure that the printer is close enough to your computer for you to connect the two with your printer cable.
Unpacking the printer There should be five items in the box: the printer, a color ribbon cartridge, the paper support, a 3 l/2” floppy disk and this user’s manual. If anything is missing, contact the store where you bought the printer and ask them to supply the missing part.
Preparing the printer Place the printer in the spot you have chosen and carry out the following steps: Opening the front cover . Hook your fingers under the two small projecting tabs on either side of the front cover, grip the cover firmly and pull upwards.
Installing the ribbon cartridge . Turn the tension knob on the cartridge clockwise, to take the slack out of the ribbon. Tension knob, . Gently lower the cartridge into the cartridge holder. Make sure that the spindle on the cartridge holder fits into the socket on the base of the cartridge.
. Carefully position the ribbon between the print head and the print head shield as shown. Print head shield bon Print head . Push down gently but firmly on the cartridge to make sure that it is properly in place. You should be able to feel a small amount of play (about 1 / 10” - 2.
. Close the front cover by swinging it down and push- ing down on the raised parts at the rear so that it fits firmly into place. Fitting the paper support .
Connecting the printer to your computer The printer and computer must be connected with a cable. The computer sends the documents that you want to print to the printer via this cable. A cable is not supplied with the printer. Make sure that the printer and computer are both switched off before you connect them.
Secure the connector with the clips as shown. Note: Connection using the optional serial-to-parallel converter is described in Chapter 5. Page 14.
3 Setting up the printer in Windows The LC24-30 Colour is ideally suited for use with com- puters running Microsoft Windows system software. It works best with the newest version of Windows - Win- dows 3.1. If you are running a version of Windows ear- lier than 3.
. Click on Install Unlisted or Updated Printer in the list, so that this option is highlighted. . Click Install. A window prompts you to put in the floppy disk supplied with the printer. . Insert the disk with the printer driver file on it and click OK.
r Setting up the printer in MS-DOS IBM PC’s and compatibles running MS-DOS will usually work with a printer connected to the parallel port with- out any special set-up. Try printing out some text as follows: . Turn on the printer and start up your computer.
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Chapter 3 Using the printer Loading paper The paper tray can hold up to 55 sheets of paper. To load the paper, use the following steps (for a description of how to load fanfold paper refer to page 76 of Chapter 5). . Move the release lever towards the back of the printer and pull the paper tray cover forward.
. The paper guides move freely from side to side. Adjust the left-hand paper guide to the position you want. . Pick up your stack of paper. Page20.
. Cut sheet paper can sometimes stick together, caus- ing problems when the paper is drawn through the printer. To prevent this, flick through the stack of paper with your thumb. This helps ensure that each sheet of paper is loose within the stack and will be fed through the printer separately.
. Now place the paper in the paper tray. Paper guides . Adjust the right-hand paper guide so that the paper stack fits snugly between the guides. The paper must be able to slide down freely into the printer, but should not be able to move from side to side.
. Push the paper delivery selector up and back. Printed pages will now be delivered in a stack, face down. When you turn the stack of printed pages right-side up, the sheets will be in the order in which they were printed. Papa , delivery . Pull out the extension tray and pull out the stack wire to support the printed sheets.
Ready mode and Not-Ready mode The printer is in “ready” mode when it is ready to receive and print documents sent by the computer. When the printer is in “not-ready” mode, you can use the control panel keys to change various printer settings. In “not-ready” mode, the printer cannot print anything.
You can press the (READY] key to switch the printer between the two modes. Pressing (W] once puts the printer in ready mode: pressing [READV] again puts the printer in not-ready mode. Using the control panel The control panel’s purpose is to allow you to control the printer’s various functions and to see at a glance the printer’s set-up.
The green READY light on the right-hand side of the panel indicates whether the printer is in ready mode or not-ready mode, as already mentioned. The other six lights are always either on or off. The three lights on the left indicate the currently selected font.
Printing out your documents Printing documents is dependent on your operating sys- tem (Windows or MS-DOS). In Windows Unless you select otherwise in the application, Windows applications always print to the current Windows Default Printer.
Start up the application program and select a printer. Choose one of the following in the order of preference shown: Star LC24-30 Colour Epson LO-860/l 060 The shaded printers are not color printers. You will not be able to print in color, if you select one of them.
Using different fonts You can vary the appearance of your printed text by using different fonts. If you are unfamiliar with fonts (or typefaces), please refer to the section Introduction to fonts on page 50 of Chapter 4. The way in which you select different fonts depends on whether your computer is running Windows or MS-DOS.
In MS-DOS If you are using a computer running MS-DOS, you can use the control panel to select one of the 6 typeface fam- ilies built into the printer. Roman : 1234567890 ABCDE abcde Sanserif : 1234567.
Similarly, if only the middle light or bottom light is on, Courier or Script is selected. If two lights are on, the font whose name is between the two lights is the selected font. For example, if the lower two lights are on, Prestige is the selected font.
Using other printer features There are a number of other printer features that you may want to use. These features include the ability to use different types of paper, the ability to adjust the position of the paper very accurately, and the zoom fea- ture, which allows you to print documents at a reduced size.
Chapter 4 Printer reference Introduction This chapter is intended as a comprehensive guide to the printer’s functions. It covers a wide range of topics, some that have been briefly described in the first three chapters and some that are new. Among the topics covered are the following: .
Using the control panel The control panel allows you to control the printer’s var- ious functions and to see the printer’s current set-up. The control panel has more significance for MS-DOS users, since Windows takes care of feature selections, such as font selection.
such as the current font. The light is on when the printer is in ready mode. It flashes when it is in not- ready mode. The three lights arranged in the left-hand column of the panel show which font is currently selected. If a single light is on, the font next to that light is the currently selected font.
the lights are off if these features are not in effect. These features are explained later on in this chapter. The control panel is also used to make Electronic DIP Switch settings. These feature settings come into effect each time the printer is switched on.
Making Electronic DIP Switch settings Dot-matrix printers usually have rows of thin, two-posi- tion switches (DIP switches) with which you can select various power-on settings, such as emulation (Epson or IBM), default font and print quality (Letter-Quality or draft).
Micro Feed ALT l Macro FF A Zoom Electronic DIP Switch Dl (print quality) selected Press the [FONT] and [PAPER] keys until the letter and number corresponding to the desired setting are shown. The READY light shows the current switch setting: ON or OFF.
When the printer is shipped from the factory, all switch settings are set to ON, except for Bl, the graphics direc- tion, which is set to OFF (uni-directional printing).
EDS setting El Function ON OFF I I I E2 LO font selectIon I See below I E3 E4 E5 Reserved Reserved Al - Emulation The LC24-30 Colour can “emulate” either an Epson LQ- 860 or an IBM Proprinter X24E. To “emulate” means to “perform in the same way as”.
A3 - RAM usage If A3 is OFF, the printer is able to store patterns repre- senting characters that you have defined with the Epson or IBM printer commands (see Chapter 7). If A3 is ON, the printer can store the data it receives from the com- puter. This speeds up the printing process.
B2 - Paper out If B2 is ON, the printer can detect when there is no more paper and will stop printing. If B2 is OFF, the printer can print right down to the bottom of the page. However, there is also the danger that it may print past the end of the paper, which may cause damage to the print head and platen.
C4 and C5 - Print pitch Pitch is the number of characters in a one-inch line of text. If you want to print using 10 characters per inch text, C4 and C5 should be set to ON.
D3 to D 5 - IBM code page or international character set. Various special characters (for example, accented char- acters) are needed for different languages. For this rea- son, you can select variations on the standard character tables. These are known as code pages or international character sets.
El to E3 - LQ font selection If Letter Quality print mode is selected (Dl is set to ON), any of the following five fonts may be selected as the default font - the font that is current when the printer is powered on.
Selecting which emulation to use The LC24-30 Colour can emulate both Epson and IBM dot-matrix printers. This means that the software appli- cations you use on your computer can treat the printer as if it were an Epson or an IBM printer.
To change the setting back to Epson mode, simply per- form the reverse procedure. From now on the printer will turn on in the mode you have selected. Connecting the printer to your computer There are two stages to connecting the printer and your computer.
If you are using the serial-to-parallel converter, you will need to make some switch settings on the converter and corresponding serial port settings in Windows. This is described in the section Serial- to-parcdZeZ interface con- uerter in Chapter 6. You should now be able to print from your Windows applications.
When you can print using the MS-DOS print command, try printing from an application. Start up an application program, such as your word- processor, and select a printer to print to, as described on page 27 of Chapter 3 (you may also need to consult the application’s manual).
Using fonts and varying the appearance of text Introduction to fonts and typefaces A font is a collection of characters (letters, digits and punctuation symbols) of a particular design and size. The typeface of a font is the design style of the charac- ters.
character’s design. As a result, two different sentences that contain the same number of characters will occupy the same width if printed using a monospaced font, but will usually have different widths if a proportionally- spaced font is used. An example sentence in Courier.
Scalable fonts Each character in a scalable font is defined as an outline shape. The computer converts the outline shape to a matrix of dots that forms the printed character. Hence, scalable fonts, such as the TrueType fonts on the floppy disk accompanying the printer, can be displayed on- screen and printed at any size.
Selecting different fonts If you are running applications software under Windows, you will select fonts from within your applica- tion (refer to your application’s manual for details). Your applications software manual will tell you the vari- ous ways in which you can type-set your text on-screen so that it is ready to print out on the printer.
Unless you have altered the setting, the pitch is set to 10 characters per inch. You can also select character pitch from software appli- cations programs.
Using different types of paper You can use any of the following types of paper with your LC24-30 Colour printer: single sheets, fanfold paper and multi-part forms. Single sheets are individual, unconnected pieces of paper. They are also referred to as cut sheets.
You can also print using sheets of labels. We recom- mend that single sheet labels are used in preference to fanfold label paper. Note: Do not reverse feed label sheets.
Useful printing features Portrait and landscape printing You can load paper into the printer in either portrait (upright) or landscape (widthwise) orientation, provided that the width of the paper does not exceed 11”. Hence, you can load Letter-sized paper in landscape orienta- tion, but not A4 paper.
Pausing printing To temporarily interrupt printing, press the (READY] key. This puts the printer in not-ready mode. This allows you to check your print-out or change a setting using the control panel. To resume printing, press the (READY) key again to put the printer back in ready mode.
e Controlling the paper position There are a number of ways in which you can adjust the position of the paper in the printer. You can feed paper through a line at a time (paper feed), eject the current page (form feed) and feed the paper forwards and back- wards in very small steps (forward and reverse micro feed).
Reverse micro feed To feed the paper through the printer in reverse in small steps, first put the printer in not-ready mode. Hold down the (READY] key and press the [FONT] key. Each time you press the [FONT] key, the paper is fed backwards by a small amount.
Selecting Zoom mode print size You can print at either 50% [half) or 67% (two-thirds) normal size by using the Zoom mode. This is useful for printing wide documents, such as spreadsheets, on a single sheet. Change the zoom size as follows. Put the printer in not-ready mode.
Quiet indicator will light up, indicating that the printer is in Quiet mode. Printing will be slightly slower. To turn off Quiet mode, press the (FONT] key again while the printer is in ready mode. The printer will beep again to indicate that you have quit Quiet mode.
Making adjustments to the printer Setting the print gap Paper comes in different weights, normally quoted in gsm (grams per square meter). 60 gsm and 90 gsm are typical figures. Heavier paper is thicker. Multi-part forms are generally thicker than single sheets or ordi- nary fanfold paper.
It is a good idea to try out different settings in order to find out which setting gives the best print quality results. The table below gives recommended settings: Paper type Weight of each sheet Total thickness Position Single 14-24 Ibs (52-90 gsm) 0.
Adjusting vertical alignment Note: You may never have to use this function. Use it only if graph- ics print-outs appear strange (as in the illustrations below). After you have been using your printer for some time, you may find that when you print graphics, the printed dots are slightly out of line with each other.
*** DOT ADJUSTMENT SETTING *** LQ -3 : +[FONT] [PAPERJ~ Each time you press either of these two keys, the printer prints a new test line and a new offset value. If you are using fanfold paper, the printer will reverse feed the paper before printing the test pattern again.
Testing the printer Short test A short test prints out the version number of the soft- ware contained in the printer’s ROM, followed by seven lines of text. Each line is offset by one character from the line above. If the color ribbon is in use, each line will be printed in a different color.
c This test prints across the entire width of the carriage. It is a good idea to make sure that the printer is loaded with the widest possible paper available to avoid the possibility of damage to the print head or the platen.
. When the printer stops printing, put the printer in not-ready mode. The printer now prints the final line of the hexadecimal dump. . To resume normal operation, turn the printer off and on again. (Unless you switch it off and on the printer will continue to print in hexadecimal).
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Chapter 5 Options The two optional accessories that you can purchase with your LC24-30 Colour printer are the push tractor unit (PT- 1 OQ), which allows you to print on fanfold paper (continuous stati.
Push tractor unit Installing the push tractor unit The push tractor unit allows you to print on continuous fanfold paper up to 10” wide. The push tractor unit con- sists of two end pieces joined by two silver metal rods. The metal rods have two black sliding tractor units and a black sliding support piece mounted on them.
. Hold the push tractor unit with your thumb and forefinger on the ridges near the top and with the slot facing towards you. Ridges _ . Hook the slots in the end pieces over the shaft just behind and above the platen roller.
. Using your forefinger and thumb squeeze the end piece levers against the rear part of the end pieces. Rotate the tractor feed unit downwards until the bottom of the levers fit snugly into the indentations in the metal plate inside the printer body.
. Release the two levers and check that the tractor unit is properly secured. The unit is now locked in place. Make sure that the covers on both tractors are closed. . Close the rear cover by swinging it forwards and upwards. Click it firmly back into place.
Loading fanfold paper Position the stack of fanfold paper behind the printer. Turn the printer off. Pull the release lever forward. If there is a single sheet that has been fed into the printer, remove it. Open the front cover by hooking your fingers under the two small projecting tabs on either side of the front cover.
Lock the tractors in position by pushing the levers back down again. Open the covers on both tractors and position the paper by aligning the holes in the paper with the pins on the tractors. Ensure that the paper is properly aligned on the tractor pins.
. Press the [PAPER] key. The fanfold paper will be fed in to the starting position (if you want to adjust this position, use the procedure for setting the auto load position, described on page 60 of Chapter 4). Note: Keep the release lever in the forward position while printing on fanfold paper.
Printing on fanfold paper Two useful features of the LC24-30 Colour that facilitate the use of continuous stationery are paper parking (fan- fold paper can remain installed in the printer while you temporarily switch to printing on single sheets), and the tear-off function (you can remove printed output with- out losing the current paper position).
Perforation Bottom of Form 0 75 mm 0 a 0 If you need to use continuous multi-part forms, use the type which has both side edges glued together. Do not use forms with more than three parts. Make sure that the print gap is correctly set for the thickness of paper that you are using.
Parking paper If you want to use single sheets, but do not want to remove the fanfold paper, you can “park” the fanfold paper. . Tear off the paper at a perforation, so that not more than half a p.
Using the tear-off function You can remove finished fanfold output without disturb- ing the current position of the paper. . Make sure that the printer is in ready mode, hold down the (READV] key and then hold down the [PAPER) key. Keep both keys held down.
Serial- to-parallel interface converter You can connect the printer to your computer via one of your computer’s serial ports using the serial-to-parallel converter (SPC-8K).
. Plug the interface converter’s Centronics connector into the socket on the side of the printer. Secure it with the retaining clips. . Connect the interface connector’s 25-pin D-type connector to one end of the serial converter cable. . Plug the other end of the serial converter cable into one of your computer’s serial ports.
Setting the converter’s DIP switches . Set the DIP switches on the converter so that the settings match the settings you intend to make on your computer. . The DIP switches on the serial-to-parallel converter correspond to the following settings. The equivalent settings that you will need to make in MS-DOS’s AUTOEXEC.
Switch 3 1 Switch 4 Protocol 1 Protocol (or “handshaking”) is the communications con- vention used between the computer and printer to regu- late the flow of data. DTR is the most commonly used protocol. I OFF ON ETXIACK Baud rate is the rate in bits per second at which data is sent to the printer.
Setting up a serial connection Make settings on your computer to correspond to the settings you have made using the DIP switches. On a Windows computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . Double-click the Control Panel icon in the Main win- dow. Double-click the Printers icon Make sure that LC24-30 Colour is selected in the Installed Printers list.
On an MS-DOS computer If you are using an IBM PC or compatible running MS-DOS, edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to include a line that reads: MODE LPTl:=COMn: n stands for a number: 1, 2, 3 etc. COMn must match the name of the serial port to which the serial-to-parallel converter is connected.
Un point important après l'achat de l'appareil (ou même avant l'achat) est de lire le manuel d'utilisation. Nous devons le faire pour quelques raisons simples:
Si vous n'avez pas encore acheté Star Micronics LC24-30 c'est un bon moment pour vous familiariser avec les données de base sur le produit. Consulter d'abord les pages initiales du manuel d'utilisation, que vous trouverez ci-dessus. Vous devriez y trouver les données techniques les plus importants du Star Micronics LC24-30 - de cette manière, vous pouvez vérifier si l'équipement répond à vos besoins. Explorant les pages suivantes du manuel d'utilisation Star Micronics LC24-30, vous apprendrez toutes les caractéristiques du produit et des informations sur son fonctionnement. Les informations sur le Star Micronics LC24-30 va certainement vous aider à prendre une décision concernant l'achat.
Dans une situation où vous avez déjà le Star Micronics LC24-30, mais vous avez pas encore lu le manuel d'utilisation, vous devez le faire pour les raisons décrites ci-dessus,. Vous saurez alors si vous avez correctement utilisé les fonctions disponibles, et si vous avez commis des erreurs qui peuvent réduire la durée de vie du Star Micronics LC24-30.
Cependant, l'un des rôles les plus importants pour l'utilisateur joués par les manuels d'utilisateur est d'aider à résoudre les problèmes concernant le Star Micronics LC24-30. Presque toujours, vous y trouverez Troubleshooting, soit les pannes et les défaillances les plus fréquentes de l'apparei Star Micronics LC24-30 ainsi que les instructions sur la façon de les résoudre. Même si vous ne parvenez pas à résoudre le problème, le manuel d‘utilisation va vous montrer le chemin d'une nouvelle procédure – le contact avec le centre de service à la clientèle ou le service le plus proche.
