Atari 8-bit printing with to not so vintage bubble jet printer.

[sideburn]

Hello all,

 

I have a MicroPrint Parallel interface cable and I’ve connected to a Canon BJC50 bubble jet printer and did an LPRINT “Hello Atari 130XE World” and the printer makes a click sound, computer hangs for a bit and finishes and that’s it. No printing. 
 

What’s interesting is I can print to this same printer from my Atari Portfolio. 
 

any ideas on what might be the problem and if there’s a way to get it printing?

 

*I’ve heard of Fujinet but do t know much about it and don’t really want to spend the money on that. Was hoping there’s a way to get it working through software. 

[_The Doctor__]

You might need to show the settings of you microprint etc... how are you connecting the microprint?

[sideburn]

57 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

You might need to show the settings of you microprint etc... how are you connecting the microprint?

I don’t think it has settings.

https://archive.org/details/atari-microprint-parallel-interface-info-card

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/atari-400-800-xl-xe-micro-print-1885117173
 

 

 

[thorfdbg]

Is this by any chance a page printer? It is not unusual for them not to start printing until they receive a form-feed, ASCII 12. So try an LPRINT CHR$(12) afterwards.

 

[TGB1718]

It looks like as @sideburn says, there are no settings, so changing from $9B (EOL) to CR/LF is done

automatically, if that's the case, then it's the config of your printer.

 

I have a similar device, a 72000 but mine has dip switches to allow printing of graphics which obviously

wouldn't work if $9B was being converted.

 

Bit surprised the device doesn't offer this as it's limited to text only printing, maybe pop it open and check for DIP switches.

Edited December 3, 2022 by TGB1718

[sideburn]

29 minutes ago, thorfdbg said:

Is this by any chance a page printer? It is not unusual for them not to start printing until they receive a form-feed, ASCII 12. So try an LPRINT CHR$(12) afterwards.

 

Ok I will try that. 
I hooked my Atari Portfolio up to it and it CAN print from the built in word processor but when you hit print the printer errors then you clear the error and it prints. But when I print from BASIC with LPRINT I get the same exact behavior that the 130xe is doing. 

[The Usotsuki]

I used to have a BJC-240

 

it supported Epson FX-80 commands.

[Mrshoujo]

Try using an Open #2 8 0 P: command

Print to #2 whatever you want

And then Close #2

You can add the Chr$ 13 and chr$ 10 if you want but do not end with a semicolon.

Sometimes Atari printer channeling is funky like that.

[_The Doctor__]

it's starts in x24 proprinter mode, you need to make sure it's in lq 2550 / 510 mode

grab a manual and program the printer with defaults and init strings....

you might do this using an old dos computer if need be, not completely sure about your printers exact case but it would be a norm...

 

[sideburn]

How do I do this in BASIC?

[sideburn]

2 hours ago, Mrshoujo said:

Try using an Open #2 8 0 P: command

Print to #2 whatever you want

And then Close #2

You can add the Chr$ 13 and chr$ 10 if you want but do not end with a semicolon.

Sometimes Atari printer channeling is funky like that.

How do I do this? In BASIC?

Edited December 3, 2022 by sideburn

[sideburn]

1 hour ago, _The Doctor__ said:

it's starts in x24 proprinter mode, you need to make sure it's in lq 2550 / 510 mode

grab a manual and program the printer with defaults and init strings....

you might do this using an old dos computer if need be, not completely sure about your printers exact case but it would be a norm...

 

Interesting. I may have the manuals. And I do have an old thinkbook with  XP on it. Not sure how to send data out the parallel port in xp though. 

[sideburn]

On 12/3/2022 at 2:17 AM, thorfdbg said:

Is this by any chance a page printer? It is not unusual for them not to start printing until they receive a form-feed, ASCII 12. So try an LPRINT CHR$(12) afterwards.

 

Tried this. No luck

[_The Doctor__]

On 12/3/2022 at 10:22 AM, sideburn said:

Interesting. I may have the manuals. And I do have an old thinkbook with  XP on it. Not sure how to send data out the parallel port in xp though. 

um you download the proggy or driver from any of the online sites and follow your manual/book

[sideburn]

On 12/3/2022 at 4:30 AM, Mrshoujo said:

Try using an Open #2 8 0 P: command

Print to #2 whatever you want

And then Close #2

You can add the Chr$ 13 and chr$ 10 if you want but do not end with a semicolon.

Sometimes Atari printer channeling is funky like that.

Would this be correct syntax:

 

open #2,8,0, “P:”

print #2, “hello world”

print #2, chr$(13)

close #2

 

?

 

* i saw this in the BASIC manual too: Device. dependent auxiliary code An 83 in this parameter indicates sideways printing on a printer 

 

not sure what that’s for. 

Edited December 5, 2022 by sideburn

[thorfdbg]

8 hours ago, sideburn said:

not sure what that’s for. 

This does two things: First, on the SIO level, it changes AUX2 during communications. Some Atari printers evaluate this and then print letters sideways. Most printer interfaces just ignore it. The second thing it does is that it changes the size of the printer output buffer to a smaller size.

[TGB1718]

@sideburn 

The printer needs to be in LQ mode, the manual says, press the power button and hold, count the beeps

LQ mode (USA) is 7 beeps, let go when 7 heard and the printer is in EPSON LQ mode

LQ mode (Europe) 9 beeps

 

It says in this mode all you need is CR (13) at the end of a line.

You can use a program like this to set any printer functions you need outside of normal text printing.

 

10 Open #1,8,0,"P:"

20 trap 100

30 read a

40 put #1,a

50 goto 30

100 trap 40000

110 close #1

120 data 1,2,3,4,5,6, :REM put your data here

 

 

Edited December 5, 2022 by TGB1718

[Mrshoujo]

On 12/3/2022 at 10:19 AM, sideburn said:

How do I do this? In BASIC?

Yes!

Laat time I tried posting with a BASIC listing, some weird security check blocked it.

10 OPEN #2,8,0,"P:"

20 PRINT #2,"This is a test";CHR$(10);CHR$(13)

30 CLOSE #2

40 END

 

You open a channel, output to it, then close it to force the OS to send the data and get dumped and sent. The interface gets forced to deal with it and sends it to the printer. 

[TGB1718]

1 hour ago, Mrshoujo said:

You open a channel, output to it, then close it to force the OS to send the data and get dumped and sent. The interface gets forced to deal with it and sends it to the printer. 

No need to close it, what it needs is $9B(155) which is the EOL character, although what the printer will do with that (maybe the OS doesn't send it)

is a bit unsure. As most control codes are proceeded by ESC(27) it would probably just be ignored.

 

EDIT: Thinking about it, the printer interface should take care of the $9B, I know the one I have does that.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2022 by TGB1718

[TGB1718]

52 minutes ago, Mrshoujo said:

Laat time I tried posting with a BASIC listing, some weird security check blocked it.

It's the .BAS extension, it's seen as and executable and sometimes is blocked

[sideburn]

3 hours ago, Mrshoujo said:

Yes!

Laat time I tried posting with a BASIC listing, some weird security check blocked it.

10 OPEN #2,8,0,"P:"

20 PRINT #2,"This is a test";CHR$(10);CHR$(13)

30 CLOSE #2

40 END

 

You open a channel, output to it, then close it to force the OS to send the data and get dumped and sent. The interface gets forced to deal with it and sends it to the printer. 

I tried this yesterday. It didn’t work. Printer just made noise and put up error as ususal. 

[sideburn]

On 12/5/2022 at 1:51 AM, TGB1718 said:

@sideburn 

The printer needs to be in LQ mode, the manual says, press the power button and hold, count the beeps

LQ mode (USA) is 7 beeps, let go when 7 heard and the printer is in EPSON LQ mode

LQ mode (Europe) 9 beeps

 

It says in this mode all you need is CR (13) at the end of a line.

You can use a program like this to set any printer functions you need outside of normal text printing.

 

10 Open #1,8,0,"P:"

20 trap 100

30 read a

40 put #1,a

50 goto 30

100 trap 40000

110 close #1

120 data 1,2,3,4,5,6, :REM put your data here

 

 

I tried this too. No luck. Holding power down makes the printer beep continuously and never stops until you let go. Running this program, the printer did nothing. But I think there’s a bug in the program. I tried just sending data to the printer as well after holding power down for 7 beeps but so far no results. 

[sideburn]

I got it working. Bad mistakes on my part. Bad ink. Bad battery issues. 
 

so LPRINT “hello world”; LPRINT chr$(12) worked

 

chr$(12) issues the form feed. 
printer beeps and errors after feed finishes. Need to sort that out still but overall working.