Talking to the EP44 from a computer is dead easy. First, I wired up a null-modem cable (I ordered one, but it turned out to be a basic extension cable — wires were not crossed over. So I cut it in the middle and crossed them over myself).
Then I attached the cable to the EP-44 and to the serial port on the back of the computer (note, I used a real, hardware serial port for this, not a USB-to-serial converter).
Turned on the EP-44 and set it to terminal and to 1200 baud, 8 bit data.
On the computer, used stty to set /dev/ttyS0 to 1200 baud.
$ stty -F /dev/ttyS0 1200 $ stty -F /dev/ttyS0 -a speed 1200 baud; rows 0; columns 0; line = 0; intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = <undef>; eol2 = <undef>; swtch = <undef>; start = ^Q; stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; rprnt = ^R; werase = ^W; lnext = ^V; discard = ^O; min = 1; time = 0; -parenb -parodd -cmspar cs8 hupcl -cstopb cread clocal -crtscts -ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr icrnl ixon -ixoff -iuclc -ixany -imaxbel -iutf8 opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0 isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt echoctl echoke -flusho -extproc $ sudo adduser -a -G dialout username
Then typed:
$ cat /dev/ttyS0 & $ cat > /dev/ttyS0
The first cat command takes anything from the serial port and puts it on the screen — in UNIX, everything is a file, including the serial device. The second command (not cast off), sends whatever I type on the computer to the thermal printer. So one could use this a bit like the talk and ytalk programs on UNIX.
That’s it, it works.
Now, the same connection can be used to send the contents of the printer’s memory (about a page or two of text) to the computer screen. You just press the Text button on the EP44 and cat the port to a file ($ cat /dev/ttyS0 > filename.txt).
Note that this is different from actually using the printer as a terminal, in that I am not sending commands to the computer and getting back the output, though clearly that can be done, seeing as the characters are moving between the two devices.
The text below was typed on the EP and uploaded to the computer using cat.
Blogpost
The Brother EP-44 can be used as an editor and word processor. It’s memory can hold about 3700 characters, which can be edited, modified and then either printed on the EP-44 or transferred via a null modem cable to a computer for printing, uploading or editing. The text you are reading now was written on the EP-44 without any of it being printed. Having said that, the 16-character screen of the EP-44 is not much good for editing. Indeed, if you get distracted and forget the start of the sentence, it can be all to easy to start one sentence and finish another.
I can check how many characters I have left by pressing CODE+r (‘REMAIN’). The manual, available online at http://munk.org/projects/Brother-EP44-User_manual.pdf gives details of the editing functions available. They are adequate, if not easy by modern standards. If you carried around enough equipment, it would be possible to send the text to an office over the phone lines via the RS232 port on the side, but it is hard to believe that anyone would bother. Even in the early 1980s, one of the little LCD notebook computers of the time, like the TRS-80 would be highly preferable (though three times the price). The main benefit of the EP lies in the attached printer, which means it is better used for input than output — input via the keyboard or via the serial line when using it as a printer. Speaking of input via the keyboard, I must say that the keyboard is surprisingly easy to use. It looks like a big calculator but types much better than that. Indeed, you can build up pretty high speed if you try. It works very well on the lap, and the keys are very reliable; you know when you’ve hit one, so you very rarely double hit or miss a character. The gaps between them help avoid hitting the wrong key, and mean that the overall dimensions are those of a full-sized device. Were I to make any change, I would put in a horizontal rather than vertical return key — why? — because I tend to hit it when I am looking for backspace.
One more comment. Although only showing 16 characters, the screen is surprisingly useful. It is big enough to show you the last word you typed, so you can quickly backspace over errors and fix them. If you are used to fixing errors on the spot rather than leaving them and going over the document later, then it is possible to make pretty clean copy without too much trouble.
As a final note, with this much text typed, I currently have 1280 characters left in the machine’s memory. Hence, we can see that the EP-44 (or EP44, depending on which documentation you read) can certainly provide enough space to write up a blog post of more than adequate length, especially when discussing a topic as boring and redundant as this one!
Now, at the end, let’s add in the non-ascii characters and see what can be downloaded over the serial line.
1234567890-=qwertyuiop asdfghjkl;’zxcvbnm,./
!@#$% &*()_+QWERTYUIOP ASDFGHJKL:”ZXCVBNM,.?
+ []{}<> $ \ ;’ #| &!@ *
OK, that’s done. Now we have 719 remaining.
Notes:
- The text above between the horizontal lines makes up about 550 words, so we can estimate something like 650 words as the limit. Compare the list of characters that made it over the serial line with the type specimen:
- The text above was sent by hitting CODE+s then text. Note that nothing seems to happen, but tail -f on the file works well and shows it to be transferred. To empty the memory and prevent the content getting printed at an inconvenient time, the simplest thing to do is turn the machine off, then turn it on with the C key (red cancel key) held down; this returns it to factory settings, a bit of a nuclear option. It is not supposed to print what is sent to the computer, but it does, so maybe there’s a bug in mine, I don’t know, but this will do.
