Hello list,
I was curious if anybody has dabbled in controlling a printer through pd. I'm waiting for a cheap one to arrive at the local second-hand store, so while I wait to attempt it myself I thought I'd ask the list. Specifically, I seek to control the location of the printer needle(?) that moves horizontally. I figured I could attach a slide to it and run a guitar string under it for some techno-slide music.
Any input appreciated, Tyler
Well there are many kinds of printer, so the answer is 'maybe'. For me the best are the old dot-matrix with the serial connection. If you have that you can program the head to go wherever you like. Otherwise I just rip them open and keep only the rail mechanism and the stepper motor that drives the head along the rails. I use an arduino or something similar to control the stepper.
Martin
On 31/08/11 04:28 PM, Tyler Leavitt wrote:
Hello list,
I was curious if anybody has dabbled in controlling a printer through pd. I'm waiting for a cheap one to arrive at the local second-hand store, so while I wait to attempt it myself I thought I'd ask the list. Specifically, I seek to control the location of the printer needle(?) that moves horizontally. I figured I could attach a slide to it and run a guitar string under it for some techno-slide music.
Any input appreciated, Tyler
Pd-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Martin wrote:
For me the best are the old dot-matrix with the serial connection.
I've never seen an old dot-matrix with a serial connection.
For use with the Color Computer, I had a DIN4 serial port (RS232) connected to a box that would reframe the data in 8-bit packets. The box was connected to the printer directly by a Centronics36 cable. That was something made by hand, by the owner of a small computer shop in the 80's. Otherwise, I was limited to printers that supported DIN4, which were a 4-pen plotter and a 75-dpi CMYK inkjet (!!!).
When I connected dot-matrix printers to PC computers, it was using a DB25-to-Centronics36 cable, which was the normal way to do so.
I'm sure that there were RS232 dot matrix printers at one point, but they were not common.
| Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC
On 2011-08-31 17:56, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Martin wrote:
For me the best are the old dot-matrix with the serial connection.
I've never seen an old dot-matrix with a serial connection.
For use with the Color Computer, I had a DIN4 serial port (RS232) connected to a box that would reframe the data in 8-bit packets. The box was connected to the printer directly by a Centronics36 cable. That was something made by hand, by the owner of a small computer shop in the 80's. Otherwise, I was limited to printers that supported DIN4, which were a 4-pen plotter and a 75-dpi CMYK inkjet (!!!).
When I connected dot-matrix printers to PC computers, it was using a DB25-to-Centronics36 cable, which was the normal way to do so.
I'm sure that there were RS232 dot matrix printers at one point, but they were not common.
Yes I started out with a knockoff Apple][ and later I found an Apple printer with a serial (RS422) connection. After that I somehow acquired a Samsung dot-matrix which had the serial port feature. Then it was a question of finding the manuals where the graphics protocol was described and ultimately I could use both as plotters. I still have some of the printouts but the machines are all long gone. Nowadays USB printers seem to be in every trash pile, a good source for motors, optical sensors and 24V power supplies.
Martin
Am 01.09.2011 um 00:54 schrieb Martin Peach:
Yes I started out with a knockoff Apple][ and later I found an Apple
printer with a serial (RS422) connection. After that I somehow
acquired a Samsung dot-matrix which had the serial port feature.
Then it was a question of finding the manuals where the graphics
protocol was described and ultimately I could use both as plotters.
I still have some of the printouts but the machines are all long gone.
I used Max on a old mac with serial ports to drive a imagewriter and a
NEC 24 pin printer. Though studying the manuals I never managed to
freely move the head around - it would only do something after
carriage return. I did intend to write characters, so maybe I didn't
discover graphics protocol. The NEC had a parallel port and worked
fine with a parallel to serial adapter I got cheap on ebay.
You might want to look for a pen plotter, too. HPGL is simple to do
and you can move around with great precision, control speed, and with
some you even have 2 axis. Plus "PD" is the pen down command ;) Common
models that don't crowd your space to much are HP 7574a and Roland dxy*
cheers, g.
How about this? http://www.amazon.com/Type-Male-Centronics-CN36-Printer/dp/B000I996M6
On Aug 31, 2011, at 5:56 PM, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Martin wrote:
For me the best are the old dot-matrix with the serial connection.
I've never seen an old dot-matrix with a serial connection.
For use with the Color Computer, I had a DIN4 serial port (RS232) connected to a box that would reframe the data in 8-bit packets. The box was connected to the printer directly by a Centronics36 cable. That was something made by hand, by the owner of a small computer shop in the 80's. Otherwise, I was limited to printers that supported DIN4, which were a 4-pen plotter and a 75-dpi CMYK inkjet (!!!).
When I connected dot-matrix printers to PC computers, it was using a DB25-to-Centronics36 cable, which was the normal way to do so.
I'm sure that there were RS232 dot matrix printers at one point, but they were not common.
| Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC
Dan Wilcox danomatika.com robotcowboy.com
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Dan Wilcox wrote:
How about this? http://www.amazon.com/Type-Male-Centronics-CN36-Printer/dp/B000I996M6
What does it appear as in the computer ?
I bet that you can't use [comport] with that... you'll need [parallel_port] (or [parapin])... if you have the driver for LPT-over-USB.
| Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Tyler Leavitt wrote:
I was curious if anybody has dabbled in controlling a printer through pd. I'm waiting for a cheap one to arrive at the local second-hand store, so while I wait to attempt it myself I thought I'd ask the list.
If using a Parallel Port (LPT) interface on Linux, there's [parallelport] in GridFlow.
But I only used it for plugging buttons and LEDs directly into the port.
| Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Tyler Leavitt wrote:
I was curious if anybody has dabbled in controlling a printer through pd. I'm waiting for a cheap one to arrive at the local second-hand store, so while I wait to attempt it myself I thought I'd ask the list.
If using a Parallel Port (LPT) interface on Linux, there's [parallelport] in GridFlow.
But I only used it for plugging buttons and LEDs directly into the port.
It's actually named [parallel_port] and the argument is mandatory and opens the device immediately or else you get the red dashes.
The help file screenshot is http://gridflow.ca/help/parallel_port-help.html
| Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC
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On 2011-08-31 23:04, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Tyler Leavitt wrote:
I was curious if anybody has dabbled in controlling a printer through pd. I'm waiting for a cheap one to arrive at the local second-hand store, so while I wait to attempt it myself I thought I'd ask the list.
If using a Parallel Port (LPT) interface on Linux, there's
if using parallel port (LPT) on linux or windows, you could try zexy's [lpt].
fgmadf IOhannes
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Dan Wilcox -
Georg Bosch -
IOhannes m zmoelnig -
Martin -
Martin Peach
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Mathieu Bouchard -
Tyler Leavitt