[sebhc] printer driver

Ken Guenther kguenther6 at insightbb.com
Wed Feb 23 07:13:26 CST 2005


> Anybody have a source for printer ribbons for Heath printers in
> general?

I just bought some ribbons for my H14 at Office Max.

And thanks Jack for letting me know I was submitting from the wrong address.


Ken Guenther

Old programmers never die...  They just "GOTO"


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "H.E. Robert, [Just Bob!]" <robert at ameritech.net>
To: <sebhc at sebhc.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 1:17 AM
Subject: Re: [sebhc] printer driver


> 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
>>
>>
> 

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