Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    If the 25-to-36 pin cable is suitable for an IBM PC then it will work
    for the Amiga 3000, 2000 and 500, but you'll need an adapter for the
    Amiga 1000.  You will also need a printer driver for it, unless a
    driver for the Tek 4696 is already being distributed or this device
    is compatible with some other device which already has a printer driver.
        John Sauter

    The 25-to-36 pin cable is suitable for a PC. I expect I would be able
    to buy one of these cables from a 3rd-party vendor which would work out
    cheaper. I would hate to buy the cable and find the printer still
    did'nt work. Where could I find out if there is a printer driver for
    this type of printer ??
    

    I've just had a look through the conference at all the Printer driver
    related notes and noticed a few pointers to the PRTDRVGEN program on
    Fish disk # 90. Has anyone had any sucess creating their own driver
    using this program ???
    

As you can probably tell from the Fish disk number, it was a LONG time ago.
This was most useful when 1.2 was the AmigaDOS version number, and the 1.3
improvements to the drivers and printer.device were only a gleam in their
developer's eye. It WAS usefule at the time, but I have no idea whether or
if it could be used even for generating 1.3-style drivers, let alone 2.04.
I believe that ther may be "tutorial" style uploads on BIX et al done by
CBM employees (CATS) which hold sample printer drivers for the appropriate
AmigaDOS version. I know that I have seen a 1.3-based version, not sure if
there's been anything for 2.04 yet. If you want, I will look to see what is
available.

Sorry I can't be more positive about PRTDRVGEN as it applies to later OS
versions; it did the trick for me a long time ago (even before Fish #90!).

On a side note, there was an archive of printer drivers on local BBS's done
by some European guy, which was quite extensive in terms of the printers
supported, who also claimed to be willing to generate a custom driver if
someone wanted to send him specs. I KNOW I have this squirreled (sp?) away
someplace, so if you want this, let me know. This WAS for 1.3, NOT 2.04.

    Thank's for the reply.
    
    I would really appreciate if you could find the info about the printer
    drivers, I'm running 1.3 so this would probably do the trick.
    
    I bought a 35-25 pin cable today for �7.00 (cheaper than I expected)
    and will hopefully give the printer a try over the weekend.
    
    						Cheers,
    							George.
    
    

    I've been reading some earlier notes about connecting 36 pin centronics
    printer to the 25 pin amiga and there are some slight differences I'm a
    bit worried about. Here is the pinout of the printer....
    
    Tektronic 4696
    
    Pin		Function
    1		Strobe (in)
    2		data 0 (in)
    3		data 1  "
    4           data 2  "
    5           data 3  "
    6           data 4  "
    7           data 5  "
    8           data 6  "
    9		data 7  "
    10		Acknowledge (out)
    11		Busy (out)
    12		PE - paper/ink empty (out)
    13		Line select (out)
    14		Gnd
    15		not connected
    16		Gnd
    17		Chassis gnd
    18		+ 5v (out)
    19		Gnd
    20          Gnd
    21          Gnd
    22          Gnd
    23          Gnd
    24          Gnd
    25          Gnd
    26          Gnd
    27          Gnd
    28          Gnd
    29          Gnd
    30		Gnd
    31		Input prime (in)
    32		Fault (out)
    33		Not connnected
    34          Not connected
    35          Not connected
    36		Not connected
    
    
    The one I'm worried about is pin 14 on the Amiga which is +5v power as 
    pin 14 on the printer is Gnd. There is no way I'm going to connect this 
    up but I'm wondering where this output should go.
    
    Any further help would be appreciated and make a man happy at 
    christmas  :-))
    
    
    
    

    The +5 is there for other devices. It doesn't need to be connected to
    the printer at all. What I did was to get a short ribbon cable with
    db25 on each end (male -> female) and cut off pin 14 on the male
    connector. Seems to work fine on my Citizen GSX-140 (I think an
    unmodified cable would work on my printer as 14 is NC - No connection
    in the book).
    
    John

    What about the +5V which comes from Pin 18 on the printer ??

    I had a read through my 1.3 Extras manual last night and made an
    interesting discovery.
    
    The following is straight from the manual....
    
    "Also included in this manual is information on the Tektronix 4693D and
    the 4696 printer drivers. While these drivers are not included on the
    disk, they are compatable with the Amiga and are available from the
    manufacturer or in the listings topic of the Amiga Developers
    (amiga.dev) Conference on BIX, Byte's Electronic Information Exchange."
    
    It then goes on to describe the options available for the 4696 printer
    plus the switch setting's, etc.
    
    I tried my local Tektronix office and they did'nt know anything about
    connecting this printer to an Amiga. In fact at one point the person I
    spoke to said I should contact AMIGA !! I felt like saying speech
    recognition devices were not available at the moment but I resisted the
    temptaion. I have the number for the British Head-office and will try
    them later.
    
    In the meantime I was wondering if anyone had any information about
    BIX. Possibly someone who is subscribed and could have a look for this
    driver for me.
    
    
    						George
    

    I got a Tektronix 4696 printer driver on FF096.
    

Hope it all worked.

RE: preceeding discussion. Forget PRTDRVGEN (V2.2b FISH 90, V2.3 AMICUS 23).
I have never seen a WB1.3>> equivalent. If anyone finds one or something
similar, please let me know. 

It only works for WB V1.2.  BTW, I use an ICONX-run script file to
switch the print handler from V1.3 to 1.2 before using a 1.2 driver.
However, its deadly slow.

Regards.