EPSON FX-880+/FX-1180+ Quick Guide Buttons and Lights 1 Font button Selects one of the fonts. Font lights Indicate which font is selected. 4 Tear Off/Bin button Feeds continuous paper forward to the tear-off position. Feeds continuous paper backward from the tear-off position to the top-of-form position. Selects a cut-sheet feeder bin when the cut-sheet feeder is installed. Tear Off/Bin light 2 Reset When you press both the Font and Pitch buttons simultaneously, the printer clears buffer and returns to its default settings. 3 Pitch button Selects one of the pitch settings. Pitch lights Indicate which pitch is selected. Flashes when continuous paper is in the tear-off position. On when bin 1 of the optional cut-sheet feeder is selected. Off when bin 2 of the optional cut-sheet feeder is selected. Buttons and Lights (1/2) EPSON FX-880+/FX-1180+ Quick Guide 5 LF/FF button Feeds paper line by line when pressing shortly. Ejects a single sheet or advances continuous paper to the next top-of-form position when held down. 6 Micro adjust 10 When you hold down the Pause button for three seconds, the printer enters the micro adjust mode. In this mode, you can press the LF/FF D and Load/Eject U buttons to adjust the top of form or tear off position. See "Micro Adjust Function." 7 Load/Eject button Loads a single sheet of paper. Ejects a single sheet of paper if a sheet is loaded. Loads continuous paper from the standby position. Feeds continuous paper backward to the standby position if a sheet is loaded. 8 Pause light On when the printer is paused. Flashes when the printer is in the Micro Adjust mode. Lock When the lock-out mode is on, the Paper Out and Pause lights flash if a locked button is pressed. 11 Paper Out light On when no paper is loaded in the selected paper source or paper is not loaded correctly. Flashes when paper has not been fully ejected or a paper jam has occurred. 9 Pause button Stops printing temporarily, and resumes printing when pressed again. When held down for three seconds, enters the Micro Adjust mode. When pressed again, exits the Micro Adjust mode. Buttons and Lights (2/2) EPSON FX-880+/FX-1180+ Quick Guide Default Settings The default settings control many printer functions. While you can often set these functions through your software or printer driver, you may sometimes need to change a default setting from the printer's control panel using the default-setting mode. For a detailed description of the settings you can change in the default-setting mode, see "Understanding default settings." For instructions on changing the settings, see "Changing default settings." Setting Packet mode 0 slash Options Off, Auto / 0, 0 (the zerocharacter with a slash) Off, On Off, On Buzzer Auto CR (carriage return)* IBM character table* Page length for front tractor Table 2, Table1 Length in inches: 3, 3.5, 4, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 11, 70/6, 12, 14, 17 Length in inches: 3, 3.5, 4, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 11, 70/6, 12, 14, 17 Standard model: italic, PC 437, PC 850, PC 860, PC 863, PC 865, PC 861, BRASCII, Abicomp, Roman 8, ISO Latin 1, PC858, ISO8859-15 All other models: Italic, PC 437, PC 850, PC 437 Greek, PC 853, PC855, PC 852, PC 857, PC 866, PC 869, MAZOWIA, Code MJK, ISO 8859-7, Bulgaria, PC 774, Estonia, PC 866 LAT., ISO 8859-2, PC 866 UKR, PC-APTEC, PC-771, PC-AR864, PC708, PC720 Italic U.S.A., Italic France, Italic Germany, Italic U.K., Italic Denmark 1, Italic Sweden, Italic Italy, Italic Spain 1 Understanding default settings This section describes the settings and options available in the default-setting mode. These settings are shown in the following table and explained in detail after the table. To access and change a setting, see "Changing default settings." Page length for rear tractor Character table Default-setting mode Setting Skip over perforation Auto tear-off Auto line feed Print direction Software I/F (interface) mode Auto I/F (interface) wait time Parallel I/F bidirectional mode Options Off, On International character set for italic table** Off, On Off, On Bi-D, Uni-D ESC/P, IBM PPDS Auto, Parallel, USB, Option 10 seconds, 30 seconds * This setting is available only in IBM PPDS emulation mode. ** The options available for this setting vary depending on the country. Off, On Default Settings (1/4) EPSON FX-880+/FX-1180+ Quick Guide Skip over perforation This feature is available only when continuous paper is selected. When you turn on this feature, the printer provides a one-inch (25.4 mm) margin between the last line printed on one page and the first line printed on the next page. Because most application program margin settings override margin settings from the control panel, you should use this setting only if you cannot set your top and bottom margins using your application. Software When you select ESC/P, the printer operates in the EPSON ESC/P mode. When you select IBM PPDS, the printer emulates an IBM printer. I/F (interface) mode The printer provides a slot for an optional interface in addition to its built-in parallel interface and USB interface. You can choose Auto (automatic), Parallel, USB or Option for the interface mode. When you select Auto, the printer automatically selects the interface that is receiving data, and uses that interface until the end of the print job. The Auto setting allows you to share the printer among multiple computers without changing the interface mode. If only one computer is connected to the printer, you can select Parallel, USB or Option, depending on which interface your computer uses. Auto tear-off When auto tear-off is on and you are using continuous paper with the front or rear push tractor, the printer automatically advances the paper perforation to the tear-off position, where you can easily tear off the printed page(s). When the printer receives data again, it automatically moves the paper back to the top-of-form position and starts printing, so you can use all of the next page. When auto tear-off is off and you are using continuous paper with the front or rear push tractor, you need to move the perforation to the tear-off position manually by pressing the Tear Off/Bin button. Auto I/F (interface) wait time When the printer is in the auto interface mode and it receives no data from the currently selected interface for the amount of time specified with this setting, it determines which interface is receiving data and switches to that interface. You can specify either 10 seconds or 30 seconds for the auto interface wait time. Auto line feed When auto line feed is on, the printer accompanies each carriage return (CR) code received with a line feed (LF) code. Parallel I/F bidirectional mode Print direction You can select auto print direction, bidirectional printing (Bi-D), or unidirectional printing (Uni-D). Printing is normally bidirectional; however, unidirectional printing allows for precise vertical printing alignment. The Parallel Interface bidirectional transfer mode is used when this feature is on. If bidirectional transfer mode is unnecessary, turn this off. Default Settings (2/4) EPSON FX-880+/FX-1180+ Quick Guide Packet mode Make sure to select AUTO when you print from Windows applications using the printer driver included in the Printer Software CD-ROM that comes with the printer. Turn this feature off if you have connection troubles while printing from applications based on other operating systems such as DOS. Page length for front tractor This setting allows you to set the page length (in inches) for the continuous paper loaded on the front push tractor. Page length for rear tractor This setting allows you to set the page length (in inches) for the continuous paper loaded on the rear push tractor. 0 slash 0 The zero character has a slash (/) when this feature is on; it has no slash (0) when this feature is off. The slash allows you to easily distinguish between the uppercase letter "O" and a zero. Character table You can select among various character tables. International character set for italic table You can select among several international character sets for the italic character table. Each character set contains eight characters that vary depending on the country or language, so you can customize the italic table to suit your printing needs. Buzzer (beeper) The printer beeps when an error occurs. See "Error Indicators" for more information on printer errors. If you do not want the printer to beep when an error occurs, turn off this setting. Auto CR (carriage return) This setting is available only in IBM PPDS emulation mode. When auto carriage return is on, each line feed (LF) code or ESC J code is accompanied by a carriage return (CR) code so the printer moves the next printing position to the left margin. When this setting is off, you must send a CR code after the line feed code to move the printing position to the left margin. IBM character table This setting is available only in IBM PPDS emulation mode. When you select Table 1, hex codes 00H to 1FH and 80H to 9FH of the character tables are used for the control codes. When you select Table 2, hex codes 00H to 1FH are used for the control codes and 80H to 9FH are used for characters. Default Settings (3/4) EPSON FX-880+/FX-1180+ Quick Guide Changing default settings Follow these steps to enter the default-setting mode and change the printer's default settings: Note: To print the language selection and default-setting mode instructions, you need three sheets of A4 or letter size single-sheet paper or three pages of continuous paper that is at least 279 mm (11 inches) long and 210 mm (8.3 inches) wide. See "Continuous Paper with the Pull Tractor" and "Single Sheets with the Paper Guide" for instructions on loading continuous paper and single sheets. If you use single sheets, you need to load a new sheet of paper each time the printer ejects a printed sheet from the paper guide. 1. Make sure paper is loaded and the printer is turned off. The printed instructions list the settings you can change, describe how to change them, and show you how the control panel lights help you make settings. Use these instructions to change the printer's default settings from the control panel. Note: The arrows in the instructions indicate the printer's current settings. 5. When you finish making settings, turn off the printer and exit the default-setting mode. Note: You may exit the default-setting mode by turning off the printer at any time. Any settings you have made remain in effect until you change them again. c Caution: Whenever you turn off the printer, wait at least five seconds before turning it back on; otherwise, you may damage the printer. 2. Turn on the printer while holding down the Font button. The printer enters the default-setting mode and prints the language selection instructions (one page). 3. Press the Font button until the Font and Pitch lights indicate the language you want, as described in the language selection instructions. 4. Press the Tear Off/Bin button to print the default-setting mode instructions (two pages) in the language you selected. Default Settings (4/4) EPSON FX-880+/FX-1180+ Quick Guide Error Indicators You can identify many common printer problems using the lights on the control panel. If your printer stops working and one or more control panel lights are on or flashing or the printer beeps, use the following table to diagnose and fix the problem. If you cannot fix your printer problem using this table. State of panel lights Beep pattern ··· Problem Solution n Paper Out n Pause No paper is loaded in the selected paper source. Load paper in the printer or select a different paper source; the Paper Out light goes off. Then press the Pause button; the Pause light goes off and the printer starts printing. ··· The paper is not loaded correctly. Remove your paper and reload it correctly. See "Continuous Paper with the Pull Tractor" or "Single Sheets with the Paper Guide" for instructions on loading the type of paper you want to use. n Pause ··· The paper release lever is set to the wrong position. Set the paper release lever to the position for the paper source you want to use. If paper from another paper source is currently in the paper path, press the Load/Eject button to eject the paper; then move the paper release lever to the desired position. f Paper Out n Pause ··· A single sheet of paper is not fully ejected. Press the Load/Eject button to eject the sheet. ··· Continuous paper is not fed to the standby position. Tear off the printed page at the perforation; then press the Load/ Eject button. The printer feeds the paper to the standby position. ··· Paper is jammed in the printer. To clear the paper jam, see "Clearing Paper Jams" in the Reference Guide. f Pause -- The print head is overheated. Wait for a few minutes; the printer resumes printing automatically once the print head cools. f Paper Out ...