ZX Spectrum Next Wi-Fi Printer Driver

An installable driver that enables printing directly to your network printer from your ZX Spectrum Next. · By taylorza

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Can't get Next to print

A topic by Magicuk65 created 95 days ago Views: 120 Replies: 15

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Magicuk6595 days ago

Hello,
I am trying to get the Next to print using the driver as described in the example, with the sample basic programs.

The printer is a HP LaserJet P1006 connected via USB through a Windows 10 PC running the WinPrintServer program (thank you)

F:\>WinPrintServer.exe
Print Server Started for 'HP LaserJet Direct'
waiting for connection
connection from 192.168.1.136
print job started

When I run the next program I can see the WinPrintServer connect as above, and I see the spool files in the

C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS

Using Spectrum NEXT with v2.09 (though it was the same with 2.08) and the latest version of the driver.

taylorzaDeveloper94 days ago

Hi,

It looks like the driver is not closing the connection after the print job is complete so the WinPrintServer is waiting for more data. Are you calling "Close #3" or uninstalling the driver after printing? If so, comment that out and see if there is a difference.

Best Regards,

Chris

Magicuk6594 days ago

ah yup, I see that now your right I had close #3 after the Lprint, things have improved with the Print Job completing
However still no print unfortunately, though occasionally the printer does go through a start up as if its getting ready to print.. which is such a tease !

Print Server Started for 'HP LaserJet Direct'
waiting for connection
connection from 192.168.1.136
print job started
print job completed
waiting for connection

taylorzaDeveloper93 days ago

The one other issue with RAW printing from Windows is that there are two supported models either "RAW" or "XPS_PASS". Can you check your driver model and version and share that.

In the meantime, I will write a new Print server that uses GDI that would be guaranteed to work. Would you mind providing some testing support as I only have limited printers on hand and of course they all work, so if you would not mind that would be great.

Magicuk6593 days ago

Would be happy to help test out, will let you know the driver version etc

Magicuk6592 days ago

it would appear to be RAW as the default data type

taylorzaDeveloper90 days ago

Hi,

If you get a chance, can you please test the new RawPrintServer. To test it, I wrote this as a quick .NET App, hopefully you can run it, it is packaged as a self-contained app so you should not need any additional dependencies. If this works, I will add support for specifying alternate fonts, custom margins etc.

RawPrintServer.exe

Regards,

Chris

Magicuk6590 days ago

That worked, straight from the box so to speak.
Lprint and Llist both worked fine from basic.

taylorzaDeveloper89 days ago

Perfect, thanks for testing. I will clean it up and package it for the community.

Best Regards,

Chris

taylorzaDeveloper88 days ago

Hi,

Would you mind testing the new version, it is a desktop application with a UI that allows you to select the font and the target printer. I just want to make sure the standalone .NET application works on a machine other than mine.

NextPrintServer.zip

Best Regards,

Chris

Magicuk6588 days ago

Hello Chris,

downloaded and ran with no issues on my Windows 10 setup, no issues other than the usual acceptance of running something from the internet and permissions etc.

Printed off a number of listings from the next, including a couple spanning many pages, using a couple of various fonts all of which worked with no issues.

I also tried the same tests on another printer connected via USB and got the same good results, also repeating this with the MS virtual printer driver to create a PDF (which may be useful to some).

Printers tested.

HP LaserJet P1006
Canon MX495 Ink Jet Printer.
MS Print to PDF

The GUI itself works well, selecting printers and the printer dialogue boxes as well as the Fonts and their styles, sizes and script types with no issues, if I was to suggest an improvement on this it would be the ability to resize the dialogue boxes as some of the long font names get truncated but a very very minor point.

I like that you can see the print come through, the output is reliable with no dropping or missing characters.

taylorzaDeveloper85 days ago

Hi,

I put the code for the server on Github and have a tagged release that has a few bug fixes since the original you tested for me.

Tags · taylorza/NextPrintServer

Best Regards,

Chris

Magicuk6534 days ago

for your info Chris, and I am sure you already knew but the driver & print server also work through CP/M on the LST: device. Was able to print from CP/M directly and configured Wordstar (simple teletype) to print as well.

taylorzaDeveloper34 days ago

Hi Magicuk65, that is great, I only tested it dumping a file to the printer from CP/M so it is good to know that things like Wordstar can work as well!

I am curious, to support CP/M I had to add driver command 2 that can be used to control the line end translation ("Disable CR translation to CRLF") did you need to use that to get the printing from Wordstar to not create extra blank lines between lines of text?

Magicuk6532 days ago

Hello Chris, happy new year !. - have not needed to add anything in terms of disabling CR etc through Driver 80,2,1, worked for me straight out of the box so to speak for both CPM using pip and WS. From WS I print and suppress FF but allow formatting and prevent pause between pages... i.e N N N

taylorzaDeveloper31 days ago

Thank you and Happy New Year to you as well!!!

itch.io

ZX Spectrum Next Wi-Fi Printer Driver

Can't get Next to print