Date   : Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:40:47 -0000
From   : dm.hunt@... (David Hunt)
Subject: BBC compatible dot matrix printer with 2 ribbons

 > > > I've got a DeskJet 1120c lying around that has a 
> Centronics connector.
> >
> > Hmm, are you sure they aren't from the modern generation of cheap 
> > printers which essentially assemble an image of the page on 
> the host 
> > computer
> 
> Page 23 of the manual on HP's website mentions it understands 
> PCL 3, and has 2MB of onboard RAM which suggests it's got 
> brains of its own. Another clue is that it supports printing 
> under DOS and they refer you to an older model for a suitable 
> driver for DOS programs.
> 
> It should be perfectly possible to get it to print to it from 
> a BBC, you just need to send it the magic burble of escape 
> codes to switch it into text only mode. I just grabbed a 
> Deskjet 850C driver and it uses:
> 
> ?E?&l1H?&l26A?&k0G?&l0o6d0l0E?(0N?(s0p10h12v0s0b3T?)0N?)s0p10h
12v0s3b3T?&l65F?&a3R?&a0C
> 
> where '#' is character 27.
> 
> The trick is to print from a Windows program which doesn't do 
> fancy text, Notepad maybe, create a new document with some 
> known text "hello" for example, print to file via the driver, 
> open the ".prn" file and look for your known text, and rip 
> off the stuff preceding it, Sprow.
> 

I connected the DeskJet 1120c to the Beeb and it prints fine just as plain
text.

I was rather hoping for an Epson emulation, I'll have to do some more
research.

Cheers

Dave ;)