Star Thermal Printer, STAR Impact Printer, STAR mPOP, STAR Mobile Printer, STAR Rewrite Card Printer technical support

Gerenal

1001. Why should I use Star ribbons and not cheaper ribbons manufactured by another company?

Star can guarantee that a ribbon has been manufactured to the correct specifications required by each type of printer and print head.

For example,

most of compatible (or called 3rd party) ribbon cassette contains the pigments ink with carbon component;
the fabric of these 3rd party ribbon can be worn rapidly;
the torque of winding the ribbon exceeds the limitation;
containing health hazardous chemical, etc.

They will damage the edge of print head pin rapidly, catch the pin frequently and thus the printing quality become poor and the lifetime of printer mechanism will be shorter.

1002. What is the definition of reliability figures "MCBF" ?

Star's definition of MCBF(Mean Cycle Between Failure) is overall average cycle of failure, including worn or accidental failure which happens within mechanical life time.

This figure is calculated with the result of Star R&D life test.

1003. Can the Star auto cutter cut thicker paper/label than the specification?

The Star auto cutter is able to cut thicker paper but the lifetime will become shorter. In order to guarantee the specified life time of the auto cutter, users is highly recommended to follow the specifications of printer which uses recommended paper.

With regard to labels, the printer should be setup to cut the gap between labels, not on label itself.

1004. Why does my Star receipt printer print question marks at the beginning of a print task?

Please check if the serial communication parameters of the printer side and host side are same as each other.

Set the DIP switches to configure the various serial communication parameters. The setting of serial communication parameters on the printer must match those setting on the host in order to communicate successfully.

(Please refer to the appendix of the user manual for setting the DIP switch)

When the serial parameters on the printer do not match those on the host, the printer will illustrate this error by printing questions marks whenever a print-job is initiated.

The default setting of all Star serial printers are configured at baud rate of 9600bps, 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit.

1005. What is "Top Search" function?

If the application needs to print on pre-printed media, or fixed size media(Pre-printed Tickets or Labels,etc.), one of the most reliable methods of ensuring the correct alignment (Top of Form) is to print a "Black Mark" on the back side of the media that corresponds to the Ticket (or Label) length. In order to "Read" the Black Mark, the selected printer must be set to "Reflective" .

TSP700, TSP700II, TSP800, TSP800II, TSP828L, TSP1000, SP500, SP700 have reflective sensor as standard to controlling black mark.

1006. Why does my thermal printer feed blank paper without any printing?

The thermal paper may be installled at reverse side.

Thermal paper has a "Heat Sensitive" (smooth) coating on the surface that must come into direct contact with the thermal Head of the printer. This coating will display the text or image after heating.

In details, please refer to the user manual of each model for paper installation.

1007. What does "MSW" setting mean? How can I set it?

"MSW" means "Memory Switches" (software memory). It is used for setting the selected functions within many Star Printers. It needs the control codes to change the setting.

("DIP switch" is a physical switch located at the bottom of the printer case. It can be changed manually and their setting can be found from the appendix of user manual.)

1008. What is the difference between a "direct" thermal and a thermal "transfer" printer?

Star has only the "Direct" thermal printers utilizing the "Direct" thermal principle. The "Thermal chemical coated" paper must be used and the thermal head must come into "Direct" contact with the paper.

With thermal "Transfer" printers, it is not required the thermal chemical coated paper but the paper must be very smooth.

However, the thermal "Transfer" printer requires a separate"Thermal Ribbon" inserted between the thermal head and the paper. In this case, when the thermal head "heats" the thermal ribbon, the image is "Transferred" to the paper.

1009. How can I drive the Cash Drawer by control code? What is the difference of <BEL> and <FS> command?

In case of driving peripheral port 1, there are 2 commands, <BEL> and <FS> (for dot printer). Both are executing command for driving the peripheral port 1.

In case of <BEL>, this command is stored into "receive buffer" and execute.

In case of <FS>, the peripheral will be driven at the same time of data receiving immediately.

1010. What is "code page" ?

Code page is a set of the character data which are located in the address between 80(h) and FF(h). Specialized character code set such as Arabic, Thailand, Greece, Russian,etc. will be available.

But the characters in code page are only available for single byte character set.

In case of Chinese or Japanese, 80(h) to FF(h)will be treated as"first byte of 2 byte code" .

Default code page setting can be changed by MSW, and can also be changed by control code.

1011. What is the purpose of the ferrite core?

It filters out electronic noise. To follow the safety standard and avoid printing of garbage data affected by the external strong electronic noise or other electronic products,

Star recommends to add the ferrite core onto the cable.

1012. What are the pro and con of using serial communication? What are the pro and con of a parallel communication?

Serial cables are less prone to outside interference and more flexible as far as distance is concerned. It can be used in distances of up to 15 meters but speed of serial communication is slower than parallel communication.

Parallel cable is only completely effective at a short distances (1.5 meters or shorter) and cables communicate much faster than serial cable. However, the longer the cable is, the more possibility of external interference will have.

1013. What is the "compulsion switch" in the cash drawer connecter?

Generally, compulsion switch is a signal which shows the status of open/close of cash drawer. This signal is an input to printer logic, and application can know the status of cash drawer whether it is opened or closed by sending "status back" command.

1014. Is Star's ESC/POS emulation fully compatible to EPSON printer?

Star's ESC/POS emulation is based on the EPSON's official command manual. So we can say that it is fully compatible within the general operation.

However, we cannot know few "hidden command" or "customized command" created by EPSON. So if you find the commands which are not supported by Star's ESC/POS, please contact STAR.