Subject: Re: Printing (not baud rates)
To: Joshua E Hope <otaku@unixgeek.ml.org>
From: Dr. Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@loki.stanford.edu>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 06/16/1998 10:02:56
On Mon, 15 Jun 1998, Joshua E Hope wrote:

> I was under the impression that if the computer and printer couldn't
> communicate at all that I needed a converter. The printer and computer do
> communicate, so I thought it might be a serial printer. I have absolutely
> no knowledge of printers :)
> 
> Well, the plug looks like...extremely hard to describe. But I think it was
> a Centronics-type plug...

If the printer has a Centronics plug (like the SCSI plugs on external SCSI
cases, but 36 pins instead of 50), then you need a serial to parallel
converter. No amount of baud rates will fix that.

The 36-to-25 pin cable connects to a PC printer port. PC printer ports
have female plugs (the cables have male ends) while the serial ports are
the exact opposite. If you get a mac-to-modem cable, these two cables
shouldn't plug into each other.

Get the converter. Or look at a low-end ink jet.

Take care,

Bill