Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!caesar.cs.montana.edu!milton!blake!ramsiri
From: ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Epson LQ800 driver for Mac
Keywords: THat works with GCR
Message-ID: <5680@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 90 17:01:15 GMT
References: <5532@blake.acs.washington.edu> <772@winnie.fit.edu> <5163@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Reply-To: ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 56

In article <5163@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> kassover@control.crd.ge.com (David Kassover) writes:
>I am attempting to attach an Epson LQ1500 printer to a Mac Plus.
>My particular printer has a SERIAL interface board, which means
>Grapplers are useless, since the output end of same are all
>Centronics.
>

True.. grappler uses roms inside the cable/box.. and it
must be hooked up to mac type ports etc...

besides.. grappler is $200!

Anyway... i ended up buying the Epson LQ Software pack 
from the local store.... $60... though others have seen
it for $45....  it comes with a cable.. i left that in the
box.. kept my LQ800 hooked to the parallel port...
i flipped a few dip switches... and installed the driver...
i didn't follow the directions in the manual as they 
involved about 135 swaps of the floppy.... actually, i 
DID follow the instructions the first time... but because
the installer didn't recognize my drive.. it defaulted to 
trying to set up the boot disk on a floppy.. with only
ONE Disk Drive... this meant lots of swaps just for the
damn System to do its job... after 135 swaps.. it 
didn't create a proper disk.. so i decided to copy the
files ONTO my drive FIRST, then install the drive there...

The driver comes with System 6.0.2 .. it reported that
my System 6.0.3 wasn't desireable...  so i had to do the
usual..  boot off a floppy etc..  create a new system 
folder in a different partition (fortunately i have several
partitions) and install the Espon driver in the new folder
with 6.0.2 (which doesn't work with sound/GCR by the way)..
(as far as i can tell). The software installed in less than
a minute this way.... I then added to this new system folder
all the stuff i had in my original system 6.0.3 folder...
I don't know exactly the differences between 6.0.2 and 6.0.3,
except that David told me sound doesn't/might-not (?) work
with 6.0.2/GCR... i had sound working with 6.0.3 ...  
Anyway, i spent 3 hours trying to make contacts with Espon
in california and with 3 local epson dealers... no one 
had any comments to make regarding the driver working with
6.0.3 .. as a matter of fact.. most people i talked with
didn't know the product they were selling....  

I understand this is rather typical with Epson.. trying to 
get support is pulling teeth...

Otherwise.. i have had an easy time printing from 
WriteNow, Hypercard and from Canvas - an incredible object oriented
slash paint program...  that keeps my wife between me and my
ol' ST....

-kevin