ITEM: AQ7309L
Printer communication problems (NCR as Printronix)
Question:
Printer communication problems/model 7013-58H/3.2.5
Response:
Response:
ENV: 3.2.5
model 58H
DESC: Have 2 line printers, NCR 6450's, connected as serial
printers off a RAN for a 128-port adapter. They seem
to be having flow control problems. It prints several
pages and then starts throwing in some random characters
and re-aligns the page... then all of a sudden it is fine.
They had a similar problem at another site and spoke with
IBM at the time and were told this is a known problem at
3.2.5.
ACT: They have tried making changes with the transmit buffer
count and that has not helped any.
They have tried using sticky and not using sticky and that
hasn't seemed to help.
She is going to retry this as she is unsure of what was
exactly done.
Retrying... that didn't print right.
Now she is trying to use DTR flow control. She is trying
to get that changed on the printer.
They are using 8-wire cables. 1-5, 7, 8 and 20. They do
have alternate RJ-45 pinouts set.
She will test the DTR flow control... and call back.
NEXT: Researching...
Response:
Response:
ACT: Customer tried catting to the printer directly and the
same thing happens.
The printer is set to emulate a Printronix 9012.
They also use this driver. They have tried the other
serial setting and it doesn't work as well that way.
She is going to try moving the printer to the native
S2 port to see if it will work ok there.
Faxing cabling specs for that setup.
NEXT: WOCB.
Response:
Response:
ACT: They had a few cabling questions.
They will wire a cable to connect the printer at the
serial port S2.
NEXT: WOCB.
Response:
Response:
Response:
Response:
ACTION: The customer called back and says she still sees the
garbage.
I asked the customer if she saw this behavior off of printers that are
attached to the serial port. She said that she was going to try this
but was unable to print to the printer. She was trying to cat the
file to the device. She got the error "cannot create device." I told
her that there is probably something wrong with the cabling. I talked
with the person who made the cable and we found out that pin 6 and 8
were not tied together on the system side to connect to pin 20 on the
device side.
I made sure that the printer's flow control matches that of the
configuration in smit. Both are set to use xon/xoff (sticky xon/xoff
is set also).
First, she connected a terminal to the serial port and tried to cat a
file to it. This catted data to the screen, but the data was not
correct. I had her change the baud rate. Now, when she cats a file
to the device, it comes up fine.
She then removed the terminal and the tty and added the printer. She
sees the same result as she did on the 128 port adapter. The file
prints about 29 lines and then prints about 12 lines of garbage, and
then prints fine for a few lines and then prints garbage again.
We had her change the flow control to dtr on both the printer and
in smit. This made the situation worse. Now, when she cats the file,
4 lines will print fine, but then the rest is garbage.
We had her set it back. The customer noticed that the parity was
set to even on the printer, but that the parity was set to none in
smit. She cannot change the parity in the printer, so we changed the
parity to even in smit. Now, when she prints, the cat command will
act as if it was successful, but nothing prints on the printer. This
is what happens with both types of flow controls.
The customer is going to call NCR support (from her company) and would
like a call back at 9:00pm cst.
NEXT: Requeue to Tonya
DESC:
This is an NCR printer that's emulating a PRINTRONIX.
NCR never called back. Jeanine wants to continue this in the
morning. She asked that I give her a call then.
NEXT:
Call customer tomorrow (Saturday).
Response:
Response:
Response:
DESC:
FROM FIRST PAGE:
Customer said they have a technician on-site doing some
things with the printer. She said she would page if they needed
further assistance.
FROM SECOND PAGE:
Customer said the technician had them use different cables.
Things are working again. The pin-outs for those cables are as
follows:
1 ------ 1
2 ------ 3
3 ------ 2
5 ------ 20
6 ------ 8
|
20 ----
7 ------ 7
8 ------ 6
NEXT:
CWCA.
Support Line: Printer communication problems (NCR as Printronix) ITEM: AQ7309L
Dated: November 1995 Category: N/A
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