Data capture

[mymou]

I have an old machine (1983) which is just a box that spits out a printout everyday.

I want to capture the data that is sent and store this as a file on a 'normal' computer.

Is there any way I can connect this old machine using the printer cable?

Thanks for any help in advance.

Stew

 

[edfair]

I've used parallel to serial converters in applications like this. And used basic to pull the data into a file.
But you should be able to use the file handling capabilites of the OS to get it. Just requires that you use enough buffering that you don't get data overrun.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[mymou]

Hi Ed

You’re one step ahead of me.

I suspected that something like DirectParallel cable access or a serial converter would be fine (I have never had to do this before). The world of cabling looks like a bit of a nightmare - but I will check it out.

Once I get that far I will quiz you on the next step. I would be suprised if it is that simple.

Stew

 

[lemil1]

Helo,

I have a similar problem. I need to capture the data stream from my printer and deliver it to a file. The program that post out the sream is an old clipper alpplication runnign on the shell of win95.

If some one know how to help me, i will apreciate.!
Thanks!

 

[kiddpete]

There is an old DOS program I once used called PRN2FILE which might work on an old machine. Look at:

http://members.cox.net/dos/print01.htm

It looks like prn2file.zip will definitely download.

There are also programs to capture printer output in Adobe PDF files. Here's one:

http://www.hallogram.com/pcltool/

although it looks to expensive. I have one that works in XP Pro, but can't remember its name. I'll find out tonight.

 

[kiddpete]

The one I couldn't remember runs as printer in Windows XP, and probably on older systems. It's at:

http://www.pdf995.com/

and is called PDF995. PDF995 puts printed output in a PDF file. It's free.

 

[ENordquist]

I've been using the same concept here: parallel to data Y SPLIT to printer AND to parallel to serial converter to serial. Everything works fine; on Windows based machines. The only problem is that I need to use a (laptop) Windows (2k pro) machine to capture the data from a Sun machine running Solaris. Is there any reason that this should be any different from the Windows machine? Everything I've read so far says that they should have no problems communicating, but I can't get anything from it. Has anyone ever dealt with this before?