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Smith Corona TP 1 printer

S

scottct

New Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2013
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2
Hello all,
I have just found one of these and am trying to get some output from it.
No luck at all so far using windows generic text setting.
After taking off the cover I found 7 dip switches.
Has anyone had one of these and can remember anything at all about how to set it up, or have a manual?
I have tried emailing the current Smith Corona, did get a nice reply back but not any real configuration info

Scott
 
Hello Scott,
a few more info about what is going wrong should be helpful.
Is it print some garbage characters?
Do you try it over the Centronics or the serial Interface?
Modern centronics printer cable are often not working on modern LPTs with old printers.
Make a basic parallel cable with D0-D7, Strobe-, Busy, Ready and GND and see if it work.

Frank
 
Could be mistaken - often am - but that might be a serial RS232 printer. I used to have a Smith-Corona L1000 impact printer kind of like that a looooong time ago. Very nice printer.

Anyway, if it is serial things can get a little more complicated because many vendors wired up their ports in odd ways. Start with a standard serial cable with a DS25 adapter. If that doesn't work perhaps try a null modem cable, or reversing send/receive.

If it is serial, the dip switches are probably for setting baud rate/stop bits/parody. You best bet is just to leave them as-is and try different serial port settings until you hit the right one. (probably 300, 1200, or 2400 baud 7 or 8 bits)
 
As I remember it, the TP1 is a parallel-interface printer. The switches may be for things such as line spacing, treatment of CR-LF sequences, etc. I recall that there was also an optional tractor feed for the thing, so the absence/presence of that may be reflected in the switch settings.

http://www.computerhistory.org.uk says that they have a manual in their collections, so perhaps you could drop them a note.
 
some further info

some further info

After a closer look inside the printer, It seems to be the serial version. I have found out there were serial and parallel interfaces optional.
So I have tried a standard serial cable into my xp machine. Left all the dip switches the way they were, 1-6 on, 7 off.
Tried all kinds of combinations of baud, stop,parity, handshaking options in the xp generic text com1 port settings.
Not even the slightest burp from the printer.

Not sure what to try next

Scott
 
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