tth@unc.cs.unc.edu (Terry Hudgins (NCNB -- sfw)) (02/04/90)
Does ANYONE know how to hook up an Apple LaserWriter IINTX to a Sun Sparcstation 1? What I've done (besides talking to Apple & Sun): 1) Apple LaserWriter IINTX dip switches: 1=up=9600baud, 2=dn=rs232serial, 3&4=up=PostscriptBatch, 5&6=up=xon/xoff 2) Cable (simple null-cable for xon/xoff, ttya="A" port on SS1): pins 1 to 1 for chassis ground (what the heck!) 2 to 3 send/rcv, 3 to 2 send/rcv, 7 to 7 signal grnd 3) SunOS 4.0.3c stty command to set printer port: in .login: stty 9600 -evenp cs8 -cstopb -raw ixon -ixany </dev/ttya since cmdshells reset to 7bit evenp when they start up, I issue that same stty as above inside SunView cmdshell... and confirm that settings stick with stty -a </dev/ttya. 4) cat lwinit >/dev/ttya where lwinit is vi-created postscript prog: serverdict begin 0 exitserver statusdict begin 25 9600 64 setsccbatch end [note: LaserWriter LED blinks about 15 seconds on this] 5) cat lwset >/dev/ttya where lwset is from back of lw manual: /Helvetica findfont 14 scalefont setfont 30 500 moveto (The Options number for the 25-pin port is )show statusdict begin 25 sccbatch 10 string cvs show pop showpage [note: LaserWriter LED blinks about 20 sec, never prints] Questions: A) I do want Postscript Batch, not Interactive don't I? B) Apple said 7-even was typo in manual, use 8-noparity. True? C) Sun says to buy their $1800 Transcript software. Why do I need $1800 in software to eject a page from a ps printer? I understand that I might want pssun to convert rasters to to ps or nscript to pretty-print ascii files but surely I don't need Transcript to dump to /dev/ttya, do I? D) Are the postscript programs above "encapsulated" and thus in need of "postscript dictionary headers"? _______________________ Terry Hudgins UNC-CH Epidemiology tth@cs.unc.edu, (919)966-4186 any help GREATLY appreciated!
gopstein@rutgers.edu (Rich Gopstein) (02/08/90)
Before we bought Transcript (for the conversion routines), we set up a print que to print postscript files directly to our LWII/NTX. The single most useful thing I did when setting it up was to connect a spare VT220 (any asynch terminal will do) in parallel with the printer's SendData pins. This allowed all printer errors to be easily visible -- which made solving problems like "It blinked, but it didn't print" much easier. The cable looks like this: Printer VT220 2 ----------+-------------- 3 7 ------------+------------ 7 3 --------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 3 7 Sun This is probably a flagrant violation of the RS-232 spec, but it has worked for several years on a couple of different Apple Laserwriter printers.