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USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:33 am
by dessony
Pokemon and somebody,

Zxmore has its own USB ports for saving and loading programs. With thermal paper rolls (for TS2040s and Alphacom32s) and aluminum-coated paper rolls (for ZX Printers) being harder to find, can we do about writing a few more code lines for the USB ports of the ZXmore to have its own printing feature?

DesSony

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:32 pm
by mrtinb
Maybe you are better of using one of the many centronics interfaces for ZX81, and connect a http://www.retroprinter.com/. Here you are limited only by Linux printer drivers on a Raspberry Pi.

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:34 pm
by mrtinb
If you do it directly on ZXmore it will need a special printer driver for every particular USB printer. Using the RetroPrinter, you can use existing Linux printer drivers.

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:36 pm
by RWAP
mrtinb wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:32 pm Maybe you are better of using one of the many centronics interfaces for ZX81, and connect a http://www.retroprinter.com/. Here you are limited only by Linux printer drivers on a Raspberry Pi.
Yes indeed - what we actually need is a new simple centronics interface for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum which emulates the ZX Printer - it only needs send the LPRINT and COPY information to the centronics port - we can then write a new conversion routine for the Retro-Printer which converts this to PDF and prints it!

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:07 pm
by Moggy
dessony wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:33 am Pokemon and somebody,

Zxmore has its own USB ports for saving and loading programs. With thermal paper rolls (for TS2040s and Alphacom32s) and aluminum-coated paper rolls (for ZX Printers) being harder to find, can we do about writing a few more code lines for the USB ports of the ZXmore to have its own printing feature?

DesSony
Thermal rolls for the Alphacom are easy to obtain this side of the water,it's just the aluminium stuff that's impossible to find that's why I find the interest in re-manufacturing Sinclair printer belts slightly odd,but maybe that's because I'm a user not a collector. ("Hey I got a belt Damn no paper!")

I do have a Memotech Centronics module that I could take photos of if anyone's interested in recreating it but it does have a 2k EPROM fitted so not sure how to extract the code from within.

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:52 pm
by gammaray
I have an Aerco centronics !

But may I ask how do I get a centronics printer?

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 8:38 pm
by RWAP
At the moment, the best option for a centronics printer is to wait until the Retro-Printer module is available to purchase.

Last time I looked, Epson still made a suitable dot matrix printer (!) but costing over £300, and some laser printers support centronics ports (but mainly expect HP PCL printer codes).

In comparison, the Retro-Printer is a module which plugs into a Raspberry Pi (or Banana Pi!) and captures data sent to a centronics port, interpreting the ESC/P2 codes, and creating a PDF which it then prints out to any modern printer connected to the Raspberry Pi (either via USB or over the network), so you can use modern low cost USB printers with any equipment which has a centronics port.

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:03 pm
by dessony
Moggy,

Yes, but we have to be mindful of the thermal paper roll measurement before ordering these rolls. In according to the TS2040 manual, Roll size: Roll width: 110mm/4.28"/4.33"/ or 4-5/16" --- Roll diameter: 48mm --- Paper length: 25 meter max. 82 feet.

Are these thermal paper rolls expensive?

Thank you very much in advance.
DesSony

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:12 pm
by RWAP
dessony wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:03 pm Moggy,

Yes, but we have to be mindful of the thermal paper roll measurement before ordering these rolls. In according to the TS2040 manual, Roll size: Roll width: 110mm/4.28"/4.33"/ or 4-5/16" --- Roll diameter: 48mm --- Paper length: 25 meter max. 82 feet.

Are these thermal paper rolls expensive?

Thank you very much in advance.
DesSony
From memory people used to find the simplest way was to buy till paper rolls and cut them to size.

I have 7 TS2040 rolls on sellmyretro - £2 a roll - https://www.sellmyretro.com/search/natu ... nter+paper

Re: USB ports for Printer and another devices?

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:26 pm
by dessony
Rich,

Please help these poor Americans (like me) figuring out the British pounds converting to US dollars for the TS2040's price tag. :lol:

Dessony