Does your office have a modern photocopier? One that accepts output via TCP/IP? If so, you can probably configure the OpenVOS spooler to send files to it. Here’s how.
The feature that the copier needs to support for use by VOS is called “RAW ports”. Most modern copiers offer this capability so they can print data files that have already been formatted. All copiers that support a RAW port will accept ASCII data. In addition, some copiers support files that contain embedded PostScript or HP PCL controls. In our case, we just need to send normal ASCII data.
First, track down a copy of the User Guide for the copier. A straightforward web search usually can find the manuals for it. We have a Konica Minolta bizhub C364 multifunction copier. I found a User’s Guide, a Quick Assist Guide, and a Quick Start Guide. In general, you want to search the book that contains the full set of reference information, looking for information about support of RAW ports. Normally, I would suggest that you search for “RAW port” or “9100” or even “port” as these keywords will likely find the appropriate page. It turns out that the Search function for the KM364 User’s Guide is broken; it can’t find any matches. So, after some false starts, I found that clicking the “Web Management Tool” button, and then expanding the “Configuring the Printing Environment” section, and then clicking on the “Configuring the Port9100 printing environment” topic brought me to the appropriate page. You may also find that printing out the copier’s “test page” or “configuration page” will provide the same information.
Next, review the information about the RAW port. We need to know the port number to use. Port 9100 is often the default port for this function, but it can be changed, and in this case, our KM C364 supports 6 raw ports (by default: 9100, 9112, 9113, 9114, 9115, and 9116). We are in luck; no one has changed the default assignment. It is possible that some of the RAW ports are already in use; if so, pick one that is unused. I decided to use port 9113.
On VOS, create a device for this copier. The devices.tin entry specifies the device name, module name, terminal type, device type, IP address, and port number. Our copier uses IP address 134.111.198.31, and we use port 9113. Here is the entry I created for “asciiprinter.m125”:
/*###################################################### ASCII Printer (N2-SWE2-Win7 / Konica-Minolta C364) ######################################################*/ / =name asciiprinter.m125 =module_name m125 =terminal_type ascii_prt =device_type window_term =parameters '-tcp_only -ip 134.111.198.31,9113' =comment 'KM C364 N2-SWE2-Win7 ASCII'
Build this file and install it, then execute configure_devices to add the new device.
Next, edit the spooler_configuration.v1.tin file to add information about this “printer”. Here is our entry. The information in the “device_type” field is arbitrary. You can adjust the “header_page” and “trailer_page” options to suit your preferences.
/ =device_name asciiprinter.m125 =device_type KM-C364 =header_page 1 =trailer_page 0 =device_protocol 1 =block_size 230 =special_seperators '1'b =new_line_seq `0D`0A
Build this file and install it.
You may need to execute the following command to define the “ascii_prt” terminal type, as well as add the command to your module_start_up.cm file:
!define_terminal_type >system>sample_programs>unsupported_ttps> &+ ascii_prt.ttp
Create a queue for this printer. I named our queue “laser125”.
!create_print_queue laser125 60 80
Finally, login the spooler (and add this line to module_start_up.cm):
!spooler_admin login asciiprinter.m125 -queue laser125
Now, run a test to see if it all works:
!print -queue laser125 (home_dir)>abbreviations
That’s all that is necessary.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.