And, if you're in the #Boston area and would like either of these, you're welcome to take them off my hands at the #MITFlea in October.
#dotmatrix
Ein kleines cables.gl Experiment mit einer Rastermatrix und einem Würfel, animiert mittels einer Sinuskurve.
I've got this vintage #Centronics to #Atari #SIO connector. The last time I tried it (last year sometime), I could LPRINT a line from BASIC, but line endings weren't correctly interpreted. (Unsurprising; Atari uses $9B as its line ending.)
Coming back to it today to see if the adapter was configured to interpret line endings correctly, I mostly got timeout errors in BASIC and twice only, some garbage, while trying to print.
(Printing via the parallel port on a Thinkpad 760CD running Windows NT4 works perfectly. So it's not the printer.)
Any tips on how to proceed further with troubleshooting this connector?
We take so much for granted now. In 1982, you would have to fork over the cost of a new Nissan Sentra just to type the same letters you can type now with any e-waste dumpster laptop made in the last 20 years, a $50 inkjet printer, and an office suite you can download for free. But would you look as cool doing it? I would definitely love that #trs80 and the #dotmatrix printer for my collection. #retrocomputers #retrocomputing #radioshack #8bit #z80 #tandy #scripsit
Continua il recupero delle mie vecchie cassette! Questa copertina l'avrò sicuramente stampata con l'Amiga e probabilmente una stampante Commodore MPS ❤️
@Lydie
It's now time to install Banner Mania!
I totally just bought a dot matrix printer with intent to bring into my office at work. Can't wait to hear my coworkers' reaction when I print something. Hell, I should bring in my IBM 5155 for bonus effect.
EDIT: Know what else this printer doesn't have? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots
Some typographic close-ups of the Receipt or Ticket de caisse. I couldn’t come by a typeface which I liked, so I created my own, I call it ‘Ottotext’. It is a monospaced dot-matrix font based on a minimum of 6x6pixels. There are different varieties: tall on 12x6 pixels, or bold on 12x12 pixels, large on 12x24 pixels, and so on. The English version is straightforward, but in the French I had to skip some of the accents. This font is ‘handmade’ on a grid by ´drawing in’ the actual pixels and copy-pasting. The image is made on a 421x1194 pixel canvas, using photoshop 6 on System 9.2, G4 Powermac.
Final screen printed size of 120 x 42 cm.
#retrocomputing #vintageapple #photoshop6 #system9 #multichannel #artistsbook #bookart #vintagetypeface #monospaced #dotmatrix
Final screen printed size of 120 x 42 cm.
#retrocomputing #vintageapple #photoshop6 #system9 #multichannel #artistsbook #bookart #vintagetypeface #monospaced #dotmatrix
Same image printed on a Panasonic 24pin #dotmatrix (via CUPS and a #raspberrypi3
Maybe we need a #shittyprinterchallenge ;)
#shittycamerachallenge
(it does look a bit better on paper vs the scan. A little bit!)
First string printed!
Playing around with simulating old school dot matrix (and impact printer!) printer paper with the perforations and the registration holes and everything. #CSS #HTML #DotMatrix https://codepen.io/artlung/pen/ZYYNJOx
(with improved color from @Meyerweb ) (and alternate color from @tantek.com )
Yes human, this thing still counts as a cat bed.
Also delivered were two wide-format dot matrix tractor feed printers!
These things are in rough shape: the foam padding is crumbling to dust, there's metal plating flaking off the rods, and they're just generally full of dust and debris and undoubtedly spider eggs. My relative insists that they work, though. When pressed, they explained that they worked perfectly thirty or forty years ago.
[Edit: forgot to add the pictures.]
J'ai réparé mon imprimante matricielle ! 🎉
C'est une Star LC-10, elle imprimait un début de ligne et le chariot se bloquait avant que l'imprimante ne se mette en erreur.
J'ai vérifié l'alimentation, la commande du moteur du chariot, RAS.
Au final c'était un problème mécanique, j'ai graissé les éléments mobiles du chariot et j'ai fait tourner le ruban encreur dans sa cartouche avec une visseuse électrique, et ça m'a l'air bon maintenant !
Testé avec mon #Atari Mega STE et le traitement de texte Papyrus (et pas la bonne fonte!)
#dotmatrix #printer #retrocomputing
Specifications for the Epson LX-80 dot matrix printer from its manual. In 1984 these were fairly typical for 9 pin printers, though things like Near Letter Quality mode were less common (a mode that increased the effective resolution of each character: normal mode characters had to fit in a 8x9 grid, while NLQ characters had a denser 12x18 grid for the same size - this allowed 9 pin printers to stay relevant a bit longer though at the cost of printing speed).
While I did order a new oooold stock ink ribbon cartridge for my printer, I decided to try the WD-40 trick to revive an old ribbon.
Verdict: it mostly works!
Why buy boring white paper when you could have glorious dull pastels reminiscent of the wardrobe choices of Miami Vice? Also, look at that font! Perfect 80s vibes.
My banners are going to look totally rad.
Well, internal test works - ribbon is pretty much dead but that was to be expected. Still, it sounds pretty good now. Will try to revive the ribbon.
Warning: might be loud.
Edit: Connected it to my Apple IIe's parallel printer card later on and I was able to print from BASIC. So it works.
#dotmatrix Porn for you #nerdsofmastodon. I get to print my first banner for 32nd year of #Intenet in #Turkey.
#retrocomputing #permacomputing #asciiart
Well, this cat decided he likes this 80s-style bed.
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.07
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst