Same reason a lot of industrial equipment is expensive. They are no longer a mass production item, so economy of scale is lost. Less manufactures make them, so less competition. Only businesses buy them.
As to why you would want them, well cheaper to run for items that do not need to be NLQ or where carbon copies are required.
Compatable with older systems unlike most current inkjets. The serial types can be connected to a modem (using a private line) so the printer can be remote to the industrial system. Useful for fault logging/reporting.
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
Dot matrix printers are a lot cheaper to run than lasers or ink-jets and they tend to be more reliable in harsh environments.
Plus, you can get a number of different types of ribbon for different applications.
I was involved in an IT project for a Garden Centre a few years ago, and we supplied an Epson FX-870. They are an incredibly fast printer, and you can get ribbons with Ultra-violet/ Water resistant ink. Just the thing you need when printing plant labels, because otherwise the sun bleaches them out and the water makes the ink run!
Another advantage of dot matrix, is that it actually produces an actual inprint on the page - which means that even if the ink has faded, you still have a chance of reading it.
I expect that one of the major reasons that they are still made is for doing things that require duplicates. All but one of the dot matrix printers I've seen being used in anger in the last 10 years have been at places like the building yard for invoices or MOT test centres.
The other was printing out logs from a piece of telecoms equipment in real time on miles and miles of tractor feed paper!
1. Get a printer with a built-in JetDirect network module. Many laser printers have this.
2. Get a Spectranet.
3. Write a Spectranet module that can take data from a ZX BASIC stream and make a PostScript representation of said stream.
4. Send the PostScript over the network to the JetDirect printer.
5. ????
6. Profit!
Note that most laser printers (certainly HP ones) will print plain text (without it needing to be a PostScript or PDF output) if you just send it over the network to the printer. So if all you want to do is print plain text, you can do it by merely opening a connection to the JetDirect from ZX BASIC, and sending what you want to print down the newly opened BASIC stream. In other words, something like (if memory serves right)
I have always thought that there would be a market for a small box (maybe built around the Raspberry Pi) which would basically act as a modern day print spooler.
No need, a printer with a built-in JetDirect (or compatible) will do it all, see above :-)
No need, a printer with a built-in JetDirect (or compatible) will do it all, see above :-)
Yes it would so long as you can persuade industry to buy a Spectrum as well as Spectranet - still not sure how you connect the Spectrum to a bit of industrial equipment though !!
When I first saw your message I thought you had managed to connect a ZX Printer to the PC. :D
I sort of have...
I now have a cups driver that lets me print to my speccy print server. I keep updating the file on my test server so at the time of this post it shows a file printed from gedit (the first paragraph of the speccy article on wikipedia) and a page printed from firefox (wos homepage)
It's all a bit rough around the edges, but it's working... it might be time to get the real 48k out and try the real thing... :-o
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
That is *exactly* like fax paper. So you can get as much paper as your heart desires.
I've got a serial printer like the Alphacom (for Speccy 128k/+2 and QLs), it's taking fax rolls as they come. No modifications or anything.
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
Mark, you'll be surprised... just pay a visit to one of those wholesaler stores that sell paper for cash registers, you'll see they come in all sorts of widths.
If you want to do it yourself, though... I'd suggest Dremmel and a plastic cutter disk. :D
Memrah... I have no clue. Its box just says "Serial 8056".
Funny detail: it's printing the lowercase "Y" like the Greek lowercase gamma (γ). :P
I've been using till/credit card rolls for years with My two Alphacoms, a bulk box lasts for ever. The rolls are obviously too big to fit in the printer so it's a bit of a pain having to wind on what You need by hand but no real hardship.
had a fiddle with my printers today... First thing that happened was that the plastic is so brittle the holes the screws go into all disintegrated so I had to chop them out and hot glue some nylon spacer thingies in for the screws to bite into.
Once I got all that done the bloody belt disintegrated on me so now I need to order a drive belt and fart about making a replacement.
had a fiddle with my printers today... First thing that happened was that the plastic is so brittle the holes the screws go into all disintegrated so I had to chop them out and hot glue some nylon spacer thingies in for the screws to bite into.
Once I got all that done the bloody belt disintegrated on me so now I need to order a drive belt and fart about making a replacement.
grr etc
Exactly why I am afraid of operating my ZX Printer :D That and, I only have a single roll of paper :D
Memrah... I have no clue. Its box just says "Serial 8056".
I guess it is one of these then:
I wonder which one will be around for longer, paper for thermal printers or replacement ribbon cartridges for dot matrix printers. Your printer must be much quieter than a dot matrix, I guess.
That's exactly the one, matey! It sounds like an inkjet... perhaps a bit quieter too. But it's one heavy ******fraker...
Chris, you can use a fax roll as it is. It's using the same size paper.
...and I think that both ribbons and thermal paper will be with us for a long time. Offices don't change their habits easily...
Besides, you can go get a box of fax paper now, really cheap, and have enough to print the Bible 100 times over...
I was wondering the same thing about perforated paper for dot-matrices... still there...
Actually, it just occurred to me that I've got an old Hewlett-Packard Deskjet with a centronics/parallel interface (no USB) in storage. I remember that it had a config programme for DOS where you could set up all the details, compatibility settings etc. I wonder how well it would work connected to, say, the Opus or the +D or Disciple printer ports.
Has anyone ever done that?
Comments
Economies of scale, or the lack thereof...
As to why you would want them, well cheaper to run for items that do not need to be NLQ or where carbon copies are required.
Compatable with older systems unlike most current inkjets. The serial types can be connected to a modem (using a private line) so the printer can be remote to the industrial system. Useful for fault logging/reporting.
Mark
Repair Guides. Spanish Hardware site.
WoS - can't download? Info here...
former Meulie Spectrum Archive but no longer available :-(
Spectranet: the TNFS directory thread
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
Plus, you can get a number of different types of ribbon for different applications.
I was involved in an IT project for a Garden Centre a few years ago, and we supplied an Epson FX-870. They are an incredibly fast printer, and you can get ribbons with Ultra-violet/ Water resistant ink. Just the thing you need when printing plant labels, because otherwise the sun bleaches them out and the water makes the ink run!
Another advantage of dot matrix, is that it actually produces an actual inprint on the page - which means that even if the ink has faded, you still have a chance of reading it.
The other was printing out logs from a piece of telecoms equipment in real time on miles and miles of tractor feed paper!
1. Get a printer with a built-in JetDirect network module. Many laser printers have this.
2. Get a Spectranet.
3. Write a Spectranet module that can take data from a ZX BASIC stream and make a PostScript representation of said stream.
4. Send the PostScript over the network to the JetDirect printer.
5. ????
6. Profit!
Note that most laser printers (certainly HP ones) will print plain text (without it needing to be a PostScript or PDF output) if you just send it over the network to the printer. So if all you want to do is print plain text, you can do it by merely opening a connection to the JetDirect from ZX BASIC, and sending what you want to print down the newly opened BASIC stream. In other words, something like (if memory serves right)
No need, a printer with a built-in JetDirect (or compatible) will do it all, see above :-)
Yes it would so long as you can persuade industry to buy a Spectrum as well as Spectranet - still not sure how you connect the Spectrum to a bit of industrial equipment though !!
www.rwapsoftware.co.uk
www.sellmyretro.com
Once you have ethernet there's an awful lot of stuff you can connect to :-)
I sort of have...
I now have a cups driver that lets me print to my speccy print server. I keep updating the file on my test server so at the time of this post it shows a file printed from gedit (the first paragraph of the speccy article on wikipedia) and a page printed from firefox (wos homepage)
It's all a bit rough around the edges, but it's working... it might be time to get the real 48k out and try the real thing... :-o
yeah, trouble with that is that then you gits will use up all my shiny bogroll :p
On a completely unrelated matter, does **anyone** pronounce the "ZX" "zee-ecks" or is it just me? I always found "zed-ecks" rather tongue-twisting...
Repair Guides. Spanish Hardware site.
WoS - can't download? Info here...
former Meulie Spectrum Archive but no longer available :-(
Spectranet: the TNFS directory thread
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
How easy is it to find paper for those? I remember reading somewhere that it was similar to fax paper.
I've got a serial printer like the Alphacom (for Speccy 128k/+2 and QLs), it's taking fax rolls as they come. No modifications or anything.
Nice. What brand/model is it?
Mark
Repair Guides. Spanish Hardware site.
WoS - can't download? Info here...
former Meulie Spectrum Archive but no longer available :-(
Spectranet: the TNFS directory thread
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
If you want to do it yourself, though... I'd suggest Dremmel and a plastic cutter disk. :D
Memrah... I have no clue. Its box just says "Serial 8056".
Funny detail: it's printing the lowercase "Y" like the Greek lowercase gamma (γ). :P
For Alphacoms the width needed is 105 mm.
Once I got all that done the bloody belt disintegrated on me so now I need to order a drive belt and fart about making a replacement.
grr etc
Exactly why I am afraid of operating my ZX Printer :D That and, I only have a single roll of paper :D
I wonder which one will be around for longer, paper for thermal printers or replacement ribbon cartridges for dot matrix printers. Your printer must be much quieter than a dot matrix, I guess.
Chris, you can use a fax roll as it is. It's using the same size paper.
...and I think that both ribbons and thermal paper will be with us for a long time. Offices don't change their habits easily...
Besides, you can go get a box of fax paper now, really cheap, and have enough to print the Bible 100 times over...
I was wondering the same thing about perforated paper for dot-matrices... still there...
Has anyone ever done that?
Or the +3/+2A parallel port :)