Apple ][e and Printer

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Apple ][e and Printer

I inherited an Apple ][e from my Father. It had power supply issues and once I removed the mainboard connector, tested the power supply, and reattached, it started working (corrosion on connectors?). Now working, Yea!

My Father was a prolific writer of his life experiences. All on 5.25 floppies! I'd like to get the stories off the floppies, it looked like the most practical method would be to print them off and scan to pdf files or ocr.

The printer involved is a Transtar 120 daisywheel for which I have no documentation. Knowing the control codes would be a plus.

The ][e has an Epson APL card installed and the funky open wired centronics cable.

However, no printing joy.

Symptoms:

In DOS 3.3 I input PR#2 (also tried 1) in the command prompt and the system never replies. I notice that on an emulator I get a reply.

In AppleWorks it doesn't print. I've tried many different ctrl code configurations [ctrl I) 80N, 0N, 255N. For Epson, Apple, and custom printers.

Finally, I also realized that while assisting with recycling some other old electronics, there was an Epson printer (FX800?) that got recycled. Could this have been the printer I was supposed to use? Even though it was not hooked up to the ][e at the time.

My speculation is that the Epson APL card has an issue since there is no response to the PR# command in DOS 3.3 mode. Your ideas are appreciated!

Randall

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Re: Apple ][e and Printer

If Appleworks permits you to save those files to ASCII format (unsure about this), perhaps you could transfer them over to a PC using ADTPro, then view/copy/paste the transferred files into a Word document or some such. Just tossing an idea around.

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Re: Apple ][e and Printer

Since you (probably rightly) suspect corrosion on the one connector, why not the rest? Get some contact cleaner and get busy on the power, slot(s), and card connectors.

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Re: Apple ][e and Printer

My Father was a prolific writer of his life experiences. All on 5.25 floppies! I'd like to get the stories off the floppies, [...]

As someone who does this - a lot - I can assure you that you don't want to go the printer route. If you are fortunate enough to have a super serial card, akochera's suggestion is a sound one. Once you transfer the disks via ADTPro, then CiderPress or AppleCommander will be able to pick off the individual files and, depending on what word processor was in use - will be able to convert them directly to RTF.

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Re: Apple ][e and Printer

When you press open-apple P to print the file in Appleworks, it doesn't matter which version, and select Beginning to print from the next screen gives you option to either print to a attached printer or print as an Text (ASCII) file. Select Text (ASCII) file and you should be prompted to select what type of text file you want it to be and then the pathname where you want to save it.

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Re: Apple ][e and Printer

mail me a copy of the disks and i will convert them to paper for you, or i can convert the files and put them on dvd.

just include return postage.

lemme know

canadianviper2@gmail.com

apple2forever.ca

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Re: Apple ][e and Printer

If you just acquired a //e and intend on enjoying the computer, I'd suggest learning how to do ADTpro or CFFA3000 all by yourself. The skills and tidbits you'll pickup will be valuable. Not to mention the satisfaction of a job well done! And all us users will be here to answer any questions you might have.

I recall the 1st time I did ADTpro many years ago. And despite the simplicity of the procedure I thought it was just too cool to be able to do this sort of thing. Like a kid in a candy shop I transfered disks for no reason other than to transfer them. Something of a crazed frenzy.

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Re: Apple ][e and Printer

Thank you for your suggestions. Now to find a Super Serial card!

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