Operating the Control Panel. Epson LQ-510

Operating the Control Panel

The indicator lights give you the current status of the printer. The buttons and paper handling functions let you control many of the printer settings.

Lights

MULTI-PART (orange)

On when the paper thickness lever is set to position 4 or higher. When this light is blinking, the micro-adjustment

function can be used.

POWER (green)

On when the POWER switch is

on and power is supplied.

READY (green)

On when the printer is ready to accept input data. Flickers during printing.

PAPER OUT (red)

On when the printer is out of

paper or when continuous

paper is in the standby position.

ON LINE (green)

On when the printer is on line and ready to accept data.

3-2 Using the Printer

Buttons

ON LINE

This button controls the printer’s on line and off line status. Press this button to put the printer on line or to take it off line. When the printer is on line, the ON LINE light is on and the printer can receive and print data from the computer.

FORM FEED

When the printer is off line, press this button to eject a single sheet of paper or to advance continuous paper to the top of the next page.

LINE FEED

When the printer is off line, press this button to advance the paper one line, or hold it down to advance the paper continuously.

LOAD/EJECT

This button is used to feed paper to the loading position or to eject paper that is already loaded.

Paper is ejected forward if the paper release lever is set to the single-sheet position and backward (out of the paper path) if the release lever is set to the continuous paper position.

Using the Printer 3-3

Operating the Control Panel

SelecType

FONT

This button is used to select LQ

ROMAN, LQ SANS SERIF, DRAFT mode, or a cartridge font (if installed). The two orange indicator lights show the selected font. See Selecting Typestyles later in this chapter.

CONDENSED

This button is used to turn the condensed mode on and off. The orange indicator light is on when the printer is in the condensed mode. In the condensed mode, all characters are printed at approximately 60 percent of their normal width.

3-4 Using the Printer

Operating the Control Panel

Other control panel features

The control panel of your printer also gives you access to several special functions.

Self test: Both a draft and Letter Quality self test function are built into the printer. The self test printout lets you check the current DIP switch settings and operating status of the printer. You can start the printer’s self test by holding down the LINE

FEED button or the FORM FEED button while turning on the printer. See the section on the self test in Chapter 1 for more information.

Micro-adjustment: By pressing the FORM FEED button immediately after loading paper or when using short tear-off, you can make fine adjustments to the loading and short tear-off positions. These positions can only be adjusted while the MULTI-PART light is blinking. See the sections on adjusting the loading position and using the short tear-off function later in this chapter.

Data dump: By holding down both the LINE FEED and FORM

FEED buttons while you switch on the printer, you turn on the data dump mode. This feature allows advanced users to locate the source of communications problems between the computer and printer. See the section on using the data dump mode on page 3-24 for more information.

Using the Printer 3-5