CompuServe Thread

Eric: I just installed a GVP I/O Extender and am doing exactly what you asked: Driving my Preferences printer from the GVP's parallel port. It works fine. By the way, one nice feature is that the GVP parallel port can be configured as a standard Amiga or IBM parallel connection. The latter doesn't carry 5 volts on pin 14 (I never had a problem with this running an ordinary printer off the Amiga port, but when I moved the printer to the GVP port, I changed it to the IBM standard anyway). The port is addressed as the logical device GVPPAR0: and there are several ways to use it. If your word processor or whatever lets you specify an alternate port, you can simply use GVPPAR0:. In which case, you could have two printers hooked up and send stuff to them simultaneously. If not, you could probably also do an Assign PAR: to GVPPAR0:. But GVP makes it easier than that. It has a little routine that automatically grabs anything sent to the parallel port and redirects it. But, you may ask, then what good is the Amiga's regular parallel port? Well, in my case, I've got a digitizer hooked up there, which ignores all calls to PAR:. So it works fine for me. Besides, you can change the redirection on the fly from software. I've got CDTV and Parnet, but haven't hooked 'em up to my A2000 yet, but I'm going to give it a try when I get a chance. I would imagine that it would still work even with the GVP redirection software, just like my digitizer does. But we'll see. I have heard that you need to get the Parnet connection alive at all times or it crashes. Redirecting all output from PAR: while Parnet is operational might do just that. Redirecting PAR: before firing up Parnet might work. It may be necessary not to redirect to GVP on a system level. Alternative, if you must redirect your other software from PAR: Whenever you wanted to print something you could just print to disk and then copy that file to GVPPAR0: from the shell, Opus or whatever. The GVP parallel port is a standard bidirectional Amiga port, so maybe Parnet could be hooked up via it, instead. On the GVP serial ports (there are two) either can be configured as a standard RS232, MIDI, or null-modem connection (this is exclusive of the included connector for GVP's optional MIDI expansion). Now that's handy! When I get a chance, I'm going to do just that on the second serial port and run a null modem cable out the back. Then I can plug in a laptop or the PC desktop nearby and transfer files at will. My own question about the GVP serial ports is that they take IBM-standard 9-pin connectors. You can get at any Radio Shack a converter from the 25-pin plug used on the Amiga, but I wonder if that will work. I'm running a SupraFaxModem and it needs a special cable that's RTS/CTS capable. Funneling all 25 pins down to 9 might defeat that. I don't want to try it for fear of frying something, so my modem stays on the standard serial port. Now, if my Bridgeboard could only recognize those GVP ports…! — Ron Legro, Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)