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LaserMaster LX-6 HP LJII Controller

Shadow Lord

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Long shot but....
I have in my possession a LaserMaster LX-6 controller. The controller allows achieving much higher res from a HP LJII then one would normally be able to (600x300 DPI vs the standard 300x300 DPI).

If you are really interested can read more about it here:

PC Magazine 05-16-1989 First Look

I have all the requisite HW but I am lacking the manual and more importantly the driver SW. I was able to locate multiple copies of the LM website on The Wayback Machine. Unfortunately, while some of the smaller files have been archived all the main EXE and ZIP files are missing. For example see:

Latest LX-6 Drivers

I am wondering if anyone has any drivers for this card. A manual would be most excellent as well but drivers are more necessary. Thanks.
 
Seems like there were superprint drivers for that, sadly google has become garbage and Superprint professional versions have always been rare
 
I am not familiar with the Superprint. Was that a third party driver package? Or was it a print cache?

Edit:

So found this bit of info:

Code:
SuperPrint is a software application that generally allows fast, high- quality
printing in the Windows 3.0 environment. It gives you scalable printer fonts,
WYSIWYG screen fonts, background printing, and batch printing capabilities.
SuperPrint consist of the following three modules:

  SuperDriver
  SuperText
  SuperQueue

The SuperDriver module handles the printing. It allows PostScript-quality printer
fonts in any size you need at print time.

The SuperText module allows you to make Windows screen fonts without leaving
Windows. You can build them in any size between 4 and 127 point, and because
they are built from the same files that are used for printer fonts, they give
you WYSIWIG screen display.

The SuperQueue module is a batch and background printing utility. It is similar
to Windows Print Manager because it lets you save each print job to a print
queue, and allows multiple print jobs to print in the background while you
continue to work in your Windows-based applications.

So it sounds like it was a PS SW emulator.
 
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Superprint was a printer driver vendor for high end devices that did not include their own drivers.

The drivers had a variety of personalized settings for the dot pattern and other settings . It also offered a 32bit print spooler / queue so you could print larger than normal images at higher than normal resolutions

It was always enraging to me that I would lay down $4000 on a wax thermal t-shirt printer and have to drop another $500+ on a driver that lacks free updates

 
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Superprint was a printer driver vendor for high end devices that did not include their own drivers.



Hmm.. I wonder if that was different from the consumer products that I see advertisedon web searches. That one doesn't say much about drivers for other printers. Winworld has a copy of v 3.1. So I guess worst case scenario I can try them out and see if it has anything useful. I would however, like to get my hands on the officail driver disks as apparently there was some DOS apps that needed to be run outside of Windows as well...
 
i hsve always loved the ljii and iii line since i worked on them into the lats 90s. i had no idea you could get higher resolution than 300dpi.
 
i hsve always loved the ljii and iii line since i worked on them into the lats 90s. i had no idea you could get higher resolution than 300dpi.
That was a thing back when laser printers were still multi thousand dollar devices

My Panasonic Omniflex Fast Thermal Light epl8018rat had a removable 8085 based motherboard that could be upgraded from 208dpi to 208x416

Even back then a newer unit made more sense than the upgrade
 
Oh I know.. Those printers are built like 55 chevys' you can still get all the parts. I wish I never sold my II, III, and IIP and IIIP. Heck I had the original Laserjet for a bit as well. I have been on the lookout for one for a while but only for a good price. Regardless I wish someone would make a copy of that device so I can try it out.
 
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i hsve always loved the ljii and iii line since i worked on them into the lats 90s. i had no idea you could get higher resolution than 300dpi.
Yep. I remember reading PC Mag in the local library and seeing the adds for the LaserMaster stuff. Of course they were way out of my budget.... $4K just for the card and you still needed to buy a LJ II!

They went on well into the 90s and made newer cards for the 4 series that allowed for 1000DPI and 1200DPI output. They even produced their "own" printers which I believe were just re-badged HPs with the controllers built in.... I got my hands on a LJII earlier this year and have been slowly restoring it. Only problem left is a line that is there at the top of the page. I've checked all the usual culprits and no luck yet... Other then that it runs beautiful....

Plan is to use it with the LM card, a HP PS cartridge and the MS Print Systems Cartridge on the AMI Enterprise III system....

Now if I could find a LJIIID...... LOL.
 
I sold my last LJ4 with JEtdirect to a small business maybe in 2015. I am sure they are still using it. Again I had no idea those could do more than 600DPI.

Back on the II and III. I always wanted to find those Rom cartridge addons that were interesting like the Fax cart which turned the unit into a FAX (incoming only of course) or the hard drive addon. Those interesting additions to those models.
 
Back on the II and III. I always wanted to find those Rom cartridge addons that were interesting like the Fax cart which turned the unit into a FAX (incoming only of course) or the hard drive addon. Those interesting additions to those models.
I don't think the II and the III had HDD options. My LJ 5500 has a 40GB HDD with a real spinning HDD that I can FTP into. The fax cartridge is cool as well.

As far as the upgrades go for my LJII it is maxed out on memory, I have the LAN interface but I am mainly using the parallel port, PostScript cartridge (makes it pretty much future proof), and the Microsfot Windows Print System Cartridge. The LaserMaster is icing on the cake....
 
Does the LaserMaster have a test page option or button? Regardless Id love to see a photo from the LJII in high res if you can post it.
 
So its completely software dependant then.. Shame.
As far as setup, commands, etc. yes. The actual processing and driving of the LJ is all HW based. The controlled card came in three configurations (2MB, 4MB, 6MB) of memory but it was user expandable. The memory is all socketed so you just add DIPs and go. Mine came with 4MB.
 
I have the Zenographics Laserdrivers for that. Should work with the printer, but have no way to test. I had a whole hard drive with drivers somewhere in the archives...
 
Just found the drivers... see here. (The SuperPrint 5.0 drivers I have might work better though).
 

Attachments

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I have the Zenographics Laserdrivers for that. Should work with the printer, but have no way to test. I had a whole hard drive with drivers somewhere in the archives...
Hi,

I just saw your posting. Yes I would love to get my hands on the drivers. I actually put the card away since I couldn't use it. Looks like time to pull it out of storage! Thanks!
 
Just found the drivers... see here. (The SuperPrint 5.0 drivers I have might work better though).
Hi,

I downloaded these and they are for a share ware program called Label Master.

What is Label Master 5.1?

Label Master 5.1 is a very powerful, yet easy to use mail
management program. With it, you can create a file of names
and addresses, edit the file, search for specific records or
browse through the file, and print labels and reports in any
of several formats.


I would love a copy of the Zenographics Laserdrivers? Do you have a Zenographics package or is it part of the SuperPrint 5.0 SW? Thanks!
 
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