SMP-II

Serial Interface Module

For EPSON Mini-Printers

Data Sync Engineering

P.O. Box 539, Footbridge Lane, Building 3
Blairstown, NJ 07825
Tel: (908) 362-6299
Fax: (908) 362-5889

http://www.datasynceng.com

Copyright ©1999 Data Sync Engineering

Specifications are subject to change without notice.

BASIC Stamp is a registered trademark of Parallax Inc.

 CONNECTING THE SMP-II TO A BASIC Stamp ®

Push Button

BASIC 1 HBAUD
STAMP
2 FEED
1k
(READY) I/O Pin 1 3 READY
(SEROUT) I/O Pin 0 4 SERIN

5 RESET
Ground
6 GND

7 +5V (Logic)
NiCad NiCad 8 +5V (Printer)

NiCad NiCad

BASIC Stamp Program to Demonstrate the Printer

‘ This program will print 5 lines of a message followed by the

‘ line number then ends with a one inch paper feed.
Symbol ready = pin1 ‘ Printer’s ready signal
Symbol count = b2 ‘ The line counter
dirs = %11111101 ‘ Pin 1 is the READY input
low 0 ‘ Set the serial output low
pause 1000 ‘ Allow printer to get ready
for count = 1 to 5 ‘ Print 5 lines
Loop:
if pin1 = 0 then loop ‘ Wait until printer is ready
serout 0,N2400,(“Print line “,#count) ‘ Print the message
next count ‘ Again until 5 lines printed
serout 0,N2400,(12) ‘ Now send the Form-feed character

The READY line is a hardware handshake signal that is used for serial data flow control. When the READY
line goes low, the printer is busy and cannot receive any serial data. If you do not want to use the flow
control signal then you must allow sufficient time for the current line to be printed before transmitting the
next line. The program below replaces the hardware flow control with a software delay instruction.

Symbol count = b2 ‘ The line counter

low 0 ‘ Set the serial output low
pause 1000 ‘ Allow printer to get ready
for count = 1 to 5 ‘ Print 5 lines
serout 0,N2400,(“Print line “,#count) ‘ Print the message
pause 2000 ‘ Delay until finished printing
next count ‘ Again until 5 lines printed
serout 0,N2400, (12) ‘ Now send the Form-feed character
 CONNECTING THE SMP-II TO A PC

DB-9 Female (PC/AT and later)

(SOLDER SIDE)

Push Button

NOTE: If the READY 1 5

signal is not used 1 HBAUD
then connect Pin 7 to 9
6 2 FEED
Pin 8 on the DB-9
connector. 3 READY

4 SERIN

5 RESET

6 GND

7 +5V (Logic)
NiCad NiCad 8 +5V (Printer)

NiCad NiCad

QBASIC Program Example

100 REM This program will print 5 lines of a message followed by the
110 REM line number then ends with a one inch paper feed.
120 OPEN “COM1:2400,N,8,1,CS3000” FOR RANDOM AS #1
130 FOR COUNT = 1 TO 5
140 PRINT #1, CHR$(0);”Print line “;COUNT
150 NEXT COUNT
160 PRINT #1, CHR$(0);CHR$(12);

When the printer receives a carriage-return, it will set the READY line low and print out the characters in
the line buffer. During this time, the printer is not able to receive serial data. Some PC programs, including
QBASIC, do not stop transmitting until the next character. Consequently, the character following the
carriage-return is lost.The solution to this problem is to insert a non-printable NULL character, CHR$(0),
after each carriage-return as shown above.

CHANGING THE SPACE BETWEEN PRINT LINES

Each printed line contains 8 rows of dots, 7 for the actual character and 1 for the underline. Print lines are
spaced apart by 3 blank dot rows. Printed lines can be spaced closer together or further apart by sending
the appropriate control character followed by a dot row count of 1 to 127. The following program example
reduces the spacing to 2 blank dot rows.

125 PRINT #1, CHR$(28);CHR(2);

New dot row count settings will not be erased when printer power is turned off.
 CHANGING THE FORM -FEED LENGTH
The Form-Feed control character causes the printer to space n number of blank dot rows. The default dot
row count is 60 which produces approximately a one inch paper feed. The following program example will
increase the Form-Feed length to one and one-half inches.

128 PRINT #1, CHR$(30);CHR$(90);

New form-feed settings will not be erased when printer power is turned off.

PRINTER OPERATION
The printer controller contains a 40 character line buffer but will only print the number of columns required
by the attached printer. For example, if a 16 column printer is attached, only the first 16 characters will be
printed when a Carriage-Return is received. Any characters exceeding the column length of the printer are
discarded.

When the DOUBLE-WIDTH character mode is selected, each character occupies two standard character
positions. In this case only the first 8 characters will be printed.

If at any time, the FEED button is pressed, the printer will set READY low and perform single dot-row
paper feeds for as long as the button is pressed. When it is released, the line buffer is erased and the
READY line is set high. Be aware that if a transmission of characters were already in progress, they will
be lost if the FEED button was pressed before the Carriage-Return was received.

The printer controller continuously monitors the printing speed. If it detects a jammed printer or very slow
activity, it will enter a fault condition. During this condition all printer control signals are turned off, the
READY line is set low and the controller waits for the FEED button before re-attempting to power the
printer.

If the FEED button is already pressed, such as when initiating the self-test, the controller will remain in the
fault condition until the key is released then pressed again. Subsequent faults will occur if the problem still
exists.

To begin the self-test, turn the printer power off, depress and hold the FEED button then turn the power on.

COMPATIBLE PRINTER MECHANISMS

EPSON MODEL M-150II M-160 M-163 M-164 M-170

Column capacity 16 columns 24 columns 32 columns 40 columns

Character size (W x H) 1.8 x 2.5 mm 1.7 x 2.4 mm 1.3 x 2.4 mm 1.1 x 2.4 mm 1.3 x 2.4 mm

Print speed 1.0 lines/sec. 0.7 lines/sec. 0.5 lines/sec. 0.4 lines/sec.

Paper width 44.5 mm/1.75” 57.5 mm/2.25” 69.5 mm/2.75”

Ink ribbon ERC-05 ERC-09 ERC-15

Overall dim (W/D/H mm) 73.2/42.6/12.8 91.0/42.6/12.8 103.6/45.4/15.4

 ASCII CONTROL CHARACTERS
HEX CHR$ KEY SYMBOL FUNCTION

05 (5) ctrl “E” ENQ Selects double-width (expanded) character mode for one line.
06 (6) ctrl “F” ACK Selects double-height character mode for one line.
09 (9) ctrl “I” HT HORIZONTAL TAB. Positions print head to next 8-character tab field.
0C (12) ctrl “L” FF FORM-FEED. Paper feeds n number of blank dot lines.
0D (13) ctrl “M” CR CARRIAGE RETURN. Prints contents of character buffer.
12 (18) ctrl “R” DC2 Selects Right-to-Left printing format.
14 (20) ctrl “T” DC4 Selects Left-to-Right printing format. (standard default)
16 (22) ctrl “V” SYN Selects underline mode for one line.
1C (28) ctrl “\” FS Sets print line spacing, next byte = blank dot-line count (1 to 127).
1E (30) ctrl “^” RS Sets form-feed length, next byte = blank dot-line count (1 to 127).

ASCII PRINTABLE CHARACTERS

HEX byte / dot matrix

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2A 2B 2C 2D 2E 2F

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3A 3B 3C 3D 3E 3F

40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 4A 4B 4C 4D 4E 4F

50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5A 5B 5C 5D 5E 5F

60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6A 6B 6C 6D 6E 6F

70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 7A 7B 7C 7D 7E 7F
 INTERFACE CONNECTIONS

1 PRINTER PINOUT (J2)

1 Home Switch
2 Home Switch
1 3 Motor (-)
PRINTER MECHANISM J2
Connects to J2 on SMP-II 4 Motor (+)
Serial Interface Module 5 Solenoid Common
6 Solenoid (D)
SMP-II 7 Solenoid (C)
8 Solenoid (B)
9 Solenoid (A)
10 Tacho-generator
J3 1 J1 8
11 Tacho-generator

Paper Feed input for

external switch USER INTERFACE CONNECTOR

PIN# NAME FUNCTION

1 HBAUD Leaving this pin open selects 2400 baud, logic low selects 9600 baud
2 FEED Logic low on this pin generates paper feeds
3 READY When this output pin goes low, serial data cannot be received (busy printing)
4 SERIN Serial data input pin, accepts direct or inverted signals, logic or RS-232 levels
5 RESET Logic low on this pin resets printer interface
6 GND Power Ground
7 +5V Logic power, 5 VDC
8 +5V Printer power, 5 VDC

SPECIFICATIONS
GENERAL

PRINT METHOD ................ Impact Dot Matrix, 5 x 7 format (2 dot space between characters)
CHARACTER SET .............. 96 ASCII characters (Hex 20H to 7FH), plus 11 control characters
# OF COLUMNS ................. Auto detect - 1 6 (M150), 24 (M160), 32 (M163) or 40 (M164/170)
PRINT FEATURES ............. D o u b l e W i d t h , D o u b l e H e i g h t , U n d e r l i n e a n d R i g h t-to -Left Printing

POWER SUPPLY

OPERATING VOLTAGE ...... + 5 V D C ± 5 % ( m a y b e o p e r a t e d f r o m 4 N i C a d b a t t e r i e s )

C U R R E N T (LOGIC) ........ <800 uA standby
50 mA printing (max)
(PRINTER) .... 0 m A s t a n d b y
120 mA Paper Feed, 500 mA printing (avg)
1.5 A instantaneous (peak)

SERIAL INTERFACE

CHARACTER FORMAT ....... 8 data -bits/character, no parity, 1 stop bit (N81)

BAUD RATE ....................... 2400 bps or 9600 bps selectable
LINE POLARITY ................. Auto detect w ithin one character frame period (direct or inverted)
LINE VOLTAGE .................. Logic level 0V to 5V or RS-232 Leve l ±5V to ±15V