Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!ajai
From: ajai@sce.carleton.ca (Ajai Sehgal)
Subject: Re: DEC LA50 compatibility question
Message-ID: <ajai.659724059@rigel.sce.carleton.ca>
Sender: news@ccs.carleton.ca (news)
Organization: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
References: <1905@raybed2.msd.ray.com>
Date: 27 Nov 90 16:40:59 GMT

mwm@raybed2.msd.ray.com (mwm) writes:


>   Hope someone can help me.  I have a Digital LA50 dot matrix printer
>that I'd like to hook up to my PC.  As you may surmise, its not widely
>supported.  My question is, how can I make this printer emulate something
>common like an Epson printer.

>   Unfortunately, I have no documentation for it so if someone could tell
>me what the microswitch settings should be, I would be forever grateful.

>   Also, the top row of the printhead appears to be dead (it's not the ribbon
>alignment), any ideas on how to diagnose/clean/fix it?


>   Thanks in advance,
>   Mark

Unfortunatly I think you are SOOL (Sh** out of luck). The LA50 is so non
standard that the only thing it can emulate is itself. There are WP50
drivers for it but WordPerfect is one of the few packages that supports it.
I once tried to write a simple TSR that would map Epson FX-80 codes to the
LA50 but the LA50 is so convoluted that I couldn't get satisfactory results.
(and I do have the documentation, or did have, I ditched the LA50). The best
you could do is get DEC to trade up for an LA75, if you have a good working
relationship with them (ie you're a big customer) they're usually good about
swapping. The best you can hope for with the LA50 is a strait ASCII dump,
ie printing of text files.

Ajai

