any workaround for printers on serial port? |
January, 29, 2003 4:39 AM |
krjz |
My joy at getting OS10.1.3 running fine on 8600/250 and my old 9.1 system untouched as the classic is marred by one drawback.... Can't print from 9.1 running as "classic", whereas it does so happily when booted as 9.1. I know it says in the instructions that serial printers won't work from OS10, but can't see why. All that is missing in 9.1 (running as classic) chooser is ability to select a port when the printer icon shows up, as it does.(Epson SC1520 with latest edition of driver software). Anyone found a workaround or know any further software please??????? |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 21, 2003 3:20 PM |
cjsconfections |
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Yes, ethernet/appletalk bridges work for appletalk printers. I currently use a Dayna (got mine for $5 on Ebay) bridge to print to my Imagewriter II through Classic. It shows up in the chooser just like it did in systems 7, 8, and 9. The printer has an appletalk card so it is recognized in an Appletalk network as these printers are pretty old (the driver is system 7). If the printer is not Appletalk then, by my understanding, this setup will not work. Also, you need to enable Appletalk in X so that it can communicate to the printer since X is natively tcpip and not Appletalk. An added benefit for printing through X and Classic is that this printer and its drivers had no print spool or background printing in pre-X operating systems and printing (invoices for me)brought the whole system to a halt until the printer was finished. Now while printing I can go back to the X desktop and use my computer while the print job is spooled in the background. Gotta love it. |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 12, 2003 3:17 AM |
paul_findley |
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Latest CUPS contains "serial backend support", but Darwin doesn't have latest CUPS yet (2 revs behind). Someone sent me the serial backend binaries from the latest CUPS build, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet. [My wife complains I spend too much time on the computer.] Meanwhile, I have an Epson 700 working with gimp-print + CUPS thru a really cheap Asante USB-Parallel adapter (advertised for PC, but seeems to be natively supported in OS X). |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 08, 2003 8:06 AM |
muri |
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... sorry ... LPD is the right protocol not LDP ... |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 08, 2003 8:02 AM |
muri |
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I hpghly reccomend the Netgear PS101 ... it's the cheapest print server I have found (just a bit more expensive than the serial-usb converter) and it's really easy to setup with OsX even if they don't claim compatibility with our platform. Just run the setup from VirtualPc to choose a fixed IP, then configure a printer following GimpPrint instructions and choosing LDP ... the string is: ldp://ip choosen/P1 ... that's all ... works great with my Epson 1520. You can even configure the print server with your browser once you have choosen a fixed IP. |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 06, 2003 10:17 PM |
ltking |
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Hi all: I have been in contact with the HP customer support folks and have been told the following regarding their HP JetDirect 300X printer router. This device with firmware version H.80.30 or higher will be recognized by the Appletalk in OS X. They have a 310X that connects to USB printer and the 300X and 500X have one and three parallel ports respectively. I was told that my HP 855C, a serial printer/parallel printer combination would be recognized by the 300X printer server via the Appletalk network. Of the two other device companies, D-Link does not actually specify that a printer attached to their devices be postscript printers but Benson Yeh indicated that his laserwriter was. Hawking Technologies will only talk to a postscript printer through their ethernet to parallel/usb devices. ltking |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 06, 2003 6:08 PM |
jonck |
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Hi mjoecups, In a previous post of yours you said that there are ways to print to serial printers using CUPS. I have researched this a little (not that much, I'm no UNIX guru) and found it quite daunting. Could you maybe inform me how one would print to a Laserwriter NTR using CUPS? So far I've gotten all my information off the LinuxPrinting.org forums, but have gotten no further. Thanks for any info, Jonck |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 04, 2003 7:28 PM |
rsouder4 |
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Marty Could you share some of the "not mac-like" ways to hook up serial printers through cups??? |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 04, 2003 5:48 PM |
joevt |
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Marty, the original post noted a problem with serial ports in Classic. As you say, the ports work fine in OS X. Maybe it would be possible to create serial drivers in Classic that could communicate with OS X using something like TCP/IP? |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 03, 2003 4:44 PM |
ltking |
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Hi GL [ yeh ]; May I ask that you please contact me via e-mial regarding your printer set-up? Cheers, Lonnie [ ltking ] |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 01, 2003 10:51 PM |
yeh |
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If you have a printer that's got a parallel port, you can use a gateway/print server. I just bought the D-link 713P. It's a wireless and wired (3 10/100 RJ45 ports) AND a print server. Works great w/ OSX. All you have to do is attach the printer via the parallel cable, then set Print Center to Print to the IP address of the gateway/router. When you set the Print Center, use the Print Queue name of 'lp'. GL |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
February, 01, 2003 8:35 PM |
mjoecups358 |
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The Serial ports work fine in my unsupported hardware... They are standard Unixy serial devices... Apple doesn't need to provide any patch. Marty PS I printed to my serial Epson800 from a IIci running NetBSD via Ghostscript and this worked slowly but well. THERE ARE WAYS TO HOOK UP SERIAL PRINTERS VIA CUPS under 10.2 and higher and share them via LPR, it's just not Mac like. Marty |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
January, 31, 2003 10:30 AM |
tpmco |
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Marshall, et all-- This is where Apple needs to step up with a ROM patch to enable the serial port in machines that do have serial ports and give the third party peripheral manufacturers something to work with. Given everything else Apple has done with software coupled with the fact that most of the hardware is their own, this doesn't seem to be too difficult a task. Mark |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
January, 31, 2003 10:08 AM |
mcolley |
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Serial ports do work for some applications in OSX. Modems for instance work, but then they have their own standard hardware connection to ISP. Printers require drivers, and since no "supported" Macs have serial port printing, no printer company is going to waste time and money to support us renegades who refuse (or can't afford in most cases) to upgrade to the new machines. Unfortunately, Classic cannot access hardware, even though I had heard that Canon did write some kind of Classic driver for their printers, then pulled it due to problems ( rumor on this last account) It's simple as a Epson tech explaned it to me: No profit, no drivers, no serial printing. Marshall |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
January, 31, 2003 12:50 AM |
mjoecups358 |
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It should be possible to configure these serial printers to print properly VIA the CUPS printing module in Mac OSX 10.2 and higher... I this case the serial printer becomes a postscript printer with ghostscript rasterizing the PS data into the proper form and Gimprint supporting a huge array of serial printers. Once this was setup you could print from classic via the desktop print utility... I have not done this yet myself, but I have setup a number of older epson printers this way via USB... I will try soon. Marty |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
January, 31, 2003 12:36 AM |
joevt |
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There's a test that an OS 9 app can use to check if it's running in Classic and if serial support is implemented in Classic (gestaltMacOSCompatibilityBoxPresent and gestaltMacOSCompatibilityBoxHasSerial). These tests might have been there since Rhapsody but I don't know if serial support was ever implemented. This probably means Apple was thinking about it but that was so long ago and they don't make computers with built-in serial ports or IrDA anymore. |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
January, 30, 2003 11:58 PM |
tpmco |
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"Hello Apple--hello? Anyone home over there?" "Please leave a message at the sound of the beep." Stranded in cereal-land--Mark :-) or :-( as the case may be. |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
January, 29, 2003 10:31 AM |
sneitzel |
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I'm with you krjz. I don't understand either why the serial port is apparently off limits. I too would like to be able to use my existing stylewriter printer under OSX. While the various bridges/adapers that have been mentioned here and in previous posts work for some, for me if I have to go out and buy new hardware it might as well be a new, fully supported USB printer that is much more future compatible. In the meantime does someone know why serial printers are a no-go in OSX? What needs to be done for them to work? Scott |
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RE: any workaround for printers on serial port? |
January, 29, 2003 7:06 AM |
fixitjc |
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have you tried any of the ethernet / to appletalk print servers (bridge)? like the Dayna EtherPrint or the like. I haven't but someone in this forum may have. It would be good to here from someone who did. |