Microcom 48-466 - Manual (Page 19)

48-466 Operators Manual 13
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 and a carriage return is represented by the 5 symbol. It is important to
note that all printer functions, unless otherwise noted, must be followed with a carriage return5.
4.2 GETTING STARTED
There are many different machines that can send information to the 48-466. For example, main
frames, mini-computers, special purpose computers and PC's. However, the easiest way to
start is with a PC and a terminal emulation software program. This will method of connection will
allow two-way, serial communication with the printer.
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.
Set the terminal communication parameters to 9600 baud, no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit.
Unless modified by the user, this is the printers' communication configuration out of the box.
Depress ^C (ASCII or control code) on the PC keyboard. If the printer prints a label, proper PC
to printer communications have been confirmed. Depress ^E 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. ^C or
^D35 ).
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. (COM1 may be any
available communications port on your PC.)
C:>MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P
Send the file to the printer using the following DOS command.
C:>COPY FILENAME COM1