Help adding a Serial Port to my G5

Question

Level 1

8 points

Help adding a Serial Port to my G5

Can anyone recommend a decent, realtively inexpensive card for adding a serial port to my G5?

I have an old LaserJet 5 printer I want to hook up to it and I'm sick of messing around with sharing the printer from an old Windows machine!

(I have an old G4 with an Adaptec 2906 card, but according to their website Tiger doesn't support it.)

PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7) Dual 2.7 GHz, 2 GB DDR SDRAM

Posted on Apr 22, 2007 12:24 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Apr 22, 2007 12:38 PM in response to B_Free

I have some notes from back when 10.4.0 shipped about Adaptec and Tiger. You might want to do search @ MacIntouch for "2906" and "Adaptec" plus "Tiger."

Seems you have to remove an extension possibly. Of course things could have changed (for worse) as a lot of changes under the hood have gone on in these two years.

A number of sites posted hardware and software compatibility reports at the time.

USB to Serial?

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Answer 2

Apr 22, 2007 1:19 PM in response to The hatter

Far better to get a JetDirect card for the printer and run it over ethernet.

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Answer 3

B_Free Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 22, 2007 2:17 PM in response to Forrest McElfresh1

Actually the printer has a JetDirect card, and I use a Linksys Wireless B Broadband Router to connect all my computers to the internet and each other, but everytime I try hooking up the printer via the router, none of my computers can find the printer.

As far as I can tell, either Linksys Wireless B routers can't deal with the printer, or else the JetDirect card is broken.

Do you have any ideas how I could determine which is the case?

PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7) Dual 2.7 GHz, 2 GB DDR SDRAM

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Answer 4

Apr 22, 2007 3:49 PM in response to B_Free

Printer Set-up Utility would be need to be run on each computer to direct to the named print server for the JetDirect card

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Answer 5

B_Free Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 22, 2007 4:53 PM in response to Forrest McElfresh1

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean.

When I've tried using the JetDirect card in the past, it was always when I tried to setup the printer in the setup utility (System Preferences -> Print & Fax -> Add new printer) that my computer just couldn't find the printer on the network no matter what I tried.

Is this the same Printer Set-up utility that you were talking about? Do I need to somehow set up a Print Server first?

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Answer 6

Apr 22, 2007 7:19 PM in response to B_Free

In the printer browser window you must select "IP printer" instead of "default browser" then select "protocol: HP Jet Direct - socket" and enter the JD card's MAC address.

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Answer 7

B_Free Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 28, 2007 8:39 PM in response to Forrest McElfresh1

How do I find out what my JD card's MAC address is?

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Answer 8

Apr 28, 2007 8:58 PM in response to B_Free

the MAC address should be on a sticker somewhere on the card, The format is four or five two character hex values or for or five three digit decimal values ( ie formatted- AA.BB.CC.DD.EE or AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD.EEE )

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Answer 9

Ricktoronto

Level 6

11,560 points

May 1, 2007 6:17 PM in response to Forrest McElfresh1

Unless the OP has a few dozen toner cartridges to kill off there are literally dozens of faster and higher resolution laser printers including networkable ones that would be a cheap and efficient solution. They may even be less than a serial adapter if there is one.

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Answer 10

May 1, 2007 6:41 PM in response to Ricktoronto

Yup.

I picked up a USB Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2400W refurb color laser printer for $139.00 a week ago. Cant even buy a full set of toner for that much and it is included and preloaded. Had to hunt drivers but it works like a charm 🙂

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Answer 11

B_Free Author

Level 1

8 points

May 12, 2007 9:13 PM in response to Forrest McElfresh1

Is it possible that the MAC address would be listed without the periods?

There are 2 stickers on the card, the first one says this:

J2550-60013 MADE IN SINGAPORE B-3640-D3
NELSGZA18502

The second one says this:
TR:00060D4CAF4E
AD:0060B032F572

I realize that only the numbers on the 2nd sticker are in hex, but is it the TR number or the AD? And where should the periods go?

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