Printing from Your Sports Timer

Which printers work?

To work with the System 5 or System 6 sports timers, a printer must have PCL emulation.

Not every printer on the market will work with the CTS sports timers. This is because most printers do not have device drivers or on-board DOS emulators and require your computer to perform all the formatting. Printers that require the Windows environment to operate (typically the less expensive models) are in this category, and won't work with CTS sports timers. Future enhancements to our sports timers will include print drivers.

Until these enhancements are available, printers we recommend are the Brother HL-5140, Brother HL-2070, Citizen GSX-190 and most Hewlett-Packard printers.

How to define character spacing

The default setting is 10 characters per inch across, and 8 lines per inch up and down.

Important note: if you are running six or fewer lanes, the default settings will work for you, and you will not need to change any PCL codes.

If you are running more than 6 lanes, and need to fit more lines of type on your printout pages, below are the HP PCL codes to adjust this. You can manually enter these codes into the "user defined printer control codes" section of setups in the swimming program of the System 5 or System 6.

Note: code 027 is entered by choosing ESC from the menu.

CPI = characters per inch (horizontally)
LPI = lines per inch (vertically)

Troubleshooting tips

• The best way to get your System 6 or System 5 to recognize your PCL printer is to follow these steps:
  1. If you are running more than six lanes, turn on your sports timer and set the printer control codes as shown above. Press Save Setups after entering the codes. Properly power down your sports timer.
  2. Turn on your printer.
  3. Finally, turn on your sports timer.
• Your printer and System 6 or System 5 may be working properly, and yet you may not see information printing as soon as you expect. Most modern laser printers will buffer a full page of information, and will not begin printing until the buffer is full. If this is happening and you need information to print sooner, you may be able to use the Page Feed button. Many printers have this feature. Press the Page Feed button and printing may begin from the buffered information. Consult your printer documentation for details.
• If your printer and sports timer have been working properly and suddenly stop working,
  1. Check the connections where the printer cable connects to the timer, and to the printer itself
  2. Confirm that the printer is plugged in to a working power outlet (and that, for example, it's not plugged into a power strip that's inadvertently been turned off...)
  3. Turn the printer off, and leave it off for 15 seconds. Turn it back on.

The customer service department at Colorado Time Systems has more than 20 years of experience answering our customer's concerns. We are available to assist you from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, Monday through Friday at 800-287-0653. Select extension 256 to reach the service department directly. International callers, please call +1 970-667-1000.

We may also be reached at customerservice@coloradotime.com.

For Emergency Technical Assistance (24 hours a day, seven days a week),
please call 800-287-0653.