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CorComp PIO vs. TI PIO: spurious data on power; feed after print?


OLD CS1

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My HP LaserJet 4050 has a parallel port to which I would connect my TI using the TI RS232/PIO card. Any time I powered off and sometimes when powering on the PEB the printer would indicate "DATA RECEIVED" and it would hold up any other print jobs until the timeout period expired.

 

I managed to pick up a CorComp RS232 card and wondered if it would replicate this behavior. I am happy to find it does, but very infrequently, like one out of twenty times.

 

The only problem I have with this configuration is the last page of a printout from the TI will not print until I tell the printer to "GO." This behavior existed with other modern printers, as well. Is there an option I can use with the PIO device which prevents this, like a "form-feed after print" option?

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There's no built-in option, I used to have the same issue with an HP inkjet. A creative sort could always hack that into the DSR ROM... ;)

 

Putting it on the CLOSE makes the most sense. The problem is it won't work with all software. I don't know why I know this, but there's something in the back of my head trying to tell me that some software opens and closes the device many times while printing one page.

 

And of course you're out of luck with anything that directly writes the parallel port.

 

On second thought it might be a lot easier to hack the software you're printing with. :)

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There's no built-in option, I used to have the same issue with an HP inkjet. A creative sort could always hack that into the DSR ROM... ;)

 

Putting it on the CLOSE makes the most sense. The problem is it won't work with all software. I don't know why I know this, but there's something in the back of my head trying to tell me that some software opens and closes the device many times while printing one page.

 

And of course you're out of luck with anything that directly writes the parallel port.

 

On second thought it might be a lot easier to hack the software you're printing with. :)

 

I am thinking there might be a way to force it in the printer itself. This is a JetDirect, after all.

 

EDIT: A very limited JetDirect! :lolblue:

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For my dot matrix printer, I used a simple DV80 file which contained nothing more than the codes for CRLF (to flush the last line if present), a formfeed and a carriage return. I would either print this after my print job, or append these characters to whatever I had printed. (I had a simple XB program that sent a similar set of control codes). I don't know if this workaround would do any good for LJ printer. I did it mainly to push the paper to the next perforated page break.

 

What program are you using to print the files - Is it holding the printer hostage? Or is this consistent behavior across multiple programs.

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For my dot matrix printer, I used a simple DV80 file which contained nothing more than the codes for CRLF (to flush the last line if present), a formfeed and a carriage return. I would either print this after my print job, or append these characters to whatever I had printed. (I had a simple XB program that sent a similar set of control codes). I don't know if this workaround would do any good for LJ printer. I did it mainly to push the paper to the next perforated page break.

 

What program are you using to print the files - Is it holding the printer hostage? Or is this consistent behavior across multiple programs.

 

Anything I use to print. In particular DU2K catalogs, TI BASIC/Extended BASIC program listings... been a while since I used anything else.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Back then, I had a Seiko printer which had a convenient form feed button. So I simply pressed a button on the printer to make it feed to the next perforation.

Sheet fed printers ot today don't print a line at a time, but store the whole page, then print it. They can frequently be set to time out after, say, 30 seconds, then print whatever has been sent to them, even if there's no form feed in the data the printer received.

The drawback is of course if the program generating the print output is slow. Then the page may print prematurely.

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I can press the "GO" button on the printer to eject the last page. I cannot find a job timeout option in the printer. As well, last night when I powered off the PEB the printer threw a tantrum over a print buffer overflow, so it is apparent the spurious data from the card is still present.

 

I am considering two things to quell the issues at hand:

 

  1. Build an electronic buffer between the PIO and printer (to address the spurious data)
  2. Convert the TI RS232 to HDX and use the HDX printer feature as-needed (should fix the FF issue)
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