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CHAPTER 6: Operation
6. Operation
With the HPIIISi Twinax Card, your printer can automatically switch
between print jobs from an attached twinax host and an attached PC or
LAN server. The Card uses a timeout between each print job to select the
next job without your having to change cables or switches. Make sure your
printer is loaded with paper and “READY” is displayed before you try to
print.
When you first turn the printer on, the twinax connection is selected. If the
twinax host does not send any data during the timeout period, and data is
sent from the PC or LAN, the Card automatically switches to the parallel-
port connection to print from the PC. The timeout period defaults to 8
seconds; you can set a custom timeout with a host-download command or
front-panel selection (see
Chapter 5
).
The Card constantly monitors both connections for data being sent,
waiting the specified timeout period between print jobs before printing
the next job from either the twinax host or the PC/LAN. The Card
automatically restores formatting parameters for twinax printing each
time it prints from the twinax host. We recommend that the printer be
reinitialized at the beginning of each PC/LAN print job to reset
parameters that may remain from the previous print job.
6.1 Parallel-Port Initialization
If you want to change the printer’s configuration for shared printing (for
example, to set it to PostScript
®
mode), use the parallel-port initialization
string (host/PC-download command 56). Consult the printer’s manual for
the ASCII hex values that correspond to the desired configuration
commands. Then store these commands as an initialization string in the
HPIIISi Twinax Card’s memory using host/PC-download command 56.
After host printing is completed and before the print job from the shared
(parallel) port is sent to the printer, the Card will send this initialization
string to the printer and configure it according to your instructions.
However, it is possible that the print job coming through the shared port
contains other printer instructions that override the parallel initialization
string.
6.2 PC/LAN Printing
To print from your PC or LAN, follow these steps:
1.
Make sure that the PC printer cable is attached to the Card and to the
PC or LAN server as described in
Section 4.3
.
