joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Seymour Joseph) (07/17/90)
Filip, The printer you have is the famous IDS Paper Tiger, the first really popular personal computer printer (before Epson arrived on the scene). Most of them were used as parallel printers. They have one character set built in but could print it at a number of different densities (characters per inch) to get tiny or LARGE letters. The 440G had a bigger buffer and different roms to do graphics and was very popular with early Apple II owners. I had one for years and have fond memories of it (I haven't actually owned a printer since). I still have the manual for it. I will send you a copy if you want it, or if you just want the DIP switch settings they are: Dip S 4 (Top of printer board towards you, left side) SW7 - 50/60 Hz select (power supply frequency) Off=60hz On=50hz SW6 Remote control Deselect. Enables or disables recognition of DC1 and DC3 Ascii control codes off=disable on=enable SW5 Automatic Line feed. Enables or Disables a line feed upon receiving a carriage return. off=disable on=enable SW4 Automatic Page Skip. Enables or disables a 1 inch skip at form boundaries. off=disable on=enable SW3 Lines per inch. off=6 LPI on=8 LPI SW2 and SW1 Character Density select. SW1 SW2 density off off 8.3 CPI off on 12 CPI on off 10 CPI on on 16.5 CPI (caution - continuous operation over long periods of time at 16.5 CPI can cause thermal print head failure) DIP Bank S 3 (top of printer, board towards you, Right side) SW1, SW2, SW3 - Page size select SW1 SW2 SW3 Size off off off 3 inches off off on 4 inches off on off 3.5 inches off on on 5.5 inches on off off 7 inches on off on 11 inches on on off 8.5 inches on on on 14 inches SW4/SW5 Serial Data Baud Rate. SW4 SW5 Rate off off 110 baud off on 300 baud on off 600 baud on on 1200 baud SW6 Control codes. Enables or disables the recognition of special control codes to select graphics mode, change character size ... off= disable on=enable SW7 Serial/Parallel interface select off = Parallel TTL on = Serial EIA The IDS 440 also contains two strapping platforms on the component side of the controller card. The platform close to the top of the card should have its straps positioned betweeen pins 1-14, 3-12, and 5-10 if the optional graphics mode is not installed in the printer. If the optional graphics mode IS installed, straps will be positioned between pins 2-13, 4-11 and 6-9. The other strapping platform located near the printer interface connector selects active polarity for parallel interface control signals BUSY and STROBE. Positioning straps from pins 7-8 and 4-11 causes BUSY to become active when it drops to a logic 0 state, and STROBE to transfer data on its negative going edge. Changing these straps to pins 6-9 and 5-10 causes BUSY to become active when raised to a logic 1 state and STROBE to transfer data as it rises positive. Note that pins 1-14 on this platform should always remain strapped whether positive or negative polarity has been selected. When used serially, treat the DB-25 connector as a regular RS 232 port. For parallel hookup: pin Signal 15 DB6 9 DB5 10 DB4 11 DB3 12 DB2 13 DB1 14 DB0 19 BUSY - > 3 STROBE < - 22 ACK - > 4 ONLINE - > 18 FAULT - > 23 ENABLED - > 24 Paper Out - > 1 Protective Ground 7 Signal Ground That's all you should need to know about your new printer to get it up and running. If you want the whole manual, send me $5 Seymour Joseph 1730 Elk Street Piscataway NJ 08854