[Coco] Printing on a Coco with modern printers.

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 10 January 2014 16:10:22 George Ramsower did opine:

> On 1/10/2014 1:09 PM, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
> > On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 1:50 PM, George Ramsower <georgera at gvtc.com> 
wrote:
> >>> Cocomax, CGDP, ColorMax and other programs printed hi-res (for a
> >>> Coco) text
> >>> and graphics to a wide range of printers. There's no reason that
> >>> they could
> >>> not do so today.
> >>> 
> >>> All that's needed are drivers.
> >>> 
> >>> ===================================================
> >>> 
> >>   I have to agree to a point on this. I've built files to print that
> >>   were too
> >> 
> >> large for memory. I saved that file info to the hard disk and then
> >> used that file and routed it to the printer. I would think the same
> >> thing could be done with one of the modern printers. All that's
> >> needed is a utility to convert the info to whatever the printer
> >> needs and send that info to a storage device and then send it to the
> >> printer as we have time. The conversion would be slow but the actual
> >> printing could be as fast as the coco can muster up.
> 
>   Wow!! I wasn't thinking about that. Just the text would be the same as
> graphics. It's a pixel thing and this would make for a huge file.
>   However, if we used a modern printer, 1200 baud would not be used when
> 9600 baud would be the standard. However, even at 9600 baud, a 90 meg
> file would still take a day to send that data. Actually a little over 26
> hrs if the printer has a buffer.
>   Yeah, I think using a PC would be the answer to this delima.
> Otherwise, I'll stick with my dot matrix printer and they are still
> available.

Getting good quality expendables is likely a much bigger problem than 
finding an old dmp-105 that hadn't already spit out some broken pins.

The film ribbons for what were great DWP's in their day that you can get 
today have been laying in a warehouse in Mexico for 20 years now, and 
shatter like glass with the first hammer strike in a dwp.  Back when I was 
still running a 24 pin oki, the ribbons I was buying were years old & dried 
out. You had to re-ink them brand new.

I buy a printer to look at its output, and when I start spending time to 
make that printer work for another week and then do a half days worth of 
screwing around to get another week out of it, a new printer, using a 
different technology soon follows me home.

Fur-instance, there is an Epson NX515 sitting here, probably been retanked 
at $90 a round 6 or 7 times.  But its very difficult to get to the 
printheads face and clean when nozzles plug up.  Running a cleaning cycle 
dumps $10 worth of ink and doesn't work completely even after the third 
clean cycle.  But if you prop it up so the bed is level, its a decent 
scanner, so I haven't binned it, yet...

Sitting on the adjacent table is a Brother HL-3170CDW color laser.  It took 
about a month to get it setup, it was early production and had crap 
firmware in it, since reflashed & doing quite well now.  5 or 6 reams of 
paper have been cycled thru it, and the black starter tank has been used 
up, but I believe I have a printer for the rest of my life now.

I am however, still fine tuning gimp, I get the impression its weave 
pattern is destroying apparent color sharpness, and an unsharp mask seems 
to be making a considerable difference.

The other printer here is the one on the coco's desk, also a Brother, 
HL2140 economy laser, spits out text listings of coco programs at 19 ppm. 
Close to 20 reams of paper have cycled through it, and on its 3rd toner 
now.  Many of those sheets were printed duplex, we have some pretty 
controllable drivers. But to do that, its dw and this machine doing all the 
heavy lifting.
> 
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Cheers, Gene
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your left leg, it's modern architecture.
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