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Sharing Stylewriter with modern Macs?

128keaton

128keaton

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 13, 2013
2,029
419
Hello! I got a StyleWriter II with my Performa. I actually love this printer. Its dead simple, loud, and has a small desktop presence (compared to other printers). After research, I've deduced all I need is a Farallon Ethermac iPrint and hooking one end to a G4 mac with AppleTalk compatibility. From then, could I feasibly share it to other more modern macs (intel?) using OS X printer sharing?
Thanks!
 
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Yep.

I use our Leopard G4 at work to print from my MacPro to our networked Tabloid printers. One of them has IP printing and I could print directly from the MP but I get gaps in printing so that's why I use the G4 to share the printers.

The other printer I have to use the shared printer from the G4 because it's Appletalk only.
 
eyoungren said:
Yep.

I use our Leopard G4 at work to print from my MacPro to our networked Tabloid printers. One of them has IP printing and I could print directly from the MP but I get gaps in printing so that's why I use the G4 to share the printers.

The other printer I have to use the shared printer from the G4 because it's Appletalk only.
Click to expand...
Ok cool. I am now very excited!
 
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Ok, so I'm stuck. I have the Farallon iPrint SL (for my StyleWriter printer). It came with a straight through cable, but since I'm using it with a hub, I am using a standard ethernet cable. There are status lights on the iPrint, it shows its connected to ethernet and connected with the printer. I am using Leopard, and I cannot see the printer anywhere on the 'Add Printer' page. Any ideas? I cannot seem to track down a manual anywhere on the web.
 
Here is a list of ethernet devices on my network.
The G4, fauXserve, and linux server, are all on the same switch as the adaptor.

EDIT: booting down to 10.4, one of the advantages of having NetBoot.
 

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OK. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here.

You said in your OP that you'd be hooking this up to a G4? Can the G4 print to the printer? Is the G4 sharing the printer? Or is the problem that the G4 can't see the printer?
 
eyoungren said:
OK. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here.

You said in your OP that you'd be hooking this up to a G4? Can the G4 print to the printer? Is the G4 sharing the printer? Or is the problem that the G4 can't see the printer?
Click to expand...
The G4 cannot see the printer. Neither can the router.
 
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Hmmm, I don't know what to tell you. If the device is supposed to allow the printer to be seen as Appletalk I don't know why it wouldn't be seen if everything is plugged in correctly.
 
eyoungren said:
Hmmm, I don't know what to tell you. If the device is supposed to allow the printer to be seen as Appletalk I don't know why it wouldn't be seen if everything is plugged in correctly.
Click to expand...
Thats what I thought..

EDIT:
Ok, so for some reason, if there is a 10/100 device on the network, it doesn't work.
"Here's one problem that Farallon told me about - it's not documented anywhere as far as I know. The Farallon iPrint (I think that's the name) will NOT work on a network where there is anything but 10baseT connected. In other words, if any machine on your network or any hub is a 10/100 or 100baseT, the LocalTalk box will not work. That's what they told me when I bought mine and couldn't get it working. They were very helpful - this was in the days of toll-free tech support - in troubleshooting the problem and I eventually got it to work."

I'm thinking now that I could use the airport card in my cube and serve up the printer over WiFi. If that is the problem.
 
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I tried making a simple crossover cable, but its also not working....
 
Ok, another quote:
"It works fine with 10.3.9 or earlier. It will not work with 10.4 or greater. You must have Classic AppleTalk services, which 10.4 doesn't have. You enable this in NetInfo Manager. Once that is done, simply set up the LocalTalk side with MacIP Server in TCP/IP, head to the Network control panel and select LocalTalk, set AppleTalk to Modem/Printer Port, then set the other side up correctly. "
55977bff.jpg
 
Man, this is frustrating. Its not as simple as one would think.
 
Argh. I'm beginning to thing my $20 was wasted. So much for plug-n-play. I have isolated a 10/100 (auto switching-switch) with just my iPrint and my QS. I reinstalled 10.3 too! When I select 'AppleTalk' in the add printer page, the network light flickers on my iPrint. Agh!
 
Ok, i got it working in OS 9. Yay! I got the printer drivers from Apple. I guess I need to run classic on my QS..
 
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Made headway. Classic detects the printer, but I have no idea how to share it into OS X.
 
Not Kylie Minogue wrote:

> PLease tell me it can be done!

Yes. Have a look at this page

<http://www.mosx.net/dossiers/sw4osx.shtml>

and download the Installer which includes the precompiled lpstyl binary.

As you're using EtherTalk to talk to the Stylewriter you do not need to use
the serial Backend (or an USB-to-serial converter) but try instead a device
URI of the form

pap://*/[name of the printer]/Stylewriter

To see how the printer is called exactly and whether StyleWriter is the
correct AppleTalk device type, simply use

atlookup

in Terminal.app

Regards,

Thomas


Interesting...
 
I have pieced together a semi-working instruction from various places. The only problem is that it gets stuck 'connecting' to the printer...

Ok, so basically, what has to be done is run:

aplookup

from terminal. Find your stylewriter printer (i.e Gutenburger:StyleWriter1200AT)

Download Ghostscript and foomatic from: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/macosx/lpstyl

Open the add printer dialog while holding opt/alt. Click on the dropdown and select advanced. You should see a 'pap://' line. Make that 'pap://*/Gutenburger/StyleWriter1200AT' with the driver as the ipstyl driver (under Apple).
 
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