sreekanth@rgb.dec.com (Jon Sreekanth) (03/23/90)
JDR Microdevices (1-800-538-5000) has a combined 2400 baud modem
4800 baud fax card for PC XT's and AT's, for $119.95
It's described as 4800 baud Group 3 transmit only fax,
2400 baud V.22bis modem
It does not say the magic words Hayes compatible.
Has anyone used this card ? What are your opinions about the modem
part : is it actually Hayes compatible, or close, and can regular
comm packages use it easily ?
About the fax part, I do my letters on a Brother HR15 daisywheel printer
(it's said to be Diablo 630 compatible). If I have a file with Brother
specific escape codes (f.i. to set characters per inch pitch),
will the fax card software send a faithful replica ? (I don't mind
if it's not the same font).
Thanks,
/ Jon Sreekanth
US Mail : J Sreekanth, 2 Ashford Court #3, Allston, MA 02134
Digital Equipment Corp., 77 Reed Road, HLO2-1/J12, Hudson, MA 01749
Voice Phone : 617-783-9401 eves, 508-568-7195 workseeba@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Thomas D. Seeba) (03/23/90)
In article <9495@shlump.nac.dec.com> sreekanth@rgb.dec.com (Jon Sreekanth) writes: > >JDR Microdevices (1-800-538-5000) has a combined 2400 baud modem >4800 baud fax card for PC XT's and AT's, for $119.95 > >It's described as 4800 baud Group 3 transmit only fax, >2400 baud V.22bis modem > >It does not say the magic words Hayes compatible. > The JDR modem/fax card is made by Prometheus, to the best of my knowledge. I have a 2400 bps Prometheus modem, and it IS Hayes compatible, so I think you will find this for the JDR modem as well. Being Hayes compatible, it works with most comm programs; I use my Prometheus with ProComm+. > >About the fax part, I do my letters on a Brother HR15 daisywheel printer >(it's said to be Diablo 630 compatible). If I have a file with Brother >specific escape codes (f.i. to set characters per inch pitch), >will the fax card software send a faithful replica ? (I don't mind >if it's not the same font). > In another machine, I have a a 2400 bps modem/fax card; it is the one put out by Zoom. I have been extremely well pleased by its performance. It is a send only fax (same as the JDR combo), and uses software from Bit Software, Inc. for the transmission of faxes at 4800 bps. These fax cards will send ASCII files, and usually work with graphic files in TIFf and PCX formats, but those details are software dependent. A word processor file will generally not work, because the software may not be set up to recognize the embedded codes, or the escape characters that are being sent to the printer. Software is coming out now to overcome these limitations. The Frecom fax board (which sends AND receives faxes - but has no modem [$195 from Fremont Communications, Fremont, CA]) has announced a product to send a faithful reproduction of fonts that would be produced by an HP Laserjet II. This product has not yet been delivered, and will only work with their software (I suppose). Also, Bit Software is supposed to have a product that intercepts the stream going to the printer, and will then send that; I have no knowledge of how that works, or with what models of printer. So, the answer to the second inquiry is that you'll probably have to print to an ASCII file, then send that with the fax card, at least for now. The only glitch I have run into so far is this: I have the Zoom modem/fax card in one 80286 machine, and the Frecom Fax96 fax card in another almost identical PC. When I attempt to fax from the Zoom modem/fax to the Frecom Fax96, the cover sheet transmits, but the process aborts before the actual fax contents are sent. Tried several times, then referred the problem to tech support at Frecom and Bit Software . . . no answer on that yet. I have sent numerous faxes to the world at large, and haven't had a failure yet. I think these fax boards are great! BTW, JDR has a BBS --- 408-559-0253. I have no connection with them, and in fact, bought my modems elsewhere (these last to at the West Coast Computer Faire). I have purchased other things from them, and found them to be a pleasure to deal with. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Seeba seeba@prandtl.nas.nasa.gov You can FAX me at 415-755-4522 ======================================================================
ppd491@leah.Albany.Edu (Peter P. Donohue) (03/23/90)
In article <9495@shlump.nac.dec.com>, sreekanth@rgb.dec.com (Jon Sreekanth) writes: > JDR Microdevices (1-800-538-5000) has a combined 2400 baud modem > 4800 baud fax card for PC XT's and AT's, for $119.95 > It's described as 4800 baud Group 3 transmit only fax, > 2400 baud V.22bis modem > Has anyone used this card ? What are your opinions about the modem > part : is it actually Hayes compatible, or close, and can regular > comm packages use it easily ? The modem part is Hayes compatable. I use it with Procomm 2.43 to connect to our mainframe. I haven't had any trouble with it (knock on wood) as a modem, but the fax part has yet to work. More on that in a bit. > About the fax part, I do my letters on a Brother HR15 daisywheel printer > (it's said to be Diablo 630 compatible). If I have a file with Brother > specific escape codes (f.i. to set characters per inch pitch), > will the fax card software send a faithful replica ? (I don't mind > if it's not the same font). It is supposed to send ascii text, pcx (from PC Paintbrush), tiff (from Windows or scanners), img (Gem Artline or Ventura), or fax (from a fax program). The file from your printer will probably show up as if you had used the DOS command TYPE to look at it. I use probably because I haven't gotten the FAX part to work. The tech line they have is helpful (when I can get through) and they think they have found the problem on it. I have had to call about a dozen times, luckily its an 800 number. They are sending me a new ROM that is supposed to fix it. I would advise anyone to hold off on purchasing it till we see if it works. I'll post a follow up when I get the chip and install it. Hope this helps. Good luck... Pete -- Peter P. Donohue ppd491@albny1vx.bitnet . "Education is a journey, ppd491@leah.albany.edu . not a destination..."
RREED@UCF1VM.BITNET (03/24/90)
I would seriously doubt that they have implemented the process of picking up the control codes for printers. I would also guess that the software, as far as sending text documents, would support maybe one or two popular word word processing formats (i.e. Word Perfect 5.0, Wordstar, etc.) and straight ASCII text. These are only guesses, because I have not actually tried the software myself. Why don't you give JDR's technical staff a call and find out exactly what you would be getting? Reginald Reed rreed@ucf1vm.bitnet
sreekanth@rgb.dec.com (Jon Sreekanth) (03/24/90)
In article <5292@amelia.nas.nasa.gov>, seeba@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Thomas D. Seeba) writes... >In article <9495@shlump.nac.dec.com> sreekanth@rgb.dec.com >(Jon Sreekanth) writes: >> >>JDR Microdevices (1-800-538-5000) has a combined 2400 baud modem >>4800 baud fax card for PC XT's and AT's, for $119.95 >> >>It's described as 4800 baud Group 3 transmit only fax, >>2400 baud V.22bis modem >> >>It does not say the magic words Hayes compatible. >> > The JDR modem/fax card is made by Prometheus, to the best of my > knowledge. I have a 2400 bps Prometheus modem, and it IS Hayes Actually, the ad says this card is made by Modular Circuit Technology, the same company that makes clone boards. The ad also shows two other modems (not fax-modems), one by MCT, and the other a Prometheus. Maybe you were thinking of those cards. > faxes at 4800 bps. These fax cards will send ASCII files, and > usually work with graphic files in TIFf and PCX formats, but those > details are software dependent. A word processor file will generally > not work, because the software may not be set up to recognize the > embedded codes, or the escape characters that are being sent to the > printer. Software is coming out now to overcome these limitations. The .. > models of printer. So, the answer to the second inquiry is that you'll > probably have to print to an ASCII file, then send that with the fax > card, at least for now. Yes, but if I printed to an ascii file, it would probably lose information like characters per inch pitch, vertical line spacing, etc., all of which I've optimised for my daisywheel printer. Does anyone know of an inexpensive or public domain program that emulates a (diablo 630) printer, and generates a graphic file format ? Thanks, / Jon Sreekanth US Mail : J Sreekanth, 2 Ashford Court #3, Allston, MA 02134 Digital Equipment Corp., 77 Reed Road, HLO2-1/J12, Hudson, MA 01749 Voice Phone : 617-783-9401 eves, 508-568-7195 work