*** Friday, April 17, 1998 2:12am n Date: Thursday, April 16, 1998 5:34am Electronic Mail From: INT:rubywand@swbell.net Msg#: 162219 To: Sysop Re: Apple II comp.sys.apple2 FAQs 4/16/98 PRINTERS (Copy by Sysop) Apple II Printers Csa2 FAQs-on-Ground file: F003PRINTER.TXT The Csa2 (comp.sys.apple2) usenet newsgroup Frequently Asked Questions files are compiled by the Ground Apple II site, 1997, 1998. ftp://ground.isca.uiowa.edu/2/apple2/Faqs http://ground.isca.uiowa.edu/2/apple2/Faqs The Csa2 FAQs may be freely distributed. Notes: This is a pure Text file which has no Font, Color, (N)onstop, (Q)uit, or (C)ontinue? etc. formatting. For best viewing on-line, set browser Word Wrap to ON or copy to your favorite Text viewer and set Word Wrap. Ex: On PC use WordPad with Options set to "Wrap to Window". To correctly view tables and diagrams on a super-res display, use a mono-spaced Font such as CoPilot or PCMononspaced. ____________________________ 001- What is pin-out for a GS to ImageWriter I cable? 002- What are the DIP switch settings for IW-II and IW-LQ printers? 003- How do I do the ImageWriter-LQ alignment test? 004- Can I use a 'straight-through' cable to connect my IW-II? 005- My ImageWriter II doesn't print! What's wrong? 006- How can I keep paper from jamming in my Imagewriter II? 007- The bottoms of letters don't get printed. How can I fix this? 008- What is the 'trick' for restoring a printer ribbon? 009- How do I connect a "Centronics interface" printer to my Apple? 010- Where can I get a Grappler+ cable? What is the pin-out? 011- What are the DIP switches on my Grappler+ for? 012- What printers will the Harmonie drivers work with on my GS? From: David Empson 001- Can anyone tell me what the pin to pin throughput is on the GS to ImageWriter I cable? Looking at the IIgs serial connector, the pins are numbered as follows: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The signals on each pin are: 1 Handshake Out (DTR) 2 Handshake In (DSR) 3 Transmit Data minus 4 Signal Ground 5 Receive Data minus 6 Transmit Data plus 7 General purpose input (DCD) 8 Receive Data plus Shield is frame ground. The ImageWriter I or DeskJet 500 has a female DB-25 connector, arranged in the standard order for DTE (Data Terminal Equipment): 1 Frame Ground 2 Transmit Data 3 Receive Data 4 Request to Send (output from printer, probably not used) 5 Clear to Send (input to printer, probably not used) 6 Data Set Ready (input to printer) 7 Signal Ground 8 Carrier Detect (input to printer, probably not used) 20 Data Terminal Ready (output from printer) The pinout of the cable is: IIgs (Mini-Din-8 male) Printer (DB-25 male) 1 (HShk Out) 6 (DSR) 2 (HShk In) 20 (DTR) 3 (TxD-) 3 (RxD) 4 (Gnd) 7 (Gnd) 5 (RxD-) 2 (TxD) 6 (TxD+) no connection 7 (DCD) no connection 8 (RxD+) must be conected to signal ground (IIgs pin 4, printer pin 7) If you have a shielded cable, also connect the cable shield to the Mini-Din-8 plug's shielding, and to pin 1 and the shield of the DB-25. ____________________________ From: Rubywand 002- I bought an ImageWriter II and an ImageWriter LQ. What are the DIP switch settings for these printers? While a number of settings are the same; there are some differences between IW-II and IW-II LQ in DIP switch settings as well as which DIP switches are present. ImageWriter II & II LQ DIP Switch Settings In Imagewriter manuals, "SW-1" refers to DIP switch module 1. Each such module has several individually numbered switches. For example SW-1 #5 refers to switch #5 on the SW-1 module. When a switch is UP it is open. When a switch is Down it is closed. The settings for SW-1 #1-#8 have to do with printout format. On SW-1 all of the switches are normally open (UP) except #6 which is closed (DOWN). These settings work for printouts under Appleworks and several other programs which take care of page breaks. For tasks like listing a program, doing a hex dump in the monitor, etc. you may want SW-1 #5 to be DOWN. (This enables automatic skipping over perforations between pages). Character Set SW-1 #1 #2 #3 American U U U default Italian D U U Danish U D U British D D U German U U D Swedish D U D French U D D Spanish D D D Form Length SW-1 #4 11 inches U default 12 inches D Auto Perforation Skip SW-1 #5 No U default Yes D Character Pitch SW-1 #6 #7 10 cpi U U 12 cpi D U default 17 cpi U D 160 dpi D D (proportional) Line Feed with Carriage Return SW-1 #8 No U CR only Yes D CR plus LF The settings for SW-2 #1-#6 are concerned with hardware interfacing. #1 and #2 set the baud rate the printer will expect: #1 #2 UP UP- 300 (on IW-II) 19200 (on IW-II LQ) 'LQ default DOWN UP- 1200 UP DOWN- 2400 DOWN DOWN- 9600 IW-II default You should set the switches to match the speed of your printer interface. SW-2 #3 is usually set UP to enable DTR hardware handshaking. If your interface wants to use XON/XOFF handshaking, set #3 DOWN. If you have the 32K Memory Option, LocalTalk card, etc. installed, SW-2 #4 should be set DOWN. Otherwise, it should be set UP (the usual setting). IW-II: SW-2 #5-#6 on the IW-II are factory-set to optimize hammer firing and should be left alone by the use (On my IW-II #5 is DOWN and #6 is UP.) 'LQ: SW-2 #5-#7 on the IW-II LQ are used to set the number of cut sheet feeder bins attached to the printer. (The standard default setting for SW-2 #5-#7 is UP UP UP.) 'LQ: SW-3 #1-#5 (only on the 'LQ) are factory-set to optimize printer operation and should be left alone by the user. 'LQ: SW-3 #6-#8 (only on the 'LQ) control vertical allignment of dots in bidirectional printing mode. ---------------------------- 003- How do I do the ImageWriter II LQ alignment test? The 'LQ Alignment Test With printer OFF, press Select, Line Feed, Form Feed. Hold them pressed, turn ON printer, and release buttons after printer head starts to move. The printout shows four possible switch settings with six lines of vertical bar printouts for each setting. Settings are indicated like this: 1 0 0 (which means DOWN UP UP). An asterisk by a setting means it is the current setting. Set the switches to the setting which best lines up the vertical bars in the printout. --------------------------- 004- Will a 'straight-through' cable work for connecting an ImageWriter II to my GS? No. In the ImageWriter cable, Pins 1 & 2, 3 & 5, and 6 & 8 are supposed to be swapped from one end of the cable to the other. ---------------------------- 005- My ImageWriter II doesn't print! The head moves, and I can hear the pins striking the paper, but I get nothing. What's wrong? Check ribbon positioning. If the ribbon is properly positioned, then, you may need to adjust the the print head - to - roller distance (sometimes called the "paper width" adjustment). There is a small lever near the lower right side of the roller. Click-position it in a notch or two. ---------------------------- 006- How can I keep paper from jamming in my Imagewriter II? A surprising number of Imagewriter users go for years putting up with paper jams during long printouts. A nearly 100% cure is to just pop up the top rollers so that they do not press the paper against the roller. ---------------------------- 007- I notice that the bottoms of letters on my ImageWriter II's printout are not showing up. How can I fix this? A likely explanation is that the printhead needs to be moved in (toward the big roller) a notch. This is a standard "Paper Thickness" adjustment on many printers. On IW, you do it with a lever to the right of the roller. Another posibility is that the printhead needs cleaning. Be careful what you use to clean a printhead because some solvents can dissolve the mask which lines up the pins. Light oils and gasoline seem to be especially bad. A fine bristle toothbrush plus some standard detergent in warm water or a household cleaner (like Fantastik, etc.) should remove most dust and gunk. Whatever you use, avoid soaking the printhead in anything very long-- i.e. get it reasonably clean and then blow/blot dry. Changing settings on the DIP with the factory settings which "users should leave alone" _may_ have some effect on firing of the bottom pins. I don't know. Probably, you would want to try everything else first. ---------------------------- 008- What is the 'trick' for restoring a printer ribbon? For cartridge ribbons, such as the one in ImageWriter II, it is easy to 'restore' a ribbon to dark printing with a few spritzes of WD-40. Using a pocket knife, pry off the lid of the cartridge, and, as evenly as possible, lightly spritz the bunched-up ribbon. Restore the lid and roll the tape back and forth a few inches. Let the cartridge sit for several days in a plastic bag. The idea is that the WD-40 spreads unused ink into the ribbon's print area; so, it will not work for restoring multi-Color ribbons. Since you are adding no ink, this trick is good for only one or two 'restorations'. ---------------------------- 009- Can anyone tell me how to connect a printer with a "Centronics interface" to my Apple II? The Centronics interface is the standard parallel interface for many printers. To connect such a printer to an Apple II, you need a printer interface card and cable. Since the cards were a popular item in the early 80's and were produced by several different companies you should be able to get a good one without too much trouble. The cards turn up fairly often at swap meets, should be easy to find on comp.sys.apple2.marketplace, and are still sold by regular A2 vendors. MC Price Breakers (360-837-3042 Mon-Fri 9:30am-5:30pm Pacific Time) offers a "Full Text & Graphic Interface" w/cable for Centronics type parallel printers for $29.95. ____________________________ From: Mitchell Spector 010- I bought a Grappler+ printer interface card at a swap meet. Where can I get a cable? What is the pin-out for the cable? The cable you need is the very common "Centronics cable". It is sold by several Apple II vendors. The pin-out is shown below: Grappler+ Pin Assignments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ STB 1 D0 3 D1 5 D2 7 D3 9 D4 11 D5 13 D6 15 D7 17 ACK 19 BUSY 21 P.E. 23 SLCT 25 N/C - GND all others ---------------------------- 011- What are the DIP switches on my Grappler+ for? The DIP switches are used to configure your card for a series of different printers out there. I'll list those settings: DIP switch settings: ~~~~~~~~~~ DIP SWITCH POSITIONS 1 2 3 4 Epson Series and Star Gemini OFF ON ON ON NEC 8023/C, Itoh 8510/DMP 85 OFF ON ON OFF Centronics 739-1 OFF ON OFF ON Anadex Printers OFF ON OFF OFF Okidata 82A, 83A, 92, 93, 84 OFF OFF ON ON Okidata 84 w/o Step II Graphics OFF OFF OFF ON Apple Dot Matrix OFF OFF ON OFF IDS Printers (Any position) Notes: DIP switch ON = "+" side or set to right. Switch 1 controls MSB, the 8th bit. Setting switch 1 to 'ON' makes MSB _not_ transmitted... _________________________ From: Scott G 012- What printers will the Harmonie drivers work with on my GS? The 4550 automatically senses Epson LQ code and turns on emulation. It is like if the DIP switch were set to automatic in older BJC models. ---------------------------- From: Jim Stafford My Canon BJ 600 works fine with the above driver. The only thing the driver doesn't do is color!!! Make sure you have the epson dip switch set on your printer(see the manual). ---------------------------- From: Joe Kohn I know for a fact that Harmonie supports HP LaserJets, DeskJets, and DeskWriters. Tony Diaz (of Alltech Electronics) brought home an Epson Stylus 600 and connected it to the IIGS. Of all things, the first thing he tried was Print Shop GS, and he said it printed out beautifully, in full living color. The margins were all correct, and everything else about it was right...using the PSGS Epson LQ driver. He was also able to output text at 360 x 360 from EgoEd, using Harmonie's Epson LQ4000 driver; and, he could dump text to the printer with a PR#1 from the Applesoft prompt. So, apparently these Epson Stylus printers do have internal fonts and can be used from ProDOS-8. Tony was able to print out a graphic from Platinum Paint at 360 dpi; but, only in grayscale. In Fact, so far, everyone reports that they can print in full glorious color from Print Shop GS, but that, when printing from GS/OS via Harmonie's EpsonLQ drivers, the printout is limited to grayscale. (R)eply, (E)rase, (C)opy, (F)orward, (B)acktrack, (P)revious, or (N)ext? *** Friday, April 17, 1998 2:12am