Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!agate!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpvcfs1!neff From: neff@hpvcfs1.HP.COM (Dave Neff) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: DeskJet Plus weirdness Message-ID: <2150015@hpvcfs1.HP.COM> Date: 11 Aug 89 19:28:15 GMT References: <1546@ns.network.com> Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA Lines: 36 Re DeskJet+ weirdness: A number of Atari ST users have run into the same situation. DeskJet+ must be on when turning on the Atari. Evidently the strobe line on the Atari is stuck low so the DeskJet+ automatically asserts busy until the strobe line is high. Paul Close has posted a program that gets the strobe line unstuck. Some Atari users have the problem, some do not. It may be that the current sink limitation on the Atari parallel port is aggrivating the problem. One DeskJet+ user said he is using the 7407 chips as line buffers and he has no problems powering on his hardware in any order. It isn't clear to me if he had the problem before he buffered the line. There is no good reason I know that the Atari would be holding down the strobe line -- the strobe line should be strobed :-). I don't know why some Atari users run into this but others do not. We have a couple Atari ST users here who have never run into this problem (and they are not buffering their lines). I would like to know if the line buffers truly fix the problem or not. Unfortunately (for you, actually fortunately for me) I am not in product support and do not have the time to work very hard on this problem. Paul and Dianne Close first contacted me about the power on order dependancy and I worked with them on the problem for a while. Would all DeskJet+ Atari ST users contact me telling me if they do or do not experience this problem (must power on DeskJet+ before the Atari)? If someone had this problem but fixed it with the line buffers would they please let me know. I have no idea why DeskJet users (only DeskJet+) run into this problem. The DeskJet+ should look identical to the parallel port from the standpoint of electrical characteristics and handshaking -- especially when no data is being sent :-). Dave Neff neff@hpvcfs1.HP.COM