Getting an EPSON printer working through a parallel connection with an ATEN cable?

[Mr Davo]

Hi All,

I am attempting to connect an EPSON TM-T88IIIP printer (which features a Parallel port) to a POS machine that only features USB ports. Towards this end I have purchased and installed an ATEN UC-1284B USB to Parallel cable / converter.

In Windows 7 I am confident that I have installed the correct EPSON printer, and additionally I have installed the EPSON Virtual Printer Driver. Finally I have configured the Port for the Virtual Printer with the EPSON software as shown below.



Even though I have set the installed printer to use the Port outlined above I am getting printing errors. At the moment I suspect that there may be an issue with the ATEN cable / adapter. As can be seen below Windows is showing the device as 'Unspecified', and in my experience this is 'rarely a good thing'!



Here is a screen capture of the ATENs Properties, and it can be clearly seen that there are several fields marked with 'unavailable'.



Finally if I look at the 'Hardware' tab of the Properties for the ATEN I see a blue question mark next to the printer.



Device status is given as 'This device is working properly' however the simple fact is that nothing comes out of the printer, and there are spooler errors.


If anybody can give some advice on how to get this printer going with the ATEN cable it will be greatly appreciated.


Kind Regards,


Davo

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Getting an EPSON printer working through a parallel connection with an ATEN cable

The problem is with WIN-7/8.1 ...
Try uninstalling and reinstalling the driver again.

Make a note of which USB socket in your PC you use to do comm's with the printer.
I've notice my laptop printers don't do comm's sometimes, so I pencilled a chalk mark on my Laptop case an use the same USB port for my Laptop printer.

Curious...:
Why are you using the parallel cable port of the POS Thermal Printer ?
Why not use the RS-232 serial cable and port. You can get POS hardware serial to PC-USB drivers the same as parallel.
You can then plug the POS cash draw directly into the back of the POS printer which gives a lot more physical cable length to play with.

By chance ,you haven't confused the RS-232 serial cable for a Parallel cable and PC-software driver have you ?

You may like to check that parallel "bi-directional printing" is enabled in printer properties.

HTH

[qbert69]

Re: Getting an EPSON printer working through a parallel connection with an ATEN cable

Come On!...You can figure it out!

Here's a HINT!

CGMutGF.jpg