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General Category => Amstrad CPC hardware => Topic started by: LambdaMikel on 08:23, 13 November 18

Title: What printers (if any?) are folks using with their CPCs?
Post by: LambdaMikel on 08:23, 13 November 18
Still dot matrix, or somebody with an inkjet printer on a centronics-to-usb adapter or similar? Anybody still doing serious word processing with a CPC?
Title: Re: What printers (if any?) are folks using with their CPCs?
Post by: GUNHED on 16:06, 13 November 18
Hi, using a HP Deskjet 500 (ink) printer and up to few month ago I uses an A3 paper size printer from NEC (needles and pins). The NEC went into storage and the space is now used for one more CPC on the Desk.  :)
Title: Re: What printers (if any?) are folks using with their CPCs?
Post by: LambdaMikel on 16:32, 13 November 18
Quote from: GUNHED on 16:06, 13 November 18
Hi, using a HP Deskjet 500 (ink) printer and up to few month ago I uses an A3 paper size printer from NEC (needles and pins). The NEC went into storage and the space is now used for one more CPC on the Desk.  :)
Sure - there is not better use of space after all than putting a CPC there of course  :D
Title: Re: What printers (if any?) are folks using with their CPCs?
Post by: LambdaMikel on 18:34, 13 November 18
Quote from: GUNHED on 16:06, 13 November 18
Hi, using a HP Deskjet 500 (ink) printer and up to few month ago I uses an A3 paper size printer from NEC (needles and pins).



I believe this is the version which has ESC P/2 (I read something about an extension cartridge that provides this?)


Interesting, but quite a handful to set up...


https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/retro-_printer-module-%28capture-and-convert-centronics-port-data%29--_-pre-_order-32773 (https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/retro-_printer-module-%28capture-and-convert-centronics-port-data%29--_-pre-_order-32773)

Not sure I would want to go through this trouble in order to connect a modern USB printer.

Do FutureOS or SymbOS support "modern" printers by offering dedicated drivers? If so, which?
Title: Re: What printers (if any?) are folks using with their CPCs?
Post by: GUNHED on 21:08, 13 November 18
Quote from: LambdaMikel on 18:34, 13 November 18
I believe this is the version which has ESC P/2 (I read something about an extension cartridge that provides this?)
Yes, there is an Epson Cartridge, which turns the HP500 into an Epson-compatible printer. However, I prefer its native mode, it's just more pretty. For Prowort f.e. I wrote my own printer driver. Doesn't take you long.

Quote from: LambdaMikel on 18:34, 13 November 18
Do FutureOS or SymbOS support "modern" printers by offering dedicated drivers? If so, which?
In the first case there is generic support for 7 bit mode and 8 bit mode (PIO patch for CPC, CRTC register usage for the 6128Plus). There are no dedicated drivers, because nobody ever wanted one (I offered support, but people are print-lazy is seems). Furthermore there are now hundreds of Centronics printers, so it's probably the best to make a driver for printers only if at least one person is using them.
Of course you can print DIRectories and files on printer using FutureOS.

For the second case PDT will know. IIRC there is no printer support at all, but this may have changed.

Title: Re: What printers (if any?) are folks using with their CPCs?
Post by: RWAP on 13:29, 08 December 18
Quote from: LambdaMikel on 18:34, 13 November 18

Interesting, but quite a handful to set up...

https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/retro-_printer-module-%28capture-and-convert-centronics-port-data%29--_-pre-_order-32773 (https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/retro-_printer-module-%28capture-and-convert-centronics-port-data%29--_-pre-_order-32773)
Hi - this is my project - I was wondering what makes you think it is quite a handful to set up?

There are plenty of configurable options, but  it comes pre-configured for Epson ESC/P2.  All you need to do is to use CUPs on the Raspberry Pi to set up a default printer for Linux and that is it.

If you need to support HP PCL, it is a little more work, because we cannot include GhostPCL on the SD card (without paying a high license fee) and so you need to download and install GhostPCL over the network and then change one configuration option to tell the software to pass the captured data to GhostPCL.
Title: Re: What printers (if any?) are folks using with their CPCs?
Post by: LambdaMikel on 18:50, 10 December 18
I guess it is not that bad having to set up everything once (do I need to connect monitor and keyboard and mouse to do so, or is there a configuration webserver running inside the RPi that allows me to access it without having to do so?)


It's just, the smarter the devices are, the more maintenance they seem to require (RPi software updates, ...)


Title: Re: What printers (if any?) are folks using with their CPCs?
Post by: RWAP on 21:16, 10 December 18
Quote from: LambdaMikel on 18:50, 10 December 18
I guess it is not that bad having to set up everything once (do I need to connect monitor and keyboard and mouse to do so, or is there a configuration webserver running inside the RPi that allows me to access it without having to do so?)


It's just, the smarter the devices are, the more maintenance they seem to require (RPi software updates, ...)
I just use Bitvise SSH to connect to the RPi over the network and set up the configuration.  The configuration is set up as a simple series of files which you simply edit.  If you need to install a printer over CUPS then you can connect using a browser; but we decided that it was not worth writing a HTML front end for the configuration options, because people are unlikely to need to change them very often (if at all).

More details are in the manual - http://www.retroprinter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Retro-Printer-Manual-v3-PCB.pdf
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