We have gas turbine with MARK-IV control system. In MARK-IV serial printer is used. But today we are facing some problems on purchasing of serial printer. So we are willing to go for parallel printer.

Please advise us how to implement this thing & what are the requirements?

 

Not possible to easily use a parallel printer on a Mark IV.

I just did a Google search of "serial dot matrix printer" and came up with Epson LX-300+II Dot Matrix Printer, Okidata MICROLINE 186 Serial Dot Matrix Printer, and several others. These printers aren't inexpensive (from USD190.00 to USD290.00), but they are still available. And that wasn't even doing any kind of search on eBay.

Or is the difficulty you're experiencing the price?

Some manufacturers have an optional board that can be purcahsed and inserted in a slot in the printer to allow serial communications.

I believe the printer emulation specifications are listed in the Mark IV Maintenance Manual, or, if you have the original printer maintenance manual you just want to purchase something which can be configured to emulate the same set-up as the current printer. If I remember correctly, it's the IBM ProPrinter X24 or Epson FX-80 emulation (simple ASCII text), but check that to be sure.

 

In reply to CSA: You can get external serial to parallel converters (e.g. Blackbox) that are intended for this sort of application. They cost more than installing a serial board in a printer, but printers that have that option are becoming harder to get. Most converters have a print buffer built in, and generally the bigger the buffer, the better.

Most dot matrix printers from the 1980s emulated either Epson FX, Epson MX, or IBM Proprinter as well as offering their own native modes. Fairly often, you had to set a dip switch to select the default of either native codes, or emulation of Epson or Proprinter. I believe many of the Epsons also offered Proprinter emulation.

The printer emulation referred to the printer control codes used to get special formatting (subscript, superscript, bold, italic, special font sizes, etc.) or for graphics mode. If you can't get a printer that has the proper emulation, then check to see if that is really a problem. Normal unformatted ASCII printed the same on most dot matrix printers.

If the printed output doesn't use any formatting codes, then just about any printer that accepts simple ASCII may work. The advantage of dot matrix printers though is they don't need a warm-up cycle and so work well in printing a few lines at a time for things like alarm printing.

 

In reply to Michael Griffin: Yes, serial-to-parallel converters can be found, but in my experience when trying to get a couple of them to work with Mark IV turbine control systems, it would have been more cost-effective to purchase a printer with serial capability than to try to make the converters work. In fact, both times the final solution was to purchase a printer with serial capability. Fortunately, the converter manufacturers, who couldn't help with the configuration, took back the devices and refunded the cost, minus the shipping charges each way. Spending several hundred dollars to save $20 or less isn't very cost-effective.

The problem with many people at many of these sites is that they are just absolutely convinced that dot matrix printers are "old technology" and because they don't know how to and or don't practice good Alarm Management they just believe the printers are unnecessary and/or should be capable of being replaced with "cheaper" parallel models. When "searching" for serial printers, they simply ask their office supply provider or look in the Staples or Office Depot catalogs and when they can't immediately find what they're looking for, then, "They can't be found!" (These same people have found two-stroke engine-powered blenders for mixing alcoholic beverages on eBay or Cabela's to take on their hunting expeditions, searching on company time using company computers.)

Many people complain about the provision of dot matrix printers with turbine control systems, not realizing that, as you have noted, if one tries to use a laser printer for an alarm printer one has to fill a piece of paper (80 lines/alarms) before a page is out put, or a page will be printed for each and every alarm (one per page). Even the big DCS manufacturers supply some kind of "line printer" which is usually a dot matrix printer of some sort or manufacturer (Lexmark, Tally, etc.) because continuous feed paper is used and each alarm or condition is printed on a single line.