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User’s Manual for InterForm400® 365
Appendix B - Attaching Printers to the iSeries
This chapter provides information on how to configure the physical attachment of HP
compatible Laser printers to your AS/400 network.
Note: Below it is proposed to change the system value, QAUTOCFG. This change may
cause problems in certain rare setups. Remember always to have the approval of your
AS/400 responsible before changing any system value.
Attachment Methods
Most modern laser printers are designed for operation with an MS-Windows platform and
is equipped with a Parallel Centronics port. Most of these printers understands HP-PCL5
which is an ASCII based print language. In order for the printer to operate on the AS/400 a
physical and logical protocol conversion must be used.
The attachment of printers can be made by any of the following methods:
! Twinax to Centronics protocol converter (5219/3812 SCS compatible)
! Printer port of a 5250 Terminal
! Printer port of a PC with AS/400 printer session capabilities (ASCII
transparency compatible)
! Internal or external LAN Print Server supporting TCP/IP LPD, TN5250E
or Lexlink (Lexlink connection is not explained in this manual)
! Other attachment which can print through a server receiving ASCII print
data from the AS/400.
InterForm400
®
contains an EBCDIC to ASCII conversion program. When using the
interface types ASCII850 and ASCIIR8 in InterForm400
®
this protocol conversion program
is used for spool data as well. The following sections describe attachment of printers
using the interface types ASCII850 and ASCIIR8.
Attaching through a Twinax Protocol Converter
The printer can be attached through any protocol converter emulating an IBM SCS printer
and which understands the ASCII transparency SCS command (03h). This command is a
standard feature according to the 5250 attachment standard, and should be supported by
most interfaces emulating 5219 or 3812.
The interface should preferably be configured to the system as 3812 model 1 SCS Printer
device. If another SCS device description (eg. 4214) is specified enabling host print
transform will allow ASCII transparency to be sent to this device as well. Refer to section
Attaching through a 5250 Terminal.
System Configuration by Auto Configuration
The easiest way to create the device description for the protocol converter is using Auto
Configuration.
1. Enable Auto Configuration with the following CL command.
CHGSYSVAL SYSVAL(QAUTOCFG) VALUE(‘1')