Printer for H8

[Mitchell Smith]

I'm thinking about adding a printer to my H8.

What would you guys recommend?

My system has the H8-4 4 port serial card although I was thinking about building a parallel interface card.

Mostly want it for printing of program listings, text files, etc. Nothing fancy.

I want something that is simple to setup and doesn't take too much messing around with drivers.

I've seen mention of the Epson MX-80.

Thanks!

Mitch

[Glenn Roberts]

The most straightforward approach is to use one of the printers that Heathkit sold, as those were tested/supported.  That would be the H14, Diablo KSR 1640 or DECwriter (LA-34 or -36), Texas Instruments TI-810 or Heath/Zenith Z-25/H-25.  I believe those are supported “out of the box” in HDOS 2 and CP/M 2.2.03. 

 

The Epson MX-80 was popular and is supported in the CP/M 2.2.04 Configur program so that’s an option, but it *must* be the serial version (the parallel version became popular on the IBM PC.  You can use a parallel MX-80 but will need to add hardware and configure software which is something you said you didn’t really want to tackle).

 

I used the C. Itoh Prowriter 8510a serial printer and have a driver for that which I can share.  I’m sure there are REMark articles on how to configure printers.

 

Bottom line is most any serial printer should work for you.  If you need help there are plenty of folks on this list who can help get the settings right I would think.

 

If anyone wants to add a parallel printer to their H8 that’s now enabled by Norberto’s H8 PPIO card and there may even be some of the older H89 parallel boards available?  I believe we have the BIOS configurations and/or HDOS device drivers to use if anyone is interested…

 

• Glenn

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[Steven Feinsmith]

Glenn, you are correct about the brand of printers for the H8 system. Unfortunately, these excellent printers are pretty long gone. I do not see many of them nowadays. I regret that I sold it many years ago. It was a wide-carriage printer with a continuous paper feed that helped me track down the programming lines. The Epson is excellent but expensive because of low demand. It will work well with the H8 system under HDOS. You have to search for a driver which someone wrote to work Epson with H8 or H88/H89/Z90. If not, perhaps you can get a source listing of an H14 driver to modify for the Epson.
Lately, I have tried to find a Teletype model 33 ASR. It became difficult to find one. Honestly, I wish that I had a time machine and taken me back to the late 1970s to early 1980s to buy equipment and also components. Even I wish to buy a lot of unkit Heathkit in brand new condition.

Steven

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[dwight]

I recall making a parallel port for my H8. It was relatively a simple copy of a PC parallel port. I do recall one thing that Heathkit did. The parallel port didn't seem to be the same as the PC. I recall I had to invert one of the hand shake signals. I don't know if it was something Heathkit did to make you buy their printers or something wrong with the printer that I was using. I believe I used an Epson dot matrix (FX80 mode) and later a Brother daisy wheel.

Anyway, the port was trivial to make.

Dwight

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From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Steven Feinsmith <steven.f...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2021 6:19 AM
To: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Printer for H8

 

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[Glenn Roberts]

The Heathkit solution for parallel interfacing was the H-8-2 which actually used the 8251 USART to interface to the CPU and then that talked to the parallel I/O side.  It always seemed like an awkward design (vs. just using an Intel 8255 PIO chip) but it had the advantage that you could continue to use the drivers and BIOS setups which supported the 8251.

 

I agree that most tweaks to drivers or BIOS are pretty straightforward and those in this group could help Mitch out with any issues…

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[Mark Garlanger]

Heath also made the Z-89-11 Multi-Mode Interface Card that had a Centronics-style parallel port. 

I had seen some printers originally offered by Heath/Zentih with serial port interfaces on ebay for not a horrible price, but it doesn't look like they are on there any more.

Mark

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[Gery Kissel]

I used an Okidata u82 "back in the day".

The thing was a tank.  I did see some on ebay for about $70.

Gery

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224055431945

[norberto...@koyado.com]

You can buy a new LX-350 Dot Matrix Printer - 9 pin for about $200+. It uses parallel, serial, or USB. If using parallel printing then you will need the H8-SSI board still under development, which supports the Z-89-11 interface for HDOS and CP/M.

https://www.amazon.com/Epson-C11CC24001-LX-350-Matrix-Printer/dp/B00EUEDLWG/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpc-cooP_8QIVHx-tBh0sMwn5EAAYAiAAEgI_EvD_BwE&hvadid=486282396896&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1024479&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=15907795545519207235&hvtargid=kwd-1133360131117&hydadcr=947_1012420570&keywords=lx-350+impact+printer&qid=1627243742&sr=8-3

https://www.staples.com/epson-lx-350-black-white-dot-matrix-impact-printer-c11cc24001-new/product_IM1RT7914

https://www.cdw.com/product/epson-lx-350-printer-b-w-dot-matrix/3051151

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Epson-LX-350-Dot-Matrix-Printer-9-Pins-Narrow-Carriage-EPSC11CC24001/32594398

https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8396723&SRCCODE=3WGOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx6Xu-If_8QIVMQ2tBh1GTwJIEAQYAyABEgL2qvD_BwE

 

Thanks,

Norberto

SSI Parallel Printer Schematics:

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[Mitchell Smith]

Thank you all very much for your responses. I'm sure I'll need help with drivers at some point.

Mitch

[William Lindley]

You might look at the Lindley Systems Ultimate Drivers at https://www.wlindley.com (under Heritage Products).  The complete source code for both HDOS and CP/M drivers, and a schematic for an H-89 parallel board you can build, are all included.  I released those as Public Domain some years ago now.  They support Epson, Star, MPI, NEC/C.Itoh, Okidata, and several other printer makes.

[norberto.collado koyado.com]

Can you fix such link as it is broken? 

http://www.wlindley.com/website/hierpage/

404 Not Found

Norberto

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From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of William Lindley <lindley...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2021 11:22 AM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [sebhc] Printer for H8

You might look at the Lindley Systems Ultimate Drivers at https://www.wlindley.com (under Heritage Products).  The complete source code for both HDOS and CP/M drivers, and a schematic for an H-89 parallel board you can build, are all included.  I released those as Public Domain some years ago now.  They support Epson, Star, MPI, NEC/C.Itoh, Okidata, and several other printer makes.

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[glenn.f...@gmail.com]

try:

 

http://www.wlindley.com/#heritage

 

great stuff!

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of norberto.collado koyado.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2021 2:30 PM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Printer for H8

 

Can you fix such link as it is broken? 

 

http://www.wlindley.com/website/hierpage/

 

404 Not Found

Norberto

 

---

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of William Lindley <lindley...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2021 11:22 AM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Printer for H8

 

You might look at the Lindley Systems Ultimate Drivers at https://www.wlindley.com (under Heritage Products).  The complete source code for both HDOS and CP/M drivers, and a schematic for an H-89 parallel board you can build, are all included.  I released those as Public Domain some years ago now.  They support Epson, Star, MPI, NEC/C.Itoh, Okidata, and several other printer makes.

 

 

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