Re: Appleworks printing

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Steven Nelson <snelson@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu> wrote:

> From article <50n1l8$rhv$1@mhade.production.compuserve.com>, by 100041.1464
> <100041.1464@CompuServe.COM>:
> > I tried to reactivate printing out of Appleworks 3.0. But no 
> > single character is printed. If I print via 'copy][+' or 'pr#1 - 
> > list' printing is wonderful.
> > What's wrong? It's an IIe with 'Epson APL'-card in slot #1.
> 
> I can't tell you exactly what is wrong, except it will NOT work.  The
> Espon APL card (most likely the ROM rather than the hardware) will NOT
> work with any version of Appleworks.  Some people have tried patching
> Appleworks but I don't know if anyone was successful.

Some people in my user group were successful in patching AppleWorks 1.1
and 1.2 to work with an EPSON APL card.  I tried adapting this patch to
AppleWorks 3.0, but without much success (I have the printer card, but
no printer or cable to go with it, which makes testing rather tricky).

The problem is that AppleWorks attempts to verify that a card is present
in the designated printer slot by performing a checksum on the
$Cn00-$CnFF ROM area, and repeating it several times.  At least one
version of the EPSON APL does not have ROM in part of this area (or it
changes contents - I can't recall which), which causes AppleWorks to
think that there is no card in the slot.

If someone can supply me with the pinout of the parallel cable from an
EPSON APL card (16 pin header on the card), I might be able to sort out
a working patch.

The card I have here is labelled "APL BOARD   UNIT G479501000-0" (white
legend), "G479501010-0" (green writing on the PCB layer) and "HCN
PCB-147F" (white legend).  The ROM just says "APL" on a silver label,
and it is a 2708 EPROM.  The card is about 4 inches long, and the cable
header is a 16-pin male IDC connector at the left end of the card,
pointing upward, with latching levers to hold the cable connector in
place.

I believe there are several cards called an "EPSON APL", which are quite
different in design.  Can anyone confirm this?

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail Mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand