[Coco] Using PC printer

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 12 March 2009, Robert Gault wrote:
>Boisy Pitre wrote:
>> On Mar 12, 2009, at 8:42 AM, Robert Gault wrote:
>>> Bill wrote:
>>>> Is there a way to access the PC printer with Coco? I'm using
>>>> DriveWire and a
>>>> Coco2. I'd like to print some documents from within a .dsk image.
>>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Theoretically yes. I doubt there is any code in DW3 HDBDOS to permit
>>> sending print through a PC under Basic. There is a DW3 print driver
>>> for NitrOS-9 which means you should be able to print when running
>>> NitrOS-9 with the DW3 printer driver.
>>> I tried this with a USB printer and printing did not work. I've not
>>> tried it with a standard parallel connection to the printer.
>>
>> Robert,
>>
>> When you say you've tried it with a USB printer and it didn't work, what
>> exactly happened?
>>
>>> On the other hand if you have the .dsk image on a PC, why bother going
>>> through the Coco? Just extract the document on the PC and print it
>>> using a PC program.
>>>
>>> --
>
>The printer is the HP Deskjet 970Cse. It is using the USB connection to
>the PC with usbprint.sys for WinXP and HP support .dlls.
>
>LLIST does nothing under HDBDOS Basic except lock up the Coco. That was
>expected.
>
>List filename >/p with the dw3 printer modules installed just returns to
>the prompt. Tuneport /p also runs but there is no test print on the printer.
>None of the diagnostic light on the printer flash.

Do you see traffic on the usb-serial adaptor's leds when you do a 'list 
filename >/p'?

Also, for 9600 baud out the bitbanger, I had to use a hugely different value 
for the timer in tuneport to actually get truly 9600 baud according to my 
oscilloscope.  By a factor of about 3/1 or 1/3, I've forgotten which way now 
as it's coded into my startup file.

Also, the pl2303 based usb-serial adaptors sold by the shack are broken, use 
one with an FDTI chipset, they are very transparent and haven't dropped a byte 
on me yet.

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-- 
Cheers, Gene
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