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Anyone recognize this 1987 NCR industrial PC?

vwestlife

vwestlife

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I'm working on a documentary about Personics, which used what was described as an IBM AT-compatible NCR industrial PC to control a CD changer and high-speed audio cassette tape duplicator. This was in 1987, so it was probably a 286, but maybe a 386. Here's a photo of it:

ncr pc.png
Also if you can ID the laser printer that was used to print the labels and cards for the cassettes, that would be great too.
 
vwestlife said:
Also if you can ID the laser printer that was used to print the labels and cards for the cassettes, that would be great too.
Click to expand...

It would be easier to ID the printer exactly if it didn't have that black bar across the control panel apparently intended to conceal its identity from rogue operators, but it's clearly a Canon CX-engine printer. (IE, the engine that was used in the original HP Laserjet and Apple Laserwriter printers.) The case doesn't look *quite* right for a Laserjet, so... digging around it may actually be the original Canon-labeled LBP-CX. Pictures of it are extremely hard to find, but... the angles look about right to me. (There's a service manual with line drawings on Archive.org.)

... Note that the Canon printer was sold under multiple OEM rebrandings, so it may well be impossible to nail it exactly without a better picture. If you look through old issues of PC Magazine or whatever you'll find a bunch of options.
 
... actually, the picture of a Laserjet I was looking at was a Laserjet Plus, not the original laserjet. That very well could be an original laserjet.

Screenshot 2023-12-20 at 9.39.56 AM.png

EDIT: Last spam, I swear: There's more than one issue of PC Mag from 1985 going gonzo over laser printers; from one of them I figured out that the name of the Canon version of the HP Laserjet was the "LBP-8 A1". (LBP-CX is the name of the engine generically, also used in compact photocopiers.) And it is indeed almost indistinguishable from the Laserjet; the control panel is *slightly* different, and that's about it. Notably its control panel has a *white* background instead of a black one, so if that photo isn't intentionally masked, just incredibly overexposed and blurred, that's a vote in favor of it being the HP labeled one... but as I said, this same unit came with plenty of other badges.
 
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I've got the same disk in 5.25". I don't think it's related at all. The disk label cites Wilmington, MA as the address, whereas the article for the duplicator says that they're Menlo Park, CA.
 
I can't quite make out the NCR keyboard, but I believe that I have a couple of those in my keyboard pile. Has 30 F-keys. Uses the brown Alps switches. Made in Germany. And yes, those would be 80286 era (large 5 pin DIN connector).
 
Yes, to be clear, the Personics that made cassette tapes had nothing to do with the Personics that made computer software.
 
The printer could be an original HP LaserJet as mentioned above. If the system required PostScript for some reason, it could be a QMS model as it clearly isn't an Apple LaserWriter.

The Canon CX engine was used by a few other companies at the time as well with similar plastic covers. Without a better picture of the control panel, its hard to tell what it is. Even NCR was rebranding it at one point. The now defunct Printer Works maintained a list here: https://web.archive.org/web/2002033...gs/CX-Catalog/CX-AssblyContents.html#Printers

The Nov 10th 1987 issue of PC Magazine features a few more CX engined printers too. A ton of OEM knockoff brands (BlaserStar? CorData?) that I've never heard of in there too. Seems that once the Canon SX duo appeared (LaserJet II/LaserWriter II), a ton of companies bought surplus CX engines from FedEx and started selling cheaper laser printers.
 
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Maybe this article can give some clues to the other OEM's that they probably used.

1703111139617.png
 
njroadfan said:
If the system required PostScript for some reason, it could be a QMS model as it clearly isn't an Apple LaserWriter.
Click to expand...
I found a box of software that was QMS branded. I wasn’t really sure exactly what it’s for.

But now I see that the KISS is probably this canon engine printer.

IMG_9566.jpeg
 
Here's my video about Personics. I hope someone can eventually find and archive the software they were using, even if it's non-functional.

 
The QMS company was started by a guy who worked for international paper company in Mobile, Ala. we owned one of their printers in the mid 80's. From what I understand his experience printing labels at IPC, led him to start the company. The KISS (keep it simple stupid).
 
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