USB Printing on Mac OS9.1

[Jim M.]

I need to get Okidata Mircoline Turbo 390 24-pin dot matrix printer w/Centronics interface connected to and functioning with PowerMac G3 (B&W) running OS 9.1. Ultimate goal is to print labels from FileMaker Pro.

Old environment: Crashed Mac was running OS8.x and used Infowave PowerPrint connected to OKI printer via built-in 25-pin Mac port to Centronics w/standard cable.

Trying to use Infowave PowerPrint and their supplied USB --> Centronics cable to connect OKI printer, as G3 has no 25-pin port.

When attempting to activate print driver via Chooser, the USB printer is not available.

For what it's worth, we can see the OKI printer in the USB Print Sharing contol panel. Also, the Apple System profiler sees USB cable and Infowave driver, but not the printer. Thanks in advance for any help... Jim/

[ElDiabloConCaca]

If I recall correctly, there is a system extension required to be activated at startup for USB Printing... is that extension enabled?

I may be off base on this one... it's been a while since I snerfed around with OS 9.

[Jim M.]

Thanks for responding...

The following USB-related extensions are enabled:

USB Authoring Support 1.0
USB Device Extension 1.4.6
USB Software Locator 1.4.6
USBAppleMonitorModule 1.5.5

Also, the USB Printer Sharing (Control Panel)

The printer cable shows up in the System Profiler. The USB ports are working as the keyboard and mouse are functional and we're using an external USB zip drive, also.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Hmmm... if the printer works fine over the Centronics cable, and stops working once you add in the Centronics->USB adapter, I would suspect the adapter could be at fault.

Most serial-to-USB adapters under OS X require drivers -- did the adapter itself come with or require any drivers?

[Jim M.]

The printer worked fine with the 25-pin to Centronics cable on the old/crashed machine, not on the G3, as it has no 25-pin interface. (One alternative option might be to try to find a PCI card with a 25-pin parallel interface).

The USB to Centronics cable came with the InfoWave PowerPrint drivers which are installed and visible in the System Profiler. The PowerPrint software has a final installation step to "activate the print driver" via the Chooser.

When we select the printer (installed by InfoWave) from the left Chooser pane, the only options in the right pane are: Comm Toolbox and Internal Modem. We expected to see the USB printer we can see named in the USB Print Sharing control panel.

Is this information helpful?

Thanks,
Jim/

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Does it say what version of PowerPrint it is? I think version 4.5 was the last "Classic-compatible" driver they released, and 5.0 is Mac OS X-only (from what I've gathered on the interwebs).

I may have to break out an old box on this one and remember my way around OS 9 and the Chooser options. At this point, I'm kind of stuck for a solution. The only thing I can really think of is that there's one more step. Did the drivers come with a printed or PDF manual? Maybe you're required to select "Comm Toolbox," then run some application to set up communication with the printer...? Ah, I'm just drawing straws at this point.

[Jim M.]

The version of PowerPrint we're using is 5.0.1 It's minimum requirements are in one attachment - Mac OS8.0 and up, so I think we're OK, there as it installs and behaves on OS 9.1 just fine.

The other attachment conains the few brief pages of the install manual.

Yesterday, when working on it again, we were able to "see" the printer from the desktop print utility, but with no PPD file, we were unable to AutoDetect or fully communicate with the printer.

From the one caveat in the manual about QuickDraw GX, and other web forums I've stumbled on, it seems an extension conflict is probable. We purchased Conflict Catcher on ebay for $15 and have installed it, but have yet to use it and follow all its procedures.

Do you think, we're we on the right path?