Using an Epson LX800 as a line pri

rjd at occrsh.ATT.COM rjd at occrsh.ATT.COM
Wed Jun 22 04:27:00 AEST 1988



::Recently, I got an Epson LX800 dot-matrix printer for using with a
::3b2/300.  I hooked it up with a centronics cable to the parallel
::port on the 3b2/300.  I can't get lp to work.  cat file > /dev/tty14
::(the tty for the parallel port) doesn't work.  stty -a < /dev/tty14
::gives a 'cannot open' message.  
::Any idea what's wrong and what I should do next?  Not much use
::asking  AT & T.  They want $125 an hour just to talk to you on the
::phone.  I'd like to use the printer for nroff.  Some time ago,
::comp.sources.unix had something on using the mx-80, the precursor
::of the lx800, for nroff.  Hope this'll work and that it doesn't need
::the printer to be configured for a serial port. 
::Any help will be greatly appreciated.
::thanks
::shankar subramanian  (keynes!shankar at ucsd.edu,
::shankar at are.berkeley.edu)

  Um....  tty14???? 

 The parallel port on the 195B or 195BA board is tty?5 - not tty?4.  So your
first problem is to access the correct port.  Try /dev/tty15....  You might
check first to see if the device file is even there (with the ls -al command).
If you are running AT&T Sys V Rel 2.0 or later the major number should be 1,
minor number 4 on character special device file /dev/tty15.
  The "cannot open" message will appear immediately after executing
"stty < /dev/tty15" if the file does not exist.  If the device exists and
no hardware is hooked to it or if the hardware is hooked up wrong, the command
will look as if it has hung and will require you to press delete, at which time
the "cannot open" message will appear.
  If you have the connections to the parrallel port wrong, you are on your own,
using the documentation for the parrallel port and the Epson LX800 printer and
trying to reconcile the two signal setups.

  I would hope you would have done this (at least get the correct port) before
complaining about AT&T service costing $125.

Randy



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