TI-99/4A Help Please

[t0nyt]

As well as the C64 I'm also trying to get my v4 working with my TI-99/4a using the centronics interface on the PHP1220 PEB expansion card

I'm also getting garbage being generated into PDF's on this, but in this case, I think, it's only when a print job is sent

I was wondering if anyone has it working with this setup and, if so, what your configuration is please?

(In truth this is less of a problem as the TI already has a PI attached running a version of the PD PrinterToPDF, but I'd really like to get it running thru the v4 if possible)

Many thanks

[RWAP]

I assume the expansion card adds a centronics interface.

Add a captured raw file and we can maybe help - it might be that you need it to set bit_depth to 7

[t0nyt]

I assume the expansion card adds a centronics interface.

Add a captured raw file and we can maybe help - it might be that you need it to set bit_depth to 7

Yes, it has 2 x Serial and 1 x Centronics

Changing the bit_depth to 7 kind of helped in that I can see some of my text ("HELLO WORLD") in the raw file (but it's very odd as you'll see near the end of the file)

EDIT: the file is 311kb, so I've had to zip it up

Many thanks

11.txt.zip

(10.35 KiB) Downloaded 11 times

[RWAP]

That txt file does not have HELLO WORLD in it that I could see - could you upload the raw file from the retro-printer rather than a mac version?

Is it sending the text as some sort of image ? All I can see are hundreds of "J" and DEL characters in Notepad++ all on the same line.

Or maybe screenshots?

Actually it looks as though the interface is constantly sending the same character over and over - I can see multiples of O and Ls too.

You may need to change the handshaking and even printer_delay values to find the best ones for that interface

[t0nyt]

That txt file does not have HELLO WORLD in it that I could see - could you upload the raw file from the retro-printer rather than a mac version?

Is it sending the text as some sort of image ? All I can see are hundreds of "J" and DEL characters in Notepad++ all on the same line.

Or maybe screenshots?

Actually it looks as though the interface is constantly sending the same character over and over - I can see multiples of O and Ls too.

You may need to change the handshaking and even printer_delay values to find the best ones for that interface

Will give it a try. The end of the file is “hello”, one “h” then lots of e, then l, then o (or at least that’s how I read it)

Many thanks

[t0nyt]

I tried the handshaking settings without any success so far

I'm going to step back from the TI-99/4a for now (as the TIPI printing to PDF works ok on that) and concentrate on the C64

Will come back to it when I have the C64 hopefully working (and QL Quill header issue resolved)

Am trying to do too much at once!

Many thanks

[t0nyt]

Just to close these off

As the TI-99/4a seems to need the bit_depth set to 7 I'm not going to use it with the Retro-Printer as I have the PrintToPDF option on the TIPI and don't want to have to switch bit_depth when changing the attached machine

(The QL prints programs perfectly and as I won't be using Quill, other than playing around, am not going to bother trying to resolve the Quill footer issue)

Many thanks

[RWAP]

What was the quill issue - cannot see you left details about that.

[t0nyt]

What was the quill issue - cannot see you left details about that.

It was something discussed off list some time ago

Whatever settings I seem to choose (both R-P & Quill Print Driver) the footer always gets pushed to the top of the next page (both in PDF and printer)

What I've also noticed is that the first line in Quill ends up at about line 10, even though header no of lines is 3. If header lines is set to 0 then first line is printed at about line 7 on the PDF/Printer

Am wondering if this could be a cause of the footer getting pushed off the page

But as I say, I was only playing with Quill so not that bothered about the problem as I can turn off the footer to solve the issue

Many thanks

[RWAP]

What was the quill issue - cannot see you left details about that.

It was something discussed off list some time ago

Whatever settings I seem to choose (both R-P & Quill Print Driver) the footer always gets pushed to the top of the next page (both in PDF and printer)

What I've also noticed is that the first line in Quill ends up at about line 10, even though header no of lines is 3. If header lines is set to 0 then first line is printed at about line 7 on the PDF/Printer

Am wondering if this could be a cause of the footer getting pushed off the page

But as I say, I was only playing with Quill so not that bothered about the problem as I can turn off the footer to solve the issue

Many thanks

Two possible reasons:

/root/config/default_margins
Set to NO

/root/config/eps_pins
Set to 9

There is a difference between the Epson 9 pin and 24 pin standard as to what unit they use to calculate page sizes.