Marc Oberhäuser Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Recently I picked up some Atari 8bit stuff from my neighbours. Among common items I found the here shown adapter/device. They don't remember what it was good for so I am going to ask you if you have a clue what it might be:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Looks like a parallel printer adaptor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Looks like a parallel printer adaptor. This type of connector is commonly used with the centronics/printer interface... on the printer itself, not on the computer-interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 (edited) Yes, but the connection is backwards. It looks like an adapter to use an Atari printer on a regular computer. It looks like the adapter plugs into the end of a standard printer cable coming from a PC since the connector is a centronics female instead of male. Edit... Beat me to it Emkay!!! LOL Edited March 14, 2006 by Guitarman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Can you open it up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LYNXGUY Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 The smaller end appears to be what you would use for a disk drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Ok - Maybe a printer buffer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 The picture is a little too foggy to see the exact specs of the connector. Look at the non-atari connector. Is it a 36 conductor (18 wide) or a 50 conductor (25 wide) ? Centronics printer connectors are 36 conductor. The cable on the printer-end is usually "male". The connector you show in the picture is a "female," which would typically be the connector built into the printer. External SCSI cables, however, are a 50 conductor Centronix style connector, and have male at both ends, so if that is the case, you may have some unheard of "SIO2SCSI" type interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 It is obviously homebrew, so it could be just anything used for testing or diagnostic purposes. But another possibility is that it’s the Xformer to PC (or ST) cable. Instead of making it in one piece. It was done in such a way that you could hook a standard printer cable. Yeah, the box looks too big for that, yet it could be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 I say open it up. In any case, you wouldn't want to hook it up not knowing what it is supposed to be. Either a XFormer or APE cable I'd say. But if it's an APE cable, you'd need a gender changer plug to plug into the PC. Might have just been built that way because the owner didn't want to cannabilize a SIO cable (I built my first one in a similar fashion). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Oberhäuser Posted March 19, 2006 Author Share Posted March 19, 2006 Thanks for the suggestions so far. I have opened up the device but as you see it's complete isolated with some kind of plastic/glue On the backside of the device is an address from England, maybe the manufacturer: D.W. Fern 265 Chester Road Streetly West Midlands B74 3EA Maybe this can help to identify it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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