[Coco] Printing to a REAL printer

[Mike Howard]

Bill don't suppose you know anybody that has a rs232 pack they want to get
rid of .HAve to keep switcing plugs betweeen printer  and os9?


On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 8:35 PM, Mike Howard <mkhwrd80 at gmail.com> wrote:

> an't find othr diag. here thr pin out
> 4poin plug                 24pin p;lug
> 2                               20 trminal ready
> 3                                7 signal ground
> 4                                  3 reved dta
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 8:17 PM, Mike Howard <mkhwrd80 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 006 not supposd to e ther. will resemd
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 8:15 PM, Mike Howard <mkhwrd80 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> see if this helps Bill...
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 9:39 AM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sunday 23 March 2014 08:54:50 Bill did opine:
>>>>
>>>> > Is there ANY way to print to a REAL Coco-compatible printer while
>>>> using
>>>> > DriveWire?
>>>> >
>>>> > I have a multipack and an RS-232 Pak and a cable (25pin to 4pin DIN)
>>>> > that can be re-wired.
>>>> >
>>>> > What wires would go where?
>>>> >
>>>> > Thanks
>>>>
>>>> Do you have a printer you can drive with a serial db25 db25 cable from
>>>> that
>>>> rs232 pack?
>>>>
>>>> Most of those will either have shot pins in the printhead, or might
>>>> even be
>>>> daisy wheels.  Any ribbon you can find for a daisy wheel will probably
>>>> be a
>>>> one time film ribbon, and so old now the film will shatter on the 1st
>>>> hammer strike.
>>>>
>>>> If you really want the look of the 7x9 character set from a pin pounder,
>>>> drivewire can make an image that looks quite like an old FX80 printers
>>>> output when printed on any modern printer.  But you will be using a
>>>> modern
>>>> printer, the same one you are using on your (spit) windows box now.  And
>>>> its still 5 to 20x faster. 5x if an ink squirter, up to 20x if your duty
>>>> printer is a laser.
>>>>
>>>> But the character ambiguities that leaves is a PIMA.  For starters, you
>>>> can't tell a one from a lowercase ell.  So I wrote some scripts that
>>>> watch
>>>> where drivewire puts the text files it gets from the drivewire version
>>>> of
>>>> the /p driver, senses when the file has been closed by drivewire, then
>>>> checks for any housekeeping needed, rename/moves it to a temp spool
>>>> directory and feeds it to cups, which renders it into the image that a
>>>> Brother HL2140 needs, and sends that image to the Brother, which is
>>>> sitting
>>>> on the top shelf of a computer desk the coco3 is on.  All over USB2.0
>>>> cabling.
>>>>
>>>> So I can "list filename >/p", 5-15 seconds later the Brother warms up
>>>> (its
>>>> a cheap B&W laser) and spits it out at about 20 pages a minute in 600
>>>> dpi
>>>> rendered text.  Fastest, easiest to read paper I've ever gotten from an
>>>> assembly listing on the coco.  Redirecting an assembly listing straight
>>>> to
>>>> the printer will wait until the assembly is done of course but it works
>>>> just as well.
>>>>
>>>> Those scripts, 2 of them, can be downloaded from my web page.  I also
>>>> have
>>>> a wrapper that starts drivewire AND the background script so its all
>>>> automatic.  Grab and hack away to make them work for you, or if comfy
>>>> writing bash scripts that will function as background daemons, looping
>>>> forever when they are wakened up.  Does the job, relaunches the watcher
>>>> utility, and sleeps till the watcher returns with the filename to print.
>>>>
>>>> Those old pin pounders were so 30 years ago.  Its very hard to make one
>>>> work, and keep it working.  This uses modern, very pretty print printers
>>>> that will put marks on 2500 sheets on decent paper for one $70 toner
>>>> cartridge, whereas the ink squirters have all degenerated into needing
>>>> at
>>>> least 6 tanks of each color at $100 a kit to print half a 500 sheet
>>>> ream.
>>>> When I realized I was using $600 worth of inks to do a ream of paper a
>>>> year
>>>> was when I dropped that card for a color laser, also from Brother and it
>>>> too Just works(TM).  I've had it about 18 months now, have run 4 or 5
>>>> reams
>>>> of paper through it and replaced the starter black toner once.  When I
>>>> want
>>>> to do color photo's, HP makes some 32 lb glossy on both sides paper they
>>>> sell in half ream packages and with a wee bit of tweaking in cups, the
>>>> photo reproduction is pretty darned exact.
>>>>
>>>> Whats not to like?
>>>>
>>>> > --
>>>> > Coco mailing list
>>>> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>>> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Cheers, Gene
>>>> --
>>>> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>>>>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
>>>> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
>>>> Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Coco mailing list
>>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>