What is this for?

[Eddiie]

I've had this BB2 for awhile... Recently went to turn it on and got Printer Com error.   I used to set it up as a Netplex.     It is a 950...
In between the backplane and printer is this black something...   It also gets power of some sort from somewhere..

I removed it and plug the printer directly into the cable coming from the backplane, and the printer works fine.     If I put the black thing back on, the status lights on the printer stay on.   

I also have another black box thing in a parts drawer, tried hooking it up and it does the same exact thing...   The printer basically locks up.    Remove the black thing plug in the printer to the cable coming off the backplane and it 'works' ..    Yeah, the cable is too short, I'll fix that ..

[Stayouttadabunker]

The "950" is a blue Ithaca Epic printer?

It works when the printer is set to "Netplex" in Device Config and nothing is burned out yet? 

The "black some thing" gets some power from a single orange wire coming off of one of the two 6-pin Molex's on the the PS box.
The blue/white wires go to power the printer's "RECEIVE TICKET" bezel light on the door.

[Eddiie]

So this is a Netplex interface?

[Simon Barsinister]

It isn't necessary and can be removed and bypassed.  It was known as a "Power Down Reset Board" and was developed to avoid falling asleep upon reboots or some other tilts that were occurring early on but ultimately were solved by software updates or other means, rendering them unnecessary.