Using LQ mode on Canon BJC-80

[mastalog]

I got a Canon BJC-80, mostly because heads and ink are available, and I could have decent inkjet printouts with dot matrix behaviour, because it emulates the Epson LQ-2550.

I don't intend to use any drivers for the printer, I plan to control it from my own programs using the Epson ESC/P codes for the LQ-2550.

I went ahead and bought a long roll of Telex paper, 214mm wide, mounted it on low friction bearings, which allow it to feed easily, and indeed I can make a relatively long printout on the BJC-80 using ESC/P codes with this setup, but after almost exactly the length of 2 A4 pages it just stops, and performs the equivalent of a form feed, which causes an error, because it cannot find the end of the paper. It is actually set up for A4 paper, I can see that when I print out the current printer information.

I am currently working in ESC K/L/Y/Z modes, so MONO 8 pin bit graphics only being used, therefore I assume it is printing at around 60 dpi vertically.

I wrote the program myself, and have tested it on a Brother HR-5, and it will make a long print all day, so I have no reason to believe that my code is actually sending a FF command.

Any ideas on what is causing it to give up at that point, or how to get it to continue? Could the LQ-2550 handle continuous paper?

 

[mastalog]

I just thought I could Set page length in lines to 127 after each line of graphics printed, and that should set the current position to top of page.

Hope the BJC-80 will allow that. I will have to try tomorrow, as I am going out for the evening,

 

[mastalog]

Well, I tried to change Set page length in Lines after each line of graphics printed, and also Set page length in inches. The page length seems to be fixed at around 22 inches.

Any other ideas on how to get the printer to complete a banner?