IBM 5216 printer

From: Tom Jennings <tomj_at_wps.com>
Date: Fri Dec 5 15:41:23 2003

(Problems with a mailserver, so I'm re-sending. My apologies if this is a duplicate.)

On Tue, 2003-12-02 at 14:11, Bill Machacek wrote:
> I'd like to find out a little more about the IBM 5216 Wheelprinter I just received. What computers did it work with? There are only 2 female input connectors on the back, one is marked "T" and the other one "P". Anyone have information on the type of computers this unit was setup to work with?
> TIA for your responses.

If it's anything like the 5218 used on the Displaywriter, well, umm,
good luck talking to it without proper documentation.

The interface was bit serial I think, I forget electrically what flavor.
Logically it was a byte stream, it was very modal (online/offline plus
more) and had a complex "packet"-based command structure, even print
characters.

to printer HDR1 HDR1 DATA
from printer RESPONSE

Sort of thing. Every switch press generated an interrupt via command
response packets, and/or set flags htat you could read via commands.

There were pages of commands. To me, in 1982, it seemed extremely
complex for a printer. I had to make WordStar talk to it properly, it
wasn't easy.
Received on Fri Dec 05 2003 - 15:41:23 GMT