ray@vantage.UUCP (Ray Liere) (11/10/89)
A user claims to have heard of a "box" that allows one to capture
print images sent to a printer. This happens to be on an older HP1000,
but my impression is that the class of devices is a general one. (In fact,
if it does exist, it may be from the PC world ...).
Anyway, one connects this device so that it reads the data on the way to the
printer -- you plug this into the printer and then the printer cable into this.
Pass-through mode, as it were ... The printer does not know about the box.
Has anyone heard of such a device? Could you give me manufacturer's name/phone#
or any other info on it?
Thanks.
Ray Liere
Vantage Consulting and Research Corporation
voice: (503)657-7294
uucp: uunet!nwnexus!vantage!ray
-or-
hplabs!hpfcla!hpubvwa!hpupora!vantage!ray
Internet: vantage!ray@nwnexus.WA.COMrjn@hpfcso.HP.COM (Bob Niland) (11/13/89)
re: "A user claims to have heard of a "box" that allows one to capture
print images sent to a printer."
If you mean capture on paper, then most HP HP-IB printers can be set to
either Listen-Always or merely to the same bus address as the target
printer. Put the eavesdrop printer in Display-Functions mode (<ESC>Y) so as
to print, rather than act on, control characters in the data stream.
If you mean capture in machine-readable form, many HP host HP-IB interfaces
can be set to non-system-controller mode, and via the appropriate I/O
libraries, programmed to act as devices. This is fairly straightforward on
Series 300 BASIC/WS, for example, using either the built-in or 98624A HP-IB
interface. It can also be done in HP-UX DIL. Set the interface to the same
address as the target device. Read bytes.
Regards, Hewlett-Packard
Bob Niland rjn%hpfcrjn@hplabs.HP.COM 3404 East Harmony Road
UUCP: [hplabs|hpfcse]!hpfcla!rjn Ft Collins CO 80525-9599rer@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Rob Robason) (11/16/89)
> A user claims to have heard of a "box" that allows one to capture print > images sent to a printer. This happens to be on an older HP1000, but my > impression is that the class of devices is a general one. (In fact, if > it does exist, it may be from the PC world ...). > Anyway, one connects this device so that it reads the data on the way to > the printer -- you plug this into the printer and then the printer cable > into this. Pass-through mode, as it were ... The printer does not know > about the box. > Has anyone heard of such a device? Could you give me manufacturer's > name/phone# or any other info on it? > Ray Liere I remember a few years back a company made an HP-IB "printer spooler" that sucked up the printer/plotter bytes into RAM so the CPU would not hang (directed at single user systems like BASIC and PASCAL workstations). The spooler then fed the data to the device while the CPU could go do other stuff. I haven't kept up to know if such devices are still available. Is this what you're interested in? Rob Robason