_The Doctor__ Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 (edited) another idea, a split second before you print, disconnect your sio2 whatever, to rule out some other issue... that means no sio2 pc or sio2 sd etc etc.. remember ape and respeqt and all that kind of stuff may try to be an 850 or printer at the same time as the real hardware is trying to work, and some of the sio home brew devices can interfere as well... so lets rule that out... Edited January 25, 2019 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iratasan Posted January 26, 2019 Author Share Posted January 26, 2019 (edited) another idea, a split second before you print, disconnect your sio2 whatever, to rule out some other issue... that means no sio2 pc or sio2 sd etc etc.. remember ape and respeqt and all that kind of stuff may try to be an 850 or printer at the same time as the real hardware is trying to work, and some of the sio home brew devices can interfere as well... so lets rule that out... 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. Edited January 26, 2019 by iratasan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iratasan Posted January 26, 2019 Author Share Posted January 26, 2019 pin17 on printer side for the MX is shield and goes the length of the cable but does not connect to both of the chassis- only one side of shield line ever connects to ground or a chassis ... i have nothing connected/soldered to pin 17 on the printer side... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 the shield wire is there to reduce noise and interference for test purposes you should be okay without it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 using a sio2pc cable you can sector copy to a floppy using either ape or respeqt... or use the prosystem, or you can use your sio2sd and sector copy from your atr files on that to a real floppy drive as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 the installation manual suggests the jumper settings slightly different as a starting point, sw2 is still all off, but I'd start with the install settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iratasan Posted January 26, 2019 Author Share Posted January 26, 2019 using a sio2pc cable you can sector copy to a floppy using either ape or respeqt... or use the prosystem, or you can use your sio2sd and sector copy from your atr files on that to a real floppy drive as well. 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iratasan Posted January 26, 2019 Author Share Posted January 26, 2019 the installation manual suggests the jumper settings slightly different as a starting point, sw2 is still all off, but I'd start with the install settings. Like the picture below... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 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! RespeQt has a dedicated sub-forum pinned to the top of the 8-bit section on this very forum. There's also a GitHub repository if you want to compile it yourself or play with the code. The maintainer, JoeyZ, has been away from the scene recently but several others have recently forked the project and added new features, such as this one, which adds emulation support for ATX files, Happy drive support and a few other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iratasan Posted January 26, 2019 Author Share Posted January 26, 2019 (edited) 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... ?? Edited January 26, 2019 by iratasan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iratasan Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 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 800XLatari 1050 drivethe print shop floppy disk (by Holmes)atari 850 interface2 x SIO cablesparallel cable by Smith-CoronaEpson 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iratasan Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 On the set of the movie.. "Garbage Printouts"... it's a wrap everyone!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.