[comp.sys.dec] Is there a way to permanently change the settings of a basic LA34?

mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus) (12/17/87)

Does anyoe know of a way to permanently change the setting of a basic LA34
(i.e. one with not keyboard) so that every time it is turned off and back on
it will still retain a 6 lines per inch setting instead of the 8 lpi that it
reverts to now?  As of the moment, the setting can be changed temporarily
(until the next power-off) by sending the printer an ESC [ 0 z code, but
I hate to have to do this all of the time.

Anyone have any suggestions?  (This printer is connected to a VAXcluster 
running VMS 4.6.  It has a print queue assigned to it, with most of the
parameters set to their defaults.)

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Michael Niehaus
UUCP: <Backbones>!{uunet,pur-ee,iuvax}!bsu-cs!mithomas

chuck@felix.UUCP (Charles Vertrees (Chuck)) (12/19/87)

In article <1712@bsu-cs.UUCP> mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus) writes:
>Does anyone know of a way to permanently change the setting of a basic LA34
>(i.e. one with not keyboard) so that every time it is turned off and back on
>it will still retain a 6 lines per inch setting instead of the 8 lpi that it
>reverts to now?  As of the moment, the setting can be changed temporarily
>(until the next power-off) by sending the printer an ESC [ 0 z code, but
>I hate to have to do this all of the time.

Since you are running VMS, there is a simple solution.  The queue manager was
completely rewritten in V4 of VMS and lots of new goodies were added.  One of
these is the ability to create/define initialization files for different types
of printers.  In addition to these files, you can specify how they should be
applied to each printer.  You have the option of causing control information to
be sent to the printer each time the queue is initialized, each time a job is
started, or even between each page.

Your solution is simple.  I don't have access to a VMS documentation set, so I
can't point you to the correct manual, but you want to look for the queue and
forms definitions.  I believe you may have to define a specific form to do
what you want, but I could be wrong.  You will have to have system privilege
to make the appropriate definitions.  The first one is a bit tedious to set up
(lots of background stuff to do) but the next ones are a lot easier.

My suggestion would be that you define the init stuff for each job such that
it changes the printer to use the characteristics you want.  Since its a
serial printer, and if you have it wired correctly, you should never have the
problem with it getting out of synch.  The queue manager will automatically
pause the queue if the printer is turned off, and if each job re-initializes
the printer you should be all set.

Chuck V.