Microcom 322M - Manual (Page 28)

Designing Labels Using LDS Chapter 5
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322M Operator’s Manual
using the DOS COPY (C:\>copy d3.txt com1) command or by using a terminal program (see
Figure 7).
Figure 7 HyperTerminal™ Window Example
5.2.2 Format Creation
Special Control code functions (see section 6.1) and/or label formats may be entered
directly through the keyboard but is not the most efficient method if entering a large amount
of data or numerous commands. Large formats and/or numerous commands should be
entered in an ASCII text editor and then uploaded to the printer. Microsoft® Notepad has is
used for the creation of label designs contained within this manual because it is simple to
use and does not add formatting characters.
The LDS uses thermal dots as the unit of measure. All commands and parameters, unless
noted otherwise, should be entered using dots. The conversion values for the printer are 8
dots per millimeter, 203 dots per inch,
or 0.0049” per dot. For example: To enter the width
of a label that is 2” wide, the value entered would be 406 (2” X 203 = 406).
The printer can accept either the one-
character control code (“Ctrl + E” (HEX05)) or the two-
character caret (^) plus alpha character (“^E”). In other words, for a PC keyboard, the same
command can be generated either
by holding down the “Ctrl” key and pressing the alpha
character or by entering the two characters; the “^” (the character generated when you
press the “Shift” key and the “6”) plus the alpha character. See Chapter 5 for additional
information regarding control codes and printer commands.
There are some special features offered by the printer that assist in label design. For
example, the auto-size command (^A2^D39 <CR>) provides most of the header format
information needed to define the different properties of the media being used. The current
state of the printer is accessed through the enquiry command (^D5 <CR>, Ctrl E, or 5
NULL characters (HEX 00) if binary compression has been enabled). The statistical