Introduction
In most cases, dumb terminals can print or output to an attached device of some type, such as a printer. This works very similar to passthrough printing. In many manuals this is referred to as "aux printing", printing to the auxiliary port. An additional capability of dumb terminals is its ability to receive data from "aux" devices, such as bar code readers, meters, etc.
Anzio is capable of both these, input and output to "aux" devices.
Setting your connection
On most terminals, printers are attached serially. In the case of PCs, most printers are attached parallel. With parallel devices, the communications is more or less automatic. To configure serial devices however is a chore. In AnzioWin and Anzio Lite version 12.0 we have added the command AUX-SETUP. In other versions of Anzio, this needs to be done through various Windows dialogs external to Anzio.The AUX setup is accessed through the Advanced Options dialog under the Edit menu.
Or you can do a Ctrl-Shift-f to get to the Function: line and enter AUX-SETUP to configure what port your AUX device is on. You will be asked for the device name. Usually this will be COM1 or COM2 or one of your other serial devices, but it could also be your parallel printer, i.e. LPT1.
If a serial device is entered, i.e. COM1 or COM2, Anzio will call up a dialog box allowing you to set various communications parameters for that device. These settings will then be stored with the Anzio default file for the next time.
Aux input
On a dumb terminal, the "aux" port was a second serial port, sometimes used for a passthrough printer. But alternatively, it could be used to receive serial data from a device such as a barcode reader or electronic scale. Or, sometimes these devices were "wedged" into the serial line to the host.
Anzio version 12.0 now supports serial input from a COM port on the PC, regardless of whether the PC is connected to the host via serial or TCP/IP. Note that in the first case, two serial ports would be used. To configure aux input, do
Ctrl-Shift-f (to get to the Function: line)
AUX-SETUP
This will prompt you for the port name, and then the port settings. Then, to enable receiving serial data, do
AUX ON
and conversely,
AUX OFF
When ON, characters sent by the serial device will be sent to the host just as though they'd been entered from the keyboard.
Aux output
Most often doing AUX output is no different than capturing data to a device/file name of AUX, or simply doing passthrough print. As an example, when your terminal type is a Wyse or TV terminals, and data is sent from the host to the AUX device, the data is actually handled as if it were passthrough printing.
Another method with AnzioWin is to open an output device as AUX (file name) and then send the stream of data from the host. This date is captured and redirected according to the same settings as seen above for setting up an AUX device.
Other notes
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