Uploaded August 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
An Apple 410 Color Pen Plotter prints a simple arrow.
I found the serial cable I was using had DTR tied to ground... meaning the plotter had no way to tell the computer to stop sending data because its buffer is full. With a proper cable, and a Black Box serial monitor box, I was able to see DTR toggling.
I wrote a small PowerShell script to send the commands to the plotter. It reads the status of DTR before sending more commands.
A copy of the script is here: pastebin.com/TjnkVtK3
I found it can only send 3 before the buffer fills up and the plotter tells the PC to wait... No wonder it was choking and spitting out garbage when sending them 100 at a time!
An Apple 410 Color Pen Plotter prints a simple arrow.
I found the serial cable I was using had DTR tied to ground... meaning the plotter had no way to tell the computer to stop sending data because its buffer is full. With a proper cable, and a Black Box serial monitor box, I was able to see DTR toggling.
I wrote a small PowerShell script to send the commands to the plotter. It reads the status of DTR before sending more commands.
A copy of the script is here: pastebin.com/TjnkVtK3
I found it can only send 3 before the buffer fills up and the plotter tells the PC to wait... No wonder it was choking and spitting out garbage when sending them 100 at a time!
