[comp.periphs.printers] MT910, can it answer back????

nomann@diku.dk (Ole Nomann Thomsen) (01/10/91)

MT910, Mannesman-Tally laserprinter.

Is it in any way possible to send the MT910 a command that will make it return
some kind of answer?  Any kind of commmand/answer will do, since I only want
to be able to determine when the laser is done with the printing.

Background:
Im interfacing MT910 laserprinters thru a TCP/IP network to a UNIX box. If I
just drop the connection when I'm thru sending data, but before the printer is
thru processing it, the data gets dropped.  The solution is to wait for the
printer to answer to something, like this:

Time            Printer-sender:         Printer:
  |             [sending data]          [printing] 
 \|/            [done]                  [printing] 
                [sending question]      [printing]
                [waiting for answer]    [printing]
                [waiting for answer]    [done printing, answering question]
                [receiving answer]      [idle]
                [closing connection]

(I owe the solution to someone else)
-- 
- Ole. (nomann@diku.dk).  Gripe: WHY is there a _SLIDE-LOCK_ on the Ethernet 
DIX connector?|WHY is my homedirectory mounted on the least stable machine?|HOW
many lines of COBOL do I have to write yet?|WHY does POSIX contain yet another
char-set standard?|WHY does WP on Xenix crash so often, writing its backups?|