Ardent Tool of Capitalism

4216 Personal Pageprinter Adapter/A

@EFF6.ADF Personal Pageprinter Adapter/A
@EFF6.DGS Personal Pageprinter Adapter/A Diagnostics

187-193 Personal Pageprinter Adapter/A
187-092 IBM 4216 Personal Pageprinter Model 020

pageprtr.com Per Page Ptr Adp/A Opt Dsk V.1.10
PPDISK1 Personal Pageprinter Adapter Program. Install disk for PPAP 1.3.1 (1 of 12).
PPDISK2 PP Program. Disk 2 PPAP 1.3.1 (2 of 12).
PPDISK3 PP Program. Disk 3 PPAP 1.3.1 (3 of 12).
PPDISK4 PP Program. Disk 4 PPAP 1.3.1 (4 of 12).
PPDISK5 PP Program. Disk 5 PPAP 1.3.1 (5 of 12).
PPDISK6X PP Program. Disk 6 PPAP 1.3.1 (6 of 12).
PPDISK7 PP. Disk 7 PPAP 1.3.1 (7 of 12).
PPWSF1 PP Program. Windows Screenfont disk 1/5 ver 1.3.1 (8 of 12).
PPWSF2 PP Program Windows Screenfont disk 2/5 ver 1.3.1 (9 of 12).
PPWSF3 PP Program Windows Screenfont disk 3/5 ver 1.3.1 (10 of 12).
PPWSF4 PP Program. Windows Screenfont disk 4/5 ver 1.3.1 (11 of 12).
PPWSF5 PP Program. Windows Screenfont disk 5/5 ver 1.3.1 (12 of 12).

Lexmark FTP Site

Image Adapter /A Printer/Capture Option

Personal Pageprinter Adapter
   Base Card
   Daughter Card
4216-020 Printer Supplies
4216 Personal Pageprinter under W95
   System and DOS Setup
   W95 Setup
ADF Section

Personal Pageprinter Base Card P/N 67X6886 (photo from UMMR)

There are additional card-edge pads located close to the adapter slot cover. Pads of the same physical proportions can be found on the Display Adapter 8514/A.

Personal Pageprinter Daughter Card P/N 67X6885 (photo from UMMR)

Scans of the Personal Pageprinter Adapter/A was provided by Helmut P. Einfalt.

Personal Pageprinter Adapter

This adapter provides a 10 MHz M68000 coprocessor and program and page buffer storage that are designed to provide page formatting and printer control for the 4216 Personal Pageprinter Model 020.

• Contains 0.5Mb program and 2.0Mb page buffer storage
• Contains 16Kb EPROM including diagnostics and loader
• Intended use is as a loadable PostScript(1) interpreter, page formatter and printer controller.

Additional Features

• An alternate write to the page buffer storage that provides hardware assist for such functions such as data 'OR'ing, word rotate, and automatic clearing.
• FIFO and serializer logic to convert the page image in RAM to a video bit stream for transmission to the 4216 Model 020.
• An interface port between the M68000 and the Personal System/2. The interface consists of a modified parallel printer adapter design. This is the only communication between the Adapter and the Personal System/2 with no processor memory space being used by the adapter. This interface emulates the Personal System/2 printer port (i.e., LPT2) when an ASCII printer emulator is loaded and can be accessed by normal BIOS calls. It also can be switched to an alternate (high-speed) mode that transfers data using a packet mode protocol. The interface also allows bi-directional data transfer.

Personal Pageprinter Adapter Licensed Program

Version 1.3 seems to be the last version. 07F4349 is the 3.5" version.

4216-020 Personal Pageprinter

The Personal Pageprinter is a compact, table top, page printer capable of printing up to 6 pages per minute. The special serial video interface allows the printer to be coupled with the host system, with a large portion of what is normally regarded as printer function residing in the IBM Personal Pageprinter Adapter.

Parts for the 4216-020

Fred Mau wrote:
   Been trying to track down spares for the IBM 4216 Personal Pageprinter, which uses the once-common Ricoh 6000 engine, which was also OEM'ed to a lot of other brands.
   Tons of these machines out there, used and surplus, for dirt-cheap prices. Problem is, they're 10+ years old and almost all need new drums. Toner is easy, numerous places on the web sell toner cartridges, going rate is $25 to $30.
  So far, I've only found one place that sells new drums: Radio Shack, who once sold the re-badged Ricoh LP-1060V as a Tandy LP1000.  Called a friend at Radio Shack to verify availibility, he called their "Radio Shack Unlimited" special order warehouse, yes they are available, takes about a week to get it shipped to your door. 

"LP Kit A", RSU # 10274884, Drum, cleaning unit, shield plate, shield plate cleaner, $199.99
"LP Kit B", RSU # 10274892, Same as the "A" kit except without Drum. $99.99
"LP 1000 Toner",  RSU #10456424,  $27.99 

This stuff's listed on page 286 of their "2000 Answers" catalog.

4216 Trivia

The "shutter problem" mentioned refers to the 4216 ... not the 4019. The 4216 Ricoh engine has a mechanical shutter between the upper laser beam exit and the lower photoconductor, that blocks the laser path when the unit is opened. There is only one switch (right front), which must be held down to test the printer with the cover open. The shutter prevents the dangerous infra-red laser beam from causing any damage during the test phase. The shutter is operated by a cheap plastic lever, which breaks when the people smash the printer cover shut like an engine hood. 

>OK, time to ask another leading question- WHAT is the 4216 equivalent to?

Basically it is equivalent to the Ricoh-6000 printer engine. That thing was sold to many OEMs and marketed as Siemens HighPrint-8 or Ricoh 6000 or Brother (? Forgot the number). The IBM spare parts (cleaner unit, toner package, fuser cleaner etc.) have orange-red "handles", while the "original" parts had light-green ones. (Attention: trivia !) Exception: the little wrench coming with each toner kit was always light-green :-)

In Germany they sold
- the 4216-010 (HP LaserJet+ and IBM standard Proprinter emulation), numeric keypad and small LCD display (4 digits IIRC), Serial and parallel port.
- the 4216-020 "raw engine" along with the IBM Postscript Printer Adapter /A (ID EFF6), which has only some "function buttons" and a single 7-segment LED for the codes.
- the 4216-030 (HP LaserJet II and Proprinter 24 Emu) and the 4216-031 (integrated Postscript adapter) had been announced but I haven't seen one.
Instead we got the IBM 4019-001 with the optional Postscript module - which is what I have and use. Here the last one I know who uses a 4216-020 with the PS-adapter on a regular basis is Helmut in Bremen. But AFAIK he uses it under WfW 3.11

   First off: the 4216-020 is only a "raw engine" without any internal intelligence. It has a high-speed interface that gets the raster (pixel) data from the external card and sends back "sync"-signals and mechanism error-data like e.g. paper jam / ready / internal engine errors.

   The entire Postscript interpreter and a very "generic" IBM Proprinter emulation was done by the Postscript Adapter as well as the raw data preprocessing. The signals sent to the printer engine are similar to a video signal: line-wise, with "start line" / "end line" protocol. The picture is generated and buffered on the adapter - not in the printer. In addition the Postscript interpreter are downloaded from the host system to the card at startup. The software also determines the printerport (EPT: or LPTx-emulation). All these components are kept variable - which should make the change / upgrade easier and you could choose which one to load - or not to load to save some memory for an application. Remember: the OS was originally PC-DOS 3.30 !

   But after some time when RAM prices fell into the bottomless this sort of architecture became obsolete. No need to keep the expensive memory out of the machine - consequently the next version had Emulation, fonts, Postscript and the raster memory (the "graphic engine") all in the printer.

   The Ricoh 6000 now differs to the 4216-*010* through the emulation(s) it had, the internal fontsets and some base control commands / error codes. Both however used "font cardridges" for other fonts than the standard (Courier) or a "loadable font module" - sort of plug-on RAM with a download software. The Ricoh (and the Siemens variant) came with a HP Emulation cartridge, that allowed to use generic HP LaserJet+ drivers with these printers. The IBM 4216 had the LJ+ emulation already built in, default emulation was the IBM (9-wire !) Proprinter 4101. IIRC the original Ricoh emulated a standard ESC-p (Epson MX80 compatible) printer and needed to have the emulation cartridge. 

Peter in Germany 

Fred Mau
In features, print quality, and speed, it was roughly equivalent to the 4019. The only real difference was the 4216 used a Ricoh engine whilst the 4019 was an in-house design. By using the Ricoh engine, they got the product to market a couple years sooner.

And, lest someone ask, the 4216 "PERSONAL Page Printer" had absolutely nothing in common with the 3812 and 3816 Pageprinters from the IBM Pennant Division, which were much larger heavy duty monsters. (I've got a 3812 also.  It takes two people to lift it.)

Also, the 4216 had built-in Adobe Postscript support, which the original HP Laserjet -and most of the other Canon CX-engined printers except the Apple LW and QMS810 - lacked.

 Unfortunately, the Ricoh 6000 engine never gained the reputation for long-term reliability or ease-of-service that the Canon CX engine enjoyed.

Fred mau
 > -   An interface port between the M68000 and the Personal System/2.  The interface consists of a modified parallel printer adapter design.  This is the only communication between the Adapter and the Personal System/2 with no processor memory space being used by the adapter. This interface emulates the Personal System/2 printer port (i.e., LPT2) when an ASCII printer emulator is loaded and can be accessed by normal BIOS calls.  It also can be switched to an alternate (high-speed) mode that transfers data using a packet mode protocol.  The interface also allows bi-directional data transfer.

Sounds great, until you actually try to do it. The product announcement people were writing checks that the product development people couldn't cash.

And, if you read the original OS/2 2.x announcements and supported-hardware list, you'l find a claim that the 4216-020 was supported.  It wasn't.  The parallel version (-030) was, but not the -020.  We spent over a month going round-and-round with Lexmark and IBM over it, coming *this* close to a lawsuit.  The bad taste left over from that particular battle is 90% of why we dropped OS/2 in favor of DOS/Win/Novell for a corporate-wide platform. 

4216-020 Supported by Image Adapter/A with Printer/Scanner Option HERE

>FWIW, I was told once by a lexmark rep that you could also talk to this printer through a port on the Image Adapter/A card. I never had an IA/A myself, so I'm not sure if this meant all IA/A's or a certain version or possibly a special daughtercard.

• This is only applicable for the Image Adapter /A - not the Image-I Adapter/A.
• You need the "Printer / Scanner Feature Card" FRU 07F4403 and the "Printer / Scanner Y-Cable" FRU 07F4417. Probably the "Memory Module DRAM" (Kit) 07F44407.

The Y-cable connects to the IBM 3117 Scanner on the one side and to the 4216-020 "Raw Engine" on the other port. However: the driver support was rather poor (Win 3.0 / 3.1 and OS/2 up to 2.0 only IIRC). Have seen this combo at a customer once (back in 1991 or so) but never worked with it nor serviced it.

Peter in Germany

By Mark Chapman and Jeff Dean
(From The IBM Advisor, the technical newsletter for IBM dealers; 1Q 1990)

4216 Personal Pageprinter as HP LaserJet Plus

The following steps explain how to configure an IBM 4216 Personal Pageprinter for HP LaserJet Plus Emulation mode:

1. Power off the 4216.
2. Set the DIP switches on the 4216 as follows:
   
   1. Set switches 1 and 2 to UP. (parallel printing mode).
   2. Set switch 3 up and switch 4 down. (HP LJ+ emulation).
3. Power on the 4216.
4. The Personal Pageprinter will output a setup sheet. Ensure that the Interface is set for: LaserJet Plus, PC Parallel.

IBM 4216 as PostScript Serial

The following steps explain how to set up an IBM 4216 Model 031 printer as an OS/2 1.2 PostScript printer at 19,200 baud, attached to COM1.

1. Set all printer DIP switches "down" (configuration mode).
2. Set the COM port to 1200 bps (via the Control Panel).
3. Send a data file containing the PS commands shown on Page 20 to the printer using the command:
   

   COPY <FILENAME> COM1

4. Set switch 4 up to save the configuration.
5. Turn the printer off, and then back on.
6. Send a mode command to set up COM1 as follows:
   

   MODE COM1:19200,N,8,1,TO=ON, XON=OFF,DTR=ON

   (Put this into your STARTUP.CMD file so it executes each time you boot up your system).
7. Make sure that you have the printer associated with COM1 (via the Print Manager) and with the Postscript driver that comes with EE 1.2, and SE 1.2 (at CSD level XR04020 or later) refresh.
8. Make sure that you have a queue set up in the Print Manager (such as COM1Q) and associated with the 4216 Personal Pageprinter.

4216 Printer under W95

The tortured hand-to-byte combat for the W95 stuff below was done by Helmut P. Einfalt 

How to save money on PostScript printing by using the 4216 Personal Pageprinter and the Postscript Adapter /A! 

Why I Did It

Running the 4216 Personal PagePrinter with  the appropriate PostScript Adapter /A (yeah, True Blue they are) under DOS and Win3.11 posed no problems whatsoever (with the obvious exception that it is advisable to have a few spares for the Pageprinter since some parts are rather flimsy).... But then the devil bit me and I wanted to take advantage of the increased amount of RAM I had plugged into the 9595-ALF (0LF beyond the pond, that is), so I ventured to set up the beast under Win95. And, folks, what a hell of a job it was!

I presumed it simply HAD to work -- it is as DOS-based as the so-called Operating System is, so why shouldn't it work under Win95? First, I found out that the correct question should read: Why would it? After all, it's Micro%$&§*. Second, my raction was: If it can be done at all, it will be done. 

Well, it took me seven hours, three installs, and tons of paper as well as almost a gallon of coffee... 

Hardware

Before embarking on the adventure you might ask: Why use that old thing at all? 

   Well, its cheap. The printer comes in for next to nothing (dumpster diving!), and toner cartridges are at some 10-12 EUR (or virtually the same in USD) over here. Since the printing engine is a Ricoh 6000, the toner cartridges for that one (and similar photocopiers etc) will work fine. There
are a lot of "clone cartridges" around that cost one third of what IBM asked for the toner last time I checked... 

   The adapter, OTOH,  is more of a problem. Quite often the printers -- they used to be ubiquitous in corporate environments -- were scrapped simply for the one reason that the adapter ceased to work (bad case) or because they gave up MicroChannel altogether (good case). The adapter as such is a fat sandwich of two MCA cards (one populated with logic, the other with memory chips ) held together by multi-plug sockets on three sides and two dabs of hot-melt glue. If you can manage to get a couple of these adapters (ADF: @EFF6) you might just pluck the sandwiches apart and try different combinations -- out of three reportedly dead sandwiches, normally one pair should work... Most likely, the plastic foil on the back of the card will be missing -- it was nothing but a sheet of transparent plastic like they use for presentation folders -- easy to make, and easier still to cut your fingers with it (I know, I did...).

Personal Pageprinter Software

   You'll need the "PS/2 PostScript Adapter for IBM 4216 Diagnostics Diskette" (which is the standard "Option" disk and contains nothing but the ADF and DGF), as well as 9 (nine!) software disks:
-- the PostScript Adapter Program disks PPDISK1--PPDISK3
-- the Adobe Format Screen Fonts for the Personal Pageprinter PPASF1--PPASF3
-- the Windows Format Screen Fonts for the (etc.) PPWSF1--PPWSF3
   At least the option disk, the PPDisks and the PPASFs are a must. Even if you don't run Win3x, you're on the safer side if you have all ten of them ready -- IIRC the DOS-batchfile-controlled setup program is a bit finicky about what it wants.
   Can't remember having seen the whole pack at IBM's FTP, but if anyone needs them I can offer the German Version or (even better) maybe a plain-vanilla installed version ZIP with only the necessary files in their correct directories (anyone want to host it on their homepages?). I'd love to get the English version of the disks just for completeness... 

With  that, you've got a True Blue machine with a True Blue Printer that does PostScript as long as you don't ask too much -- printing at a gentle pace, that's what it is. But then -- for only a few dollars...

System and DOS Setup

Set up the 4216 Adapter /A and Pageprinter combo under DOS as usual (if you've got it running Win3.11, the better). 

First, check setup -- the card should be set to port *three* (dunny why, I found that Win95 choked on port 4 and decided there was no more LPT1 on the machine at all)... Ed. If you look at the adf, port 3 is at the standard 378-37B address. 

Second: Make sure that PPEPT.SYS is loaded in the Config.sys and that the other drivers are loaded via Autoexec.bat as stated below. 

Make sure that you have a

<drive>:\PP;<drive>:\PSFONTS

statement in your path line, else you're in for a lot of surprises.

When you run memmaker under DOS (which is commendable in order to have enough memory under 640k for the first part of the installation process), answer "Yes" to the question whether EMS is used, else you're in for a system choke later on.

Since loading the adapter at every restart is kind of a bore, you might set up a DOS menu with

[menu]
menuitem=NoPRINTER
menuitem=PRINTER
menudefault=PRINTER,30

and add sections in config.sys and autoexec.bat accordingly.

In Config.sys you'll need a header

[Common]

[Printer]
Loadhigh /L:x, nnnnnn <drive>:\pp\ppept.sys

and [NoPrinter] each heading in Config.sys, and some kindof

goto %config%

:NoPRINTER
goto end

:PRINTER
set PPDRV=C:\PP
set PSFDRV=C:\PSFONTS
set PPEM=P
LH /L:1,6432 C:\PP\PPTSR  [surprisingly, Loadhigh is accepted, address varies obviously]
call c:\PP\ppstart /a /nt /l /np
goto end

:end

section in Autoexec.bat.

Parameters for PPSTART.BAT will depend on personal preferences (print test page yes/no etc.).

It is important that the PPEPT1.SYS be loaded in every case (i.e. it should be in the [common] part, else Win95 will push it somewhere or nowhere...) While it was possible to start the whole Printer configuration and font loading process under DOS and Win3x at any time, with Win95 it is a must to load PPTSR *before* the Windows GUI comes up -- failing to do so I twide ended up with a nice Protection Error and the resulting BSOD...

W95 Setup

When everything is done, install Win95. Don't care about the printer in the first place, simply try to get the program installed. Once it is up and running, you will want to add a printer. Procedure is standard, selection "IBM/Lexmark" and "Personal Pageprinter II-30". The Driver comes up without a hitch, and that's where your problems will begin. DON'T try to print a test page, as the program suggests -- it won't work. 

  Once the printer is installed, go to the printer's "Properties" menu and do the following:
Details  use the "Add Port" button to create a new local port called "LPT1.DOS"  This is important, for unless the printer is hooked to that one (NOT the standard LPT1 !!!) every attempt to print will end with a "device not ready" error.. 

Spool settings
   Activate the spooler ("Start printing after las page is spooled")
      Enable bidirectional communication.
   PostScript
      Optimized for PORTABILITY
      Check "Download header with each print job"
      Timeouts shoudl be set to job=0, and wait=240 or higher.
   Fonts always use TrueType fonts, (or else!!)s -- don't let Win95 substitute fonts!
Close Printer Properties. 

Create Shortcut to \pp\ppctl.exe
This is a pure DOS program, but the only one that allows you to monitor the printer and to adjust printer settings (the important ones -- the simple things are provided by Mciro"§$%). 

Properties>Program>Advanced button
   Set to "Prevent MS-DOS based programs from detecting Windows" -- NO
   Suggest MS-DOS mode as necessary!". PPCTL uses XMS -- so give it at least 1024. 

Last step (and you've been rebooting quite a few times in the meanwhile):
Check that your printer mode (in ppctl) is set to:
-- emulated printer: Proprinter XL
-- standard interface mode: PostScript
-- mode over EPT: automatic
(or whatever the English exquivalents are). 

   EPT is *not* used (nor is EPT.DOS) to hook up the printer -- but for sure EPT is used internally. Trying the former port always ended with something sending some data to the printer without ever any output (EPT seems to be an equivalent to >NUL), while the latter produced a flood of PostScript code in 100% Courier... Actually, the data directed to LPT1.DOS is intercepted by the card and handed over to the printer in a piecemeal fashion. 

As soon as I was there, I was not only close to a neervous breakdown, but also close to success... 

   I added a "shared" statement and tried it from another machine across the network -- and voilà: it still worked. 

   It works fine as long as you load the drivers when firing up the machine, and PPCTL is running in a little DOS-box under Win95 (creating a desktop shortcut with a nice icon is an good idea...) 

Hope someone can do something with that info... There is virtually nothing around about these cards, and what little info I have is German...

Helmut P. Einfalt

AdapterID 0EFF6h Personal Pageprinter Adapter/A

Pageprinter Adapter I/O choices
   Port Four (037ch - 037fh), Port Two (027ch - 027fh), <Port Three (0378h - 037bh)>, Port One (0278h - 027bh)