TechNote:	IBM-007
Product Line:	3972 and 3860 / 3880 with the IBM controller
Description:	The IBM controller Initializes the Engine On Power Up
Date:	04-14-2004

Issue / Symptom:

On power up, the IBM controller initializes some print engine parameters. For SCS 3870 and 3860/3880 printers, settings from the IBM controller can be ignored.

Problem Description:

The IBM controller resides on the PHTCX board. Because the IBM controller code is executed from it's own CPU, parameters that are maintained in both the IBM controller's code and the engine's code must be synchronized. On power up, the IBM controller sets the engine's: Form Length to 11 inches CPI to 10 LPI to 6 Code Page to 850 font style to Courier DP initalizes some modes - graphics density, underline / bold, high bit control code mapping If host print jobs do not set Form Length, CPI, LPI, Code Page, and Font, and the user is relying on the print engine values for these to control printing, the IBM controller initialization overrides the engine's power up values. For example, if the engine was set to 12 CPI when the printer was powered off, the CPI will be 10 when the printer is powered back on. For SCS printers, a common case for this to occur would be Coax DSC jobs because DSC mode does not have the capability of setting these parameters. SCS jobs generally set the values that are required for printing the job. IPDS jobs always set values that they require.

Solution/Action:

For SCS printers, the controller LCD menu USE PRN SETUP option defaults to NO. Setting this to YES inhibits the SCS interface code from sending ANY Escape sequences to the engine, both from SCS initialization and from SCS commands received from the host. All jobs will print using the Form Length, CPI, LPI, and Code Page set in the engine's menus and formats.

Additonal Notes/Comments:

For SCS printers, if printing both DSC and SCS jobs and the SCS jobs contain commands that set Form Length or CPI or LPI or code page or font style, these SCS commands will be ignored. USE PRN SETUP is only applicable to SCS and DSC jobs.

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