ITEM: K3379L

6252 impact writer, Communication check, status 0029

Question:


I added a 6252 Impactwriter over the weekend.
Un-crated and set it up and ran the cable to the back of my 570.
I used the S2 port and added the device through smit.

Now When I try to print it is giving this message.

"Communication check, status 0029" on the face of the printer.

Looking this up in the Users Guide, it says to check and see if the 
serial port on the host is communicating.

How can I do this.

Response:

smit, devices, printer/plotter, Change Show Characteristics of a Printer/Plotter.

Checked cabling, he is using Cable-D, Async EIA-232, PN6323741, and 
PN58F2861 Cable-E, Printer/Terminal Interposer EIA-232,

I advised him to check his Users Guide, and check the printer 
configuration, then get smit's attributes matched to the printer.
This all checked out ok.

run lpstat does the device and queue show. Yes

cat /etc/motd > /dev/lp0, this hung the printer is ready.
This is most likely a cable problem.

Set xon/xoff to off. Still comm error.

Here is an excerpt from the database with the exact same problem:

Some models of IBM printers (like the 4224 and 6252) expect to see both 
the DSR and DCD signals when they are powered on.
If they don't, they give an error 29 = Communications Failure.
With standard IBM cabling, DSR and DCD on the printer end is tied to
our DTR (pin 20)

I have noticed 2 things with AIX  printing:
 1.  CTS on the AIX side MUST be ALWAYS HIGH
 2.  AIX does not assert DTR until the first print job.   
       
  With AIX  DTR (pin 20) is not
asserted after a reboot, and is not asserted until the first read
or write to the port (whether it is an stty get/add/del or a cat
to the port), with dtropen on the stty stack. 
  
The answer to this problem is in the setup on the 6252 itself.
Using the operators guide on page 3-2-4, setting the attachment features,
use task 41, attachement 7-3 (page 3-23)
This feature is for use ONLY in 3-4 wire serial interface.

        set to OFF Communications Check 0029 is active.
        set to ON  Communications Check 0029 is disabled.

If set correctly this Comm Error 29 will go away.



Support Line: 6252 impact writer, Communication check, status 0029 ITEM: K3379L

Dated: June 1994 Category: N/A

This HTML file was generated 99/06/24~13:30:42

Comments or suggestions?
Contact us