dukelow@noscvax.UUCP (Robert A. Dukelow) (10/22/84)
I have recently acquired an HP-110 with assorted peripherals. As an aside, I am relatively happy with the entire system except that the 110 is a little harder to lug around than I had hoped. So far, though, I think that the capabilities make it worth it (for me). The system components that I have include: 1) ThinkJet printer (HP 2225B) 2) Disk drive (HP 9114) 3) HP-IL Interface card for IBM PC/XT (HP 82973A) All of these components can be interfaced via the HP-IL bus and software is provided to access all components in the loop using either the IBM or the HP 110 as the controller. My preferred mode of operation is to use the XT in my office as the controller to access the HP disks (both internal and external to the 110) to transfer files for portable processing. Moving on toward the problem: It turns out that you can access any of the peripherals from the XT even without the 110 in the loop. It also turns out that the ThinkJet printer is much quieter and produces nicer quality output than the Epson that I am presently using with the XT, so... The device driver provided by HP is easily hacked (just use debug to change the device name) to make the printer on the HP-IL bus into the standard system printer. Unfortunately, the printer codes used by the ThinkJet are not Epson compatible. Fortunately, there is an "Alternate Controls Mode" in the ThinkJet that looks like it is at least very close to Epson compatible. Unfortunately, the only way to enable the "alternate controls mode" appears to be to send a series of HP-IL control codes. There is no information as to how this might be done from the IBM. A call to HP's hot line (800-HPCOACH) did not produce the desired result. They claim that the IBM interface board hardware doesn't support general HP-IL control functions. Now that may be true, but having been involved in hardware design this sounds like an unlikely way to design such a board. HP is not known for openness when it comes to using their hardware in ways that they hadn't intended. I am willing to disassemble their driver software if necessary, but that sounds like a lot of work and I don't presently have all the information I would need. The HP-IL commands for the printer are only specified in terms of their mnemonics. I would appreciate any help. Such as: 1) information concerning the truth of HP's statement 2) direct information on programming the HP-IL interface card 3) more information on HP-IL such as a list of control codes, their meanings, and translation from mnemonics to binary Pointers to the above are, of course, are welcome. Thanks, Bob Dukelow dukelow@nosc