Controlling serial printer through FP-2000

[Volodia]

We have a serial printer LX-300 EPSON connected on a FP-2000 serial port (for printing logs). We would like to have some ideas on how we can check "Paper Out" and "Printer NOT ready" through FP-2000.
NOTE: The interface is SERIAL.

[Ben]

Very good question!

The serial port on other FP controllers where RS-485, is this different on the FP-2000?

I have not had an opertunity to write an app that uses the serial port on a FP-2000 yet and will monitor this question for insite on how to do this. (in fact last night I was wondering if I can still daisy chain devices off the serial port of the FP-2000 like I could do the older ones. This thought then lead me to wonder if I could control this port being used for other FP units or use it to do custom interfaces.)

I can tell you this though. Most of the serial printers that I have seen signal these conditions by ether de-asseting a handshake line (if used) or by sending an Xoff. This is dependent on the printer.

That's all I can offer for now,

Ben

[Volodia]

Dear Ben,
Fp-2000 is a Real-Time controller on which you can download embedded applications and/or VIs. The problem is that you cannot install drivers on an FP-2000.
The only tools you have to work with the serial port on a FP-2000 is the Serial port VIs and VISA.

[JeffBoettcher]

The direct answer to this question is that you'd need to contact Epson for complete documentation of the serial protocol the printer uses, and what text the printer sends when it is out of paper or not ready.

If the question is how to interface with the serial port on the FP-2000, it is done through the old LabVIEW serial VIs. While VISA is supported in RT in general, it is not supported on the FP-20xx devices.

The serial port on the FP-20xx is used the same way as it is in Windows, so any older serial example on our web site that uses the LabVIEW serial VIs (not VISA) should be a good place to start.