Ap1400 Installers’ Guide Page 5 of 16
6
INTERFACE DETAILS
6.1 RS-232 SERIAL INTERFACE
The Ap1400 printer has an industry standard RS-232 interface. The default parameters are 9600
baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no parity. Other baud rates can be programmed by control codes, or
by using a setup utility available from the factory. The following baud rates are supported: 1200, 2400,
4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600 and 115200 baud.
Serial data is expected in standard RS-232C format with -12V meaning 'mark' or '1' and +12V a
logical '0', with reference to the common ground. The serial data output line, TxD, transmits
XON/XOFF and status information to the host at the same Baud rate and in the same format as the
serial data input. The hardware busy line is true (nominal -12V) when busy. Both serial output lines
will relax to approximately 0V when the Ap1400 is off, and the user must allow a short period after
switching on before relying on the values of these signals.
Some host equipment use a constant space condition (+12V) to indicate a reset condition or wait
state. Some battery powered host equipment present the same output signal when they go to sleep.
The Ap1400 can be set to ignore this condition as detailed in the Programmer’s Guide, but even then
this type of host behaviour may result in one or more spurious characters being received and printed.
6.2 USB INTERFACE
The Ap1400 has a full speed USB 2.0 client interface allowing the unit to be connected to a Windows
based host via USB allowing simple configuration and access. There are two ways of printing from the
Ap1400;
1) Spool printing. This is the way a ‘standard’ desktop printer works and will enable you to print
in the normal way from applications such as Word, Excel or any other application that
supports spool printing. Spool printing requires the installation of windows drivers and allows
all applications access to the printer.
2) API interface. The API interface is for programmers who wish to add USB printing to their
programs. This interface gives exclusive control of the printer and allows either text or
graphical printing. In addition, the full printer command set is available to the programmer
allowing much tighter tailoring of the printed output to suit this form of printer & application
combination.
Please contact Able Systems if you require the USB drivers or API interface.
