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AG-2
Assembly Guide
750 Naples Street • San Francisco, CA 94112 • (415) 584-6360 • http://www.pumpkininc.com
Printing to a Mac-only HP
® ®
DeskWriter from a Windows
®
PC
Introduction
Got a "Mac-only" HP DeskWriter inkjet printer gathering dust?
Want to connect it to a PC and print to it from Windows? Then this
Application Guide is for you!
®
Hewlett-Packard made two very similar series of desktop inkjet
®
printers the DeskJet series for Windows / PCs, and the
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Assembly Guide though-style cable. The pinout can be found by opening the PICT resources of the Apple Modem Tool with ResEdit: Figure 1: Modem Cable Pinout (from Apple). Differs from Serial Printer Cable Pinout. Figure 1 shows the pinout of commercially available cables like ® the Belkin F2V088-06 "6FT MAC MODEM DIN8M/DB25M" cable, described as "This modem cable interfaces the Mac+/SE/IIGS and Mac series II computers to all Apple peripherals with 8 pin mini din serial ports." M
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Assembly Guide DB-9 connector and hood, available at many electronics stores for a combined cost of around $10. Figure 2: Pinout for mini-DIN-8-to-DB-9 Serial Printer Cable You can connect the cable shown in Figure 2 directly between a PC's serial/COM port's DB-9 connector and a DeskWriter's mini- DIN-8 connector. If you have an older PC with DB-25 connectors on one or more of its serial/COM ports, you'll need to make the cable shown in 2 Figure 3: Figure 3: Pinout for mini-D
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Assembly Guide More Advice on Cabling Assuming you already have a Mac modem cable (DB-25-to-mini- DIN-8), what you need is also a null-modem cable "inline" on your way to connecting the printer to your PC. Then, you need gender changers because nearly all null-modem cables these days have female DB-9s on each end. There are also some molded DB-25-to-DB-9 adapters out there but you will need one with the right sexes (DB-25 female, DB-9 male). Table 1 (male = pin, female = so
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Assembly Guide 4.00, using hpdskjtb.drv, will provide color and B&W output to the DeskWriter 660C, allows supports serial printing, but the color output is of very poor quality and the driver properties are very limited. Later versions of this driver (e.g. v9.02 and v11.0), available at HP's web site http://www.hp.com/, do not support printing to the serial port. Unfortunately, "tricks" like redirecting printer port output to the serial port via the DOS mode LPTn=COMn redirection com
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Assembly Guide Figure 5: DeskJet 640C Printer Driver Installed Now change the printer's Port selection to be the appropriate COM port on your PC by selecting the printer in Start → Settings → Printers, right-clicking, and selecting Properties → Details → Print to the following port: Figure 6: Printer Properties Screen Note For the DeskJet 640C Series printer driver, the driver name that appears on the Windows 98 test page is hpf9xdr0.drv. AG-2 Printing to a Mac-only HP DeskWrit
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Assembly Guide Serial Port Settings The DeskWriter series communicates at 57,600 baud and with 6 hardware handshaking. Therefore the serial communications (COM) port used on the PC must be configured appropriately. After the printer has been installed, you'll need to change Bits per second to 57600 and Flow control to Hardware under Properties → Details → Port Settings (Windows 98) for the selected printer (HP DeskWriter 660C): Figure 7: Serial Port Settings Presto! You should
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Assembly Guide Under Start → Printers and Faxes, chose Add a printer to launch the Add Printer Wizard: Figure 8: Add Printer Wizard Click on Next. Select Local printer attached to this computer: Figure 9: Selecting a Local Printer Click on Next. Under Use the following port: select COM1 or the serial port you'll be using: AG-2 Printing to a Mac-only HP DeskWriter® from a Windows® PC® 8
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Assembly Guide Figure 10: Choosing the Serial Port Click on Next. Under Manufacturer select HP and under Printers select HP DeskJet 640C/642C/648C: Figure 11: Selecting the Printer Driver Click on Next. Give the printer a descriptive name, e.g. HP DeskWriter 660C: AG-2 Printing to a Mac-only HP DeskWriter® from a Windows® PC® 9
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Assembly Guide Figure 12: Naming the Printer Click on Next. Decide whether you'll be sharing your printer across a network, and make the appropriate selection: Figure 13: Choosing to Share the Printer Click on Next. Since the printer's serial port has not yet been configured, choose No under Do you want to print a test page? AG-2 Printing to a Mac-only HP DeskWriter® from a Windows® PC® 10
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Assembly Guide Figure 14: Avoiding the Test Page for Now Click on Next. The Add Printer Wizard will display a summary page: Figure 15: Add Printer Wizard Summary Page Click on Finish to complete the driver installation. When done, select Start → Printers and Faxes to verify that the printer is now available: AG-2 Printing to a Mac-only HP DeskWriter® from a Windows® PC® 11
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Assembly Guide Figure 16: Printer after Successful Installation Serial Port Settings The DeskWriter series communicates at 57,600 baud and with hardware handshaking. Therefore the serial communications (COM) port used on the PC must be configured appropriately. In the Printers and Faxes window, right-click on the printer's icon, select Properties, then Ports: Figure 17: Configuring the Serial Port Click on Configure Port
. Change Bits per second to 57600 and Flow control to H
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Assembly Guide Figure 18: Avoiding the Test Page for Now Click on OK. The printer is now configured for use. Troubleshooting Choosing the right HP driver can be difficult. It's a hit-or-miss affair to identify which HP DeskJet driver(s) will work when printing to a serial port. You may have to install several different printer DeskJet drivers before finding one that works with your DeskWriter. Note Multiple drivers (e.g. HP DeskJet 640C Series and HP DeskJet 660 (Color) can of
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Assembly Guide Printing Test Pages In Windows XP, you may receive an error message when printing a test page to your DeskWriter, even when the page has printed successfully. As long as your printer is working properly, you can safely ignore this message. Other Operating Systems ® You can print from Linux to your DeskWriter using the cable detailed above. You'll need the right driver, of course. Because the DOS mode command does not explicitly support 57,600bps and hardware handsh
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Assembly Guide "Thanks for explaining the cable connections in more detail. I was able to track down all the cables and get the printer going. It feels great to be reusing something old, rather than just sending it to a landfill when it is in perfect working order. It's 1am here and I've just printed a flat mate's acting contract, luckily my DeskWriter was going – it did a fine job." J. S. 1 "NC" means not connected.
