TASPRINT and AERCO Printer Interface

When I purchased my new STAR SG-10 dot matrix printer and the AERCO Centronics printer interface, the first task I had was to get all my software working with my new equipment.

Digging out all the back issues of the many magazines and newsletters I subscribe to, I soon had all the instructions and pokes required for most of the programs I wanted to convert. I knew there would come a day, when I could prove to my wife there was a valid reason to keep the house so cluttered!

Naturally, TASWORD TWO was one program I had to have working with the Aerco Interface, and sure enough, after a few pokes there was NLQ output flowing from the Star printer. What a difference from that old T/S 2040. Next on to TASPRINT. It was then that I realized I didn’t have any articles or tips on getting TASPRINT to work with my printer interface.

I loaded up the TASPRINT customising program and followed the instructions, but nothing came out of the printer. In desperation, I printed out the customising program to see if I could find some hint as to what could be going on, and there it was! In line 6510 it said, “What is your interface software print address?”. The normal program flow never called this line. Typing run 6510 and typing in 64461, which is the entry entry point for the version 2.1 print driver I had…all was well. Of course I had a Basic error message when it got to the RETURN, but Tasprint had poked the address for me, and I now had a working version of Tasprint for the Aerco I/F.

Now would the same technique work for the version on side 2, which was meant to be merged with Tasword Two? Of course not! The customising program had no such line. It was now time to really do some hard looking. Out came HOT-Z (thank you Mr. Kingsley). I loaded in the customised code and started looking. After a lot of hacking, the IN and OUT routines were found. They were set up for the TASMAN I/F, and incompatable with the Aerco. The following pokes were devised to correct this:

poke 52580,201     poke 52607,79
poke 52608,0       poke 52609,0
poke 52610,219     poke 52611,127
poke 52612,203     poke 52613,103
poke 52614,32      poke 52615,250
poke 52616,121     poke 52617,0
poke 52618,0       poke 52619,211
poke 52620,127     poke 52621,201

[The first POKE address is unclear in the print: 52580, 52588 or 52508.]

I followed the rest of the instructions that came with Tasprint for merging with Tasword Two, and soon had a working version of TASWORD/TASPRINT for the AERCO I/F. I now have five additional type fonts (with inverse and boxing) to add to the STAR’s great features.

Just in case you didn’t save your back issues, here are the TASWORD/AERCO pokes:

poke 57999,127     poke 58001,103
poke 58008,127     poke 58014,219
poke 58015,127