Printer From CP/M?

Discuss construction, troubleshooting, and operation of the Altair 8800c computer
Post Reply
toml_12953
Posts: 305
Joined: June 7th, 2013, 12:54 pm
Contact:

Printer From CP/M?

Post by toml_12953 »

I have the high-density version of CP/M for the Altair 8800c and a C700 Centronics printer interface. The interface works fine with Altair BASIC. Is there a way to print from CP/M? I tried sending the output to PRN but nothing happens. Is there a way to associate PRN with the Centronics interface? If so, how?

TIA
Tom L
AltairClone
Site Admin
Posts: 677
Joined: April 5th, 2013, 10:55 am
Contact:

Re: Printer From CP/M?

Post by AltairClone »

The BIOS does not have support for the Centronics printer interface. Here are the IOBYTE options for the LST: device:

; 00 - TTY on SIO at I/O address 0
; 01 - CRT on 2SIO port 1
; 10 - LPT on LPC board
; 11 - UL1 on 2SIO port 2
toml_12953
Posts: 305
Joined: June 7th, 2013, 12:54 pm
Contact:

Re: Printer From CP/M?

Post by toml_12953 »

AltairClone wrote:The BIOS does not have support for the Centronics printer interface. Here are the IOBYTE options for the LST: device:

; 00 - TTY on SIO at I/O address 0
; 01 - CRT on 2SIO port 1
; 10 - LPT on LPC board
; 11 - UL1 on 2SIO port 2
Thanks for the reply. My terminology sucks! I have an LPC board, not the C700. I'll try option 10. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll try an RS-232 to Centronics converter such as this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-Conver ... B0064D16GE
AltairClone
Site Admin
Posts: 677
Joined: April 5th, 2013, 10:55 am
Contact:

Re: Printer From CP/M?

Post by AltairClone »

You can set the LST: device to LPT: as follows:

A>STAT LST:=LPT:
A>

This will remain in effect until the next cold boot.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 2 guests