[vcf-midatlantic] Greenbar print

Andrew Diller dillera at gmail.com
Sat Feb 27 23:09:38 UTC 2021


Some more info on the VCF printers.

1. Nice Epson Wide carriage- powers on, but errors immediately and won't print a test page.
2. Diablo 630 - really cool looking printer, clean and powers but goes to alert, print head won't move. Also a daisywheel.
4. Okidata wide carriage- this powers and the test print actually starts but it prints one line and then goes into error condition
5. Decwriter III - this powers up, prints but the take-up spool for the ribbon doesn't work - the ribbon becomes more and more slack.
6.. Decwriter III - this powers up but has an error that won't clear, won't go into local mode.

We really should get the Decwriter and the Diablo working. I'll take a look at them again with some help next week at the Repair day.

We also need to setup a dos system luggable we can use for jobs like this, a Compaq luggable would be perfect with a network card in it to do ftp on the network. I'll ask for some help next weekend to see if any of the seven I saw in the warehouse can be made functional for this job.

The next time we get a request like this, we should be prepared.


-andy



> On Feb 27, 2021, at 4:10 PM, Jeffrey Brace <jeffrey at vcfed.org> wrote:
> 
> OK. An update Andy looked at the printers that we have. A DEC Writer III seemed the best candidate, but it needs repair beyond our ability to fix. So it is a bust at VCF museum.
> 
> On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 1:55 PM Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> Most of the printers at VCF are daisy wheel. So far none of the dot matrix work. 
> 
> I don’t think we can print from VCF. 
> 
>> Andrew Diller
> 267-353-2203
> 
> 
> > On Feb 27, 2021, at 1:42 PM, Jameel Akari <jakari at bithose.com> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >> On Feb 27, 2021, at 12:09 PM, Andrew Diller <dillera at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> 
> >> Anyone want to talk on discord about this? Who is actually doing it?
> > 
> > Send me an invite to the appropriate Discord, I don’t seem to have it anymore.  (Maybe I left because it was idle?)
> > 
> > I will go test my Proprinter and see if it works.  It’s been a long time since I’ve tried, and I know I have a second non-working one so hopefully I haven’t confused the two.
> > 
> > 
> >> 
> >> I'm at InfoAge and we have greenbar, if needed I'll find a widecarrige printer and see if I can get it to print from a PC
> > 
> > Serial into a DECwriter if you can’t find a printer with a Centronics port.  Oh, and a ribbon that isn’t fossilized. :/
> > 
> > 
> >> .
> >> 
> >> Let me know if you are actually doing the print-out.
> >> 
> > 
> > If my printer self-tests ok and I have a ribbon, I’ll fire up my test mule Linux PC that has a parallel port and give it a shot.
> > 
> > — 
> > Jameel
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >> -andy
> >> 
> >>>> On Feb 27, 2021, at 9:45 AM, Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >>> 
> >>> They want a printout only?  Not a printer too, right?
> >>> Bill
> >>> 
> >>> On Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 9:34 AM Jameel Akari via vcf-midatlantic <
> >>> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >>> 
> >>>> I was thinking the same - NLQ might be good enough, assuming the thing
> >>>> still works at all. An OfficeMax store-closing liquidation fated me a full
> >>>> case of greenbar.
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> --
> >>>> Jameel Akari
> >>>> 
> >>>>> On Feb 27, 2021, at 9:19 AM, Dean Notarnicola <dnotarnicola at gmail.com>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> I was guessing that they would want wide carriage and impact printing,
> >>>> depending on the time period. I got my proprinter xl out of mothballs as
> >>>> well (the NLQ mode may be sufficient) , but the bigger challenge is finding
> >>>> greenbar on short notice.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>>> On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 9:14 AM Jameel Akari via vcf-midatlantic <
> >>>> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> I will dust off my Proprinter XL and work on it too if the details
> >>>> include “dot-matrix is ok.”
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> From the context I’m guessing they’re really looking for that
> >>>> band/chain printer look that a 1980s DMP doesn’t have.
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> --
> >>>>>> Jameel Akari
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> On Feb 26, 2021, at 11:28 PM, Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic <
> >>>> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> Can you please send technical details of the printout?  Ascii file?
> >>>>>>> Characters per line?  Is the printout file ready and all they need is
> >>>> a
> >>>>>>> print or does thenoutput need to be formatted first?
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> I recall you said it was roughly a hundred or so total pages?
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> Maybe someone near the museum can look for the two DECwriter III's
> >>>> that
> >>>>>>> might still be around the warehouse, or some other wide carriage
> >>>> printer
> >>>>>>> there.  If you put a new ribbon on one of those and attach to an old
> >>>> pc
> >>>>>>> running word perfect paginated to 132 character lines you could at
> >>>> least
> >>>>>>> try to print this at infoage.  I bet there is some green bar in the
> >>>>>>> warehouse
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> When the file and details are available I would be happy to at least
> >>>> try to
> >>>>>>> do of it too.
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> Bill
> >>>>>> 
> >>>> 
> >> 
> > 
> -- 
> Jeff Brace
> =========================================
> Vice President & Board Member
> Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner
> Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity
> http://www.vcfed.org/
> jeffrey at vcfed.org
> cell: 732-759-1783
> 



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