Printer Graphics: Firing Single Pins; Controlling The Pins - Epson FX-80 User Manual

Chapter 12
Printer Graphics: Firing Single Pins
The key to understanding high-resolution graphics on the FX-80
printer is learning how to fire the pins of the print head. Toward this
end, we've devoted an entire chapter to exercising these pins one at a
time.
Controlling the Pins
The following powers-of-two fire the pins on the print head from
the top down: 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1. Firing individual pins is
simply a matter of sending these numbers (one at a time) to the
printer. And, to make things easier, you can use the form 2 f1 X and
let the exponent X vary between 0 and 7. Here is the relationship
between the normal and the exponential forms of these numbers:
2 f1
7
=
128
2 f1 6 =
64
2 f1 5
=
32
2f14
=
16
2 f1 3
=
8
2f12
=
4
2f11
=
2
2 f1 0
=
1
Note: We use the carat (fI) to represent exponentiation. For example,
2 f1 6 means raise 2 to the 6th power. Some other systems use the
up-arrow (
t ),
which prints as a left bracket ([) on the FX-80.
Using the form 2 f1 X, you can fire individual pins by letting X vary
between 0 and 7. Here's how it works. To exercise the pins in a
pattern (a slash) that shows off their placement, enter:
137