tiny printer

[GARTHWILSON]

This isn't particularly 6502-related; but for printing needs in portable or miniature applications, it occurs to me that I should bring attention to the tiny dot-matrix impact printers from Weigh-Tronix. They use standard adding-machine paper, have RS-232 interface and a very large print buffer, are available in AC and DC models, and print up to 40 characters per line. I used one about 20 years ago at work, and it looks like they haven't changed much. The page of choices is here.

Edit, Oct 2022: The image I had linked to is gone, so I scanned a brochure I had here of one of the variations. There's lots of information on the back too, about specifications and options; but since it's no longer available, it seems kind of pointless to add that.

[kc5tja]

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.

[GARTHWILSON]

Quote:

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

It would be about like 160 on standard 8½"-wide paper, which although small, is no problem to read. I do 136 on 8½"-wide paper all the time (still at six lines per vertical inch) for program listings and other things, with my old Epson dot-matrix impact printers on fanfold paper.

I used one of these tiny Weigh-Tronix in one of the automated test equipment setups I did. I took the cue from a bondwire-strength tester used at my previous place of work, a VHF and UHF power transistor manufacturer. After a bondwire machine was set up, they would take some transistors done on it and see how much force it took to pull the bondwires off, to see if the tiny welds were adequate. Similarly, they would take a small sampling from each lot of transistors in production to verify the bondwire integrity.

We had more tests to do and more results to print out than the bondwire-strength tester did, so I figured the tape would just get longer. The idea was that if a product failed one or more of its dozens of tests, the results would be printed out and rubber-banded to it and it would be sent to the repair station. Space would also be saved on the test workbench. It worked, but I soon decided the description of each test should be less abbreviated, and the test limits should also be printed on each line—or something like that. I don't remember the details anymore, but I went to a wider printer after that, in order to get a clearer, more informative printout, even if it did take up more space on someone's workbench as he was doing the repair.

[GARTHWILSON]

Quote:

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>

Actually it's smaller than (but not as attractive as) this little HP-IL printer that was pretty standard use with the HP-41 calculators.

I never did get that one though, partly because it was twice the price of the Weigh-Tronix and I didn't really need for a printer to fit in a corner of my attaché case anyway.  I've only used full-sized printers with the HP-41cx.  [Edit:  Years later, I did get an HP82161A mini printer pretty cheap on eBay.]

[dclxvi]

kc5tja wrote:

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

40 characters? Why not use it to print schematics?

[BigEd]

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.

[GARTHWILSON]

Quote:

perhaps the Radio Shack one.

That reminds me, Radio Shack used to have a thermal printer that took paper about that wide (something like 4.5").  I don't know if that width of thermal paper is still available.  The Weigh-Tronix printers use commonly available non-thermal paper, and the print heads are much more trouble-free.  I used to wonder why the puple-ribbon option.  It turns out that the purple can go a lot longer between ribbon changes than black can.

[brain]

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

[BigDumbDinosaur]

GARTHWILSON wrote:

This isn't particularly 6502-related; but for printing needs in portable or miniature applications, it ocurs to me that I should bring attention to the tiny dot-matrix impact printers from Weigh-Tronix.

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

[GlennSmith]

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

[BigEd]

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?

[GARTHWILSON]

GlennSmith, I have just the thing for you!    See viewtopic.php?p=95246#p95246 .

As far as the tiny printers go, unfortunately they seldom show up on eBay, and when they do, the price is unreasonably high.

[GlennSmith]

@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.

[drogon]

GlennSmith wrote:

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

[cjs]

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.

__________
* 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.