Creative Solutions: Nubus card Hurdler-CPI IEEE1284/Centronics/Parallel port

[rieSha.]

I got my hands on a Hurdler CPI Nubus card, that’s a “Parallel” port card (like IEEE1284/“Centronics”). Accordings to some docs it has a declaration ROM onboard, fine, so it’s sitting there and waiting for some data.

It came originally with some printer drivers -- but these seem to be lost. Does anyone have a clue where to get these? Macdrivermuseum & Archive.org & Bitsavers don’t have it.

 

[hauke]

I'll have to have a look at home...

FTR, there is a NetBSD driver for the card, authored by yours truly.

 

[hauke]

I found two flyers for the Hurdler CPI card, an older one on bitsavers, and a newer one on archive.org. The older one talks about a printer driver.

But... you have to remember Macintosh printer drivers of the era had the transport driver baked in. I remember my HP DeskWriter came with a serial and a localtalk driver. So there wouldn't have been a general-purpose printer driver for the Hurdler, instead somebody wanting to interface a special printer with the Mac would have shipped a Hurdler card with a printer-specific driver using the onboard Hurdler driver.

In fact, the first Hurdler I found came with a "PicturaTester" utility that claims it will dump a file's data fork to the Hurdler CPI interface as-is, and an INIT that says "Hurdler CPI - FARGO Patcher". ISTR that the card was supposed to work with a thermo transfer printer.

I will see if I can package the two files, and put them up for download.

 

[hauke]

Search for the pdf manual for the Primera Pictura 310s thermo-transfer printer, and you will find a Hurdler reference. The printer driver lets you pick the interface in Chooser (but that is a driver specific feature), and you can then select the Hurdler card if installed.

 

[hauke]

This archive has the "PicturaTester" tool, the "Hurdler ][-CPI"-INIT, and a screenshot of the Nubus declaration ROM data structure.