Star LC24-20II
Contents
Problem
Can't get my Star LC24-20II matrix printer working on full speed. It prints every line twice and waits one second before printing the next line?
Solution #1: Graphics mode, emulating Epson or IBM
According to the Star LC24-20II manual the printer is capable of emulating the Epson (default) or IBM printer commands. Choose a driver for one of the following printers (in order of preference) according to your selected emulation mode:
+---+-----------------------+------------------+ | # | Standard (Epson) mode | IBM mode | +---+-----------------------+------------------+ | 1 | Star LC24-20 | IBM PS/1 printer | | 2 | Star LC24-200 | Proprinter X24E | | 3 | Epson LQ-860 | Proprinter 24P | | 4 | Epson LQ-850 | | | 5 | Star LC24-10 | | +---+-----------------------+------------------+
You can switch emulation mode between Epson or IBM by setting switches in Electronic Dip Switches (EDS) mode:
Turn the printer on while simultaneously holding the FONT, PITCH and EJECT/PARK buttons. The "EDS" message will show on the LCD display. This indicates that you have entered the EDS mode. Dip switch A-1 controls the emulation mode:
+--------+-----------+----------------+-----+ | switch | function | ON | OFF | +--------+-----------+----------------+-----+ | A-1 | Emulation | STANDARD/EPSON | IBM | +--------+-----------+----------------+-----+
Dip switches D-2 to D-4 control the IBM Code Page or International Character Set:
+------------------------+-----+-----+-----+ | IBM Code Page | D-2 | D-3 | D-4 | +------------------------+-----+-----+-----+ | #437 U.S.A. | ON | ON | ON | (default) | #850 Multi-lingual | OFF | ON | ON | | #860 Portuguese | ON | OFF | ON | | #861 Icelandic | OFF | OFF | ON | | #863 Canadian French | ON | ON | OFF | | #865 Nordic | OFF | ON | OFF | | (Reserved) | ON | OFF | OFF | | (Reserved) | OFF | OFF | OFF | +------------------------+-----+-----+-----+
Solution #2: Text mode
You can use the lp command family to send a raw document to the printer, utilizing the matrix printer's full speed:
lpr -l lpstat cancel lpq
To format a text document:
# 66 lines fit on a 12" paper # 64 lines fit on an A4 paper iconv foo.txt -f utf-8 -t ibm437//translit | fmt -w 80 -s | pr -o 8 -f -l 64 -t | lpr -l
Journal
20080820
I receive the error:
$ recode utf-8..ibm-pc..ibm437 < foo.txt recode: Ambiguous output in step `UTF-8..ISO-10646-UCS-2'
This is caused by the input file containing input character `ellipsis' (… or ߪ). This character isn't available in ASCII or the IBM437 character set so recode errors. Solution is to use iconv which does a better job of 'downgrading' UTF-8 to ASCII: ellipsis is converted to three dots by specifying the //TRANSLIT option:
iconv foo.txt -f utf-8 -t ibm437//translit
20090601
- http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Star-LC24_20
- Says recommended driver is Epson LQ-850
