Printer User Manual

Chapter 2 Operating Your Compact Printer
Page 12
2.0 OPERATING YOUR COMPACT PRINTER PART 1
The MSP/MPP compact portable printer series is comprised of a microcomputer-based printer
controller card, a printer mechanism module, a rechargeable battery pack and a high impact
cycolac enclosure.
2.1 PRINTER CONTROLLER
The MSP Serial printers use the Extech Part Number EX075 circuit board while the MPP
Parallel printers use the Extech EX076 circuit board. A powerful INTEL micro-controller on
these highly integrated circuit boards manage's all the features supported by the printer. The
circuit board incorporates the printer drivers, communication interfaces, 2K print buffer, the front
panel switch inputs, battery charger and power regulator circuits.
Upon initial power-up, the Printer Controller goes through extensive self-test procedures. It
verifies the amount of print buffer installed and restores the default printer settings. In the idle
mode, the printer controller continuously checks the front panel controls, the data input
interface, the print buffer, the DC and battery pack voltage levels and processor watchdog
supervisor.
The data sent to the MSP/MPP printer series is received by the controller on an interrupt basis.
The controller validates the data before saving it in the print buffer. The power regulator and
battery charger features are summarized in section 2.3.
2.2 PRINTER MECHANISM
The MSP/MPP compact printers are designed using highly reliable high speed alphanumeric
impact printer mechanisms. The MSP/MPP printer mechanisms require only +5VDC for
operation and are guarded against possible malfunction by a special protection circuit included
on the control card. The printer ratings are as follows.
MSP - II MSP - III
Reliability 1,000,000 character lines 1,500,000 character lines
Print speed 40 Characters per second 60 Characters per second
The MSP/MPP III printer mechanisms are built with eight dot driver coils, while the MSP/MPP II
printers have six dot driver coils. Both type of mechanisms include gears for fast paper feeding.
Using a continuous, pre-inked ribbon cassette (part # 757131 ), they can print 5x7, 10x14, 5x14
or 10X14 dot matrix characters or user defined graphics image.
Below is a detailed specification on printed character size, line spacing and number of total dots
for each mechanism used in MSP/MPP printer series.
Mechanism #
Columns Character-size Column-spacing Line spacing dots/line
EX180 24 1.7(W) X 2.6(H) mm 2.06 mm 3.78 mm 144
EX183 42 1.1(W) X 2.6(H) mm 1.29 mm 3.78 mm 252
EX190 24 1.7(W) X 2.6(H) mm 2.06 mm 3.78 mm 144
EX192 40 1.2(W) X 2.6(H) mm 1.35 mm 3.78 mm 240