DEC LA-180 and PDP8e/LC8-E - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

6 Dec 1999

--- Rick Bensene &lt;rickb(a)bensene.com&gt; wrote:
...
  Hello, all,

 I recently got my hands on a classic DEC LA-180 RO (receive
 only) printer. 
...
  There's a second board, that connects to the main
electronics
 board via a ribbon cable.  This board has an old AY5-1013 UART
 chip, and a bunch more TTL on it, and appears to be a serial
 interface.  
Ah.  This paragraph wasn't copied in the other message I just replied to...

I've never seen this option, but, with something like this in place, that
explains the questions about serial.

...
  I want to try to connect this up to my PDP8/e system
as print device. 
...
  The LC8-E card has a Berg connector that is identical
to the Berg
 connector on the printer electronics board of the LA-180.  
Check which pins are in use.  DEC used the 40-pin Berg connector in just about
everything.

...
  I'm wondering if the 'parallel' interface
of the LA-180 is compatible
 with the LC8-E card... 
It's a pretty simple interface.  According to the 1978 Microcomputer Handbook,
the parallel out on the DKC8AA can be used to drive an LA180 with two caveats:
the data is inverted, and the IOP instructions are different.  Electrically,
though, they are compatible.  It's little more than 8-bits, a couple of
handshake lines and a couple of status lines.  

...
  ...I don't have printsets for the
 LC8-E card, so I don't know the pinout of the connector for the
 printer, nor do I have any information at all on the LA-180 in
 terms of the 'parallel' port interface of the printer. 
I don't have any prints on my ONMIBUS LA180 parallel card, but I do have
prints for the LA180 (and the DKC8AA)

...
  Obviously, I'm not going to just plug it in and
see what happens :-) 
If all is TTL, nothing *bad* should happen, but your caution is reasonable.

...
  Anyone out there know if this will work?  If so, is a
special
 cable needed, or will a 'straight through' cable work? 
*If* the LC8-E is the LA180 parallel interface, a straight cable is what
you want.  I'd check the handle number of my own card, but I can't do that
until tomorrow night.

-ethan

=====
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