[Coco] DMP-106 Pinter sighted

[George's Coco Address]

>
> In a message dated 3/15/06 12:23:56 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> gene.heskett at verizon.net writes:
>
>>Ouch, Mike, that's a no-no, mentioning the DMP-105 and reliable in  the
>>same sentence.  Tsk Tsk
>
>
>
> Well, I did use it rather lightly, but when I did run it I ran it pretty
> hard, printing out UME scores in graphics mode.  The manual warned against
> running graphics mode for more than a few minutes at a time, fearing 
> something
> would overheat, so I always kept a close watch on it.  (FWIW, the brass 
> primary
> gear on the carriage stepper motor of my Panasonic Epson knockoff gets 
> too
> hot to touch after a few minutes of printing organ rolls, but the old bear
> refuses to die, whew).
>
> So OK, I babied my DMP-105, but did push the thermal limits.  Sure it  had
> its share of paper jams, but those were the days when even professionals 
> swore
> "never leave the room during a print job."  --Mike K.
>

My first printer for my coco was a KSR teletype machine which had a paper 
tape reader/writer.
I had to put a micro-switch, a resistor, a high voltage cap and a solenoid 
into it to do a line feed on a carriage return.
My girlfriend would complain whenever I would use that thing. It darned near 
shook the house. I bet the neighbors could hear it also.
Finally I put it into a closet, put blankets on the wall surrounding it, and 
lined the door with something(can't remember). This made it so we could 
actually hear the TV.

Printing a listing at 110 baud was really slow.

My next printer was an Olivetti Dry Ink, Spark Jet Printer that was so 
quiet. It cost a fortune for the ink jet ampules. But darn that thing was 
nice.
This was in the early eighties. The light show on the carriage was awsome. 
Each pixel was done by applying a high voltage on the back side of the dry 
inkjet ampule which in turn would blow a spot of ink onto the paper, the 
sparks were visible but VERY quiet. The operation was smooth and steady. I 
used it for several years until Olivetti decided they didn't want to mess 
with consumer products any longer and the ink jet modules became scarce and 
then non-existent. I still use some of the gears and the small wire cable 
that moved the carriage back and forth on another project.

Old DMP printers have lots of fun stuff to use on hobby projects. I used a 
carriage from a WIDE printer to build a paper cutter which I use in my 
darkroom today.

George