SIO to Centronics Printer Interface

[TGB1718]

Bit of a long shot, but I have a WW Interface 72000 - SIO cable to 36 Pin Centronics Printer interface which doesn't seem to work.

 

I opened the interface up and it has 6 DIP switches inside, but nothing to say what each switch does.

 

Does anyone have an instruction manual for this, I've Googled, but only found one reference to it's existence.

but no instructions

[+Allan]

I don't have a manual (would love to scan it.) but I did find this in Analog magazine. At least this includes a picture.

 

https://archive.org/details/analog-computing-magazine-47/page/n9

 

Allan

[TGB1718]

Yes, that's it, nice blue colour

[hunter44102]

I might have one of those at home. Will check later

[TGB1718]

Found this on that same site, all I need to do now is get it translated, many thanks

https://ia902800.us.archive.org/3/items/72000Anleitung/72000_anleitung_text.pdf

[Fred_M]

I am not a native German speaker, but I have given it a try:

 

Dip 1 OFF: The interface transmits all codes unchanged. Only the "sentence end" code 9BH is changed in CR (0DH). Epson FX80 and compatible printers can be used for the Atari 600/800 including wordprocessing software.

 

Dip 1 ON: The interfaces changes some codes (see the list in the manual) to create German letters in Atariwriter like ü ä ö and to change ss to ß

 

Dip 2 must be OFF (no function)

 

Dip 3 ON: Software cannot override the changes made by Dip 1 set on ON

 

Dip 3 OFF: Software can override the changes made by Dip 1 set on ON

 

Dip 4, 5 and 6 must be OFF (no function)

 

I think whatever the position of Dip switches 1 and 3 the printer should do something, so probably there is another problem....

[_The Doctor__]

Sound like all off is the way to start out, if you still get nothing it's time for a repair, unless it needs a driver or some kind, which happens to be the case from time to time

[TGB1718]

I have a HP LJ2550 with a Centronics interface, but it needs a bit of tlc to get it going, so can't test the interface, but I have programmed an Arduino Uno

to mimic a printer, I hope to get this going today and see it the interface is working.

 

DragonStomper: Many Thanks, I will set the switches based on the info and see what I get when I test it.

 

Currently ripping appart an old IEEE 488 cable extender to interface between the WW 72000 and the Arduino

(IEEE 488 has less pins, but if I get the shell off I can use the female in the lower 2/3 of the Centronics plug)

[Fred_M]

I think it will be hard to connect a HP color laserjet to an 8-bit Atari.

 

I found some topics on AtariAge that illustrate this: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/42236-trying-to-get-hp-laserjet-4p-to-work-with-my-atari-8-bits/

and http://atariage.com/forums/topic/108137-printer-options-for-800xl/

 

Most interfaces are intended for Epson (or compatible) printers. The German manual you posted references many times to an Epson FX80.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Fred_M

[TGB1718]

I managed to test the interface using an Arduino Uno, a bit of a trying time though as the WW 72000 doesn't fully conform to the handshake methods.

It only uses 'Busy' from the printer to say when it can send the next byte, it really should use 'ACK' as well.

 

The problem was that a Uno takes about 5 to 6 us to raise the Busy line, by which time the 72000 has sent another byte, if it used 'ACK' it would wait

before it checked the Busy line.

 

With a bit of direct writing to the ports on the Uno I managed to get the time down to ~3.5 us which helped produce almost perfect printing.

 

See below the output from MAC65 to the printer (via Uno's Serial Port monitor), it was a program I wrote many, many moons ago to backup Cassette Tapes.

There are only 2 errors from the printed, lines 770 &1370, just caused by the Uno not being quite fast enough.

 

Maybe I'll do the same on a Raspberry Pi, much quicker

 

Thanks agains for all the help.

 

 

 

 

0100 ; .OPT NO LIST

0110 .INCLUDE #D:HEADER.M65

0115 .OPT LIST

0120 *= $2500

0130 START LDA #CLOSE

0140 STA ICCOM

0150 JSR CIOV

0160 LDA #OPEN

0170 STA ICCOM

0180 LDX #0

0190 LDA #OWRITE

0200 STA ICAX1

0210 LDA #EFILE&255

0220 STA ICBAL

0230 LDA #EFILE/256

0240 STA ICBAH

0250 LDA #$80

0260 STA ICAX2

0270 JSR CIOV

0280 LDA #MESS1&255

0290 LDX #0

0300 STA ICBAL

0310 LDA #MESS1/256

0320 STA ICBAH

0330 LDA #PUTBUF

0340 STA ICCOM

0350 LDA #MESS2-MESS1

0360 STA ICBLL

0370 LDA #0

0380 STA ICBLH

0390 JSR CIOV

0400 LDX #$10

0410 LDA #OPEN

0420 STA ICCOM,X

0430 LDA #OREAD

0440 STA ICAX1,X

0450 LDA #$80

0460 STA ICAX2,X

0470 LDA #CFILE&255

0480 STA ICBAL,X

0490 LDA #CFILE/256

0500 STA ICBAH,X

0510 JSR CIOV

0520 BMI CERR

0530 LDX #$10

0540 LDA #GETBUF

0550 STA ICCOM,X

0560 LDA #$00

0570 STA ICBAL,X

0580 LDA #$30

0590 STA ICBAH,X

0600 LDA #$00

0610 STA ICBLL,X

0620 LDA #$80

0630 STA ICBLH,X

0640 JSR CIOV

0650 CPY #$88

0660 BNE CERR

0670 JSR GETBYTENO

0680 LDA #CLOSE

0690 STA ICCOM,X

0700 JSR CIOV

0710 LDA #$3C

0720 STA PACTL

0730 JMP PUTMESS2

0740 ADDLO = *+1

0750 ADDHI = ADDLO+1

0760 CFILE .BYTE "C:",CR

0770 CERR LDA #$3C0780 STA PACTL

0790 LDA #CLOSE

0800 STA ICCOM,X

0810 JSR CIOV

0820 JMP ERROR

0830 WRITEOUT LDX #$10 ; ⸮⸮⸮⸮Š⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮

0840 LDA #OPEN

0850 STA ICCOM,X

0860 LDA #OWRITE

0870 STA ICAX1,X

0880 LDA #$80

0890 STA ICAX2,X

0900 LDA #CFILE&255

0910 STA ICBAL,X

0920 LDA #CFILE/256

0930 STA ICBAH,X

0940 JSR CIOV

0950 BMI CERR

0960 LDX #$10

0970 LDA #PUTBUF

0980 STA ICCOM,X

0990 LDA #$00

1000 STA ICBAL,X

1010 LDA #$30

1020 STA ICBAH,X

1030 LDA ADDLO

1040 STA ICBLL,X

1050 LDA ADDHI

1060 STA ICBLH,X

1070 JSR CIOV

1080 BMI CERR

1090 LDA #CLOSE

1100 STA ICCOM,X

1110 JSR CIOV

1120 LDA #$3C

1130 STA PACTL

1140 JMP START

1150 ERROR LDA #ERRORMESS&255

1160 STA ICBAL

1170 LDA #ERRORMESS/256

1180 STA ICBAH

1190 LDA #PUTBUF

1200 STA ICCOM

1210 LDA #MESS1-ERRORMESS

1220 STA ICBLL

1230 LDA #0

1240 STA ICBLH

1250 LDX #0

1260 JSR CIOV

1270 LDA #CLOSE

1280 LDX #$10

1290 STA ICCOM,X

1300 JSR CIOV

1310 LDA #$FF

1320 STA CH

1330 XX LDA CH

1340 CMP #$FF

1350 BEQ XX

1360 LDA #$FF1370 STA CH

1380 JMP START

1390 PUTMESS2 LDA #PUTBUF

1400 STA ICCOM

1410 LDA #MESS3-MESS2

1420 STA ICBLL

1430 LDA #0

1440 STA ICBLH

1450 LDA #MESS2&255

1460 STA ICBAL

1470 LDA #MESS2/256

1480 STA ICBAH

1490 LDX #0

1500 JSR CIOV

1510 JMP WRITEOUT

1520 ERRORMESS .BYTE "⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮Š⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮",7,CR,"REWIND TAPE TO TRY AGAIN",CR,"AND PRESS ⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮",CR

1525 MESS1 .BYTE "}⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮Š⸮⸮⸮٠⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮",CR,CR

1530 .BYTE "INSERT SOURCE CASSETTE",CR,"PRESS PLAY ON TAPE RECORDER",CR,"THEN PRESS ⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮",CR,CR

1540 MESS2 .BYTE "REMOVE SOURCE CASSETTE",CR,"INSERT DESTINATION CASSETTE",CR,"THEN PRESS ⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮",CR,CR

1550 MESS3 .BYTE 0

1560 GETBYTENO LDX #$10

1570 LDA ICBLL,X

1580 STA ADDLO

1590 LDA ICBLH,X

1600 STA ADDHI

1610 RTS

1620 EFILE .BYTE "E:",CR

[TGB1718]

Fixed the slow handshake response from the Arduino, just put an LS74123 on the Strobe, connected it to input A (input B pullup to +5V) on the chip, NOT Q to the interface BUSY,so just a few ns for the

BUSY to go HIGH when strobe goes LOW, UNO has plenty of time to process the data then send a trigger to NOT CLR pin on the chip to lower the BUSY signal.

 

Now works fine with no corruption.