On 04/16/2011 08:53 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:
John, Ken,
Thanks. I didn't know a PPD was just an OS independent definition. I'll give the link a try. I may already have that PPD. The 'AR-PB2' is the actual print controller board that provides print capability for the copier, so from the PPD filename -- that would be the correct one.
This has actually been a fun copier to try and configure. I bought the copier a few years ago and had never bothered to integrate it into the network (it's just a copier without network scan [that's what the M355N does]). But for large print jobs, a 50 page/minute printer is nice.
Digging into it, I found that I needed a SCSI 50DH male/male peripheral connect cable to interface the copier with the AR-PB2 print controller that is also where the AR-NC3D (NIC) plugs into. Sharp wanted $100 for the original SCSI interface cable. Before throwing that down for a Shard OEM SCSI cable, I found a 6FT external peripheral connect 50DH SCSI cable on amazon for $.99 (5.98 shipping). It even came with the proper clip connectors. Plugged it in, rebooted the copier and 'presto' - I was up and running.
Then the old IBM document was key to finding out the the copier talked PCL5e which made finding a test driver easy. Now it's just down to tweaking the PPD selection so that all margins, etc. are what they should be. (if the AR-PB2_9X_PSPPD/SHAR505.PPD handles duplexing, that would be icing on the cake :)
So it has been somewhat of a pet project with a purpose :p
Thanks again!
Glad you got that working. Cups can't automatically handle all things the PPD advertises (or it didn't use to be able to), so some times you have to set these special printers up as RAW printers, and let the workstation software prepare printer ready data streams. I once had Xerox deliver some horribly complex printer scanner copier monster to a job site and try to convince the Customer they had to put in a windows machine to handle a special controller card to drive and share the thing. Spotting the cat5 socket on the back, I grabbed the tech manuals, and the windows driver disk, enabled the cat5 interface, installed the ppd in cups and had it up and running on all the engineers desktops before the xerox tech got back for lunch. The salesman had never told the customer that the cat5 interface even existed. -- Explain again the part about rm -rf / -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org