[PD] Pd seriell printers (fwd)

Mathieu Bouchard matju at artengine.ca
Tue Mar 3 16:05:07 CET 2009


I don't know why anyone still uses iem.kug.ac.at... is it an old address? 
Anyway, I re-send my reply just in case it's not getting through.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 09:53:34 -0500 (EST)
From: Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca>
To: brandt at subnet.at
Cc: Pd List <pd-list at iem.kug.ac.at>
Subject: Re: [PD] Pd seriell printers

On Tue, 3 Mar 2009, brandt at subnet.at wrote:

> Does anybody Know how to control a dot matrix printer troughout the seriell 
> port

First you need to install the [comport] class or any equivalent. It's best to 
use my hacked version because none of the other versions can't handle 
flow-control properly.

Second you need to figure out the wire protocol. Serial port is called serial 
port because it's using the RS-232 protocol, but this protocol has many 
variants and they are not autodetected. For example, you may have to say: speed 
9600 bits/second, 8 data bits per byte, 1 stop bit per byte, no parity, CTS/RTS 
flow-control.

Third you need to figure out the application protocol. The printer's manual may 
say, for example, that it's an Epson-compatible printer, or it may have a 
switch between Epson-compatible and a different mode. Old manuals often give 
you a list of all commands you can do on that printer, especially because they 
often offer extensions to the standard protocol they are basing themselves on, 
or sometimes because they have a completely different protocol.

Most of those printers are based on escape-sequences starting with the 
escape-code ("ascii" # 27), which may sound familiar, but those sequences are 
not related with any of the screen-and-keyboard escape-sequences (VT/ANSI) used 
on BBSes and unix operating systems.

  _ _ __ ___ _____ ________ _____________ _____________________ ...
| Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801, Montréal, Québec


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