The Epic 880^TM printer has four indicator lights to indicate various operating states of the printer. In general these are Fault, Cover Open, Paper Status, and Ready.

 

The printer may be in normal operation, self test or in one of two boot load modes. The Ready and Fault indicators will indicate which mode by a unique blink pattern:

 

In TransAct Boot Load Mode, the power LED will blink slowly with a 50% duty cycle. It will repeat this cycle about every 2 seconds (1 Sec on, 1 Sec off). There will be a red indication on the Error LED indicator until the down load is started.

 

When the printer is in Self Test Mode, the power indicator will blink slowly with a 50% duty cycle at a 2 second rate. This is very similar to TransAct Boot Load Mode, however, the red error indicator will not be present.

 

During Normal operation, the Power LED will remain on unless an error is being indicated. There are two classes of errors, soft errors and hard errors. Soft errors are recoverable without power cycling the printer; conversely, recovering from hard errors requires removing the power from the printer, correcting the problem, and then reapplying power.

 

 

Soft errors may be recovered by the host, or by opening and closing the printer cover. Each of these errors is indicated by a 5 second repeating blink pattern on the Power LED with the red Fault LED continuously on.

 

Out of Paper                                   2 Blinks           Paper LED will also be on.

Cover Open                                   4 Blinks

 

Jam Detected                                5 Blinks

Missed Top of Form                      6 Blinks           Paper LED will blink fast.

Illegal or Bad Command                7 Blinks           Paper LED will blink fast.

Printer Over Temp                         8 Blinks           Fault LED will blink slow.

Bad Power                                     8 Blinks           Fault LED will blink fast.

 

Hard errors have a similar blink pattern to soft errors, except that they are slower and repeat every 10 seconds. In general, these errors occur during level 0 diagnostics and are not recoverable. In these cases, the Error and Power LEDs will blink at the same time.

 

EEPROM read fault                       2 Blinks

EEPROM write fault                      3 Blinks

Error Vector Taken                                    4 Blinks

Knife Error                                      5 Blinks

User Store Format Error                7 Blinks

User Data Store Error                    8 Blinks

Flash Read/Write Error                  9 Blinks

Memory Error                                12 Blinks

Com Adapter                                  14 Blinks

Kernel Fault                                    15 Blinks

File system Fault                           16 Blinks

 

The Epic 880^TM printer has the ability to auto recover from some internal errors.

 

The internal flash that is used to store graphic images is formatted to assure data integrity. If this format is corrupted, the printer will automatically delete and reformat the flash. The host can then reload the images.

 

The printer monitors the power input to the printer. If it is found to be greater than 26 volts or less than 20, the printer will stop and wait for the power to return to specification.

 

The printer monitors the head temperature. If the head temperature is greater than 60º C, the printer will start to slow down. If the head exceeds 65º C, the printer will stop. The printer will heat the head to maintain a head temperature of 25º C. If the printer cannot maintain a head temperature of 0º C, the printer will stop. In all cases, the printer will automatically recover when the head temperature is within range.

 

The printer maintains an operating configuration in EEPROM. Information such as the printer’s serial number, operating configuration, and running totals are stored in this memory. Each section of this memory maintains a check character to signal that the data is valid. If this memory is found to be corrupted, the printer will restore it based on a backup copy saved in flash. This flash copy is generated when the printer was electronically configured using the TransAct^® configuration tool. Any configuration parameters altered during normal operation will not be saved in the flash copy. The EEPROM will be restored to the value set by the configuration program.

 

 

Once the unit is opened, the paper path is accessible for cleaning or clearing paper. Use a soft brush to clean the paper dust from inside the printer. The paper dust should also be removed from the sensor optics. If streaking on the printed ticket is evident, the thermal print head may need to be cleaned. This can be with a cotton swab moistened with an alcohol solvent (ethanol, methanol, IPA).

 

 

Warning: After printing, the print head can be very hot. Be careful not to touch it and let it cool down before you clean it. Do not damage the print head by touching it with your fingers or any hard object.

 

 

 

 

 

The Epic 880^TM printer uses several sensors to provide feedback to the host system, as pictured in the figures below.