Eudimorphodon
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Can anyone identify this dot matrix printer next to a Neo-Geo?
- Thread starter Zap!
- Start date
Apple: “Think Different”.
stepleton
Veteran Member
I might be wrong, but I don't think it can. The Office System has ImageWriter drivers but none for the ImageWriter II, and that probably makes sense because the II was introduced in late 1985. By then Apple had given up on Lisa as Lisa, more or less. (Macintosh XL instead.)
Zap!
Experienced Member
It is an ST, but the mark circled is not part of the ST, as it's slightly to its right. It is on the very bottom left of the printer, about midway behind the Neo-Geo. It appears to be bluish. The desk itself was black. Here's a new pic, with the circle smaller:
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Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
I think that’s just shadow in the space between where the front of the printer stops and the desk. (Look at how most printers of that era were shaped; the main body of the printer sat on a smaller tapered-back base, and that was on rubber feet themselves often the better part of half an inch tall to absorb vibrations.)
Qbertnix
Member
While browsing ebay I saw this, it has 4 buttons on the right one of which is blue and the smoked cover comes almost to the front.
N.L.Q. 180-2 Printer For Commodore 64 Power Tested | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for N.L.Q. 180-2 Printer For Commodore 64 Power Tested at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.
www.ebay.co.uk
syzygy
Experienced Member
That is quite close!While browsing ebay I saw this, it has 4 buttons on the right one of which is blue and the smoked cover comes almost to the front.
N.L.Q. 180-2 Printer For Commodore 64 Power Tested | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for N.L.Q. 180-2 Printer For Commodore 64 Power Tested at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.www.ebay.co.uk
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Zap!
Experienced Member
Wow, that's extremely close. The N.L.Q. 180-II, I searched for it but found nothing. The only difference that I see is that in the four button area, it appears wider than mine, as it looks like there is very little grey/black to the right of my buttons. Might also might have a darker smoked plastic. I'm attaching pics for future references when the eBay listing is gone.While browsing ebay I saw this, it has 4 buttons on the right one of which is blue and the smoked cover comes almost to the front.
N.L.Q. 180-2 Printer For Commodore 64 Power Tested | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for N.L.Q. 180-2 Printer For Commodore 64 Power Tested at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.www.ebay.co.uk
It has to be a variant of that. I just don't think I'd but a Commodore printer when I had an Atari.
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Qbertnix
Member
Looking up the FCC data on that label I get the following
FCC IDENTIFIER: AKX28YC-130SK
Name of Grantee: Shinwa of America Inc
Equipment Class part 15 Class B Computing Device Peripheral
Grant date was 08/30/1988
So the printer in the ebay listing was made by Shinwa but has been rebadged, maybe your printer is different shinwa model.
rmay635703
Veteran Member
We used them for decades to print ceramic mugs, metal plaques and to make keychains
Dye sub started out in the mid 80’s.
One of our dye sub printers could print B&W using thermal paper or color with the ribbon paper set.
Kodak, Mitsubishi, Seiko, Shinko, Panasonic Omniflex, Fujifilm (like an instamatic), Sharp gz -p21, even NEC and more
famicomaster2
Experienced Member
As soon as I saw the picture, I knew it had to be this. I have no idea who actually made this printer - It appears to have been sold to many people under many names. Mine is badged "SR1000" and came with a Laser 128. I've seen one badged for Advantech IQ as well.
It's a standard parallel 9 pin dot matrix printer, but I'd love to know what it's based on to know what the bank of switches on the front behind the door do. My ribbon is getting pretty low too.
Years and years ago, I had uploaded a video of it operating to YouTube. Looking back, I got a comment at the time telling me it was sold in Sears and probably manufactured by Citizen. No idea if that's true. Attached is a screenshot from the video. The smoked plastic cover was removed for the first run.
I was at the time and still am fascinated by dot matrix printers.
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famicomaster2
Experienced Member
HP InkJet 935c. Still have it. No longer works, it's out of ink. My uncle gave it to us for free when I was still little, and when it ran out of ink for the third time in our ownership of it and they no longer produced cartridges, it was given to 8 or 9 year old me, who promptly found out that "low ink" is not "empty," to my parents dismay. I was no longer allowed to play with the old printer and it was stuffed in the attic, where it resides.
First one I actually used was a bubblejet, slightly different technology but better in a way. Canon BJC-2110. Still have it, still works. Has new ink cartridges, I've got 2 more sealed for it too. I also have the Canon IS-22 color scanner cartridge for it!
I understand your comment, but I counter with "Early inkjets were extremely expensive." The BJC-2110 I mentioned came to me with the PowerMac G4 it was originally paired with, which was used for photo editing because it provided exceptional color quality and could print on photo paper, two things which no color dot matrix could do.
The PJ-1080A is an inkjet I'd be very proud to own. I've actually got a saved search on eBay for one!
Alps MD-5000! I believe the only dye sub document printer ever sold. I'd love to have one, but the paper is getting difficult to find. Ink is extremely plentiful! I think I might pick up the one on eBay at some point just to have in my collection, even if I can't use it. Lots of reviews of the time state that they're horrible at printing full page images, however. Horrible problems with banding!
Zap!
Experienced Member
Amazing reply! Now that I think about it, I likely got it in Sears in early to mid-1991. Living in Staten Island and not discovering mail-order until later in the year, Sears was one of the few options that I had at the time. Did you get it used with your Laser 128, or did you buy it new? What exactly does the badge say, just "SR1000" or the company name too? I couldn't make it out from the pic. I have searched but so far the internet is coming up blank on these names. Any other info that you have will be greatly appreciated.
I'd love to see that video too! If you don't want to post the link here, can you send it to me in private?
Thank you so much for everything, in time I will find this printer yet!
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Qbertnix
Member
1990 Sears Christmas catalog page 660 has the SR 1000 printer, it seems this was a Sears branded printer
1990 Sears Christmas Book, Page 660 - Catalogs & Wishbooks
1990 Sears Christmas Book, Page 660
christmas.musetechnical.com
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Qbertnix
Member
Also appears in 1991 spring/summer
1991 Sears Spring Summer Catalog, Page 1477 - Catalogs & Wishbooks
1991 Sears Spring Summer Catalog, Page 1477
christmas.musetechnical.com
famicomaster2
Experienced Member
It came with a bunch of vintage computer stuff I got from a family friend as a kid. Four C64s, a 1702 monitor, a Magnavox Computer Monitor 80, a Laser 128 and a 128 EX both in box, an Okidata 120, a 1541C and 1541-II, lots of Atari, Commodore, Apple II games... Most of which is long gone. It was definitely used, and I've had to repair it myself three separate times.Amazing reply! Now that I think about it, I likely got it in Sears in early to mid-1991. Living in Staten Island and not discovering mail-order until later in the year, Sears was one of the few options that I had at the time. Did you get it used with your Laser 128, or did you buy it new? What exactly does the badge say, just "SR1000" or the company name too? I couldn't make it out from the pic. I have searched but so far the internet is coming up blank on these names. Any other info that you have will be greatly appreciated.
I'd love to see that video too! If you don't want to post the link here, can you send it to me in private?
Thank you so much for everything, in time I will find this printer yet!
The badge only says SR1000. There's a door over a bank of switches, but mine is missing the door. The door also listed what those switches did, so I just have to hope I never mess up the configuration!
Ironically, I've also been looking at trying to find out what exactly it is and have had no luck over the past decade or so. It needs a ribbon pretty bad these days, and probably a print head too, but I've never been able to find even a manual, let alone parts!
I'd prefer not to share the video if possible. My autism shines a little too bright, and I still have a voice crack. There's not much to see, it's a lot of me rambling about how I got it working and printing out an absurdly long document (which I didn't save anywhere) onto sheets of notebook paper taped together because I couldn't get tractor feed anywhere for any price locally. Also, the quality is beyond appalling. I think it was filmed either on my (then new) Nintendo 3DS or with a Sony Cybershot camera my mom gave me. I still have the printer anyways, I'll just go take some pictures of it later.
I had a huge laugh at this. Calling the output of this printer "letter quality" is almost criminally wrong. It's a 9 pin printer with some of the largest pins I've ever seen, and it has no horizontal resolution either. NLQ mode gives it a second pass at the characters but it does little to help. It also has a completely fixed vertical spacing of either 1/6th or 1/8th inch - Nothing else. Send it images and vertical sections of 9 pixels will always be separated by a bunch of whitespace! It's horrible. I don't think mine ever managed anywhere near triple digits CPS in any mode, 27 sounds more like a real number.
There's actually an RS-232 serial version of this printer which I've seen photos of (under a different name as well, of course). I think Shinwa was an ODM who sold this mechanism to many people.
EDIT: On further inspection, item #4 in that page of the catalog you sent is the exact monitor that game with my Laser 128 and the SR1000.
famicomaster2
Experienced Member
I went and dug it out of my closet. Recently had the floors redone so everything has been packed away and still working on setting my collection back up.
Plugging it in and holding Line Feed while switching it on got it spitting out characters. Still works! Let me know if there's any pictures you'd like.
Plugging it in and holding Line Feed while switching it on got it spitting out characters. Still works! Let me know if there's any pictures you'd like.
Zap!
Experienced Member
Wow, great finds! I am now listing this as solved. That has to be the same printer. Even though mine looked more smoked, it may be just an illusion.
That's a great vintage set from the family friend, you must have loved it as a kid! Probably you can find ribbon. Perhaps if you use the model number listed in the catalog you can find it on eBay.
Completely understood about the video. I was just interested in the comments. Were there many?
I wonder why there is so little information on it. Sears was a major brand in 1990/1991. Surely they must have sold a lot. Anyway, that picture is more than I could have ever hoped for! If you find any more info on it, or ever see one for sale and it's not cracked, please let me know!
I also found this, but don't have a subscription to newspapers.com. Here is the thumbnail though.
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famicomaster2
Experienced Member
Nope, never seen one for sale.
Between both videos there was 154 views and 1 comment.
The only comment reads: "SR 1000 was sold by Sears in the 1980's. This looks like it was manufactured by Citizen."
The output quality of this printer is fairly appalling. I figured I'd stick some paper in and try to capture it for you all. The first image is "Standard" quality, and the second is "Near-Letter Quality." If you weren't aware, NLQ was meant to be competitive with the output of a typewriter or other types of full character printers. To put it bluntly, calling this "NLQ" on the printer is laughable, let alone praising it in the magazine! The dot pitch is absolutely horrible, even for a 9 pin printer. Also, the space between each line which you can see here is the minimum that I could ever get it to give me. Enjoy!
famicomaster2
Experienced Member
For reference, the output of my Oki Microline 186, also a 9-pin dot matrix printer. The output of the SR1000 in standard mode is comparable to the high speed draft mode of the Oki, but the SR1000 prints at less than 1/4th the speed of the Oki at this quality! Even the NLQ mode on the SR1000 is barely as good as the utility mode of the Oki, which is single pass making it nearly an order of magnitude faster. The NLQ mode on the Oki is light years better than anything the SR1000 can produce. Honestly, for a dot matrix, the Oki is not even particularly stellar. I have a Star NX-15 which produces significantly better text, even with only 9 pins. Once you start looking at 24-pin printers, like my Epson LQ570+ it's completely over for all of them.
