Black Box Peripheral Sharer 2 to 1, Manual

Page 1: ...1000 Park Drive Lawrence PA 15055 1018 724 746 5500 Fax 724 746 0746 Copyright 2000 Black Box Corporation All rights reserved ...

Page 2: ...y 7 days a week Call 724 746 5500 or fax 724 746 0746 Mail order Black Box Corporation 1000 Park Drive Lawrence PA 15055 1018 Web site www blackbox com E mail info blackbox com SEPTEMBER 2000 PI138A PI138AE PI140A PI140AE Peripheral Sharer 2 to 1 Peripheral Sharer 4 to 1 STATUS PERIPHERAL SHARER SELECT 4 3 1 2 STATUS PERIPHERAL SHARER SELECT 2 1 ...

Page 3: ... commercial environment Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause interference in which case the user at his own expense will be required to take whatever measures may be necessary to correct the interference Changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user s authority to operate the equipment This digital appara...

Page 4: ...camente con carritos o pedestales que sean recomendados por el fabricante 7 El aparato eléctrico debe ser montado a la pared o al techo sólo como sea recomendado por el fabricante 8 Servicio El usuario no debe intentar dar servicio al equipo eléctrico más allá a lo descrito en las instrucciones de operación Todo otro servicio deberá ser referido a personal de servicio calificado 9 El aparato eléct...

Page 5: ...ado únicamente de acuerdo a las recomendaciones del fabricante 15 En caso de existir una antena externa deberá ser localizada lejos de las lineas de energia 16 El cable de corriente deberá ser desconectado del cuando el equipo no sea usado por un largo periodo de tiempo 17 Cuidado debe ser tomado de tal manera que objectos liquidos no sean derramados sobre la cubierta u orificios de ventilación 18...

Page 6: ...emarks of Hewlett Packard Lexmark is a trademark of Lexmark International Velcro is a registered trademark of Velcro USA Inc Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation All applied for and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners ...

Page 7: ...Printer Sharing 17 5 2 Sharing Parallel Port Tape Backup Drives 18 5 3 Sharing a Printer and a Tape Backup Drive 19 5 4 Sharing a Parallel Port CD ROM Drive 19 6 Software Utilities 22 6 1 SMART EXE 22 6 2 SMARTCON EXE 23 6 3 DOWNLOAD EXE 24 Appendix A Cables 25 A 1 PC To Peripheral Sharer Cable 25 A 2 Peripheral Sharer to Printer Cable 25 A 3 IEEE 1284 Compliant Cables 25 A 4 Data Boosters 25 Appe...

Page 8: ...inutes or 4 minutes Normal or high scan rates Stored in EEPROM and retained when power is off Can be changed using download program provided Default options can be selected by 1 Specifications General Compatibility Can be used with most devices that attach to PC parallel ports with the aid of the SMARTLOG program supplied Only one user has access to the shared peripheral at a time Dongles may only...

Page 9: ...r EQN200 Peripheral Sharer to Printer DB25 male to 36 pin male printer cable shielded all ground lines connected part number EQN202 Peripheral Sharer to Other Devices Use PC to Peripheral Sharer cable Cable Lengths Lengths supported vary considerably with cable type and PC peripheral specifications IEEE 1284 twisted pair cables and high quality cables generally support longer distances Maximum rec...

Page 10: ...mance parallel device sharer suitable for sharing printers tape backups certain CD ROMs and other devices that attach to PC parallel ports 2 1 Key Features High performance fully bi directional parallel ports Automatic printer sharing and tape backup sharing Data transfer speeds in excess of 500 000 cps are supported Automatic auto scan or manual port selection Exclusive peripheral use can be sele...

Page 11: ... port for connection to PC Parallel port for connection to peripheral Parallel port for connection to peripheral Power supply connector 5 VDC 200 mA Power supply connector 5 VDC 200 mA Mode port selection key Mode port selection key Port status and data activity display Port status and data activity display Figure 2 1 Peripheral Sharer 2 to 1 ...

Page 12: ...specifications and recommended maximum lengths are given in Appendix A 3 2 Mounting the Peripheral Sharer The Peripheral Sharer can be used on a desktop or mounted on a vertical surface To mount the unit vertically we recommend that you use two Velcro strips 3 3 Connecting Your Devices Make sure that the power is disconnected from the Peripheral Sharer Connect the interface cables as shown in Figu...

Page 13: ...g problems if you get an off line message reported from a DOS package when the printer is actually free then you should include the MODE command in your AUTOEXEC BAT file The MODE program is supplied with your PC s DOS software 3 6 Installing the Software NOTE You do not need to install the Peripheral Sharer software to use the Peri pheral Sharer 4 to 1 as an automatic printer sharer This function...

Page 14: ...ins the general operation of the Peripheral Sharer We recommend that you first read this section and then read the sub section in Chapter 5 that covers your specific application 4 1 Power On Status At power on the segments of the status display will light in sequence in a clockwise direction This indicates that the Peripheral Sharer has powered on correctly and is in auto scan mode Auto Scan Press...

Page 15: ...equire an uninterrupted connection to the peripheral while the software is in use It is particularly useful for sharing tape backup systems See Sections 5 2 5 4 6 1 and 6 2 for further details 4 4 Status Display The status display shows the port status and data flow In auto scan mode with no data activity the segments will light in sequence in a clockwise direction When data activity is detected t...

Page 16: ...termittently Port number is displayed and does not flash Dot in lower right hand corner flashes MEANING Auto scan mode Scanning ports waiting for data activity Auto scan mode Peripheral is connected to displayed port and connection will time out Manual mode Peripheral is not connected to displayed port and will not time out Data activity ...

Page 17: ...Appendix D 5 1 Printer Sharing All unidirectional bidirectional and GDI printers GENERAL Connect your PCs and printer as recommended in Chapters 3 and 4 From your PC print as you would if you were connected directly to the printer The Peripheral Sharer will automatically connect your PC to the printer When your print job is finished the Peripheral Sharer will wait until it has detected no data tra...

Page 18: ...se SMART will continuously retry until a connection is made or the user selects abort Consequently the Peripheral Sharer will support unattended backups from several PCs NOTE Always use SMART to run your tape backup software Running your tape backup software directly from the DOS prompt will not be reliable If you have Windows based tape backup software use the SMARTCON program see Section 6 2 5 2...

Page 19: ...5 3 Sharing a Printer and a Tape Backup Drive If your tape backup drive has a feed through parallel port then you can use the Peripheral Sharer to share a printer and a tape backup automatically Typically the printer would be shared during normal office hours and the tape backup would perform unattended backups during the night To share devices in this way connect the output from the Peripheral Sh...

Page 20: ...batch file will be similar to that detailed below an example batch file stored as CDROM BAT on the Peripheral Sharer disk Modify this batch file as necessary to install your CD ROM drivers The batch file includes the following steps 1 Run SMART EXE to establish a guaranteed connection to the Peripheral Sharer This program will continue trying to connect until a connection is made or until you pres...

Page 21: ...MART DOS or SMARTCON Windows 2 Use the CD ROM as if you were connected directly to the drive 3 End the CD ROM session using SMART or SMARTCON so that other users can access the CD ROM drive 5 4 3 STARTING AND ENDING CD ROM SESSIONS USING SMART OR SMARTCON To start a CD ROM session from the DOS prompt use SMART ON LPTx where x 1 2 or 3 To end a CD ROM session from the DOS prompt use SMART OFF LPTx ...

Page 22: ...format is SMART program options LPTx where x 1 2 or 3 program options is the program to run with any associated options that would normally be added to the DOS command line For example if the required command line for a tape backup program is BPBACKUP then use SMART BPBACKUP LPT1 6 1 2 USING SMART TO MAKE A CONNECTION SMART can be used to establish a connection to the shared peripheral that will n...

Page 23: ...uto scan mode 6 1 4 USING SMART WITHIN BATCH FILES SMART can be used within DOS batch files to make a connection run an application and then break the connection when the user quits This is equivalent to using SMART to run a program Section 6 1 1 but has the advantage that less memory is needed The SMART program returns error level 1 if it has failed to make a connection This property can be used ...

Page 24: ...at lets you change the global Peripheral Sharer options These options are stored in the unit s EEPROM memory and are retained even when the power is off If you wish to reset the options to their factory settings power on the Peripheral Sharer while holding the front panel key down The format of the download program is from the DOS prompt DOWNLOAD LPTx option where x is 1 2 or 3 and option is one o...

Page 25: ... up to 32 8 ft 10m long may normally be used For sharing tape backup drives and CD ROMs cables up to 22 9 ft 7 m long may normally be used A 2 Peripheral Sharer to Peripheral Cable specification 25 pin male to 36 pin male braid shielded Wired as a standard PC to printer cable Cables should be no longer than 6 5 ft 2 m A 3 IEEE1284 Compliant Cables IEEE1284 compliant cables use internal twisted pai...

Page 26: ... for use by a single user only It communicates continuously with the printer preventing other users from printing or accessing the printer in auto scan mode We recommend that you do not use the DOS status monitor with the Peripheral Sharer Consider using the Windows printer status monitor instead B 1 Operation Under DOS PRINTING For normal printing operations the Peripheral Sharer will share the L...

Page 27: ... with the printer In a shared printer system it is the user s responsibility to shut down the Main Status Window after each print job so that other users can automatically access the printer B 2 Operation under Windows PRINTING You should make sure that the Windows Print Manager is enabled which is the Windows default This will enable you to queue your print jobs even if the printer is currently i...

Page 28: ...diting the WIN INI file to remove the Hewlett Packard Status Window HPSW EXE program If you do not do this you will have to close the Status Window whenever you boot Windows For example Edit or remove the following line from the WIN INI file run c windows hpsw exe Real time printer information will not be displayed if the printer is in use by another computer when you print Instead the print job w...

Page 29: ...m may install MarkVis ion to run automatically when Windows boots In a shared printer environment run MarkVision only when it is needed To remove the auto run feature edit the WIN INI file to remove the line run c prt4039 lexpanel exe which can be found in the windows section Software Driver Installation During installation of the software drivers make sure that your PC is connected to the printer...

Page 30: ... WinWriter 600 in bi directional mode you must close down the Print Manager after each print job To do this easily press ALT and TAB to cycle through the active applications The Peripheral Sharer will support the Lexmark WinWriter 600 in both unidirectional and bi directional modes In bidirectional mode information such as the type of paper loaded in the printer is available on your PC screen Prin...

Page 31: ...et 5 Drivers During the installation of your HP LaserJet software make sure that your PC is continuously connected to the LaserJet 5 To do this select the port manually using the Peripheral Sharer s front panel key Once you have installed the PC drivers switch the Peripheral Sharer back to auto scan mode E 2 Driver Compatibility LaserJet 5 printers are provided with two types of printer driver 1 H...

Page 32: ...n option When prompted select the HP PCL driver option The PCL status window option selects whether the status window program is automatically activated during printing For shared printers it is generally more convenient not to automatically activate the PCL status window during printing because users will need to close down the window after each print status window function see section B2 for mor...

Page 33: ...800 Printers During the installation of your HP DeskJet software make sure that your PC is continuously connected to the DeskJet To do this select the port manually using the Peripheral Sharer s front panel key Your PC will communicate several times with the printer during the installation process Once you have installed the PC drivers switch the Peripheral Sharer back to auto scan mode F 2 HP Des...

Page 34: ...al printing mode allows you to buffer print jobs in your PC while the printer is in use by another computer You will not see the progress of the print job on your screen but for most small systems this is not a problem For optimum ease of use we recommend that you set a high Windows printing timeout period of 900 seconds 15 minutes This keeps the print jobs from stalling if the printer is in use f...

Page 35: ...ripheral not ready when sharing tape drives CD ROMs etc Action Use SMART to establish a connection before you run the software see Section 6 1 Problem Data is corrupted Action Try reducing cable lengths using higher quality cables or using data boosters Problem Data transfer does not occur Action Try connecting the peripheral device directly to the computer to check that it works without the Perip...