My index embosser doesn't have a usb interface either, just a parallel and a
serial port and the serial port is a 9-hole female connecter.
My LaserJet 1010 Series printer won't work because it requires software
drivers and it has a usb interface.
So I can't emboss or print with my MPower. I use my PC for both.
P.S. I even tried one of those infrared to parallel connectors from
Enabling Technologies and it worked occasionally until Keysoft 7.0--then it
wouldn't work at all.
This is where the competition has it better than HumanWare.
And Maurice's posts about continuing support for the BN don't reassure me
whatsoever.
Terri Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA.
----- Original Message -----
From: "don cooper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Contribute Braillenote" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 1:18 AM
Subject: [Braillenote] Index embossers and printers.
Dear Richard, Oh dear! you certainly have a problem with your printer and
Index embosser. I had to confront this a year or so ago and now thank
goodness, everything is working very well. Now there are several Index
embossers, all with slightly different specifications. My model, though
it possessed both a serial and parallel input, has no usb input. I run 2
Hulitt Packard printers, one an inkjet, the other a lazerjet; I also
drive, at times, a Mountbatten Brailler as a single-sheet embosser, and of
course the Index. Now, one printer has a parallel and usb port, the other
has a parallel and serial, but no usb; the mountbatten has no usb either.
Thus, the only thing they all have in common is that they all have a
parallel port available. The Mpower, on the other hand, has now no
parallel output.
I am not a great lover of continually having to plug and unplug leads,
thus I procured a four-way switchbox, and also a two-way switchbox. I
also bought a serial to parallel converter. I already had one of these
devices left over from my Eureka days; by now this converter probably is
not up to current demands, but it continues to serve me well; I believe
they are still available via Techno-vision systems. So, the circuitry is
as follows: I have connected the serial output of the Mpower directly to
the centre socket on the four-way box. Number 1 on this box carries a
lead to the serial-parallel converter I have purchased. The output of
this converter goes to the centre socket on the two-way box. Sockets 1
and 2 on this two-way box connect directly to the parallel inputs on my
two printers. Thus, with the switch set to number 1 on the four-way box,
the serial output of the Mpower is directed via the two-way box into
whichever of the two printers this second box is connected. In other
words: number 1 on the main box gives me printing.
Now, to number 2 on the main box, I connected my old series-parallel
converter which feeds directly into the Index embosser. For some reason I
couldn't get the converter which drives the modern printers to also drive
the embosser; thus my resorting to the probably now obsolete, though still
available, Eureka converter. So, when I switch to number 2 on the main
box, the serial output of the Mpower is connected, via the Eureka
converter, to the parallel input of my Index embosser.
The Mountbatten Brailler needed no converter, so I merely took a lead from
number 3 on the four-way box, directly to the serial input of the
Mountbatten.
Number 4 on the main box is not, as yet, being used.
Thus, number 1 connects me to my printers, the choice of which is done
from the two-way box. Number 2 on the main box connects the Index
embosser, while number 3, feeds the signal directly to the Mountbatten.
Ostenstibly, the Mpower is feeding a serial system and thus one has to
set the parameters accordingly. I am using a baudrate of 9600, software
handshaking, parity none, 1 stopbit; that seems to do the trick.
So, to sum up, I have not used the usb as my equipment is not all
designed for it, but have, in essence, turned them all into serial units
by the insertion of the necessary converters.
I do hope this will prove useful. All good wishes from Don Cooper.
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