[net.micro.cbm] CARDCO CardPrint/G+

mo@seismo.UUCP (Mike O'Dell) (03/27/84)

A few months ago I bought a Cardco CardPrint/G+ interface to connect my
OKIDATA 83A to my C64.  When I first got it, I connected it up as per
the awful manual (out-of-date manual, 2 updates, and a promise for
a new, complete document when I sent in the warrantee card).  It seemed
to work for the most part, even the stuff to print color changes
with visible glyphs, etc.  I then got sidetracked for a while and just
this weekend started messing with my C64 again and tried to print out
a program which contained some of the C64 graphics characters.
The documentation claims that the CardPrint/G+ will do the graphics font
characters somehow (using the extended graphics set, I assume).
That didn't work, and no reasonable amount of diddling would make them
come out.  So, today I tried to call CARDCO in Witchita, Kansas, and
several  curious things happened.  (1) The phone number was no longer
listed with 316-555-1212, however the DA person and her super distinctly
remembered looking up the number on Friday of last week! (2) I got the
phone number from the "manual" at home and tried the number.  It rang
busy for 3 hours, so the local operator assisted and did a remote verify.
The Kansas operator said the line sensed as trouble so it would be reported.
More curiously, the DA super mentioned that CARDCO did have two numbers
up until recently and they had been messing around with their listings
a lot lately.  She also verified that the number I was trying was listed
for them on the Friday hardcopy listing.

Anyway, does anyone (1) know if CARDCO is quietly stealing away into the
night, or a simply having legit phone trouble, and (2), can anyone
with a CardPrint/G+ and an OKIDATA tell  me what they did to make it work?
(In particular, does the CardPrint expect to use the 8-th data bit to
get the graphics font, or know to us SI and SO?)

Also, I never got the revised manual which was "at the printer's" according
to the first scraps of paper.  Does anyone out there have the new manual?

Any help much appreciated.

	-Mike O'Dell
	seismo!mo
	lbl-csam!mo
	mo@lbl-csam