RE: Printing to an ASCII printer, HP 2235

[pault@xxxxxxxxx (Paul Tykodi)]

Marc Zylka wrote:

I've been trying to print to an HP 2235 (an old printer) but I haven't had
much luck. I can send it a text string and it'll print but I've also been
trying to send Escape sequence to change the printer settings.
This hasn't worked, yet.  Here is the current setup:
* printer is hooked up to the serial port of an HP Jetdirect
* I've created an output on the AS/400 to be used over TCP/IP.  I forget what I 
used as a manufacturer's model, I think HP500.
* I've created a printer file defined as *USERASCII
* My program does the following:
* for each escape sequence, I've output X'1B' + the codes on 1 or more lines.
* Printer only prints one line with mostly @ signs.

Anyone have any ideas on what else I need to do?
As I mentioned earlier, I can print straight text with Escape codes.
TIA,
Marc Zylka (mzylka@netpath.net)

Dear Marc,

The AS/400 supports a feature called ASCII transparency. It is the foundation 
which the Host Print Transform facility was built upon. The SCS code 03 
followed by a count byte invokes the feature. 

As an example, if you wanted to send the HP PCL laser printer language command 
for portrait orientation, you could code the values 03 05 1B 26 6C 30 4F into 
your application. The values must be coded using the hex insert capability (ie 
display session operating in hex mode, not in text mode) of AS/400 programming 
languages like RPG. The command prefix 03 05 tells the AS/400 operating system 
that the following 5 bytes are ASCII binary data which is not viewable on a 
5250 terminal. When you return to text mode, you will not be able to view the 5 
bytes of data that you just entered on your screen as characters.

The ASCII Transparency feature will allow you to pass the control codes in your 
program to the TCP/IP attached printer.

Also, you might need to change the printer file back to *SCS from *USERASCII. 
The AS/400 has the intelligence to know that TCP/IP attached printers using 
LPD/LPR need EBCDIC to ASCII conversion of data being sent to them. The Host 
Print Transform feature accommodates this requirement and the ASCII 
Transparency feature works well in this condition. I'm not sure how OS/400 
handles data transfer to TCP/IP printers when the print file is specified as 
*USERASCII.

HTH,

/Paul
--
Paul Tykodi, Technical Director                 E-mail: pault@praim.com
Praim Inc.                                           Tel: 603-431-0606
140 Congress St., #2                                Fax: 603-436-6432
Portsmouth, NH  03801-4019


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