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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

It's . . . it's . . . it's so cute!

It'll be a printer when it grows up! <gushy mode=parental>Who's the pretty printer? You are! Why, yes you are!</gushy>


All kidding aside, 40 characters on a standard adding-machine paper width is going to be nigh-impossible to read.

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

40 characters? Why not use it to print schematics?

Back in the day, I was certainly tempted to buy a mini-plotter which used 4 colour pens - as a printer. (It was cheaper than a printer)

Possibly something like one of the these - perhaps the Radio Shack one.

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Here's the same printer, but from 1980's and with an IEC interface:



Notice that the case is *EXACTLY* the same as the Weigh-Tronic one. Right down to the plastic detail.

I would assume there is a printer manufacturer that both Fidelity and Weigh Tronic buy from.

Jim

Darn if that thing doesn't strongly resemble a Star Micronics receipt printer from the 1980s.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Hi,
I'm waking-up this topic, because it is one question that is bugging me at the moment for my new 65c02 workbench computer :

How am I going to print hardcopy ?

I used to have a //port (sorry, in retrolangue I should say Centronix) laser printer, but that burst into flames one day. I only have USB or networked devices now...

What solutions have you come-up with yourselves (for 2023)?

Glenn from France

It's not quite an answer, but I'm a big fan of talking to retro computers over a serial connection: once you're doing that, you can have a transcript which you can print on your host machine. Of course, this does mean the retro computing environment isn't self-contained. Perhaps think of the terminal session as a teletypewriter?

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

@Garth,
Thanks, I had seen the posts. The cheapest Epson in Europe is LQ-690ii at over 500€... Looks like I'm going to have to trust someone on ebay. I did see an Oki 182 quite cheap - I'll check it out.
@BigEd
The comment about using a 'real' (my wording) computer as a pass-through is a good idea, but my application is very much like Garth's - I want it to be stand-alone in my "shack" and I also hate page-breaks.
@All
I had actually mused around the idea of using a micro-controller with the full network stack installed (wired - not WiFi), and use it as a print server with some sort of serial I/F. As my new design will have I2C and SPI (dedicated ICs for each) it will give me some possibilities for also experimenting this solution. I seem to recall that there are some PIC24Fs that have a slave // port *AND* USB - but I have never delved into the USB interface and it's protocol - so I'm not sure about going that way.

There is at least one commercial "solution" for "retro" printing that I'm aware of - it's a Raspberry Pi based system with a HAT device that has a Centronix socket and emulates a generic parallel/centronix printer. I don't know what the back-end does, but I'm sure if it just connects it as a stream into CUPS then you can print to anything after that.

Making one would be fairly easy. Same for serial.

You can still get old Printers - e.g. Epson FX series on ebay - price varies but I suspect the issue today might be getting hold of the ribbons...

Thermal printers are many and varied - most aimed at making labels. No ink, and various media is available but thermal paper isn't stable for long-term use. (At least it wasn't, maybe the technology has improved in recent years) The interface is often bluetooth, but there are USB and some rarer ones with serial.

-Gordon

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--
Gordon Henderson.
See my Ruby 6502 and 65816 SBC projects here: https://projects.drogon.net/ruby/

One of the projects on my to-do list has been to use a 6801* to do parallel printer to serial conversion, and then hook it up to my PC. I never worried about printing after that because I find it just as easy to save the result into a file and view it on my huge monitor. But you could certainly pass the file on to your desktop computer's standard printing system, if you wanted.

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* Of course, you could just as well use a 6502, a RAM chip and a 6520. I suppose people feeling more modern would just use an Arduino device of some sort.

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Curt J. Sampson - github.com/0cjs