Questions on printing, printing and printing.
#1

Hi everybody.

A friend of mine give me two HP calculators he dont'use anymore: an HP-28S and an HP-17BII. Including my HP-49G+, now I have 3 HP calculators that are able to print (on a "grand total" of 6 HP calculators). I would like to print something but I don't want to spend too much (my wife can't understand).

Now the questions:

1. Are some printers out there compatible with the 3 calcs?

2. Do you know if is there a IR printer server that can be connected to an external printer (USB, parallel, RS232, etc.).

3. Do know if is possibile to use a PC as a printer gateway for the 3 calculators?

Do you have some suggestions?

Massimo Santin

#2

The 82240A or 82240B printers are compatible with the three calcs you have, though keep in mind the IR range of the 49G+ is annoyingly short.

I have an 82240B printer and I love it. It came with the original box and works great. Including shipping I paid about $75US, and if you are patient you can get one for a lot less.

I am sorry I don't have an answer for either of your other questions. I suspect the answer is no to both questions 2 and 3--I think the IR technology in HP calcs and in PCs are totally different. That said, I think someone was able to get a 50G to communicate wirelessly with a PC, so I could be corrected.

Les

#3

HP-49g+ (and 50g) uses IrDA, 28 and 17BII no. Is HP-49g+ compatible with 82240A or 82240B (that are not IrDA)?
I know that these two printers are termal printers and aren't in production any more. My concern is about thermal paper. Are you able to find it to use with your 82240B?

Best regards.

MS

#4

The 28S, 17BII, 50G, 48GII, and 48GX will all print to an 82240A or 82240B. I have one of each and they all work. With careful alignment you can even get both printers going from one calculator.

Normal thermal roll paper works fine in these printers.

The 49 series (48GII, 49G+, 50G) can beam to a PC if you use the IRCOMM driver on the PC. The infrared is physically compatible but you have to install a driver.

The 49 series cannot beam to a 48G, G+, or GX. The 48GX series cannot beam to a PC. The only way to get data from a 48GX to a 50G is via a PC. Even using a null-modem cable between the serial cables (48GII to 48GX) does not work because neither device powers the port.

#5

I like NCR brand black thermal paper. I get a three-pack of the big rolls and split them up into six smaller rolls. Costs about eight bucks a box.

Purists argue that thicker older genuine HP paper, blue or black, is the only safe stuff to use in the HP97, 82143A, and 82162A (this is all debatable and seems to be a matter of personal preference), but I believe that the newer 82240 printers have a mechanism that is considerably less fussy and more forgiving (it is a newer machine) and it doesn't seem to slip or misfeed at all with standard thermal paper. Indeed, my 82240 printer is the only printer I have that has given me trouble free operation since I got it. Heck, I charged the NiMH cells in it in January, and the printer still goes strong from that same charge. The NiCad packs in the older printers need a lot more TLC.

Les

#6

Either the 82240A or 82240B is good for the 28 series. The 82240A
works with the 48 and 49 series (except the 49G, which doesn't
have any IR), but some non-ASCII characters will have to be
remapped (where possible) from the modified ECMA 94 character set
to the Roman 8 character set. I've never used a 17BII. I think
that the better match is the 82240B, which has additional
advantages besides having both character sets. I guess that, with
patience, you can probably get an 82240B on eBay for US$50 or
less.

For much more information on these printers, try a Google search
of MoHPC like
this
one
.

By the way,
Martel
Instruments
sells some printers which should work for
anything that the HP 82240B works for. I don't know the prices of
the Martel models though.

Quote:
HP-49g+ (and 50g) uses IrDA, 28 and 17BII no. Is HP-49g+
compatible with 82240A or 82240B (that are not IrDA)?

Yes. The IR encoding used for printing to the 82240A/B is
different from the IR encoding used for I/O. For the encoding used
for these printers, see the
HP 82240B Infrared
Printer Technical Interfacing Guide
. For the "Serial IR"
used by the 48 series for I/O, see the
HP48 I/O Technical
Interfacing Guide
or the
HP48 I/O Technical
Interfacing Guide PDF
. And of course, for information on
IrDA start at http://irda.org/.

As Les noted, the IR range from the 49 series is much lower.

Quote:
I know that these two printers are termal printers and aren't in
production any more. My concern is about thermal paper. Are you
able to find it to use with your 82240B?

No problem; although these printers are out of production, many
"point-of-sale" printers use compatible thermal paper. Look for
thermal paper with a width of 2 1/4 inch (57mm or 58mm), and a
roll O.D. of a bit less than 2 inches. As Les noted, it's easy
enough to rewind part of a larger roll onto an empty core. I've
used the brands "Perfect Print", "NCR", and "IBM" with no
problems. I did have a minor problem with some other brand (sorry,
I don't recall the name) which printed a light purple.

For part numbers of the HP paper (and other accessories or parts)
for these printers, see the
HP
Part Surfer
. You may be able to find some "genuine HP"
paper, but, depending on the storage conditions, it may have
deteriorated to the point that it's discoloured or otherwise
doesn't print well.

Les mentioned a difference in thickness from the old HP paper to
the other papers, but both my HP 82175A and NCR brand paper seem
to be about .0025" thick, as best I can measure it with a
micrometer. Perhaps some of the older HP thermal papers were
different?

For the 48 and 49 series, you can set system flag -34 to "Print
via wire". When printing "via wire", the translation mode used for
ASCII transfers is respected for all characters except "LineFeed"
(ASCII control code 10 decimal). A "LineFeed" character is
translated to whatever character string is the 4th element in the
list stored as the reserved variable PRTPAR, by default a
CarriageReturn LineFeed pair.

For the 48 series, if flag -33 is clear (Transfer via wire), the
"via wire" printing is from the RS-232 compatible port, or if flag
-33 is set (Transfer via IR), the "via wire" printing uses "Serial
IR".

For the 49G, printing is only "via wire" (flag -34 set) and
only from the RS-232 compatible port (flag -33 clear}.

For the 48gII, if flag -33 is clear (Transfer via wire), the "via
wire" printing is from the wire serial port, or if flag -33 is set
(Transfer via IR), the "via wire" printing uses IrDA.

For the 49g+, if flag -33 is clear (Transfer via wire), the "via
wire" printing is from the USB port, or if flag -33 is set
(Transfer via IR), the "via wire" printing uses IrDA.

For the 50g, if flag -33 is clear (Transfer via wire), the "via
wire" printing is from either the USB port (flag -78 clear) or
from the serial port (flag -78 set), or if flag -33 is set
(Transfer via IR), the "via wire" printing uses IrDA.

So, depending on the model, the 48 and 49 series can print to a
serial or an IrDA printer, or for that matter, you can "print" to
a terminal emulator such as HyperTerminal. In most cases, you'd
probably want to use translation mode 3, but if your printer
allows a "downloadable font", you could install a user-defined
font to match the calculator's character set. Come to think of it,
you can even "print via wire" from one calculator to another.

Note that for the "screen capture" functions of the "connectivity
kits" to work, printing has to be "via wire" and using the same
I/O port.

Certainly it should be possible to design hardware to receive the
IR meant for the printers and convert it to, say, an RS-232
compatible signal, but I don't think that anything like that is
commercially available.

Designing hardware to convert the 48 series "Serial IR" to an
RS-232 compatible signal should be much easier, and it might even
be commercially available.

Of course RS-232/IrDA converters are commercially available. For
MS Windows 2000/XP/Vista, you'd probably have to also install the
IrCOMM2k Virtual
Infrared COM Port driver
.

Regards,
James

#7

WOW, James!

A lot of informations. Thank you very much.

Massimo

#8

Thank you.

I will try to find a 82240B printer.

MS

#9

James,

it's always an enriching pleasure to read your posts!.

Thank you for keeping on spreading HP knowledge.

Best regards.

Giancarlo



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