iratasan

37902 😃

On the set of the movie.. "Garbage Printouts"... it's a wrap everyone!!!

Update: i finally received the Smith_Corona Atari parallel printer cable from eBay. Result: same old garbage printouts, so the cable is out of the equation, as is the Atari SIO2SD interface, replaced by actual copies on floppy of The Print Shop software. There must be something wrong with the printer, not sure where to look though, so i guess i should call it a wrap... and give up! Latest tests (failed) were done using this configuration: atari 800XL atari 1050 drive the print shop floppy disk (by Holmes) atari 850 interface 2 x SIO cables parallel cable by Smith-Corona Epson MX-80 F/T MK Terminal Printer with Graphtrax80 roms installed** **Dip Switches on the MX-80 printer were set as per the GraphTrax80 installation manual. Tried all other dip switches combos as seen on the varius PDFs found online from the various MK I / MK II F/T Epson MX-80s. Power-on selftest works like a charm. Maybe the parallel on board interface on the MX-80 is defective. Not sure if swapping it with another one would do the job, but i am kinda tired of trying out.

Done the dump to floppy from the atr files thru Disk Wizard II. Booted from floppy, same garbage result. Mess on the desk has improved though... ??

Like the picture below...

Very interesting! I will have to dig into this... I must admit i have never heard of ape or respeqt, but i will find info. Thanks!

... i have nothing connected/soldered to pin 17 on the printer side...

Hello Doc. Thanks a lot for your many replies today. Great job! Had somehow the same thoughts/feelings about the possibility that my SIO2SD device could be interfering with all this... Unfortunately i do not have a floppy disk version of "The Print Shop" available on hand, nor i know how i would be able to "make" one starting from the .atr files i have... (is it even possible to do??). I'd really love to do a test thru a proper floppy and drive. MYATARI has Print Shop for sale, sooner or later i might decide to buy it. It's a good reminder of the good times I had with my Atari back in the day. There are too many players in this game... but thanks for your precious advices, i am sure we'll get things sorted, eventually... CABLE: to try rule the cable out of the equation I just purchased off ebay this: https://www.ebay.it/itm/273427814396- It will take at least 4 weeks to get here, so i have time to to fiddle with the current cable and try some other settings you pointed out. I will double check my cable and compare with the info you provided, though I think my soldering were "right". GRAFTRAX80: http://toastytech.com/files/MX80Graphtrax.zip These are the ROMs i downloaded and then had them "burned" to 3 x 2716. Note that these were dumped off a TI branded version of the Epson MX-80 but i am pretty sure (hope) these ROMs are the same as the one found inside a "general" unbranded Epson MX-80 F/T Type-II (mine is an MX-80 F/T first model with no graphics support). In fact the printer's behavious hasn't changed after the 3 x 2716 installation (i also clipped the wire of the J1 don't worry). But ROMs installation went thru ok, otherwyse the printer self test would not work. Here is also an installation manual for it: https://archive.org/details/Graftrax-80_1981_Epson_America. Haven't had the chance yet to print this out and go thru all the pages yet, but i will. They are correctly installed, pins are not bent, i got extra care in doing this. Powers up fine and printer self test is performed flawlessy (just that!). I shall keep you updated. Let me know if there is a way to make floppies of The Print Shop from my .atr files. Thanks a lot. C.

"Help me Obi Wan Kenobi.. you are my only hope!" Calling all General Kenobis out there.... Could someone please point out a "sure" pinout of a DB15 cable connecting the 850 interface to a Centronics 36 pin parallel printer such as my Epson? I seem to have tried all possible combinations for building the cable following the info we have read above in this topic (w/out luck). Does anyone have such a cable at home (one that has successfully printed at least once in the past thru The Print Shop and the 850) and willing to check all connections? May the multimeter be with you... always! PS - Also "proper" Epson dip switch settings for Atari would be very appreciated...

iratasan, BillC has replied to a personal conversation entitled "Centronics 34". BillC said: Hello BillC... is there a Centronics 34 standard? I replied to one of your old posts from 2017... please check. c. It's a mistake, I meant Centronics36

Hello BillC, just one question... why are we talking about a "Centronics 34" ? Isn't the Centronics a 36 pins connector as standard?

Thanks a lot, i will do some checking with the tester. I haven't built the cable myself, i had a friend to do it for me. I was thinking to buy the one off eBay... https://www.ebay.it/itm/Vintage-NOS-ATARI-400-800-Parallel-6-Ft-Computer-Cable-Smith-Corona/273427814396 Unfortunately i have no info on this particular cable, so not sure it was built with the 850 in mind... looks like it is but,,, not 100% sure.

I looked into this page.. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279524-altirra-and-lprint/ I entered the below basic lines and the printer at least started printing... still garbage, but it printed from BASIC... 10 FOR I =0 TO 1023 20 LPRINT PEEK (I);","; 30 NEXT I RUN See below picture for garbage.

I did these tests... ** TEST A ** LPRINT TO 850 POWERED ON (NOTHING CONNECTED TO IT). i do get the timeout error -138 ** TEST B ** LPRINT TO 850 POWERED ON (CONNECTED TO THE EPSON PRINTER POWERED OFF). No timeout error, goes right away one line down with a READY prompt. Only weird thing is that I hear a sort or "FRRRWW" almost inaudible, very very short sound right when pressing the ENTER key. I do not hear the same if i enter a simple "not print related" basic line of code and press enter. ** TEST C ** LPRINT TO 850 POWERED ON (CONNECTED TO THE EPSON PRINTER POWERED ON). Exactly the same behavious as TEST B. So it seems like the cable is to blame?

My guess too, i think something might be wrong with the cable, might need to double check it or build a new one. EOL CONV on DATA set to 8-bits Are these settings all achieved via dip switches? I do not seem to spot them on the pdf....