Mac Plus 6.0.8 and Imagewriter II

[SBL]

I have a Mac Plus with 4 MB RAM running 6.0.8. I just got an Imagewriter II, which works when I use the test procedure. I noticed that the standalone driver in Printer Tools 6.0.8 is called Imagewriter (not Imagewriter II), which made me worry that my printer would not work with that driver.

And indeed it does not. Serial cable is plugged into printer port, Chooser selected the Imagewriter and the printer port,  AppleTalk off. No response from multiple programs, with messages saying that it cannot find the printer and check the Select button. Also does not work on the modem port.

Could it be that I need an Imagewriter II driver? Or is the computer and System not compatible with the II?  I used to have a Plus back in the day, but have forgotten certain things. 

steve

 

[LaPorta]

Hello Steve, and welcome!

The issue could be either the Mac, cable, or Imagewriter. I'd change the cable first to rule that out. The ImageWriter extension of that later variety drives both Imagewriter I and II models, so that is not an issue. Also, make sure that the "Select" light is on on the ImageWriter II, and, if not, press the button next to it to lite it up. It will not print unless this is on.

 

[SBL]

The cable is new from that eBay supplier, so I am going to assume that it is good. Select light on. Maybe the DIP switches are incorrect. Mine are 00000100  and 1101 according to the test print output. Can you confirm that these are the correct settings?

I still suspect the driver, but reinstalled it from another set of disks and still no printing, so I guess that is not it. So, upgrading to System 7 will not help then, I assume.

 

[cheesestraws]

bit 4 of SW2 is "enable option card" according to http://www2.nefec.org/UPM/printers/mapiw2.htm.  Has it got an AppleTalk card in it or something?

 

[NJRoadfan]

The ImageWriter II is 100% backwards compatible with standard ImageWriter drivers. The only limitation is that you can't print in color.

 

[SBL]

I assumed that it did not have a card, so I set that bit 4 accordingly. And, IT PRINTS. Than you cheesestraws. There is some misinformation on the web about the position of the dip switches for sure.

Now on to the light printing on the right hand side of the page. May need a shim removal.

Also, I see that it goes to a new page after it prints what you have typed, such as in TeachText, with just one line of text. My preference would be that it just do a line feed but not advance to the next page, as a line or two of data will be coming out periodically and I want to keep it on the same page. Any ideas on that?

steve

 

[cheesestraws]

Yesss! Progress!

Whether to send a form feed or not is, as far as I remember, under the control of the application doing the sending of data.  So if you have an application sending one or two lines at once, it ought not arbitrarily form feed.