Date   : Mon, 15 Aug 2005 23:59:57 +0100
From   : Rob <robert@...>
Subject: Re: Modern printers and Beebs

Hi Ian

At 22:45 15/08/2005, Ian Wolstenholme wrote:

>Does anybody know if modern laser printers can generally be
>used with Beebs?

The answer is usually "It depends".

I used to run into this a LOT, as last place I worked used an obscure 
Operating system called "Global" (previously "BOS"), and we had the same 
sort of trouble with lasers - if they didn't accept a straight string of 
ASCII characters & occasional control codes, they wouldn't work.

Most low end printers these days are pretty dumb, have very little 
processor power on-board and instead off-load most of the work to the 
windows (or sometimes Mac) drivers.  This means they can't be used by 
anything that doesn't have driver support.

Two good clues when picking a printer that will tell you it will work with 
/anything/ are:
- A serial interface (even if only optional) as this means it has to have 
on-board processor,
- compatibility with DOS programs (which also suffer the same problems, 
because DOS doesn't use printer drivers) .


>I finally gave up with my trusty old OKI OL400ex after having to
>feed all 21 pages of a document through the manual feeder and
>got a new one, a Brother HL2040.

Sorry ... The HL2040 doesn't support DOS
( 
http://global.solutions.brother.com/Library/en_us/faq/faq000180_001/index.html 
)
and so it's highly unlikely that you'll get anything other than Windows/Mac 
working directly with it.

However .. I've seen round-about routes done in the past - link (alien 
machine, in this case the beeb) to a PC via serial, select serial printer, 
run Hyperterminal, "print", capture display in HT, print it via 
windows..   if you can be bothered.  You might even be able to do something 
like "copy com1: prn:"  from a command prompt, but I never tried it. 
(remember to set port speed etc first..)


Personally I run Lexmark Optra R+ printers here.. I've not got the beeb 
connected to one yet, as I've not had need so far, but I know they will 
work.  These have all Serial/parallel/ethernet fitted options.  They crop 
up on eBay occasionally, often for only a few quid, but I'd not recommend 
letting them be posted, having experienced the mess that securicor-omega 
delivered here once...  The Optra S range are good too, and newer..   Toner 
carts cost a bomb, but last forever, so get a printer with one still fitted!


Rob