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arniev

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2005
3
0
I have an old but trusty epson lx800 dot matrix that I would like to connect to my ibook g3 clamshell graphite. Is there a usb to parallel cable to do this? What about drivers? I've googled many times to find a mac driver for the lx800 but to no avail. If there is no driver for the lx800, what dot matrix can I use to connect to my ibook?

The primary reason is economics. I don't want to waste precious ink printing inter-office forms. I'd rather leave the inkjets to correspondence and proposals. But for vouchers, checks and Internal revenue returns, I'd rather use a dot matrix. It can print multi forms which the inkjets cannot do.

Please help me :confused:
 

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
There are USB to Parallel cables as well as a box about the size of a HUB that has serial and parallel ports in it.

The question is does the Mac support the parallel ports (or are there third party drivers for them) and will Mac OS drive a printer on a parallel port.
 

jemeinc

macrumors 6502a
Feb 14, 2004
771
0
South Jersey
When I switched my business from PC to Mac this was the toughest part. I couldn't get my Dot Matrix printers to work. I ended up going with laser printers and buying collated, white & yellow, non carbon paper from staples for invoices and stapling them together. I still do it this way.
 

arniev

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2005
3
0
BTW, I am using Mac OS 9.2.2. I believe in OSX you can use gimprint but an upgrade of the OS is not an option for me right now.

Please Help :confused:
 

arniev

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2005
3
0
jemeinc said:
When I switched my business from PC to Mac this was the toughest part. I couldn't get my Dot Matrix printers to work. I ended up going with laser printers and buying collated, white & yellow, non carbon paper from staples for invoices and stapling them together. I still do it this way.

Well at least you're using the mac for invoice which should always be presentable. But what if you're just printing inter-office forms like vouchers and checks. I believe the toner of a laser printer can be removed by a simple erasure tape that can be brought in any stationery store. This might arise to forged checks. Dot matrix printers, althought their output is ugly and they are noisy, serve the purpose that it leaves an indelible mark on the paper, especially useful for protection against forgery. :eek:
 

omax

macrumors newbie
Jul 27, 2006
1
0
Dot Matrix in OS9.2.2/ OSX via Epson

I have finally found a way to do this without teh messy solutions mooted most palces. This reprsents 2 odd weeks research.

Epson do not shout about this but make all their ehternet network cards Localtalk as well as IP. There's even card made for Local talk alone. So, and here's the rub, get yourself an old Series B type ethernet card, on Ebay for peanuts slot it into any Epson Dot matrix and away you go. I have a LQ870 and LQ680 running OKish. see more...

But not quite.... Epson put up all kinds of conflicting info around their world sites. In the UK (where I'm from) Epson.co.uk don't talk about apple and dot matrix, but have the drivers, version 2.0A is the latest.

But these drivers only work on draft mode for me. Freeze up any other way. But thatts OK for me. Who would want DM for graphics anyway. Powerprint serial I know about . Works on my Beige G3. There's a USb version, I hear is lumpy. But not good if you want to sahre your printers or get tehm far away, DM is noiusy.
 
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