Able Systems Limited Northwich, Cheshire, England www.able-systems.com USERS' GUIDE to the ABLE SYSTEMS A104SB Printer Controller Board Contents 1 Introduction 2 On-line Information 3 Pin Connections 4 Installation 5 Operation and Programming 1 INTRODUCTION This document is a Users' Guide, written for the person designing-in, connecting and using the Able Systems A104SB printer controller board for the EPSON M-160 series of 4-needle miniprinter mechanisms. Please read it carefully before making any connection. The A104SB is an enhanced replacement for the A160B series of controller boards, and shares many features of the range. Every effort has been made to simplify the transition for existing customers, but of necessity some of the connections are slightly different. Throughout this document, the designation A160B can generally be taken to represent the A150B, A160B, A163B, A164B, and national variants of these products. 2 ON-LINE INFORMATION Able Systems maintains a site on the World Wide Web. This will include application data updates, product announcements, and e-mail facilities for customer support. The URL of our web site is: Our e-mail address is: http://www.able-systems.com [email protected] COPYRIGHT NOTICE and DISCLAIMER Note that copyright subsists in all Able Systems intellectual property, including controller firmware (embedded software) and circuit diagrams, pin connection lists and application data. No warranty in respect of patent rights of Able Systems Limited or of third parties is given. Unauthorised reproduction or amendment of controller firmware may result in prosecution. Note: EPSON is a registered mark of its owner Seiko Epson Corporation. References to this or other owners' marks in this document are for illustrative purposes only. Copyright © Able Systems Limited 1999 All Rights Reserved 3 PIN CONNECTIONS The A104SB has three external connectors or connection areas, for data and power, auxiliary power, and the printer mechanism. The locations of these connectors, and the overall PCB outline and fixing positions, are designed to be identical to those of the A160B. There are also some onboard jumpers. Please refer to the layout diagram for connector locations and pin orientation. 3.1 Serial RS232 Data Connector J3 The A104SB is suitable for direct connection to a PC RS232 Com. port. J3 Pin no 1 2 3 4 Function Receive Data Not Connected Busy Signal Ground 3.2 Jumper Field J6 Serial data Baud rates are selected on Jumper A and Jumper B. Serial data Baud rates: Baud Jumper B Jumper A 300 Not Fitted Fitted 1,200 Fitted Not Fitted 2,400 Not Fitted Not Fitted 9,600 Fitted Fitted Note that the combination for 9600 Baud was used to select 110 Baud in the A160B family of controller boards. Jumper Position C – Fit jumper for inverted print mode. In order to implement a change to the invert print mode or the baud rate the printer must be reset. 3.3 Power Connector J4 J4 Pin no 1 2 3 Function Power for logic (+5V) Power for mechanism (+5V) Ground (0V) 3.4 Paper Take-up Motor Connector J5 (only fitted to customer order) J5 Pin no 1 2 Function Ground (0V) Paper Take-up Motor +ve The output from Pin 2 is in parallel with the mechanism motor drive, with a protective series resistance of about 16 Ohms. Please consult the factory before making any connection. A104SB Users’ Guide Page 2 3.5 Mechanism Connector J2 The A104SB is normally supplied without any connector here, or with a flat 0.1” pitch jumper cable. J2 Pin no 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Function Reed switch input Reed switch return (0V) Motor return (0V) Motor drive output Solenoid common return (0V) Solenoid D output Solenoid C output Solenoid B output Solenoid A output Tacho bias Tacho input 4 INSTALLATION 4.1 Power Supply A clean DC power supply of 5V ± 5% 3A is required to power the A104SB. The rise time of the supply must be short enough to give a valid reset signal to the controller chip. It is recommended that the power supply for the controller circuits is separate from the supply to the mechanism motor and solenoid circuits, to minimise interference. In the event that the power supply is not adequate to power the A104SB, on board Circuitry will hold the printer in reset and avoid any damage which may occur to the printer mechanism. 4.2 Additional Jumper Field There are three jumpers on the A104SB (refer to layout for position). Closing these jumpers will select the following: S1 / S2 Self test S3 / S4 Inverted printing S5 / S6 Alternative parallel select. 4.3 EMC Compliance As a component, the A104SB is outside the scope of the EMC Directive and the user must take responsibility for the compliance of the complete equipment or installation. 5 OPERATION and PROGRAMMING 5.1 Mechanism selection All the four-needle EPSON mini-printer mechanisms (M150, M160, M163, M164 and M170) are now supported by a single A104SB device. Mechanism detection is automatic. The chip exercises the mechanism on the first power-up, and its type is sensed by counting tacho pulses per head cycle. The result is stored in the EEPROM, and on subsequent power-ups the mechanism identity is read from there. If the EEPROM is not fitted, the chip will carry out the mechanism selection test at every power-up. A104SB Users’ Guide Page 3 5.2 Busy Output Signal The controller asserts the Busy output when the input buffer is one character away from being full. The following character will, however, be loaded into the input buffer. This avoids any data being lost due to the host not responding to the busy signal immediately (such as with a double-buffered UART in a PC). 5.3 Printing modes and data buffer Printing modes include graphics, inverted, double height and double width. Graphics mode is cancelled at the end of every dot line, whereas the combinations of double height and width remain in force until cancelled by a new command. The A104SB will print data before the ESCape code and then implement the new mode selection. The data buffer accommodates 48 bytes, which can extend over many physical print lines, depending on the mechanism in use and the data format; and new data can be entering the buffer as previous data are being printed. 5.4 Character Printing The A104SB prints the characters from left to right. The characters fit into a 6 wide × 10 high matrix. The standard letter is 5 wide × 7 high, this provides for a one dot space between each character, a dot line for descenders and a dot line above and below each character line. The number of characters required to fill a dot line varies according to the printer mechanism. Mech. Characters per line M-150 M-160 M-163 M-164 M-170 16 characters per line 24 characters per line 32 characters per line 40 characters per line 40 characters per line Character lines second 1 line/second 0.7 lines/second 0.5 lines/second 0.4 lines/second 0.4 lines/second per Vertical dot pitch 0.35mm 0.33mm 0.33mm 0.33mm 0.33mm Horizontal dot pitch 0.35mm 0.33mm 0.25mm 0.20mm 0.25mm Paper width 44.5mm 57.5mm 57.5mm 57.5mm 69.5mm The ASCII characters 32 to 255 (32 to 127 if using a backwards compatible 7 bit character set) are in the printable range. Any character below character 32 is ignored unless it is one of the control codes (section 5.7). 5.5 Graphics Printing The product is programmed to take advantage of the graphics printing capability of the mechanisms. Graphics are received as the least significant 6 bits of each byte. In this way the same number of graphics bytes are required to terminate a line as the number of characters required to print a complete line. The graphics mode is reset at the end of every dot line and hence the graphics command, <ESC><02>, must be entered at the start of every dot line. Graphics patterns are built up as a succession of dot lines across the paper. The number of bytes required to fill a dot line for each mechanism are the same as the number of characters required to fill a dot line. Large areas of solid dots are not recommended as they may cause over heating and shorten the ribbon life. Heavy graphics printing may also require a higher current power supply. A typical graphics line for the A104SB would be: Control code Data (24 bytes for the M-160 printer mechanism) <ESC><02> <00><00><01><02><03><04><05> etc. A104SB Users’ Guide Page 4 5.6 Control Codes 9 character sets which may be selected for backwards compatibility. The default character set is the 8 bit IBM 224-character set. Previous versions of the A160B family have been supplied programmed with 7 bit character sets, UK, French, German, “Scandinavian”, Danish/Norwegian, Swedish, Japanese and Spanish character variations (often to special order). The A104SB contains all these variants, which are software selected for backwards compatibility. 8 bit data is selected when using the 8 bit IBM character set, otherwise the 8th data bit is ignored. The structure of the command is as follows: <ESC><127><n> where n is a byte of the form [X,X,X,X,B3,B2,B1,B0] (X = don’t care) Country selection: Character set Full 8 bit IBM (default) UK French German Scandinavian Danish Swedish Japanese Spanish 0B3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 B2 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 B1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 B0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 ESC><n> (If buffer is not empty, print buffer contents and) Set print mode. Note: n is a byte of the form [ 0,0,0,0,B3,B2,B1,B0] (all except the lower 4 bits must be zero, to avoid conflict with other ESCape codes). Mode selection: Print Mode Default Inverted (reversed) Graphics mode Double width mode Double height mode B3 0 X X X 1 B2 0 X X 1 X B1 0 X 1 X X B0 0 1 X X X Any combination of modes is permissible. The command <ESC><126> stores the current character set and print mode (double height, etc.) in the EEPROM and these will be the default setting the next time the printer is powered on or reset. If this code is not received the A104SB reverts to previous default values on the next power up. <ESC><ESC> (Print any buffer contents, and) Print Self test message. <ESC><127><n> (Print any buffer contents, and) Select country character set. <ESC><126> (Print any buffer contents, and) Store country character set and print mode in the EEPROM. <ESC><125> (Print any buffer contents, and) Clear the EEPROM. A104SB Users’ Guide Page 5 <CR> <LF> <CR><LF> <LF><CR> Print any buffer contents (line terminator). Print any buffer contents (line terminator). Print any buffer contents (line terminator). Print any buffer contents (line terminator). Treat as <CR><LF>. Treat as <CR><LF>. Treat as single <CR><LF>. Treat as single <CR><LF>. A character line is automatically terminated and printed if it reaches the full line width for a given mechanism and print mode setting. Note that if any of the above 4 line terminator codes is received immediately after a character which completes a printable line, it will be ignored. This treatment differs from the A160B family but will generally be an improvement. <VTAB> Print any buffer contents, and feed 30 dot lines. If the print quality deteriorates due to dot lines being displaced, the EEPROM can be cleared and the chip forced to repeat the first-time initialisation by sending the code <ESC><125>. /Attachment: Appendix 1(EMC Directive 89/336/EC Disclaimer) (Board Layout) (Schematic) A104SB Users’ Guide Page 6 EMC Directive 89/336/EC (Disclaimer) Please note that the item to which the enclosed application data refer is designed to be used as a component in another finished good, and is not intended to be placed on the market or brought into service independently. The system integrator using this item must assume responsibility for Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) between this item and its environment, both for emissions and immunity/susceptibility. Particular attention should be paid to the wiring connections between the item and the power supply, data source and other parts of the user's system in case special shielding and/or cable layout is required to meet applicable EMC criteria. A104SB Series Printer Controller Boards To assist OEM customers, we have carried out traceable pre-compliance tests on our most popular Ap24 printer, which indicate that the printer itself is unlikely to prevent EMC compliance of the customer's equipment, as follows: Since the A104SB is DC powered and will only be electrically connected within an OEM equipment, conducted emissions and immunity are not relevant, and we consider that the A104SB falls outside the scope of the Regulations in these regards. When fitted in an earthed steel case and connected to an internal data source and power supply, the A104SB may be expected to comply with the requirements of the EMC Directive in respect of radiated emissions and immunity; When fitted with an earthing wire to the mechanism, the A104SB may also be expected to comply with the requirements in respect of electrostatic discharge (ESD). A104SB Users’ Guide Page 7 A104SB Users’ Guide Page 8 A104SB Users’ Guide Page 9