Telpar SP-327 User Manual

TELPAR

SP-327 Receipt Thermal Printer

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Please visit our website at any time at

© Copyright 2008, Telpar, Inc. All Rights Reserved
(Document Name and Revision: SP327Manual050808.doc)

187 Crosby Road

Dover, NH 03820

800-872-4886

www.telpar.com

Telpar SP-327 Receipt Thermal Printer Summary

The TELPAR SP-327 Receipt Thermal Printer is a direct thermal printer designed as an

economical solution to the demands of unattended hardcopy devices and applications.

Applications include toll booth receipts, supermarket discount coupons, cash vouchers for

exchanged goods, automated collection machines, parking validation slips, gas station pump

receipts, and gaming machine receipts.

Printer Features:

• Durable All Metal Construction

• Automatic Paper Loading

• Low paper Roll Detection

• Error Status LED and Beeper

• Single Multifunction Power & Paper Feed Switch

• Serial Communication with Status Feedback Modes

• 8 Dots/mm (203 Dots/Inch) Thermal Print Head

• 56mm (2.2 inches) Total Printing Width

• Speeds of up to 10 Character-lines per Second (Ten full lines consisting of 24 characters / line)

• Durable Guillotine Cutter (400,000 Cut Operations Typically)

• 7K Character Buffer

• Four Standard Character Sets

• Raster Graphics

• Bar Coding Capabilities (Barcode 3 of 9 and Interleaved 2 of 5).

Head-up Lever rotates up

to raise the thermal print

head off the paper to

assist in clearing paper

jams or quick paper

removal.

Four PositionPower Connector (right)

SeeSection 1 onPage1 for Power Cable

Pinout.

Nine position RS-232 DB Sub-Connector

SeeSection 16 onPage8 for Interface

CablePinout.

Serial Label information willbe

used whenrequesting

Technicalor Return / Repair

Assistance from Telpar.

Thermal Paper unwinds from the

top of the roll with the thermal

coated side of the paper facing

down as shown.

To auto feed paperinto the printer,

guidetheleading edge of the paper into

the paper entry slot in thechassis until it

stops. Within asecond, the printer

platen willautomatically grab the paper

andfeed approx. 1.5 inches of paper

throughtheprinterandcutter sections.

Three position Toggle Switch:

Full left position = OFF

MiddlePosition = ON

Full right position = Paper Feed

(Momentary)

Error Status LED

User Manual & Maintenance Manual Table of Contents

User Manual for the SP-327

Topic Description:

Power Requirements
Input Voltage Options
RS-232 Interface
Environmental
Control Codes & Escape Sequences
Echo Back Printer Error Status Byte
Echo Back Printer Mode Status Byte
Paper Cutter Features
Printer Mechanism Features
Controller Features
Self Test Mode
Default RS-232 Settings

Page

Number

1 1
1 2
1 3
1 4
2 5
3 6
3 7
3 8
4 9
5 10
5 11
5 12

Section

Number

Chassis / Mechanism Dimensions
Printed Circuit Board Dimensions
ERROR CODES (LED & Beeper Status)
Character Sizes for Various Fonts
Paper Roll Part Number for Reordering
Serial RS-232 Cable Pinout Suggestion
Sample Code in MS Visual Basic 6.0

Maintenance Manual for the SP-327

Introduction
Cleaning
Cutter Assembly
Examples of Printing Problems
Maintenance Chart

6 13
6 14
7 15
7 15
7 15
8 16

9, 10 17

MM1
MM2
MM3
MM4
MM5

1 ). POWER REQUIREMENTS:

The Table below shows both the peak and average amperages with their associated duty cycles for a typical SP-327 printer
performing various printing operations. The SP-327 operation requires large peak current pulses at low duty cycles.
Therefore, the average power requirement is typically low.

NOTE on GRAPHICS MODE CURRENT: The average current required in graphics modeis verylow since it is limited
by the data transfer rate. The Graphics Command requires the transmission ofat least 5 characters to print 8 dots on a line. A
baud rate set at 9600 (approx. 1 msec / char transmission time) produces a 0.1 amp peak or a 10 mAmp average at a 12% duty
cycle. The Graphics Command requires a minimum of 60 characters to print all 448 dots on a line. In this situation, a 6 amp
peak or 140 mAmp average is produced at a 2.3% dutycycle.

Font Type or

Operational Condition

24 Characters / Line

(Printing Full line ofthe letter ‘H’)

48 Characters / Line

(Printing Full line ofthe letter ‘H’)

MaximumPeak Current Typical

Duty Cycle

6.5 Amps 30% 2 Amps

5.5 Amps 42% 2.3 Amps

Average Current

Graphics (Fire ALL 448 dots) 6.0 Amps LOW Less Than 0.20 Amps
Idle (on but doing nothing) 0.070 Amps Typical NA NA
Paper Feeding (noprint) 0.150 AmpsTypical NA NA

Mating Connector andTerminal Socket Part Numbers:
1 MolexP/N 39-01-2045 or -2040 2x2 socket connector.
2 Terminals for aboveMolexP/N 44485-1211 or 1212 sockets.

2). INPUT VOLTAGE OPTIONS:

Pin 1 = VAC or +24VDC

The diagrambelow shows the

FRONT FACE of thePower Supply

CABLE CONNECTOR which mates to

the SP-327 Power Connector:

Connector Key

Pin 2 = VAC or

DC Common

For most typical printing applications, the SP-327 standard input voltage rating is:

• 18 VAC rms power supply rated at least 20VA

OR

• 24 VDC regulated power supply rated at least 2.1Amps (50Watts)

An optional 115 V.A.C. wall transformer & Cable assembly is available à Telpar Part # 780327-0010.

Note: All raw input voltage options listed aboveare provided with input transient suppression circuitry that will

protect the print/cut mechanism and electronics from momentary over voltage conditions commonly found in
switching power supplies and vehicular power sources.

3). RS-232 INTERFACE:

The SP-327 comes standard with an RS-232C Bi-directional communication interface.
Default RS-232 Settings (in Standard Firmware) are the following:
Baud Rate = 9600 bps, 8 Data Bits, 1 Stop Bit, No Parity, and Hardware Handshaking.
An RS-232 Cable Pinout diagram can be found in section 16 (page 8).

4). ENVIRONMENTAL:

Normal operating temperature of the SP-327 is - 40°C to + 60° C (- 40°F to + 140°F).
The SP-327 has a compensating circuit that maintains print intensity for the temperature range specified above.

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5) CONTROL CODES and ESCAPE SEQUENCES

The TELPAR Model SP-327 uses the following Control Codes and Escape Sequences to control special features of
the printer such as printing in landscape mode, condensed mode, printing barcodes (3 of 9 and I 2of 5 only),
performing a paper cut, and many other features. The tables below describe these codes and sequences and what
they do. For examples of using some of these codes and sequences, please see section 17 for sample

programming code written in MS Visual Basic 6.0.

CONTROL CODES:

Control

HEX DEC Description

Code

STX 02H 2
ETX 03H 3
RLF 08H 8
SLF 0AH 10

PT 0DH 13

SO 0EH 14

SI 0FH 15

DBLH 10H 16

NDBH 11H 17

Landscape Print, Start of Text (ie. Print rotated 90 degrees)
Landscape Print, End of Text (ie. Print rotated 90 degrees)
ReverseLine Feed (one line feed space – registration after may not be exact)
Single Line Feed – feeds amount of paper as specified by ESC ”3” n (see table below)
Print Command – allows information from host to be printed to the printer
Enable DoubleWidth Print
Enable Condensed Print
Enable DoubleHeight Print
Disable Double Height Print

DC2 12H 18 Disable Condensed Print

S_REQ 13H 19

DC4 14H 20

M_REQ 15H 21

CAN 18H 24
ESC 1BH 27

Ask for Printer Status (Error Status) SeeSection 6
Disable Double Width Print
Ask for current Print Mode, See Section 7
Clears all data in the buffer
Escape Bit

ESCAPE SEQUENCES:

Escape

HEX DEC Description

Sequence

ESC “@” 40H 64

ESC ”3” n 33H 51

ESC “c” 63H 99

ESC “C” n1 n2 Data CR 43H 67

ESC “i” n1 n2 Data CR 69H 105

ESC “h” n 68H 104

ESC “j” n 6AH 106

ESC “l” n Data 6CH 108

ESC “r” n 72H 114

Reset Printer (clears all data in the buffer)
Set Line feed space to n * 0.0097 Inches (Default n = 4). See SLF in Tableabove.
Initiate a paper cut
Bar Code 3 of 9. n1 = Indent space from margin in mm,

Height of Barcode= n2 * 4mm (n2 must be > 0. Therefore, the smallest barcode
height = 4mm).
Bar Code Interleaved 2 of 5. n1 = Indent space from margin in mm,
Height of Barcode= n2 * 4mm (n2 must be > 0. Therefore, the smallest barcode
height = 4mm). NOTE: Use only an EVEN number of data bytes à the printer will
generatean error message if either an odd number of data bytes or an illegal
character is received.
Fill n bytes of space (blank) in when using raster graphics.
(Note: Print Density = 8 Dots / mm, Printing width = 56mm, or 448 Dots per Line)
Perform n dot steps.
(Note: Print Density = 8 Dots / mm, Printing width = 56mm, or 448 Dots per Line)
N bytes of raster graphics.
(Note: Print Density = 8 Dots / mm, Printing width = 56mm, or 448 Dots per Line)

n = 0 to set light print
n = 1 to set dark print

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6). ECHO BACK PRINTER ERROR STATUS BYTE:

The user has the option of polling the printer for error status. This is accomplished bysending the printer the control code

S_REQ 13H. The printer will then transmit back to the host the following one byte status:

BIT WEIGHT DESCRIPTION

0 Paper Low = 1
1 Paper Out = 1
2 Cutter Jam = 1
3
4

Not used
Not used

5 Buffer Full = 1
6 Buffer Empty = 1
7

Not used

7). ECHO BACK PRINTER MODE STATUS BYTE:

The user has the option of polling the printer for mode status. This is accomplished by sending the printer the control code

M_REQ 15H. The printer will then transmit back to the host the following one byte status indicating the current print
modes:

BIT WEIGHT DESCRIPTION

0 Landscape Print ON = 1
1 Double Wide ON = 1
2 Not used
3 Double High ON = 1
4 2 of 5 Bar-code ON = 1
5 Not used (always = 0)
6 Not used (always = 0)
7 Condensed Print ON = 1

8). PAPER CUTTER FEATURES:

• The SP-327 is equipped with a long life guillotine paper cutter that is user activated via the escape code ESC c.

• The printer controller board monitors the paper cutter's home switch. If the cutter blade is not on the home position

(example: due to tampering), then the controller card will energize the cutter and home the guillotine blade.

• When the cutter is energized, an internal watch timer is set for 1 second. If the cutter blade does not reach the home

position within this allotted time the controller board will set bit 2 of the STATUS byte to a logic one indicating a
cutter jam has occurred. The same condition will occur if the cutter blade overshoots the home position.

• Also provided is a solid state thermal overload circuit for the cutter (this is to protect the cutter motor from a locked

rotor or micro processor malfunction).

• The paper cutter's MTBF( mean time between failure) is 400,000 cuts .The MTBF may be severely shortened if

TELPAR paper is not used. Contact TELPAR for replacement paper (see section 15 on page 7 for the part number for
replacement Telpar paper for the SP-327).

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