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From: jmw@sdchema.UUCP (John M. Wright)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.micro.cbm
Subject: Re: Mac interface to commodore printer
Message-ID: <290@sdchema.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Nov-84 16:35:30 EST
Article-I.D.: sdchema.290
Posted: Mon Nov 12 16:35:30 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Nov-84 04:32:59 EST
References: <175@qumix.UUCP>
Reply-To: jmw@sdchema.UUCP (John M. Wright)
Distribution: net
Organization: U.C. San Diego Chemistry Dept
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Xref: sdcsvax net.micro:8338 net.micro.cbm:883
Summary: 

I think it will be more trouble than it's worth to try to
interface a non-CBM machine to your CBM printer.  See if you
can find a copy of the July '83 issue of COMPUTE!;  an article
by Jim Butterfield,  "How the VIC/64 Serial Bus Works", will
let you know something about what you are up against (but not
enough to actually solve the problem;  the only sufficiently
detailed info I have seen on how the serial bus and devices
interact comes from a dissasembly of the actual routines that
drive the bus.)

Why go that way, anyway?  I guess you somehow happen to have the
CBM printer on hand?  I haven't actually used one myself, but they
seem to be widely held to be pretty poor.  I find it pretty compelling
that there are *dozens* of interfaces available for driving standard
(either RS-232 serial, or parallel)  printers from a VIC or 64,
but I have never seen one for driving a CBM printer from a "standard"
port.

I think I saw that you had interfaced a VICMODEM to a standard
RS-232 port;  that was probably relatively straightforward because
the VICMODEM interfaces with the 64 not through its "serial bus",
but through what is intended to be and RS-232 connection (at least,
that's what Commodore calls it) (except for voltage levels!).

Good luck, anyway.

John Wright