Printing to modern printers from a Mac serial printer port

[l10i]

Hello,

Is there a Serial to USB bridge/converter to emulate old printers and print on modern inkjet printers ?
I was thinking something like the ADB-USB Wombat but for serial printer interface. Maybe even Raspberry based if its more involved with PDF conversion etc...

My specifics needs and story : I'm restoring an 1990s art piece involving a Macintosh Color Classic and an HP DeskWriter 500 C. I restored the electronics of the Mac and mechanics of the printer. Everything seems to work fine except the blank pages getting out of the printer. And finding remplacement cartridges (HP51625A) seems complicated as a few ordered don't output ink to the paper in two of the 500 C printers that I know works fine othewise. So I was considering swaaping the guts of the HP DeskWriter for modern internals or even just use a modern inkjet printer in place. This is for the backstory, but the question is : Is there such a serial to USB converter or does this need to be developed and be put out there ?

Cheers,

 

[robin-fo]

You can run Netatalk on a Raspberry Pi and use it as a bridge to share modern printers (connected to the Pi or the local network) over AppleTalk. You can use the normal „LaserWriter“ printer driver on the Mac. Your Mac needs to be connected to the Pi using Ethernet (PiSCSI DaynaPort, LocalTalk to Ethernet bridge or Ethernet expansion card).

 

[Skate323k137]

Epson still makes/made recent dot Matrix printers too. But the netatalk option is awesome and economical.