[sebhc] printer driver

[H.E. Robert, [Just Bob!]]

As much as my comments seemed to malign the H-14,
I do have a special place in my "clock source" for them!  It was
absolutely the coolest thing I had built, up to then, and the price
was indeed, the major sway point for me!   And don't forget that valuable
Heathkit Revolving Charge account!  I'm sure that was the clincher!!
My original printer like many folks I imagine, was the 33 ASR tty, (my 
original
cost $1200, in used refurb'ed condition in '76), and yes it did work, 
and ran
circles around the tty!  And it used tractor feed paper!  An expensive 
option
on a tty.  And as with most Heathkit products, many of the features were 
just
pure "outside the box genius"!  Even the printhead preservation technique
employed, worked extremely well, (even if it did tick me off, from time 
to time)!

But I owe a lot to that little guy, it taught me most of what I know 
about printers,
interfacing, and handshake!

Anybody have a source for printer ribbons for Heath printers in 
general?  Also
a bit off topic, but anyone on the list have any leads on an H-8 
reasonably priced,
and a teletype, model 35 ASR?

Just Bob!

 

Barry Watzman wrote:

>For all of it's faults, when the H-14 came out, it was a blockbuster
>product.  You have to put yourself in the correct timeframe.  When it came
>out, in 1978, there was NOTHING available in the way of a reasonable printer
>(excluding various used and surplus products) under about $1,000.  Sure, the
>H-14 had it's limits, but for about 18 months, it was the least expensive
>printer you could buy, and it DID work.
>
>The biggest widespread problem was that as originally shipped, the drive to
>the paper feed motor was inadequate, and sometimes line feeds ... didn't.
>This was fixed with a modification board that was added beginning a few
>months after initial production, and which was also made available for
>retrofit to earlier customers.  My recollection is that it was mounted
>vertically in the back right-hand corner of the printer.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: sebhc at sebhc.org [mailto:sebhc at sebhc.org] On Behalf Of Dave Dunfield
>Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 12:18 PM
>To: sebhc at sebhc.org
>Subject: Re: [sebhc] printer driver
>
>  
>
>>Boy isn't that the the truth!!! I built one of those babies when
>>they first came out, for use with my Altair, and If I remember
>>it used to calculate the printhead temp by monitoring the resistance
>>of one of the printhead coils?  That was aggravating, as it would only
>>print about a page and a half, before going "over temp", and then would
>>print a line or two, and cool for 5 to 10 minutes, before printing the next
>>line or two.  Then to top it off, the handshake between it and the Altair
>>was not bullet-proof, and the end result was always a useless printout.
>>I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I could finally afford a used
>>Centronics 701!!  Anybody know if the printhead was ever upgraded?
>>    
>>
>
>My first printer (other than a teletype) was also an H-14, which I used
>on my Altair, and I do recall the thermal limiting after you had printed
>a few lines. I don't think mine waited "5 to 10" minutes, but I do recall
>that it would go into mode with a few second delay between each line that
>was printed. I also don't recall handshake problems - I did many a printout
>on that combination.
>
>
>By sheer coincience, my H-14 came back to me about a month ago - Gave it to
>a guy *many* years ago, and since lost touch - made contact again this year,
>and he still had it in his basement - haven't tried to fire it up yet, but
>it still looks to be in reasonable shape. One thing that didn't come back
>with it is the manual ... anyone have a scan of the H14 manual?
>
>
>My very first printer was a Teletype Model-28, which I generated baudot data
>for by toggleing the interrupt-enable line on my first homebuilt 8080
>(didn't
>use interrupts in that system) - not thats going a long way back!
>
>Regards,
>Dave
>  
>