Connecting a Mac 512Ke to a non-Apple printer

[djfitzgerald]

I just acquired a Mac 512Ke, and would like to connect it to the printer on my workbench. But my workbench printer is an IBM/Lexmark, and I forgot that old Macs used a different connection and typlically Apple ImageWriter printers. Is there any way to connect a non-Apple printer to a 68k Mac?

 

[njroadfan]

Early Macintosh system software only supports the ImageWriter out of the box, so you need the real deal or an emulator. You would need something like the Orange Micro Grappler 9-pin and a properly wired adapter (DB-9 to MiniDIN 8 since the Grappler was made for later Macs). It provides a serial-to-parallel adapter and it converts ImageWriter escape sequences to Epson FX compatible ones on the fly.

https://generalphiles.com/files/Orange Micro/Grappler for Macintosh.pdf

 

[olePigeon]

There were also 3rd party drivers for PC printers (Epson, Oki, IBM, HP, etc.) They usually came bundled with a serial-to-parallel cable (or could be used via SCSI or Serial if the printer supported it.) I searched on Macintosh Garden but couldn't find it. I have a couple software packages at home, but I don't recall what they're called. I'd have to hunt around for it.

 

[olePigeon]

Unfortunately, the software I have only supports the following:

Epson FX
Epson LQ
NEC Pinwriter
HP ThinkJet
Diconix 150 Plus
Toshiba P351

I'm fairly certain I have a second set of software that supports additional printers, but it'll take me more time to go through my stuff and find it.

 

[njroadfan]

The name of one of the driver packs with the cable is "PowerPrint" by GDT Softworks. Thing is it requires a Mac Plus with 2MB of RAM and System 6. A 512ke is much more limited in what it can run.

 

[olePigeon]

Oh, njroadfan is correct. That was the one I was referring to.

However, I found my second disk, but no cable. It's called "Granny Smith Connection Parallel Print Disk" by Zap Logic Corporation. It's a 400K disk and I think pre-System 6 system files. It has drivers (I think) for:

Apple DMP
Apple ImageWriter
Star PowerType
Epson MX-100
Epson FX-80
Citoh F10
Brother HR
Comrex CR
IBM Quiet
IBM Wheel
Juki 6300
Olympio RO
Epson RX-80
Epson RX-100
Epson MX-80
Epson FX-100
Star Gemini
Qume

Generally speaking, if you're trying to print to any non-Apple laser printer, so long as it supports PostScript, you can print to it using a generic PostScript driver. However, it's unlikely the printer supports AppleTalk (otherwise it'd also likely have drivers) so you'll also have the issue of getting your Mac onto a TCP/IP network, which will require a network bridge that supports MacIP.