On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 11:43 AM, Mike Stein <mhs.stein at gmail.com> wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Ross" <tmfdmike at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 3:41 PM
On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 4:35 AM, tony duell
<ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
If you can identify the data lines on the
connector you are getting there. See if you
can trace the other pins to inputs or outputs.
-tony
Tony, good advice but probably more work than I'm inclined to put in.
As you said there were many interfaces with different standards -
different polarities and timing - and either way it's quite likely
this will never work with a standard modern parallel port without
building some converter, after first finding out what has to be
converted and designing it!
----- Reply -----
Tony just makes everything sound more complicated than it is ;-)
Actually I suspect it might indeed quite possibly work with a standard parallel port
without any conversion at all other than a rewired cable and maybe a very minor change or
two on the board.
For the most part a parallel port is a parallel port; data and strobe going out, strobe
acknowledge and printer status coming in, nothing more complicated than that and timing is
rarely an issue. In the Selectric there is the R/T code conversion of course but
that's done for you already and it should be simple to find the data bit order.
I had a contract years ago that involved adding a serial or parallel interface to
Olivetti typewriters and it's really not rocket science; I even still have some info
on interfacing to Selectrics but unfortunately not relevant to yours.
Your choice of course but I'd take Brent up on his generous offer to reverse engineer
that interface; you may find it's a much simpler project than you think.
(another) mike
I have taken Brent up on that :-)
I'll poke a bit more myself and see what we can work out together
before I decide if the effort is worth it.
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