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Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Golden Child #117885 09/20/20 09:59 PM
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I managed to get something working that would save the printer output bytes to separate files so you could launch a viewer on them, like gv for postscript output.

A delay of 30 seconds will separate files.


Code
lp0 = manager:machine().luaprinters[1]
filenamebase=lp0:getprintername()
filenamecount=0
idlewaitperiod=30*60
idlecount=0


function feedchars(ch)
local idleflag=0
repeat
nextchar = lp0:getnextchar()
if nextchar >= 0 then 
  idleflag=1
  if f == nil then
    filenamecount = filenamecount+1
    currentfilename = filenamebase..string.format("%04d",filenamecount)..".ps"
    f=io.open(currentfilename,"w")
    idlecount=0
  end
  f:write(string.char(nextchar))
 end 
until nextchar < 0
if idleflag==0 then
  if f~=nil then
    idlecount=idlecount+1 
    if idlecount%(60*5)==0 then print ("idle: "..idlecount/60) end
  end
else
  idlecount=0 -- reset idlecount
end
if idlecount > idlewaitperiod then
  idlecount=-1
  f:close()
  f=nil
  os.execute('gv "'..currentfilename..'" &')
  print('gv '..currentfilename)
end
end

function framedispatch() for i,j in pairs(dispatchlist) do j() end end
emu.register_frame(framedispatch)
dispatchlist={feedchars}


Code
idle: 5.0
idle: 10.0
idle: 15.0
idle: 20.0
idle: 25.0
idle: 30.0
gv 2020-09-20 14-14-25 ct486-board4-lpt-lpt-centronics-luaprinter0004.ps
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Golden Child #117900 09/23/20 05:55 AM
Joined: Feb 2014
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I managed to convert the ap2000 driver into using my luaprinter routines to do the page saving:

They look a little "squashed" since the aspect ratio is off because it's 120x72. 120x144 would probably look more normal.

Some page samples:

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

putting the first page into gimp and stretching it to 120x144:
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

testing to see how many lines on a page:
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Golden Child #117902 09/24/20 06:05 PM
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,079
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PA, USA
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This is amazing stuff! Are you going to submit this upstream as a PR soon? I kinda want to play with it...

LN

"When life gives you zombies... *CHA-CHIK!* ...you make zombie-ade!"
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Lord Nightmare #117903 09/25/20 05:44 AM
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Hi LN,

Thanks! Yes, I'm almost there... 8-)

I finally figured out how to blast out my screwed up github repository with "git push --force" and that completely replaced everything. Yay!

Coming soon to a theater near you 8-)
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Golden Child #117910 09/26/20 09:44 PM
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If you want to have a look at luaprinter, I have a branch at:

https://github.com/goldnchild/mame/tree/luaprinter

I need to clean it up and figure out the proper way of doing things using the device_interface mix-in.


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


One weird thing that the ap2000 is doing is that it's missing descenders when it prints in the Roman font. I thought initially that it wasn't getting the full 9 bits of the printhead, but it prints draft just fine as well as the Sans Serif.

Ramiro Polla (the uber-hacker behind the ap2000 driver) was cool enough to send me his ap2000 disassembly so maybe I can figure out why.
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Golden Child #117926 10/01/20 12:25 AM
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I thought I'd make a font from the pictures in the Imagewriter manual, since I always liked that font, and it doesn't look too bad.

Code
chars = {
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        ",
"   x    "..
"   x    "..
"   x    "..
"   x    "..
"        "..
"        "..
"   x    "..
"        "..
"        ",
"  x x   "..
"  x x   "..
"  x x   "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        "..
"        ",
"  x  x  "..
"  x  x  "..
" xxxxxx "..
"  x  x  "..
" xxxxxx "..
"  x  x  "..
"  x  x  "..
"        "..
"        ",
...
"   x    "..
"  x x   "..
" x   x  "..
"x     x "..
"xxxxxxx "..
"x     x "..
"x     x "..
"        "..
"        ",
" xxxxx  "..
" x    x "..
" x    x "..
" xxxxx  "..
" x    x "..
" x    x "..
" xxxxx  "..
"        "..
"        ",
...
}

-- just a quick test to see if it works

rmargin=125
lmargin=5
xpos=lmargin*8
tmargin=5

function printchar(c)
  c = c & 0x7f
  if c==13 or c==10 then xpos=lmargin*8 ypos=ypos+12 return end
  if xpos > rmargin*8 then xpos=lmargin*8 ypos=ypos+12 end
  if c<32 then c=32 end
  for col=0,7 do
    headdots = 0
    for row=0,8 do
      dot = chars[c-32+1]:sub(1+row*8+col,1+row*8+col)
      if dot == " " then dot=0 else dot=1 end
      headdots = headdots | (dot << row)
    end
    renderhead(headdots)      
    print(col.."  "..headdots)
    xpos = xpos+1      
  end
end

function printstring(s) for i=1,s:len() do printchar(string.byte(s,i)) end end

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Golden Child #117927 10/02/20 04:28 AM
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Golden Child Offline OP
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I was trying to find something that would print on the BBC Master and found a BeeBug dumpmaster rom.

./mame64 bbcm -printer ap2000 -romimage1 dmpmastr


It kinda works, but it seems to get its workspace corrupted when I do a *LDPIC. You're supposed to be able to hit CTRL+SHIFT+@ (mapped to backslash) to make it dump.

*BPRINT P0 V A D will setup the hotkey but it doesn't dump properly.

*BPRINT I V will do a vertical dump in inverse.
*HELP BPRINT shows you the settings.

Still, it's kinda neat to see it work.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


edit: after fiddling around, I discovered that the rom scrnprnt100 has a good hotkey setup: hit CTRL+P and it prints the screen, CTRL+SHIFT+P and it prints in inverse.

./mame64 bbcm -printer ap2000 -romimage1 scrnprnt100


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Last edited by Golden Child; 10/02/20 07:26 AM.
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Golden Child #117928 10/02/20 10:37 AM
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 344
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Originally Posted by Golden Child
I was trying to find something that would print on the BBC Master and found a BeeBug dumpmaster rom.

./mame64 bbcm -printer ap2000 -romimage1 dmpmastr


It kinda works, but it seems to get its workspace corrupted when I do a *LDPIC. You're supposed to be able to hit CTRL+SHIFT+@ (mapped to backslash) to make it dump.
*LDPIC is a custom graphics loader on the Acorn User Gallery discs which runs in workspace at &900, so not too surprising there's a conflict.

The most popular printing ROMs at the time were Dumpout 3 (dumpout3) and Printmaster (prntmeps), but not sure if they have a hotkey dump feature.

BBC Model B, ATPL Sidewise, Acorn Speech, 2xWatford Floppy Drives, AMX Mouse, Viglen case, etc.
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Pernod #117930 10/03/20 07:31 AM
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I hacked up a lua script to render Epson JX-80 output from the BBC Dumpmaster rom and it looks pretty good. It supports the JX-80 on printer number 22. 22 is color with square pixels, 0 is black and white, and 5 is 72x72 dpi for square pixels.

The luaprinter wouldn't work unless I set the acknowledge to 1 in device_reset with output_ack(1).

Doubling the dots horizontally on the printout makes it look vivid.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

The output is stretched 200% using gimp to make the aspect look right and rotated 90 degrees to be upright.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Re: Ap2000 signs of life
Golden Child #117966 10/09/20 07:05 PM
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I was thinking, hmmmm can we make pdfs out of the dots. There's a catseye lua library that hacked on can make this:

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

It's a bit slow to be practical, gv takes a minute to render the pdf page, but still good fun.
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