Re: Deskjet 550C to AppleIIgs

[voss@i40s16.ira.uka.de (Stefan Voss)]

In article <2okh4j$2d2@foghorn.cc.utexas.edu>, brianh@foghorn.cc.utexas.edu (Brian Huddleston) writes:
|> 
|> The sales person she talked to swore up and down 
|> that it was totally impossible to hook a 550c up to an "Apple" because
|> "the commands were different."

That sales person must be a real expert. ;-)

|> And that she would need to order a custom cable from someplace in
|> Arlington.   

:-) 

|> Could someone out there who is using a
|> DeskJet, or knows someone who is using a deskjet send me instructions (one
|> syllable or less please :) on what all I would need to do to make it work
|> with a IIGS?  I assume that I would need the appropriate driver from Vitesse
|> to make it work under 6.01, but is it possible to make it work from AppleWork 4?
|> or 3?  Do I need some sort of esoteric parallel to serial converter and a
|> custom cable? 

I'm not using a 550C but a 500C. There's not much diffrence between
these two printers (from the user's view).

All Desk*Jet* models support HP's Printer Command Language (PCL). 
PCL commands tell the DeskJet e.g. to "print in bold face", to "switch
to graphics mode", etc. Desk*Writer* models do not support PCL, so
stay away from these.

You are right, you need a driver like the one in Vitesse's Harmonie in
order to use a DeskJet from GS/OS programs. AppleWorks 3 can easily be
configured to use PCL commands and I think AppleWorks 4 has this as
default configuration. You can use DeskJets from both GS/OS and 
ProDOS 8 programs. 

As far as I know all *color* DeskJets (the models with "C" at the end
of their name) have both a serial and a parallel port. The easiest way
to connect the GS to a color DeskJet is via the serial port. It's not true
that a special cable is needed for that. THE CABLE IS EVEN MENTIONED
IN THE MANUAL FOR THE DESKJET. There is no serial/parallel conversion
involved, so the cable should not be expensive. 

|> [stuff deleted]
|> 
|> brianh@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
|> 

Regards,

Stefan Voss
(voss@ira.uka.de)