I'm trying to replace a printer on a relative's Apple 2e system. It
was an Apollo inkjet printer - a less expensive version of an HP
Deskjet 450(?).

All I need is a character mode printer that works with a parallel card
in slot 1 under Apple DOS. I really would prefer an injket to a dot
matrix or laser printer.

All of the printers I see today are Win or Mac printers. Printing
ANYTHING on them requires a host driver.

I do have a Deskjet 500 on my Apple 2e, but that's staying where it
is. One candidate is a Deskjet 310, but that requires a snap-on multi-
sheet feeder - which I do have. [Assembling it and teaching someone
ELSE how to use it - no fun.]

-- elliot

e p chandler wrote:
> I'm trying to replace a printer on a relative's Apple 2e system. It
> was an Apollo inkjet printer - a less expensive version of an HP
> Deskjet 450(?).
> 
> All I need is a character mode printer that works with a parallel card
> in slot 1 under Apple DOS. I really would prefer an injket to a dot
> matrix or laser printer.
> 
> All of the printers I see today are Win or Mac printers. Printing
> ANYTHING on them requires a host driver.
> 
> I do have a Deskjet 500 on my Apple 2e, but that's staying where it
> is. One candidate is a Deskjet 310, but that requires a snap-on multi-
> sheet feeder - which I do have. [Assembling it and teaching someone
> ELSE how to use it - no fun.]

I think your best bet is another old DeskJet--typically $5 at
a Goodwill (thrift store).

-michael

NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
parallel and USB.

The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and Epson-
APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over the
years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and from
AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
ImageWriter II/LQ.

....which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, blast
out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
*bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.

Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.

On Nov 23, 2:47=A0am, A2Aviator <a2avia...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
> parallel and USB.

I'm amazed that it prints at all. Well it prints a few characters and
hangs.
Slowing down the output speed to a dead crawl helps somewhat. It looks
like a handshaking problem.

> The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
> connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
> compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and Epson-
> APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over the
> years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
> standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and from
> AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
> ImageWriter II/LQ.

Sorry, I'm not using any software at all [grin], no DOS, just PR#1.

> ...which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, blast
> out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
> spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
> *bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.
>
> Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.

I thought that the Epson was a stupid Win printer - but it does print
from MS-DOS (that provided by Win95).

 elliot

On Nov 23, 2:47=A0am, A2Aviator <a2avia...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
> parallel and USB.
>
> The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
> connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
> compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and Epson-
> APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over the
> years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
> standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and from
> AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
> ImageWriter II/LQ.
>
> ...which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, blast
> out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
> spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
> *bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.
>
> Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.

See other message. Thanks for the idea to try the C88+. I happen to
use one on my Vista system (as USB). Again, I'm amazed that it prints
at all under Apple DOS and MS-DOS using the parallel port. There are
other printers that will not print from Apple DOS or MS-DOS at all.
They require a WIndows driver. IIRC I tried printing to an old Lexmark
inkjet from "DOS" and got garbage.

At least the EPSON has a character mode! Perhaps a different printer
card would work? My Apple 2e has a clone of the old Apple Parallel
card. I don't have a more modern parallel card on hand, like a
Grappler. It could be that the handshaking is different.

The old Apple Parallel card used very primitive handshaking. One line
changed the addressing on the cards ROM to go from an endless loop to
transmiting data.
So some of the other signal lines could be missing,

---- e

On Nov 23, 5:39=A0am, e p chandler <e...@juno.com> wrote:
> On Nov 23, 2:47=A0am, A2Aviator <a2avia...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
> > parallel and USB.
>
> > The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
> > connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
> > compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and Epson-
> > APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over the
> > years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
> > standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and from
> > AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
> > ImageWriter II/LQ.
>
> > ...which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, blast
> > out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
> > spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
> > *bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.
>
> > Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.
>
> See other message. Thanks for the idea to try the C88+. I happen to
> use one on my Vista system (as USB). Again, I'm amazed that it prints
> at all under Apple DOS and MS-DOS using the parallel port. There are
> other printers that will not print from Apple DOS or MS-DOS at all.
> They require a WIndows driver. IIRC I tried printing to an old Lexmark
> inkjet from "DOS" and got garbage.
>
> At least the EPSON has a character mode! Perhaps a different printer
> card would work? My Apple 2e has a clone of the old Apple Parallel
> card. I don't have a more modern parallel card on hand, like a
> Grappler. It could be that the handshaking is different.
>
> The old Apple Parallel card used very primitive handshaking. One line
> changed the addressing on the cards ROM to go from an endless loop to
> transmiting data.
> So some of the other signal lines could be missing,
>
> ---- e

Never overlook the obvious - printer cables. They can go bad, without
any apparent damage. Have you a spare you've tried?

On Nov 23, 7:25=A0am, "winston19842...@yahoo.com"
<winston19842...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Nov 23, 5:39=A0am, e p chandler <e...@juno.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Nov 23, 2:47=A0am, A2Aviator <a2avia...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
> > > parallel and USB.
>
> > > The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
> > > connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
> > > compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and Epso=
n-
> > > APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over th=
e
> > > years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
> > > standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and fro=
m
> > > AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
> > > ImageWriter II/LQ.
>
> > > ...which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, blas=
t
> > > out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
> > > spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
> > > *bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.
>
> > > Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.
>
> > See other message. Thanks for the idea to try the C88+. I happen to
> > use one on my Vista system (as USB). Again, I'm amazed that it prints
> > at all under Apple DOS and MS-DOS using the parallel port. There are
> > other printers that will not print from Apple DOS or MS-DOS at all.
> > They require a WIndows driver. IIRC I tried printing to an old Lexmark
> > inkjet from "DOS" and got garbage.
>
> > At least the EPSON has a character mode! Perhaps a different printer
> > card would work? My Apple 2e has a clone of the old Apple Parallel
> > card. I don't have a more modern parallel card on hand, like a
> > Grappler. It could be that the handshaking is different.
>
> > The old Apple Parallel card used very primitive handshaking. One line
> > changed the addressing on the cards ROM to go from an endless loop to
> > transmiting data.
> > So some of the other signal lines could be missing,
>
> > ---- e
>
> Never overlook the obvious - printer cables. They can go bad, without
> any apparent damage. Have you a spare you've tried?

Not between the Apple 2e and the printer. It's a ribbon cable that
terminates in a male centronics. The cable plugs into a molex(?)
connector on the board. The interface card and computer run just fine
with 2 other printers. A Deskjet 500 and a Deskjet 310.

The C88+ printer runs just fine when connected to a MS-DOS machine via
a standard 25 pin D-sub to male centronics parallel printer cable. In
fact I used the Deskjet 500 and the same cable on an XP machine as the
primary printer a few years ago.

If this printer is know to work with an Apple 2e using some other
interface card, I'll try to get that interface card...

---- e

I can't vouch for every kind of printer card, but .. some of those
really off the wall wanky clones of bad cards already, still work
quite well.

However, past experience says you can't go wrong with the Epson APL
card, or a decent clone of it.
The Grappler Plus with 3.3 ROM (DOS/PR#1 probably doesn't even matter
there, so any ROM) does the all around trick, too.

e p chandler wrote:
> On Nov 23, 7:25 am, "winston19842...@yahoo.com"
> <winston19842...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>>On Nov 23, 5:39 am, e p chandler <e...@juno.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>On Nov 23, 2:47 am, A2Aviator <a2avia...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
>>>>parallel and USB.
>>
>>>>The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
>>>>connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
>>>>compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and Epson-
>>>>APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over the
>>>>years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
>>>>standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and from
>>>>AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
>>>>ImageWriter II/LQ.
>>
>>>>...which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, blast
>>>>out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
>>>>spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
>>>>*bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.
>>
>>>>Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.
>>
>>>See other message. Thanks for the idea to try the C88+. I happen to
>>>use one on my Vista system (as USB). Again, I'm amazed that it prints
>>>at all under Apple DOS and MS-DOS using the parallel port. There are
>>>other printers that will not print from Apple DOS or MS-DOS at all.
>>>They require a WIndows driver. IIRC I tried printing to an old Lexmark
>>>inkjet from "DOS" and got garbage.
>>
>>>At least the EPSON has a character mode! Perhaps a different printer
>>>card would work? My Apple 2e has a clone of the old Apple Parallel
>>>card. I don't have a more modern parallel card on hand, like a
>>>Grappler. It could be that the handshaking is different.
>>
>>>The old Apple Parallel card used very primitive handshaking. One line
>>>changed the addressing on the cards ROM to go from an endless loop to
>>>transmiting data.
>>>So some of the other signal lines could be missing,
>>
>>>---- e
>>
>>Never overlook the obvious - printer cables. They can go bad, without
>>any apparent damage. Have you a spare you've tried?
> 
> 
> Not between the Apple 2e and the printer. It's a ribbon cable that
> terminates in a male centronics. The cable plugs into a molex(?)
> connector on the board. The interface card and computer run just fine
> with 2 other printers. A Deskjet 500 and a Deskjet 310.
> 
> The C88+ printer runs just fine when connected to a MS-DOS machine via
> a standard 25 pin D-sub to male centronics parallel printer cable. In
> fact I used the Deskjet 500 and the same cable on an XP machine as the
> primary printer a few years ago.
> 
> If this printer is know to work with an Apple 2e using some other
> interface card, I'll try to get that interface card...

It's hard to get much simpler than standard "Centronics" signalling,
and all the Apple II parallel cards do it well.

The Apple presents a character on the data lines and sends a STROBE
pulse saying data's ready.  The printer acknowledges with an ACK pulse
and the Apple proceeds to the next character.  (As you noted, the
original Apple II parallel card has a very clever and economical way
of sensing the ACK pulse.  ;-)

Fancier interfaces may also look at the BUSY/READY line and/or the
PAPER ERR line, but they are only relevant to diagnosing problems, not
to proper operation of the printer.

Of course, "Centronics" came to be just a generic name for a whole
family of "IBM PC printer" interfaces, some of which are quite exotic.
But, in principle, they should all retain backward compatibility with
the original "actual" Centronics interface.

-michael

NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> e p chandler wrote:
> 
>> On Nov 23, 7:25 am, "winston19842...@yahoo.com"
>> <winston19842...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Nov 23, 5:39 am, e p chandler <e...@juno.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Nov 23, 2:47 am, A2Aviator <a2avia...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>> Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
>>>>> parallel and USB.
>>>
>>>
>>>>> The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
>>>>> connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
>>>>> compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and 
>>>>> Epson-
>>>>> APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over the
>>>>> years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
>>>>> standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and from
>>>>> AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
>>>>> ImageWriter II/LQ.
>>>
>>>
>>>>> ...which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, blast
>>>>> out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
>>>>> spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
>>>>> *bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.
>>>
>>>
>>>>> Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.
>>>
>>>
>>>> See other message. Thanks for the idea to try the C88+. I happen to
>>>> use one on my Vista system (as USB). Again, I'm amazed that it prints
>>>> at all under Apple DOS and MS-DOS using the parallel port. There are
>>>> other printers that will not print from Apple DOS or MS-DOS at all.
>>>> They require a WIndows driver. IIRC I tried printing to an old Lexmark
>>>> inkjet from "DOS" and got garbage.
>>>
>>>
>>>> At least the EPSON has a character mode! Perhaps a different printer
>>>> card would work? My Apple 2e has a clone of the old Apple Parallel
>>>> card. I don't have a more modern parallel card on hand, like a
>>>> Grappler. It could be that the handshaking is different.
>>>
>>>
>>>> The old Apple Parallel card used very primitive handshaking. One line
>>>> changed the addressing on the cards ROM to go from an endless loop to
>>>> transmiting data.
>>>> So some of the other signal lines could be missing,
>>>
>>>
>>>> ---- e
>>>
>>>
>>> Never overlook the obvious - printer cables. They can go bad, without
>>> any apparent damage. Have you a spare you've tried?
>>
>>
>>
>> Not between the Apple 2e and the printer. It's a ribbon cable that
>> terminates in a male centronics. The cable plugs into a molex(?)
>> connector on the board. The interface card and computer run just fine
>> with 2 other printers. A Deskjet 500 and a Deskjet 310.
>>
>> The C88+ printer runs just fine when connected to a MS-DOS machine via
>> a standard 25 pin D-sub to male centronics parallel printer cable. In
>> fact I used the Deskjet 500 and the same cable on an XP machine as the
>> primary printer a few years ago.
>>
>> If this printer is know to work with an Apple 2e using some other
>> interface card, I'll try to get that interface card...
> 
> 
> It's hard to get much simpler than standard "Centronics" signalling,
> and all the Apple II parallel cards do it well.
> 
> The Apple presents a character on the data lines and sends a STROBE
> pulse saying data's ready.  The printer acknowledges with an ACK pulse
> and the Apple proceeds to the next character.  (As you noted, the
> original Apple II parallel card has a very clever and economical way
> of sensing the ACK pulse.  ;-)
> 
> Fancier interfaces may also look at the BUSY/READY line and/or the
> PAPER ERR line, but they are only relevant to diagnosing problems, not
> to proper operation of the printer.
> 
> Of course, "Centronics" came to be just a generic name for a whole
> family of "IBM PC printer" interfaces, some of which are quite exotic.
> But, in principle, they should all retain backward compatibility with
> the original "actual" Centronics interface.

I just realized a possible issue with a newer printer connected to an
Apple II--the ACK pulse may be too short for the Apple to reliably
sense it!

The Apple interface card ROM essentialy polls the ACK line in the tight
loop you mention--in fact, the lack of the usual data read followed by
a conditional branch allows it to poll faster, and therefore tolerate
shorter ACK pulses.

However, an ACK pulse must be at least one loop period in length to
be reliably sensed, so it may need stretching to interface with an
Apple II.

-michael

NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> 
>> e p chandler wrote:
>>
>>> On Nov 23, 7:25 am, "winston19842...@yahoo.com"
>>> <winston19842...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Nov 23, 5:39 am, e p chandler <e...@juno.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On Nov 23, 2:47 am, A2Aviator <a2avia...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> Epson still offers the C88+ - which the specifications list as having
>>>>>> parallel and USB.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> The question begs, is it centronics or the other higher density
>>>>>> connector. But it does support ESCP/2 protocol, which is downward
>>>>>> compatible with ESC and that means the Harmony, Independence and 
>>>>>> Epson-
>>>>>> APL drivers will work with it. I've used various Epson models over 
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> years on A2's without any issues. You may not get color from any
>>>>>> standard print drivers, but you can get color from Printshop, and 
>>>>>> from
>>>>>> AppleWorks using ESC codes to turn it on the same way as the
>>>>>> ImageWriter II/LQ.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> ...which is also another option for you, find an ImageWriter II, 
>>>>>> blast
>>>>>> out the head with denatured alcohol and then put a bit if silicone
>>>>>> spray in where the wires are passing through the front. WD-40 is
>>>>>> *bad*. Those C-iToh ribbons are still pretty common.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> Okidata, Epson and C-iToh are basically it ribbon wise.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> See other message. Thanks for the idea to try the C88+. I happen to
>>>>> use one on my Vista system (as USB). Again, I'm amazed that it prints
>>>>> at all under Apple DOS and MS-DOS using the parallel port. There are
>>>>> other printers that will not print from Apple DOS or MS-DOS at all.
>>>>> They require a WIndows driver. IIRC I tried printing to an old Lexmark
>>>>> inkjet from "DOS" and got garbage.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> At least the EPSON has a character mode! Perhaps a different printer
>>>>> card would work? My Apple 2e has a clone of the old Apple Parallel
>>>>> card. I don't have a more modern parallel card on hand, like a
>>>>> Grappler. It could be that the handshaking is different.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> The old Apple Parallel card used very primitive handshaking. One line
>>>>> changed the addressing on the cards ROM to go from an endless loop to
>>>>> transmiting data.
>>>>> So some of the other signal lines could be missing,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> ---- e
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Never overlook the obvious - printer cables. They can go bad, without
>>>> any apparent damage. Have you a spare you've tried?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Not between the Apple 2e and the printer. It's a ribbon cable that
>>> terminates in a male centronics. The cable plugs into a molex(?)
>>> connector on the board. The interface card and computer run just fine
>>> with 2 other printers. A Deskjet 500 and a Deskjet 310.
>>>
>>> The C88+ printer runs just fine when connected to a MS-DOS machine via
>>> a standard 25 pin D-sub to male centronics parallel printer cable. In
>>> fact I used the Deskjet 500 and the same cable on an XP machine as the
>>> primary printer a few years ago.
>>>
>>> If this printer is know to work with an Apple 2e using some other
>>> interface card, I'll try to get that interface card...
>>
>>
>>
>> It's hard to get much simpler than standard "Centronics" signalling,
>> and all the Apple II parallel cards do it well.
>>
>> The Apple presents a character on the data lines and sends a STROBE
>> pulse saying data's ready.  The printer acknowledges with an ACK pulse
>> and the Apple proceeds to the next character.  (As you noted, the
>> original Apple II parallel card has a very clever and economical way
>> of sensing the ACK pulse.  ;-)
>>
>> Fancier interfaces may also look at the BUSY/READY line and/or the
>> PAPER ERR line, but they are only relevant to diagnosing problems, not
>> to proper operation of the printer.
>>
>> Of course, "Centronics" came to be just a generic name for a whole
>> family of "IBM PC printer" interfaces, some of which are quite exotic.
>> But, in principle, they should all retain backward compatibility with
>> the original "actual" Centronics interface.
> 
> 
> I just realized a possible issue with a newer printer connected to an
> Apple II--the ACK pulse may be too short for the Apple to reliably
> sense it!
> 
> The Apple interface card ROM essentialy polls the ACK line in the tight
> loop you mention--in fact, the lack of the usual data read followed by
> a conditional branch allows it to poll faster, and therefore tolerate
> shorter ACK pulses.
> 
> However, an ACK pulse must be at least one loop period in length to
> be reliably sensed, so it may need stretching to interface with an
> Apple II.

Oops--a little research is worth a lot of thinking.  ;-)

It turns out that the ACK signal from the printer is synchronized
and latched by a flipflop, so pulse length shouldn't be an issue.

<sheepish grin>

-michael

NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

On Nov 23, 2:02=A0pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:

Re: trouble connecting an Apple 2e to an Epson C88+ using a clone
Apple Parallel card:

> Oops--a little research is worth a lot of thinking. =A0;-)
>
> It turns out that the ACK signal from the printer is synchronized
> and latched by a flipflop, so pulse length shouldn't be an issue.
>
> <sheepish grin>
>
> -michael

Thanks for applying your expretise to this problem!

-- elliot

In article <61c2b922-9b56-48c9-acc1-3db7e20c9638@o9g2000vbj.googlegroups.com>,
e p chandler  <epc8@juno.com> wrote:
>I'm trying to replace a printer on a relative's Apple 2e system. It
>was an Apollo inkjet printer - a less expensive version of an HP
>Deskjet 450(?).

The DeskJet 450 is a portable printer; I have one that gets used with my
notebook from time to time.  I don't think there was an Apollo-branded
version; ISTR those being mostly cost-reduced desktop printers.

That said, they seem to be going for about $40 on eBay, which is a whole lot
less than I paid for mine when it was new.  It supports PCL and includes a
parallel port (as well as USB and infrared, with Bluetooth available as an
option).  As long as you have software that spits out PCL (and it sounds
like you already do), it ought to work for you.

One caveat: the printer's parallel port uses an IEEE-1284C connector, which
looks like a narrower version of a wide-SCSI connector.  You'd need to make
sure you grab a cable if you don't already have one.

  _/_
 / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us/            Top-posting!
 \_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden            >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?