How to Print?

[Robb Bates]

So I bought a Diconix 150+ printer.  I've tested it with the built in print test.  That works.

I've built up a MG014 similar parallel printer card.  RomWBW recognizes it and the LED even flashed during bootup.

I can only assume that the board is built correctly, the centronix cable I was given is good and the printer works as expected.

But how do I get anything sent out to the printer?

I've played around with PIP, DEVICE and Wordstar.  There doesn't seem to be a Printer Test in the TEST user directory.

What's a simple sure fire way to just spit something to the printer to see if it even works?

Robb

RCBus [RCZ80_ROB8S] Z80 @ 7.376MHz
0 MEM W/S, 1 I/O W/S, INT MODE 1, Z2 MMU
512KB ROM, 512KB RAM, HEAP=0x1907
ROM VERIFY: 00 00 00 00 PASS

LCD: IO=0xDA NOT PRESENT
AY: MODE=MSX IO=0xA0
SIO0: IO=0x80 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
SIO1: IO=0x82 SIO MODE=115200,8,N,1
DSRTC: MODE=STD IO=0xC0 Sun 2025-10-19 09:51:44 CHARGE=OFF
TMS: MODE=MSX IO=0x98 INTERRUPT ENABLED 80X24
LPT0: IO=0x0C MODE=MG014
MD: UNITS=2 ROMDISK=384KB RAMDISK=256KB
FD: MODE=RCWDC IO=0x50 UNITS=1
IDE: IO=0x10 MODE=RC
IDE0: ATA 8-BIT LBA BLOCKS=0x000FA470 SIZE=500MB
IDE1: NO MEDIA
PPIDE: IO=0x20 PPI NOT PRESENT
CH0: IO=0x3E TYPE=CH375 VER=0x37
CHUSB0: BLOCKS=0x0077FFFF SIZE=3839MB
FP: IO=0x00 NOT PRESENT

Unit        Device      Type              Capacity/Mode
----------  ----------  ----------------  --------------------
Char 0      SIO0:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Char 1      SIO1:       RS-232            115200,8,N,1
Char 2      TERM0:      Terminal          Video 0,ANSI
Char 3      LPT0:       Parallel          Output
Disk 0      MD0:        RAM Disk          256KB,LBA
Disk 1      MD1:        ROM Disk          384KB,LBA
Disk 2      FD0:        Floppy Disk       3.5",DS/HD,CHS
Disk 3      IDE0:       Hard Disk         500MB,LBA
Disk 4      IDE1:       Hard Disk         --
Disk 5      CHUSB0:     USB Drive         3839MB,LBA
Video 0     TMS0:       CRT               Text,80x24
Sound 0     SND0:       AY-3-8910         3+1 CHANNELS

[Robb Bates]

BTW, I'm using ZPM3.

It seems LPT0: is being assign as Character device 3.  i.e. COM3

When I run DEVICE, I get this:

Physical Devices:
I=Input,O=Output,S=Serial,X=Xon-Xoff
COM0   NONE  IOS    COM1   NONE  IOS    COM2   NONE  IOS
COM3   NONE  IOS

Current Assignments:
CONIN:  = COM0
CONOUT: = COM0   COM2
AUXIN:  = COM1
AUXOUT: = COM1
LST:    = Null Device

And I can assign COM3 to the LST device.

10:15 A0:SYSTEM>DEVICE LST:=COM3

Physical Devices:
I=Input,O=Output,S=Serial,X=Xon-Xoff
COM0   NONE  IOS    COM1   NONE  IOS    COM2   NONE  IOS
COM3   NONE  IOS

Current Assignments:
CONIN:  = COM0
CONOUT: = COM0   COM2
AUXIN:  = COM1
AUXOUT: = COM1
LST:    = COM3

But I'm not sure where to go from there.

I've tried to send something to the LST device, but it just locks up and I have to reboot.

It's also odd that under DEVICE it lists COM3 as IOS, i.e. Input, output and serial.  But it's output only and parallel.

Robb

[Robb Bates]

Ah, nevermind.  Hardware problem.  Got it working!

Trying to visually match up pins on the top of the board to holes on the bottom of the board when flipping it over and was one pin off.  Derp.  Once again, RomWBW working perfectly and I'm borkd!  Glad I didn't let the smoke out!

Robb

[Wayne Warthen]

Glad you got it working.  I was about to reply that you were doing everything correctly.  😀

Thanks, Wayne