eXtendo®
Thermal Printer Family
Part No. D-684-124
Mod. No. 4 270919 HW1
page 23 of 33
6.
Operation
6.1.
Loading Paper
The eXtendo® series of thermal printers automatically loads paper when
it is inserted. First, make sure that the printhead is in the “down”
position by pulling the Printhead Position Control to the outer position.
Then insert the paper, thermosensitive side up, into the paper slot in the
rear. You will hear the paper feed motor start to run as soon as the paper
detection sensor is reached. Continue to feed the paper until the platen
grasps it and pulls it into the printer.
Please note that the eXtendo® thermal printer family will, unless
specifically configured not to do so, print an Information Report
immediately when paper is loaded. An of an Info Printout is shown on
the right. This short report is extremely helpful during setup and
configuration of the eXtendo® printer. This report contains detailed
information concerning the printer itself, date of manufacture, its
features, the firmware installed, the status of information in the flash
memory, and many other settings that configure the printer itself.
One example of how this report can be used involves the serial version
of the eXtendo® printer family. If you want to verify the current serial
settings (baud rate, stop bits, parity, etc.), simply remove and reload the
paper. RS232 settins are printed as part of the Info Printout. Please note
that many of the software tools supplied with the eXtendo® driver also
allow this report to be printed by command without removing the
paper. Simply click on the “Print Info” button.
HINT
: In case the automatic Info Printout is disabled on your printer,
you can generate a report when you push the blue printhead control
(
Fig. 2) in and pull it out three times.
The eXtendo® thermal printer family is designed to use paper with the thermosensitive side on the
outside
of the paper roll. This is important as the printer is optimized to deal with paper curl
angling the paper end downward.
6.2.
Printhead Position Control
The printhead position control (
Fig. 2) is used to raise and lower the thermal printhead. This
control moves in and out of the side of the printer, and has two positions. The “out” position lowers
the printhead to the platen so that the printer is ready to print. The “in” position raises the
printhead off the platen. The printer is shipped with the printhead in the “in” raised position; it
must be lowered to the “out” “ready to print position” for use.
Leaving the printhead in contact with the platen for a long period of time without paper under the
printhead may cause a temporary indentation in the platen, which can result in initial feeding
difficulties. If this occurs, simply push the Printhead Position Control in to raise the printhead,
insert paper, and then pull the Printhead Position Control out while the motor is running.
6.3.
Paper Advance Wheel
The eXtendo® family of printers is equipped with a Paper Advance Wheel to make it simple to
manually advance paper when needed (
Fig. 5). Rotating this wheel counterclockwise (the
direction labeled “Paper In” on the wheel) will draw paper in from the paper supply at the rear of
