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Re: ImageWriter II specs
ARG! This is very frustrating. I just spent two hours soldering a cable
together to connect my IW II to my PC's parallel port, but the darn thing
doesn't seem to work. Here's the cabling instructions I found in case
anybody is interested. Also, for those who actually know what the heck
they're doing, a comment or two about what I might have done wrong would
be greatly appreciated.
First, here's the pin assignment I assumed for the ][gs serial printer
port. This diagram represents the female port on the back of the ][gs.
I assumed a mirror image of this for the male connector that I was
splicing the DB25 onto.
(Female printer port on the back of the ][gs)
/------###------\ 1 HSKo
/ ### \
/ \ 2 HSKi
/ [|] [|] [|] \
/ 8 7 6 \ 3 TxD-
| |
| | 4 Ground
| === === === |
| 5 4 3 | 5 RxD-
| |
| | 6 TxD+
\----+ === === +----/
\###| 2 1 |###/ 7 GPIn
\##| |##/
\| |/ 8 RxD+
\------###------/
###
Here's the pin assignment I assumed to be true for the male connector on
the end of the cable I was hacking up (mirror image of above). Hopefully
my mistake will be an obvious one at this point and I just need to rewire
some things.
(Male connector on cable)
/------###------\ 1 HSKo
/ ### \
/ \ 2 HSKi
/ [|] [|] [|] \
/ 6 7 8 \ 3 TxD-
| |
| | 4 Ground
| === === === |
| 3 4 5 | 5 RxD-
| |
| | 6 TxD+
\----+ === === +----/
\###| 1 2 |###/ 7 GPIn
\##| |##/
\| |/ 8 RxD+
\------###------/
###
In case the wire colors are some sort of industry standard, here's the
mapping I found to be true with my particular cable:
Pin # Wire Color
----- ----------
1 Brown
2 Black
3 Yellow
4 Orange
5 Red
6 Grey
7 Blue
8 Green
And, finally, here's the pin mapping I used to make up the cable. I just
realized the first column says "RS-232 Female", when in fact I was using
the male version, but I seriously doubt that will have any affect since
the pin numbers should remain the same.
RS-232 Female Mini-Din-8 male
-----------------------------------------------------------
Pin 1 --------------------------------------- Ground shield
Pin 2 --------------------------------------- Pin 5
Pin 3 --------------------------------------- Pin 3
Pin 5 -----|\
Pin 6 -----|--------------------------------- Pin 1
Pin 8 -----|/
/|----- Pin 4
Pin 7 ---------------------------------|
\|----- Pin 8
Pin 20 -------------------------------------- Pin 2
I then tried a series of tests to get data over to the printer ranging
from the simple Windows 95 "Print Test Page" button to a stripped-down,
DOS-based sequence of commands to initialize the LPT1 port to 9600 baud
8N1 and send a couple line feeds to it. Nothing was ever seen on the
printer. I changed my BIOS settings for the parallel port mode to all
three options (ECP, SPP, and EPP), but none of these had any effect.
Ocassionally, some garbage would get dumped to the printer when I cycled
power on the PC, so I'm guessing something is just getting buffered up
incorrectly somewhere; but I can't guess where or what to do about.
So basically, I'm at a loss now. Any information or suggestions would be
greatly appreciated as I'd like to get this thing up and running before I
break down and just buy a laser printer of some form.
Thanks in advance,
Thomas Dorris
IMAKE Software and Services