Old, Old Printronix Dot Matrix

[Jake]

Group, I'm new and desperate. I never thought I'd find a piece of
hardware I couldn't get support for somewhere on the web, but I guess
there's always a first time, so I'm turning to Usenet where I'm pretty
sure people with experience in these things still hang out regularly.

Can anybody help?

I have a Printronix P1013 dot-matrix printer I need to get working for
some specialized work I think might benefit from this "ancient"
technology. The thing initially *seemed* to work with a Printronix 5000
dot matrix driver that comes standard with Windows XP, but with a dry
ribbon it was hard to tell.

So I inked up the old ribbon with stamp pad ink, figuring I had little
to lose, but now I find the text and images coming out from this thing,
despite all of its very authoritative-sounding zings and zips, is
unrecognizable. Plus, each print job runs on and on, until I power off
the device and delete the job in the print queue.

Can anybody tell me where I can find a workable Windows NT or XP driver
for this device? Printronix is no longer supporting it, from all I can
ascertain from the web site.

Also, can anybody tell me if graphics can be accomplished with the same
driver as text?

One more for you all: Will a freshly-moistened ribbon ever turn out
reasonable images on a dot-matrix printer if the moistening is done with
water-based ink? Actually, this is of the least importance since I wish
to ultimately use this printer for producing ink and glass-etching
resists for commercial graphics. But having it available for cheap
hard-copy output is a plus, if I can manage to make it happen. Plus
getting a good visible image in ink before actually cutting the stencil
is a good thing, as well.

Thanks in advance for any advice I can get from a older computer geek,
like me, or a even a younger one who might have had some previous
experience with these things.

Jake

 

[gr]

Group, I'm new and desperate. I never thought I'd find a piece of
hardware I couldn't get support for somewhere on the web, but I guess
there's always a first time, so I'm turning to Usenet where I'm pretty
sure people with experience in these things still hang out regularly.

Can anybody help?

I have a Printronix P1013 dot-matrix printer I need to get working for
some specialized work I think might benefit from this "ancient"
technology. The thing initially *seemed* to work with a Printronix 5000
dot matrix driver that comes standard with Windows XP, but with a dry
ribbon it was hard to tell.

So I inked up the old ribbon with stamp pad ink, figuring I had little
to lose, but now I find the text and images coming out from this thing,
despite all of its very authoritative-sounding zings and zips, is
unrecognizable. Plus, each print job runs on and on, until I power off
the device and delete the job in the print queue.

Can anybody tell me where I can find a workable Windows NT or XP driver
for this device? Printronix is no longer supporting it, from all I can
ascertain from the web site.

Also, can anybody tell me if graphics can be accomplished with the same
driver as text?

One more for you all: Will a freshly-moistened ribbon ever turn out
reasonable images on a dot-matrix printer if the moistening is done with
water-based ink? Actually, this is of the least importance since I wish
to ultimately use this printer for producing ink and glass-etching
resists for commercial graphics. But having it available for cheap
hard-copy output is a plus, if I can manage to make it happen. Plus
getting a good visible image in ink before actually cutting the stencil
is a good thing, as well.

Thanks in advance for any advice I can get from a older computer geek,
like me, or a even a younger one who might have had some previous
experience with these things.

Jake

Dot Matrix pins rely on some oil in the ink to provide lubrication.
Water based will eventually cause the pins to seize .I think Computer
Friends still sells bulk DM ink to re-ink. A short term solution to
rejuvenate a ribbon is to spray it with wd-40.

 

[Jake]

Thanks for the tip, gr.

WD-40 might keep me (more) alive for awhile, but now if I can just
figure out how to get something readable out of this thing!

J

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Depending on how old this dot matrix printer is, it may emulate one or
more "standard" printer modes that Win XP or 2000 will likely have
support for.

Besides having their own proprietary drivers for the printer language
developed by the manufacturer, since drivers were such an issue back
then in institutional settings, most manufacturers also included either
an Epson (MX-80 or LX-80) or an IBM Proprinter or other emulation
because they were industry standards.

The problem may be accessing them. Most dot matrix printers used DIP
Switches, to alter a number of the printer parameters, including these
emulations. These DIP switches were often hidden under ribbon cables,
or required plates or plugs to be removed to access them. Often the
printer would have 2 or more banks of these, and each bank could contain
up to 8 on/off switches. That could make for a rather large set of
possible switch combinations. Some of these switches might alter things
like column width, character sets (graphics/language), skipping
perforations, page length, how to treat a carriage return code, font
sets, etc., so without a hardware manual, it may prove difficult to make
sense of.

The long winded output you are getting is an indication of a wrong or
corrupted driver. On the off chance the printer is already set to one
of the emulation mode, you might want to try the IBM Proprinter driver,
Epson MX or LX-80 drivers and see if you get it to work.

In terms of the ribbons, they are usually saturated in an oil based
pigment ink (something like carbon black in oil). The oil acts both as
a carrier and to lubricate the pins in the head, which otherwise might
wear poorly or even bend or jam. Do not use a water based ink on the
ribbons. You would be better off to spray a dried ribbon with a oil
based lubricant like WD-40 to rewet it. I assume you can still buy the
proper ink and inking systems somewhere for ribbons, since some
industries still need dot matrix printers for certain applications.

A wrong driver isn't likely to harm the printer, but it may start
spewing out a lot of nearly empty pages with lots of page ends and weird
graphics, so be ready to put the printer into standby or off line
quickly when testing new drivers.

Art


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[Flasherly]

Group, I'm new and desperate. I never thought I'd find a piece of
hardware I couldn't get support for somewhere on the web, but I guess
there's always a first time, so I'm turning to Usenet where I'm pretty
sure people with experience in these things still hang out regularly.

Can anybody help?

I have a Printronix P1013 dot-matrix printer I need to get working for
some specialized work I think might benefit from this "ancient"
technology. The thing initially *seemed* to work with a Printronix 5000
dot matrix driver that comes standard with Windows XP, but with a dry
ribbon it was hard to tell.

So I inked up the old ribbon with stamp pad ink, figuring I had little
to lose, but now I find the text and images coming out from this thing,
despite all of its very authoritative-sounding zings and zips, is
unrecognizable. Plus, each print job runs on and on, until I power off
the device and delete the job in the print queue.

Can anybody tell me where I can find a workable Windows NT or XP driver
for this device? Printronix is no longer supporting it, from all I can
ascertain from the web site.

Also, can anybody tell me if graphics can be accomplished with the same
driver as text?

One more for you all: Will a freshly-moistened ribbon ever turn out
reasonable images on a dot-matrix printer if the moistening is done with
water-based ink? Actually, this is of the least importance since I wish
to ultimately use this printer for producing ink and glass-etching
resists for commercial graphics. But having it available for cheap
hard-copy output is a plus, if I can manage to make it happen. Plus
getting a good visible image in ink before actually cutting the stencil
is a good thing, as well.

Thanks in advance for any advice I can get from a older computer geek,
like me, or a even a younger one who might have had some previous
experience with these things.

Jake

I've redone the insides of ribbon cartridges, dripped ink into rolled
on spools, or built a jig with a variable speed drill for endless
wound ribbons. Ribbons for yours are on the web. Yea - their
websites is like that, like many. I'd think they have it, though.
I'd guess probably DOS style, where the switches are setup, and to
override them command sequences are defined into a program (that'll
accept printer fields, like old WordStar dot-commands, say, to change
in and out of italics).

I wouldn't get my hopes too high on using a 9/24-pin for acid working
graphical layouts. Basically beaters, good for multi-form sales
receipts copies and inventory. Text is their thing. Graphics is hell
on dot addressing, hence a Windows evolution into a modern world of
inkjet and their sundry of cartridges. You'll need a minimum of high-
grade nylon or cotton ribbons, if you must, in a Windows environment,
or simply tear up and wear through your ribbons, as in pronto. True
for most Truetype transitions, which MS driver's way of basically
graphically emulating something from ages ago. It's all graphics in
programming the rasterization scheme of things.

Non-beaters, non-stopgaps for simple sales or warehouse dotmatrix
functions, certainly any volume of text, a cheap counterpart beater of
a laser is peachy keen. My Samsung 2510s, for instance, I've gotten
around $50 (second was a few bucks more for the whole printer, may
just as well have two to have the spare factory toner/optical
module). 9-pin Epsons, the defacto of control codes for a long time,
I could find in pawn shops for $5. Only way you're going to get
straight with P1013 is to call Printronix and get them to open a
backside to their website for archives -- or, practically, somebody at
least helpful enough to advise how to set those switches back to a
real-world emulation mode (LX80, like mentioned). Not undoable,
though may involve a fair bit of finagling over the horn. Technicians
don't generally like it when the clueless call in asking for semi-
complex procedures. Got to butter 'em up a bit, when they're in a
good mood, generally AM after coffee, and be able to quickly follow
and most graciously reveal in potentially explicit directions. They
like a nice call on occasion from someone that speaks in their
language.

 

[Jake]

Arthur, Ato_Zee and Flasherly, thank you for your helpful responses.

Arthur, I neglected to mention that this printer uses a standard LPT
port and parallel interface cable, not serial, so I going under the
assumption that baud rate, start/stop bits and parity are a non-issue.
Am I totally out in left field on this?

Given the information that this printer may not have a fine enough dot
matrix to do detailed graphics, it looks like I may rinse the
water-based ink out of the ribbon, let it dry thoroughly, spray it with
a little WD40, put the device back into storage, and step back to square
one on my strategy.

Dot pitch was my first concern and this little exercise re-inking the
ribbon was an attempt at determining that pitch. If the ribbon is now
toast, I may be able to get a decent enough test image for my immediate
purposes with carbon paper.

Jake

 

[Fred McKenzie]

I think Computer
Friends still sells bulk DM ink to re-ink.

GR-

Many, many years ago I tried my hand at re-inking ribbons for my MX-80.
Computer Friends were really nice people to deal with.

I don't know if they still have much for dot matrix printers, but they
used to sell ribbon cartridges both with and without ink for various
printers, as well as ink and inking machines.

If they do not carry Jake's kind of cartridge, perhaps he can take the
ribbon from another and re-pack his. It could get messy!

See <http://www.cfriends.com/>.

Fred

 

[Jake]

Thanks for the tip, Fred. I thought about attempting a repack from
another type of cartridge, but holy cow, what a nasty job! It's a
continuous ribbon, and I would think the length should be about the
same, at least not any longer. But it seems, to be able to do the job
cleanly and properly, I would need a ribbon seamer to get it just right.

For now, I've cleaned the water-based ink out of the old ribbon
cartridge, and shaken it out. It's currently hanging up to dry. Later,
I'll give the WD-40 a shot to see if there's any usable ink left.

In the meantime, I've changed the Windows XP driver over to IBM
ProPrinter, and got a successful (barely) readable image of a test page
using a fresh sheet of carbon paper layered on a sheet of white bond.
So that's a positive development...the IBM driver in place of the the
Printronix 5000 driver seems to work (I never would have figured that
out without help!), and the job finishes after the page ejects, so it's
acting normal now. Hooray!

Thanks, everybody, for your generous expertise. I think this printer
will soon be working 100%.

Jake

 

[Jake]

Fred,

Now that I've pulled the case apart, it doesn't look like that bad of a
job. The cover pulls off easily, and the ribbon is fully accessible.
One little shake, and it all falls out into the garden! Oops.

That's okay. WD-40 coaxed very little ink out of the old ribbon, so I'm
ready for a new one anyway you look at it.

I'm going right down to an office supply and buy a cheap,
suitable-looking brand X cartridge and swap the ribbon into my now-empty
Printronix cartridge.

Jake

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Arthur, Ato_Zee and Flasherly, thank you for your helpful responses.

Arthur, I neglected to mention that this printer uses a standard LPT
port and parallel interface cable, not serial, so I going under the
assumption that baud rate, start/stop bits and parity are a non-issue.
Am I totally out in left field on this?

I had assumed this printer was using the parallel PT port, rather than
serial, and yes, if that is the case, you do not need to set a baud
rate. It was to_Zeke who suggested the baud rate in serial connected
printers, which is a legitimate comment in that case.

Given the information that this printer may not have a fine enough dot
matrix to do detailed graphics, it looks like I may rinse the
water-based ink out of the ribbon, let it dry thoroughly, spray it with
a little WD40, put the device back into storage, and step back to square
one on my strategy.

I don't know what dot density you require. Some drivers allowed for
overprinting to increase resolution. Have no idea what will work with
this printer in that regard.

Dot pitch was my first concern and this little exercise re-inking the
ribbon was an attempt at determining that pitch. If the ribbon is now
toast, I may be able to get a decent enough test image for my immediate
purposes with carbon paper.

Yes, carbon paper should allow you to reveal what's being printed on the
paper surface.


Art

 

[Jake]

Group, I'm new and desperate. I never thought I'd find a piece of
hardware I couldn't get support for somewhere on the web, but I guess
there's always a first time, so I'm turning to Usenet where I'm pretty
sure people with experience in these things still hang out regularly.

Group, the brand-X ribbon I have purchased is an after market version of
an Epson LQ800
....about the same size externally, and the correct width.

When I unsnapped the cover, I discovered a hidden curve-ball I had not
expected.
The ribbon in the Epson printer is a Moebius srip...i.e., it has half a
twist put
in it, and the cartridge has a section built-in that allows relief room
for the twist
wihout pulling it through the print-pin path.

The Printronix ribbon has no such twist, and no room for the twist to
flip over as
the ribbon passes through the cartridge. (I already tried to keep it
inserted in the
Printronix cartridge, and it invariably gets pulled through the works as
a fold.

I've put it into service anyway...the worst that can happen is a fold
comes through
the print region and might mess up a single page. In the meantime,
US$6.00 invested
in a new ribbon for the old cartridge, and the old printer is working
beautifully.

It may even be good enough for the resists I plan to make.

Thanks again for all the support.

Jake