Old printer/New mac

Question

I have an old LaserWriter Select 360 I would like to use with my new ProMac but I can't seem to "add a printer" through the Printer Utility program. I am using a Belkin parallel to USB adapter to connect to the Mac. Since Mac is plug & play, I was told this should work. I have also tried via an AsanteTalk (which I used on my G4) connecting to the ethernet port as suggested by other postings on this topic. No success. Does anyone know of an adapter which permits connectivity of older printers to the new Macs?

Answer 1

sbuff22,
You mentioned that you have an Asante device.
Look for one of these legacy devices to do the job:
http://www.asante.com/support/legacy/Bridges/AsanteTalk_AsantePrint.asp
This model, for example, AsantePrint AP1002 (thick/thin), offers a downloadable pdf that discribes what you are looking for.
http://www.asante.com/downloads/legacy/apap8igra.pdf
This site:
http://www.asante.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3267
will give you a quick tutorial on what it takes to plug old into new. The printer model is different but the concept is the same. You must translate USB or ethernet printing commands into Appletalk networked printing commands that the printer can understand.
The Asante support site will give more detailed information on drivers and devices.
USB was created to make PC peripheral devices more consumer friendly and plug and play like a Mac. However, you still need to be aware of language differences. In the old days, if you plugged an Imagewriter printer into the printer port and had AppleTalk active, when you turned the printer on, it would begin printing a bunch of gibberish. That was the non-AppleTalk printer trying to make sense of a different language.
Plugging an AppleTalk device into a USB port gives the same result, gibberish. You just do not see it translated to charachters on the printed page.
Your USB to Parallel adapter is taking two steps. Translating USB to parallel, then the Select 360 makes a second translation. The Select was designed to auto detect print commands from Macs and PCs on a network.
If you are only connecting one printer to one computer, the USB option might work just fine. Otherwise, using an EtherPrint converter would allow the Select to join a faster network and minimize multiple translations in print commands. As for the first link, you can disregard any discussion of hubs and routers.
This site gives a topic list that might help you locate your specific model:
http://www.asante.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=12
This link gives a discussion of a wireless option:
http://www.asante.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3106&whichpage=2
Here is the Asante Legacy products site:
http://www.asante.com/support/LegacyDownloads.asp
One final note, you can find ethernet capable printers for $25 and toner cartridges for the Select may not be as easy to find as ones for the 16/600 PS Laserwriter.
Jim
PS You are not talking about a Bluetooth device but pay attention to notes like this when you come accross them!
http://www.asante.com/support/index.asp
FBT100 Wireless Bluetooth Adapter
Using the OS X Apple Bluetooth Firmware Updater will permanently destroy this device (and void its product warranty) as indicated by this note on the Apple site. : )