The Acculab part # DOTPRINT is a printer kit that includes a portable dot matrix
printer with the printer cable. Designed for Acculab Scales equipped with
an RS-232 interface. Now you can create a documented trail of your weight
readings. Perfect for the science classroom or field lab.
Please note the documentation
on connecting the Acculab Printer is very sparse and Precision Weighing
Balances will always support any balance WE SELL. We will not
support calls from people who bought their balance from another vendor
or auction. Our entire business operates on the small profit margins
we make selling the product.
Sadly, in today's market manufacturer's basically make anyone and everyone
a dealer giving the manufacturer free marketing exposure. We've
all heard in the past the phrase "the solution to pollution is diluting".
For many scale manufacturer's their solution to marketing and controlling
advertisement costs is to allow anyone and everyone to resell scales even
if they are not authorized dealers, don't even know how to turn on the
scale, nor have any inventory. I guess the omnipresence of being
able to buy a scale from a billion sources has diluted our opportunity
to make a dollar. It has also resulted in our phone ringing for
support of balances we never sold. If you bought something on ebay
then "give e-bay a call for product support" is our new
attitude. Sure, we heard from people, "Well if you help me
maybe I'll buy my next balance from you." Most people buy a
balance once every 5 to 10 years so our reply is "click" and
the line did not get disconnected, but instead we hung up the phone.
Precision Weighing Balances ALWAYS maintains an inventory of several
hundred Acculab Scales and we know
the products we sell. We gain nothing by consistently
helping people calling us saying they need support since they called the
"other vendor" they purchased the scale from or the manufacturer
technical support line and only received VOICE MAIL and no return call.
Many "alleged dealers or resellers" have no inventory nor any
product knowledge. Add to this Acculab has very limited technical
product support so we recommend you carefully select the dealer you
buy your next balance from since you just might be on your own.
If you select the majority of catalog companies and online vendors most
have never even touched the scale so if you have a technical issue you
just might be on your own.
The
Acculab printer only works with Acculab balances/scales outfitted with
the RS-232 interface. So if you are buying the Acculab
Vicon you must purchase the RS-232 interface and not the USB interface.
For the Acculab balance to talk to the Acculab printer you must configure
the balance for 1200 baud, Odd parity, 1 stop bit, and Software handshake
mode.
The printer out of the box also needs to be configured with the following
dip switch settings.
1
OFF
2
OFF
3
ON
4
ON
5
OFF
6
ON
OFF
is to the Left ON
is to the right
We found the printer's
dip switches shipped to us from Acculab are set as follows:
Initial
Dip Switch Settings
Change
Dip Switch Settings
1
ON
/ Right
2
OFF
/ Left
3
OFF
/ Left
4
ON
/ Right
5
ON
/ Right
6
OFF
/ Left
1
OFF
/ Left
2
OFF
/ Left
3
ON
/ Right
4
ON
/ Right
5
OFF
/ Left
6
ON
/ Right
The
ALC and
VA Series
come standard with the RS-232 interface built-in the scale and the connector
on the RS-232 is a DIN 25 pin. The printer comes with a special
cable that is 25 pins on both end. Since the back of the printer
is a 25 pin connecting the cable is simple. Just connect one end
of the 25 pin cable to the ALC
Balance or VA
Balance and the other end of the cable to the printer.
Connecting the Printer to a Vicon
Scale is a little different. The RS-232 interface on the
Vicon is a DIN 9 pin connector and the printer cable is a 25 pin on both
ends. There is a special 9 to 25 pin convert
that must be used when connecting the Vicon to the printer.
We recently had a customer that bought a VIC-303
from us and acquired a used Acculab Printer from an auction site.
The customer couldn't get the balance to talk to the printer. The
problem was they went to a local computer store an bought the wrong 9
to 25 pin converter.
To
eliminate all these problem we highly recommend you buy the printer and
balance together and we will configure everything so it works out of
the box. Again if you buy somewhere else
we can't support the product. All we can say is call Acculab
and beg them to limit the amount of dealers/resellers and those dealers
they do have must be knowledgeable in the product and have inventory.
Acculab surely won't listen to us, but if more end users call an complain
about the unqualified vendors selling their product just maybe Acculab
will do something. Balances and scales are "not commodity items"
and Authorized Dealers like Precision Weighing Balances must get a return
on their investment for building a detailed web site, maintaining a huge
inventory and having knowledgeable staff that can answer your questions
immediately. Please call Acculab at 800-656-4400
and voice your opinion since they won't listen to us.
We can't keep selling Acculab if Precision Weighing Balances needs to
compete against "phantoms" with no inventory. We keep
ALL VICONS in stock so if someone tells you the VIC-123 or VIC-303 is
on backorder they are only on backorder since that alleged dealer/resell
has no stock. We need to place orders 4 to 6 weeks in advance just
to maintain an always in stock inventory of VICONS.
Analytical Balances
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