Re: replacement inkjet printer for Apple 2

["winston19842005@yahoo.com" <winston19842005@yahoo.com>]

On Nov 23, 5:39 am, e p chandler <e...@juno.com> wrote:
> On Nov 23, 2:47 am, A2Aviator <a2avia...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
> > parallel and USB.
>
> > The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
> > connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
> > compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and Epson-
> > APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over the
> > years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
> > standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and from
> > AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
> > ImageWriter II/LQ.
>
> > ...which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, blast
> > out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
> > spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
> > *bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.
>
> > Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.
>
> See other message. Thanks for the idea to try the C88+. I happen to
> use one on my Vista system (as USB). Again, I'm amazed that it prints
> at all under Apple DOS and MS-DOS using the parallel port. There are
> other printers that will not print from Apple DOS or MS-DOS at all.
> They require a WIndows driver. IIRC I tried printing to an old Lexmark
> inkjet from "DOS" and got garbage.
>
> At least the EPSON has a character mode! Perhaps a different printer
> card would work? My Apple 2e has a clone of the old Apple Parallel
> card. I don't have a more modern parallel card on hand, like a
> Grappler. It could be that the handshaking is different.
>
> The old Apple Parallel card used very primitive handshaking. One line
> changed the addressing on the cards ROM to go from an endless loop to
> transmiting data.
> So some of the other signal lines could be missing,
>
> ---- e

Never overlook the obvious - printer cables. They can go bad, without
any apparent damage. Have you a spare you've tried?