how to connect a DECprinter I (LA180) ?

On Fri, Dec 28, 2007 at 04:05:37PM +0100, Henk Gooijen wrote: If you can't find the LA-180 manual, perhaps one of the interface manuals is on bitsavers? It's not hooked to a serial line. It's an 8-bit parallel printer with handshaking. Just because DEC used the 40-pin BERG on PDP-8 and PDP-11 console interfaces does not make the same connector in the LA-180 a serial interface. The same connector is used on the RL11, RLV11, RLV12, and the RL8A, and is certainly does _not_ carry EIA or 20mA signals on it. It's just a very, very common connector in the DEC world after, say, 1970. The LA-180 can be attached directly to an LP-11, an LPV-11, an LP8E, or a DKC8AA (PDP-8/a multi-I/O board, which inverts some signals and does not have the same IOTs as an LP8E, so uses a different OS/8 driver). I recall a simple circuit with one or two handshake signals inverted to hook a LA-180 to a Centronics-type printer interface, but you'd probably want to find the LA-180 manual for that. I did get a manual with mine, 20 years ago, the size of a small-town phone book. If it's been scanned, it's going to be a large file. It's a great printer. I hope someone can help you find a manual for it. You'll certainly want to be on the lookout for either an LP-11 (quad height) or an LPV-11, depending on what kind of PDP-11 or VAX you have. IIRC, you _can_ stuff an LP interface into a VAX and the VMS LPDRIVER will work (giving you LPA0:) -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 28-Dec-2007 at 15:30 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -11.9 F (-24.4 C) Windchill -33.5 F (-36.4 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 11.6 kts Grid 27 Barometer 684.4 mb (10463 ft) Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html