notes.md

Notes

Stuff that needs to be cleaned up...

Conversion TDS 420A - Encapsulated PostScript

• TDS 420A EPS-Color: [shift-hardcopy]

  • Capture

    (stty -echo raw; cat > screenshot.eps) < /dev/ttyACM0

  • Settings

    • Format: EPS Color
    • Layout: Portrait (Yes! NOT landscape!)
    • Port: Centronics

  • Conversion:

    inkscape -f ./screenshot.eps -w 1280 -y=255 -e screenshot.png

    If rotated because landscape was selected:

    inkscape -f ./screenshot.eps -h 1280 -y=255 -e - | convert - -rotate 90 screenshot.png

• TDS 420A EPS Mono Image: [shift-hardcopy]

  • Capture

    (stty -echo raw; cat > screenshot.eps) < /dev/ttyACM0

  • Settings

    • Format: EPS Mono Image
    • Layout: Portrait
    • Port: Centronics

  • Conversion

    inkscape -f ./screenshot.eps -w 1280 -y=255 -e screenshot.png

• Conversion TDS 420A - Epson

  • Capture

    (stty -echo raw; cat > screenshot.epson) < /dev/ttyACM0

  • Settings:

    • Format: Epson - 9 & 24 pin dot matrix printer
    • Layout: Landscape
    • Port: Centronics

  • Typical capture file size: ~39KB

  • Conversion

    /opt/printerToPDF/bin/printerToPDF -o output -f /opt/printerToPDF/lib/PrinterToPDF/font2/Epson-Standard.C16 screenshot.epson

Advantest PCL to PDF

• Ghostscript

  ~/tools/ghostpcl-10.0.0-linux-x86_64/gpcl6-1000-linux-x86_64 -dNOPAUSE -sOutputFile=test.png -sDEVICE=png256 -g2000x1500 -r300x300 sa_pcl_s_color_s_a.pcl

  Best result so far:

  ~/tools/ghostpcl-10.0.0-linux-x86_64/gpcl6-1000-linux-x86_64 -dNOPAUSE -sOutputFile=test.png -sDEVICE=png256 -g8000x8000 -r600x600 sa_pcl_s_color_s_a.pcl

  convert test.png -filter point -resize 2000 test2.png

• PrinterToPDF

  /opt/printerToPDF/bin/printerToPDF -o output -f /opt/printerToPDF/lib/PrinterToPDF/font2/Epson-Standard.C16 dump.epson

Misc

• Tweet by Sell My Retro

CircuitPython

• Download UF2: https://circuitpython.org/board/raspberry_pi_pico/

• Terminal: picocom /dev/ttyACM0

  Gives a command line

  Ctrl-A Ctrl-X to exit picocom

• Copy code.py to CIRCUITPY drive and power cycle -> your code will run

Protocol Compatibility mode

host to device:

• nINIT: pulsed low to reset device.

• nSELIN: driven low by host to activate the device

• nAUTOF: driven low by host to enable auto-line feed. Ignore?

• nSTROBE: set low by host when data is valid. Used to store data into an latch

• D[7:0]: data must be stable as long as nSTROBE is low

device to host:

• nACK: Pulsed low by device to acknowledge received of data. Length of pulse? 150kB/s -> 6uS is upper bound length. Let's do 2uS.
• BUSY: driven high by device to indicate that device is not ready.
• nERROR: driven low by device to indicate an error.
• SEL: driven high by device to indicate that device is present.
• PE (Paper Error): driven high by device to indicate a paper error

References

• Parallel-Port Interface Powers Low Voltage Systems

  Not useful: voltage regulator only goes up to +2V.

  • Maxim MAX1841 datasheet

• Arduino: Read data from parallel port

• Rue's Parallel2Serial