joels@tektools.UUCP (Joel Swank) (03/14/85)
> > I also bought the Cardco +G interface. Is everyone else who bought > > one of these happy with it? > I bought one of these, and I am very UNhappy with it. I am using it with > an Epson MX80, so my experience may not be applicable to the Gemini. > Printing any kind of graphics takes *f*o*r*e*v*e*r* (that includes the > Comodore special characters, anything that is not standard ASCII) because > it does continuous forward-backward shuttling of the print head back and > forth. This beats the print mechanism to death, and takes about 45-50 > seconds for every single line of print. Don't blame the interface, I haven't found one that doesn't have this problem. This is standard behavior in graphics mode with both the Epson and Gemini printers. The problem could be cured in either the printer or the interface. To print graphics the printer must receive an escape code followed by a byte count followed by that number of dot columns of data. For each such packet, the printer makes a pass with the head. I assume this is because of acceleration and deceleration needs. When printing Commodore graphics, the Cardco sends each character as a packet. This results in the herky-jerky printing. This problem could be cured by either the printer or the interface buffering graphics and only making a pass when needed. Of course this requires a sizable chunk of RAM, which is probably why neither the printer or the interface does it. Some of the newer Epson compatable printers do not have this problem. (Panasonic) Joel Swank Software Center Tools Support 50-487 Tektronix Beaverton OR 97077 (503) 627-4403