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Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:32 pm
by Symoon
Hi,
Does anyone know if it is possible ton find anywhere a printer cable, that could plug from Oric's parallel port to a PC old-style printer with the big DB36 port?
I guess not, but who knows ;)

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2019 8:50 am
by Dbug
Find one in a shop, I doubt it, but you can regularly find some bundled with some of the orics you find online, good only oric to centronics :)

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:03 am
by iss
From the French forum I understand you already found what you need and all works, so congrats! :)

This is what I have - DB36 to IDC26 (2 variants):
P_20190623_103325.jpg
About DB36 it's clear - it goes to printer, but for IDC26 I have no idea for what kind of computer it's intended to be? :shock:
Anyway, I don't need these cables, so if anyone wants them - PM me. Keep in mind they are old and they literally have smell of old.

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:05 am
by Symoon
I enventually found one, hidden in a box of... Audio cables! :roll:

Just tested the Star STX 80 printer and it's impressive in text mode. 1st time I printed on a real Oric :)

Didn't try anything graphic yet. I was about to sell the printer, now I want to keep it :lol:

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:49 am
by Symoon
iss wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:03 amAbout DB36 it's clear - it goes to printer, but for IDC26 I have no idea for what kind of computer it's intended to be? :shock:
By googling a bit, they seem to plug directly on a motherboard?
https://www.startech.com/fr/Cables/Seri ... ATE25F16LP

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2019 6:44 pm
by Equinoxe
I wonder if anyone has tried something like this with an Oric - looks like it has a good chance of working assuming the printer is fairly basic http://lpt2usb.com/

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 10:51 pm
by Steve M
I used to use a Star printer back in the day. LC24-10 I think was my model. Wrote a few OUM articles on that!
I think I still have some of that fan-fold paper with the holes on the sides.

It's pretty nice to use with a word processor like Easytext, which gives the 80 column output.
I remember printing out some HIRES screens but I'm not sure how I did it It was slow - but a lot quicker than the MCP40 plotter.

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 7:29 am
by Dbug
Steve M wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2019 10:51 pm I remember printing out some HIRES screens but I'm not sure how I did it It was slow - but a lot quicker than the MCP40 plotter.
And probably a lot cheaper, the MCP40 is emptying the small pens faster than by car emptying the petrol tank :)

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 12:25 pm
by Steve M
I think re-inking may be the way to go.
Printer ink is getting harder to find though.

I didn't know the old Centronics was a DB36 - the things you learn on here !!!

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:16 pm
by mikeb
I'm not sure if DB36 is the right description -- I think of DB as being the DB-9/15/25 "D-sub" range (like for mice, joystick, serial ports)

A proper Centronics was usually an Amphenol 36-way (2 row) connector. Like the IEEE488/GPIB/HPIB (24 pin?) but obviously bigger.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_ribbon_connector

DB-25 was for the IBM-PC style parallel port

Re: Printer cable: Oric to DB36?

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 1:20 pm
by tingo
And the correct name for the 9-pin connector often used for serial ports is DE-9, not DB-9.