Hi

Probably a good place to start is the manual that comes with any HP
plotter, the HP language is almost a standard and their documentation is
very good, It even as BASIC examples to show the way the commands work.

By the way, a few years ago ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS published a similar
project based on a Seikosha printer kit, that may be interesting as a
start point for you.
If you need more info on it mail me directly, I think I still have that
article somewhere around.
        best regards

        Jorge F


dlions@acs.itd.uts.edu.au wrote:
>
> Dear Piclisters,
>
>         I intend to use my recently acquired 16C74 to produce a home built
> plotter.  I have a dot matrix printer mechanism from an A3 width printer.
> I think that with some mechanical changes I can make an assembly that
> moves in the X-Y plane.  Then I will arrange a solenoid to raise/lower the
> plotter pen.
>
>         The '74 would emulate a common type of plotter, it
> would decode and plot the data sent to it.  I can figure out the pen and
> X-Y movement stuff, but can someone tell me :
>         - What plotter protocol/standard I should emulate
>         - Where is there a good source of information on this
>
> Even better, I am sure someone has already done this and would be willing
> to share their flawless code and comprehensive documentation :)
>
> Thanks.
> David Lions