hann@rd1632.Dayton.NCR.COM (Ed Hann) (03/08/90)
I just finished configuring a Tower to use a PostScript printer on a serial
port, and discovered a strange situation.
The Tower is a Tower 32/600 with Tower OS 3.00.01.
The PostScript printer is an NCR 6416 laser printer with the contoller
replaced with a PSJet+ controller. This makes it equivalent to a QMS 800+
laser printer. The printer is configured to use the 25 pin channel: 9600
baud, parity ignored, DTR protocol.
I used a cable wired like a 1308-C037/C036 Intelligent Terminal Cable, as
described in NCR TOWER Series Site Preparation Guide, page B-13, which says
this will work with an NCR 6416 Laser Printer.
I experimented with different parameters for the gettydef entry in
/etc/gettydefs that is combined with the a model /usr/spool/lp/model/laser to
create the printer interface file /usr/spool/lp/interface/printer2. I
finally got the following getty definition to work:
laser# B9600 CLOCAL CS8 ICANNON # b9600 CLOCAL CS8 ICANNON # # laser
^^
Please note the misspelling ||. I inadvertantly mistyped the
parameter. The documentation spells it ICANON. Other entries in gettyfefs
also spell it ICANON; yet it works.
I didn't discover this until I was configuring an identical printer with an
identically wired cable on a Tower 32/600 with Tower OS 1.03.02. I used the
proper spelling in /usr/spool/lp/local/lpgettydefs/laser (the gettydef file
is located in a different place in 1.03.02). I used the same model as that
used on the previous Tower.
Everything appeared the same, but the printer would only flash briefly, and
no print would come out. I concluded that since I had misspelled ICANON on the
other Tower, the parameter was not needed. Without the parameter I got the
same symptoms, so I added it back, but used the incorrect spelling ICANNON;
and it now works.
WHY? Is the documentation wrong? Is ICANNON actually right? Does something
good happen with misspelled parameters?
The following code is a copy of the model I used on both Towers:
########################### Model begins here ###############################
# lp interface for psjet+ laser printer
#
copies=$4
shift; shift; shift; shift; shift
files="$*"
i=1
while [ $i -le $copies ]
do
for file in $files
do
echo "\004\c"
cat "$file" 2>>/tmp/laser$$
echo "\004\c"
done
i=`expr $i + 1`
done
mail lp </tmp/laser$$
rm -f /tmp/laser$$
exit 0
########################### Model ends here ###############################
The following represents the wiring diagram for the cables:
DB-15 Tower DB-25 Printer
|--- (Connect to Shield)
|
|--- 1 Frame Ground
Transmit Data 1 -------------------- 3 Receive Data
Receive Data 9 --------------------- 2 Transmit Data
Request to Send 2 --------------------- 5 Clear to Send
Clear to Send 10 --------------------- 20 Data Term. Ready
Data Term. Ready 4 -----------------|--- 6 Data Set Ready
|
Data Set Ready 3 ---| |--- 8 Carrier Detect
|
Carrier Detect 12 ---|----------------- 4 Request To Send
Signal Ground 11 --------------------- 7 Signal Ground
--
Ed Hann (Ed.Hann@Dayton.NCR.COM)
Applied Research, R&D Division (1 513 445-1061)
NCR Corporation
1700 Patterson Blvd., Dayton Ohio 45479