Microcom 466 - Manual (Page 21)

466 Operators Manual 15
CHAPTER 4: DESIGNING LABELS USING LDS
Label Design Software (LDS) refers to the software resident in the printer used to decipher
label formats sent by the host computer. All fonts, character sets and bar codes symbologies
are resident in the printer.
A label format is produced by a series of 5 steps:
1: Control commands to define printer operation
2: A header to define label height, width, print speed, etc..
3: Field data to define placement of text, bar code, graphic or line
4: Actual text data to place in the above text or bar code fields
5: Control commands to initiate printing
4.1 CONTROL CHARACTERS
Throughout this manual there are references to control characters. In order to print them in this
manual, they have been written using standard characters and icons. Escape characters are
represented by <ESC> and a carriage return is represented by the ? symbol. It is important to
note that all printer functions, unless otherwise noted, must be followed with a carriage
return?.
4.2 GETTING STARTED
There are many different machines that can send information to the 466 printer: For example -
main frames, mini-computers, special purpose computers and PC's. However, if you are using
the printer for the first time, the easiest way to start is with a PC and a terminal emulation
software program. This will allow two-way, serial communication with the printer. You will be
able to quickly upload files and access label-sizing and other features that will help
considerably in formatting your first labels.
4.2.1 PC CONNECTION (SERIAL)
Items required:
-
A computer with at least one unused serial communications port. (COM1,COM2...)
- A serial interface cable. (See section 3.2 for cable information)
- A terminal emulation program for testing. (Such as HyperTerminal™ )
Set the communication parameters in the PC terminal software program to 9600 bits per
second, no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit. Unless modified by the user, this is the printers'
communication configuration out of the box. Send the characters ^D3 and a carriage return
character to the printer. If the printer prints a label, proper PC to printer communications have
been confirmed. Send the characters ^D5 followed by a carriage return character to verify
printer to PC communication. A text response should be returned from the printer.
If a terminal program is not available, it is possible to send files to the printer using the DOS
COPY command. To do this, create a text file containing the information to be sent (i.e. ^D3?).
Note: Use an editor that does not add its own formatting characters.
Use the following DOS MODE command to set up the appropriate PC port.