General Printer Operation


You can use the calculator keyboard to control the printer. In addition to advancing the paper and printing the current contents of the display, you can print an audit trail of calculator operations and their results.


Advancing the Paper

The [ 2nd ] [ ADV ] key sequence lets you advance the paper in the printer by one line without printing anything. This lets you use the advance function in a program.

Printing the Display Contents

The [ 2nd ] [ PRINT ] key sequence lets you print the contents of the display. When you use the print function:
  • An alphanumeric message is printed in its entirety, even though only a portion of the message may be visible in the 16-character display.
  • Status indicators and function-key labels are not printed.
  • Some special characters may be displayed but not printed.

Printing Codes

In addition to numbers, letters, and punctuation symbols, your printer may also respond to other codes.

Control codes may cause your printer to perform some action, such as setting double line spacing. The PC-324 responds to the following codes.

  • Code 13 produces a carriage return and line feed.
  • Code 17 activates single line spacing.
  • Code 18 activates double line spacing.

Special character codes enable you to produce special symbols, such as boxes on certain printers. Other printers may not have this capability.

To use the print function to send any of these codes to a printer, you must first generate the code using the CHR function of the RPD-95 alpha mode. Because the alpha mode is used primarily in programming, it is described in the RPD-95 Programming Guide.

Using the Trace Mode

The [ 2nd ] [ TRACE ] key sequence lets you turn the calculator's trace mode on or off.

Trace mode is useful when you need a "printing calculator". When trace mode is on, the calculator automatically prints each display as it appears, eliminating the need for you to press [ 2nd ] [ PRINT ] with each new display. This also produces a hard copy of the inputs and outputs of each function executed.

To turn trace mode on, press [ 2nd ] [ TRACE ].

To turn trace mode off, press [ INV ] [ 2nd ] [ TRACE ].


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