dks@shumv1.uucp (D. K. Smith) (12/07/89)
Any netters out there have any experiences with Orange Micro's Grappler Products for interfacing other printers (namely parallel 24 pin dot-matrix and laser) to the Mac? If you like, post your experiences for others to read. Thanks, dk smith
paisley@cme.nist.gov (Scott Paisley) (12/07/89)
In article <1989Dec7.050544.1498@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> dks@shumv1.uucp (D. K. Smith) writes: > Any netters out there have any experiences with Orange Micro's > Grappler Products for interfacing other printers (namely parallel > 24 pin dot-matrix and laser) to the Mac? I have some questions on this subject as well. My dad has a parallel Epson-1500. What is the best way to get it hooked up to the mac? Would it be advantages to convert the epson into a serial device? I know that converting the epson to serial is trivial, it just takes a couple of extra dollars. Thanks in advance. -- "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." Scott Paisley paisley@cme.nbs.gov ..!uunet!cme-durer!paisley
vpsingha@Athena.MIT.EDU (Vivek P. Singhal) (12/08/89)
I purchased a Grappler LQ some time ago, and have had mixed experiences with it. When you buy it, you get a device which converts the Mac's serial output to parallel, then translates that to your specific printer's control commands. On the Mac side, you set up the Chooser for an Imagewriter LQ. On the LQ side, you set dip switches specifying your printer type (it supports some Epson printers, Toshiba, etc. as well as the LaserJet). There's also a CDEV to deal with, but it's pretty simple to configure. For the most part, the device works, although there are some compatibilty/ convenience problems. To be sure, it's not the same as owning a true Imagewriter LQ, but then you don't have to pay the same price for an IW LQ either. In my particular case, I used the device with an Epson LQ-800. The output quality was good, although there were some image scaling problems. One annoying problem was with reverse line-feeds. If you've ever seen an Imagewriter in action, you'll notice that it is forever reversing direction; however, my Epson is unable to do so, and consequently the reverse line-feed commands sometimes show up as garbage on my printout (usually only on the top of the page). In addition, the device only works well in "Best" mode -- "Draft" and "Better" modes produce unusable output. This results in VERY slow performance. When I tried the Grappler with an Epson LQ-850, the device worked somewhat better. The reverse line-feed problems were gone, but it was still necessary to use "Best" mode. Moreover, the Grappler is unable to use any of the 850's built-in fonts. I've also tried using the Grappler with a LaserJet II (with 2.5 MB of RAM). In this case, printing was incredibly SLOW, and I frequently ran out of memory before printing was complete. Altogether, it was quite unacceptable in this configuration (note that a several software-only products are available for the LaserJet, such as MacPrint). If you already have a 24-pin printer, the Grappler LQ might be a viable solution. It's not too expensive, and it can be set up to function only as a serial-parallel converter if you wish. I've read somewhere that Epson is now writing Mac drivers for their printers, so someday this device may not be necessary. Most probably, when System 7.0 comes out, there'll be a slew of drivers for non-Mac printers (writing printer drivers for System 6 is supposedly quite difficult). On the other hand, if you are still in the market for a printer, you might get better results with some other Mac/printer combinations, such as the Deskwriter, Laserwriter SC, etc. Hopes this helps... _____________________________________________________________________________ | Vivek Singhal: vpsingha@athena.mit.edu 474 Memorial Drive | | (617) 621-0405 Cambridge, MA 02139 | |___________________________________________________________________________|