Arrgh! Just got the Serial Inkjet Printer kit but...

Mike Andrews

I installed the USB drivers and have hyperterminal up.· I've set the comm and now when I press "Return" I get the ">" symbol.

But I don't know how to send the ascii codes for "STX" and "ETX".

Is there some hyperterminal setting that allows me to send the ascii codes?

(Hope that this is what my problem is...· other than being a noob at this )

Sparks-R-Fun

Mike,

I have no experience with the inkjet kit but... have you tried typing the letters 'S', 'T' and 'X' or 'E', 'T' and 'X' into Hyperterminal? (You might possibly need to follow each command with a Carriage Return by pressing [noparse][[/noparse]ENTER] or [noparse][[/noparse]RETURN].)

It is my understanding that Hyperterminal uses ASCII codes by default.

I hope this helps.

- Sparks

Ken Gracey

Hi Mike,

Through all of our design and experimentation activities, we typically focused on sending data from a microcontroller. We didn't use Hyperterminal too much to print characters through the Serial InkJet Printer because it would have been quite laborious and slow. I suggest to test it out with a BASIC Stamp first, then move to Hyperterminal. Have you tried the default code?

Ken Gracey

Mike Andrews

I don't have any Stamps at work, and we were just trying to output a line for the most basic part of the test.

Once I am home this weekend I could see about running it (I "think" I have a Stamp uproc in all my junk).· Right now I'm headed out to the local parts shop for a 555 timer and assorted parts to run the inkjet manually until the board can be made to work.· Just thought that the Serial board was going to easily show the concept we were looking at to the boss.·

It is more of a "haven't done any programming on Stamps" yet kinda thing I suspect.·

Sparks-R-Fun

Mike,

I will amend my earlier statements as I was not aware of the designation of “STX” and “ETX” as names for standard ASCII codes.

I now recommend the following:

To send an STX code from Hyperterminal hold the [noparse][[/noparse]ALT] key while entering '0', '0', '0', '2' on the number keypad (not the number keys across the top of the keyboard), then release the [noparse][[/noparse]ALT] key.

To send an ETX code from Hyperterminal hold the [noparse][[/noparse]ALT] key while entering '0', '0', '0', '3' on the number keypad (again not the number keys across the top of the keyboard), then release the [noparse][[/noparse]ALT] key.

I am not able to try it but I think that should send the requested ASCII codes.

- Sparks

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Alternatively, you could also try Ctrl-B for STX and Ctrl-C for ETX.

-Phil

Mike Andrews

OK, progress....
I was able to get the hyperterminal to accept the string, but I still am not getting any printing. I had placed the print head in a small cup just incase the jets fired, and I do see a small line. Looks like at some point roughly half of the jets fired.

At least the terminal let me enter the text string.

Mike Andrews

I got it to print out a small string of text. Thanks for the help!

Now where do I find the chart of what keys equate to ascii codes?

Also, is there a command to tell the Serial board to continuously print?

Mike Andrews

Oops, I mean what Cnt-* keys equate to ascii codes.

Sparks-R-Fun

Try here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII

- Sparks

Mike Andrews

Thanks, the wiki was "exactly" what I needed for driving from the hyperterminal. I'll dig into the programmer this weekend, and see about getting things going to make the striper.