hsbauer@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Harold S. Bauer) (01/26/91)
I have a DEC Rainbow 100 and would like to connect a Panasonic KXP-1180 to it. I also have a Serial-to-Parallel converter with the following settings 4800 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, parity inhibit, DCE. The Rainbow has the following settings for the printer: 4800 baud, 8 data bits, parity none. The end result of connecting the converter between the Rainbow and the printer is that only the first several lines of a full page document are printed ... this is consistent with all documents and spreadsheets. Any ideas on a solution or on what could be causing the problem? Thanks.
fzsitvay@techbook.com (Frank Zsitvay) (01/29/91)
In article <1991Jan25.174019.2300@rodan.acs.syr.edu> hsbauer@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Harold S. Bauer) writes: >I have a DEC Rainbow 100 and would like to connect a Panasonic KXP-1180 to >it. I also have a Serial-to-Parallel converter with the following settings >4800 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, parity inhibit, DCE. The Rainbow has >the following settings for the printer: 4800 baud, 8 data bits, parity none. >The end result of connecting the converter between the Rainbow and the >printer is that only the first several lines of a full page document are >printed ... this is consistent with all documents and spreadsheets. Any >ideas on a solution or on what could be causing the problem? Thanks. sounds like your printer isn't telling the rainbow to stop sending text while it prints it. the parallel interface has a line that tells the host to stop sending data while the reciever does something with it, in this case print it. most of the cheaper serial to parallel converters just route that line to RTS (request to send) on the serial interface. it looks like the rainbow needs to have xon/xoff flow control, and ignores the hardware flow control. xon/xoff flow control is done in software, with the printer sending chr$(19) to stop the host from sending data, and chr$(17) to resume sending data. there are some alternatives, you might try slowing down the baud rate between the rainbow and the converter. 300 baud would allow for 30 chars per second, and 600 baud would allow for 60 chars per second. alternatively, you could try to find a printer buffer that has serial and parallel ports on it. most of these have a microprocessor (actually, all of them do) and can do xon/xoff flow control to the host. not only that, but you can run the baud rate much faster and be back using the rainbow a lot sooner. -- fzsitvay@techbook.COM - but don't quote me on that.... American Oil Company motto - Bend over, We'll pump!!!