USB printing on MSX !

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By cr7

Supporter (7)

cr7's picture

20-01-2021, 19:33

Hello, MSX-lovers everywhere !

I am trying to be able to print BASIC listings from my Canon V-20 and I considered these ways :

1) a specific MSX printer ? They are hard to find, as is ink for them => let's try something else !

2) an old parrallel-port PC printer (losing the ability to print "special" MSX character but just fine for ASCII characters) ?
I tried with a HP DeskJet printer + a 14-pins to 36-pins parrallel cable.
But it failed because the most recent ink cartridges made for it, that I bought still new (with an "install before 2010" mention on the package) didn't work anymore upon installation (with a front part of them litterally crumbling when removing the sticky ribbon covering it) => let's try something else !

3) I found a few models of modern printers with serial or parrallel port in addition to their USB port, but all of them are too expensive for me (prices such as 500 $, while I aim for 50 !) => let's try something else !

4) my best hope seems to be to find a way to plug into my MSX a modern, basic, cheap USB printer.
But there exist no converter from 14-pins parrallel to USB, and the basic EPSON XP-215 printer I intend to give a try with has a "type B" USB port.
I am not sure whether I can chain my "14-pins to 36-pins parrallel cable" to a "36-pins parrallel to type A USB cable", and then to a "type A to type B USB converter", which would be rather cumbersome, and maybe expensive.
Moreover, I have read that printers without any built-in "emulation" (such as PostScript or PCL ; and it seems that the EPSON printer I mentioned has none of them) are what is called "GDI printers", unable to print by themselves if not backed by Windows (or specific drivers ...).

So, without resorting to a modern computer or an emulator, in a real MSX-only setup in our modern era, how do you guys print without it being incredibly complex or very expensive ?
If any "best practice" in the MSX community exists (I looked for it, but without any success), I would be glad to learn it !

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By hamlet

Scribe (4113)

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20-01-2021, 19:51

Innit the wrong way 'round, PingPong?

By roadfighter

Champion (467)

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20-01-2021, 20:18

IF you are looking for a print option take a look at this www.retroprinter.com
cheers,
Emil

By ToriHino

Paladin (959)

ToriHino's picture

20-01-2021, 20:23

Maybe this project might be a good start.

By Manuel

Ascended (19817)

Manuel's picture

20-01-2021, 21:32

You can easily get an MSX printer that still works, with ink ribbons Smile I have several doubles laying around...

By ray2day

Paladin (762)

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20-01-2021, 22:46

Is a kind of 'hybrid' way maybe a solution for you?
Anyhow this is my way;
- I save the file (.BAS) in MSX-BASIC as ASCII-file (.ASC) -> SAVE "FILENAME.ASC",A
- I put the file on SD-card and open it with a plain texteditor (on my Mac)
- And from there print it

By Danjovic

Champion (355)

Danjovic's picture

21-01-2021, 02:19

You canpPrint using RS232 on the joystick port of MSX computers (link)

Link to video

By ray2day

Paladin (762)

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21-01-2021, 17:35

wow! cool! Cool

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6129)

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21-01-2021, 18:26

By st1mpy

Paladin (956)

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22-01-2021, 02:28

Does that work for msx?
I don't know about various printer formats/protocols but apparently msx supports nec pc-pr201 printer format.
So someone just need to emulate that, but first find information on how that works.
If its for just printing text from basic, it should be simpler to just decode whats being output through the port.

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