how to connect a DECprinter I (LA180) ?

[Ethan Dicks]

On Fri, Dec 28, 2007 at 06:59:28PM +0100, Henk Gooijen wrote:
> > Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:44:33 +0000> From: ethan.dicks at usap.gov>

Henk,

Something is wrong with your mail settings - you quoted my message
on a single smashed-up line.

> Thanks Ethan!  That was very informative information!

You are quite wlecome.

> True, that blue BERG header is very common, but I ASSumed that
> the printer had a serial interface, which made me think that it
> *could* resemble the DL11 connector.

The LA-120 (DECwriter/printer III) is serial, as is the LA-36, and
a bunch of other LA-xxx printers.  I think the LA-180 might be
unique in its naming series to be parallel.

> I did not know that the LP11 interface can be used to connect
> the LA180, but that is great news. I know for sure that I have at
> least two LP11 UNIBUS modules (M7258)...

Perfect.

> and I will check my cable
> storage in the attick. I vaguely remember that I have a cable for
> the LP11!

If you don't have a round cable, you can use a pin-1-to-pin-1
40-pin flat cable.  That's what I did for my LPV-11 in 1986.
It was much cheaper to buy meters of bulk cable and two IDC ends
than to get a "real" cable from a DEC reseller.

> One day, I might put the other LP11 interface in my VAX-11/750...!

I seem to recall doing that myself in the late 1980s, under VMS 4.6,
but we also had a "real" line printer we hung off of a DMF-32 DC-37
parallel-out port (sorta like the DKC8AA trick with a PDP-8/a).  I
think we had an LP25 at the end of that cable, or an LP26.  Either
way, it was a DEC-badged Dataproducts printer that I wasn't able
to rescue when the company folded in the early 1990s - too large
and way too worn out (I'd been limping it along for over 4 years
at that point).

...but I think we did have the LA-180 on the VAX as a backup for
when the ribbon feeder or the paper tractors would freak out on our
line printer.  It probably died 3 or 4 times a year, requiring
parts or extended cleaning/tweaking.  We ran box after box of
paper through that thing.

As I said previously, the LA-180 works with PDP-8s, PDP-11s
and VAXen, plus with a single-chip interface (a few inverters),
it's possible to hook that same printer up to a "modern"
machine with a parallel port (Amiga, PC...)

-ethan

-- 
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S     Current South Pole Weather at 28-Dec-2007 at 18:30 Z
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Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov            http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html