[vcf-midatlantic] Greenbar print

Sat Feb 27 23:16:28 UTC 2021

I forgot about my DECwriter! if Mike doesn’t have any luck I’ll go get it.
It was working when Herb and I worked on it in 2019.

On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 6:09 PM Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> 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
> >
>
>