[GreenKeys] current technology printing

[Chris Elmquist]

I'm not sure what the goal would really be-- ie, to eliminate the software
component? Make something portable? Just have something that makes noise
when it prints?

But Okidata are still building dot-matrix printers and there is apparently
sufficient demand for them in business and POS applications,

http://www.okidata.com/mkt/html/nf/products-impact-printers.php

It wouldn't be hard to build a box with an embedded processor (ie,
no OS to boot, instant on) that hooks such a printer and a PS/2 or
USB keyboard together and talks out a serial port to build yourself a
"terminal".  I guess I'd make it do both 5-level and 7-level comms on
the serial port at all the favorite speeds.

If we're smart, we'd even build a thing inside that would heat a little
pot of oil and blow the smell out the back with a little fan controlled
by the micro.   You know, to get the full effect...  :-)

Chris N0JCF

On Monday (07/09/2012 at 07:59AM -0600), Lee Mushel wrote:
> Well, I would assume that all have Eric's (EPVGK) board safely mounted in one of those polar relays I keep hearing about so that will take care of a local loop to handle the "problem" of actual machine control.  I remember building a TU in the '70's that could switch between six machines and that certainly wasn't too demanding.   The biggest problem would be in finding a dot matrix printer (to make legitimate noise) and even more difficult would be finding a driver for such a machine.   I finally had to go to Great Britain to download a driver for my wide carriage printer and then the trouble began because it uses a parallel port and it was only with great difficulty that I finally found such a computer with same!  But then if I grunted a bit somewhere around here  I could find a computer running a 486 with Windows 3.1.
> 
> Feeding it would be done with a Flex5000A.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Lee   K9WRU

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-- 
Chris Elmquist