Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!earleh
From: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Serial -> parallel info ?
Message-ID: <11393@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 6 Dec 88 23:00:24 GMT
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Organization: Thayer School of Engineering
Lines: 24

I have a Tandy DMP-110 printer, which has both serial and parallel
interfaces.  I also have a nice Chooser-compatible graphics printer
driver which I just got done writing for it.  Unfortunately the serial
interface runs at 1200 baud, max.

I am interested in getting a serial-to-parallel converter so I can run
the printer in parallel mode, and the Mac at a more reasonable baud
rate, say 9600 or 19200 baud.  I have heard of the "Grappler"
interface, which has firmware to convert from ImageWriter escape codes
to other printers' codes, and also appears to do the
serial-to-parallel conversion, but I need something less elaborate.

Does anyone know of a simple serial to parallel converter I could use
in this application?  I need a fast baud rate on the Mac (serial) end,
with hardware flow control implemented.  I need a Centronics parallel
pinout on the printer end, with no translation of output characters,
as the Tandy uses all 256 character codes for graphics.  I'm sure I
could build one, but something small and ready-made would be a lot
more attractive.  Anybody know who makes/sells such a device?


Earle R. Horton. 23 Fletcher Circle, Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 643-4109
Graduate student.