[comp.sys.mac] Grappler info. needed

snow@china.uu.net (John Snow) (10/12/89)

Having just reciently entered the Mac world, I was delighted to
discover the existence of a device (the Grappler) that would let me
connect my Epson MX-80 printer to my Mac SE.  I talked to Orange Micro
and they led me to believe that the Grappler is an intelligent
hardware device that converts Imagewriter commands to Epson commands,
and gives marvelous results.  I question this somewhat because of the
DPI difference between the Epson and the Imagewriter.  So basically my
questions are:

- How well does the Grappler work (function and quality of print)?
- Would I be better off using a straight serial to parallel converter
(does anyone make one of these??) and a printer driver built for the
Epson (does anyone make one of THESE???)?

Any information, suggestions, recomendations will be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,
	John Snow-- 
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:: John Snow 	MDC	    | any opinions are purely accidental
:: Denver, Colorado 	    | and not the fault of the management
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jg13@umd5.umd.edu (Allon Stern) (10/13/89)

In article <150@salt.UUCP> snow@china.UUCP (John Snow) writes:
>connect my Epson MX-80 printer to my Mac SE.  I talked to Orange Micro
>and they led me to believe that the Grappler is an intelligent
>hardware device that converts Imagewriter commands to Epson commands,
>and gives marvelous results.  I question this somewhat because of the
>DPI difference between the Epson and the Imagewriter.  So basically my
>questions are:
>
>- How well does the Grappler work (function and quality of print)?
>- Would I be better off using a straight serial to parallel converter
>(does anyone make one of these??) and a printer driver built for the
>Epson (does anyone make one of THESE???)?

Well, I bought a Nec Pinwriter P6 years ago to use with my Osbourne Exec
(now hiding in some corner of the attic) and I was looking for some way to
connect it to my Mac II.  I got a Grappler LQ, which is essentially a 
serial to parallel converter which will also do scaling (through hardware
or supplied software) and generates codes for use on various printers.
I think the LQ (which emulates the Imagewriter LQ) is only good for certain
24 pin printers and laser printers, but you might check with Orange Micro.

As for me, I'm very happy with Orange Micro.  The product works quite well.
At first I had a problem with it, but it turned out that the version of the
software I had was incompatible with system 6.0.3.  They sent me a disk with
the latest version of the software on it.  Thanks, Orange Micro.

                            - -= Allon =- -
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