Re: Epson Stylus with Serial Interface to IIgs

["PZ" <skierpaul@yahoo.com>]

You can do 57,600 and even 115k on an Apple IIe with a Super Serial
Card and a Turbo ASB board.  Ron Higgins is still selling the Turbo ASB
card (which is just a piggyback for the SSC).  There is also a software
hack that will allow 115k only on the SSC, but this requires rewriting
code.  The Turbo ASB fixes a timing bug in the older 6551 ACIA.

His email is: ron (AT) vhboots (DOT) com
if you're interested.

- Paul

Polymorph wrote:
> Roger Johnstone wrote:
> > The problem you have may not be a printer driver issue but the serial
> > port speed. The HP DeskWriter for instance operated at a fixed speed of
> > 57600 bits per second, and I suspect many later printers designed for
> > the Mac did the same. Unfortunately the Apple IIGS serial port firmware
> > and the standard IIGS System drivers can only go as high as 19200 bit/s.
> >
> > From memory both the Harmonie and Independance printer driver packages
> > had replacement drivers that could print at the higher speeds, and I'm
> > sure I remember seeing a freeware driver once too.
>
> Thanks for the info Roger.
>
> I suspected something like this might be the problem, in fact I just
> recently came across this (from an issue of the lamp) after trawling
> the internet for clues....
>
> <snip>
> I just checked out the specs on it and it's not an RS 232 compatible
> serial, but an RS-422 compatible serial, and high speed only.  This
> means
> that it might work via the 57600 printer port driver, but your chances
> of
> getting it to work via the serial port in Prodos 8 are between slim and
> none, and Slim just got on a bus out of town.  There are also no GS/OS
> printer drivers available for it, so printing from the GS desktop is
> also a
> no-go, even if you get a parallel card.
> <snip>
>
> I guess my previous assumption is correct then - the serial interface
> is only usable with an appropriate serial driver that can push the port
> to 57600 bps.
>
> I've now heard reference to these freeware drivers a couple of times
> now. Does anyone have details on what they are called, or a download
> location? I just want to verify that it is possible to print from the
> serial port.
> 
> thanks,
> -p