ql printer info needed

[techy]

Hi Forum ,

I recently got a ql printer , and ofcourse i want to know more ;

- only one version of the rom ?
- is this a rare item or were the sold by the millions ?
- found both paper , and ribbon for it , BUT ..........how about the belt which moves the head ?
- anyone a service manual to the original seikosha sp1000/sp800 ?

any info welcome .

I have this one working on my desk after some minor refurbishments , more needs to be done .

the sound is awesome

[klausfrank]

Hi techy,
Unfortunately I dont have the service manual, - and the only thing I can tell, years ago I had a SP- 1000 printer - working with my beloved spectrum. I remember that in our usergroup found that some problems had to be delt with, but wich I dont remember !!! -sorry, but what I do remember, is that we changed the eprom, - the SP-1000 worked very well with the QL I will search my boxes of discs to find it, and if you are interested, I will post it, for sure.

Take care
Regards

[Chr$]

Hi Forum ,

I recently got a ql printer , and ofcourse i want to know more ;

- only one version of the rom ?
- is this a rare item or were the sold by the millions ?
- found both paper , and ribbon for it , BUT ..........how about the belt which moves the head ?
- anyone a service manual to the original seikosha sp1000/sp800 ?

I have a QL printer and it works a treat, in fact I use it and when anyone buys anything Sinclair/old they get a thankyou note printed with it. Does yours also have the paper feed add-on for paper with holes in the sides?

I can't answer any of the questions apart from to say that they seem pretty rare and don't come up that often.

Yours seem to work ok too, does the belt just need a clean (by the looks of it)?

[techy]

@ klausfrank ,

any info welcome !!

@ chr$ ,

i need to find a way to take this old lady apart to clean the belt ( without damaging it ) , also the rubber roll needs to be gently cleaned .

This weekend i will try if the ql interface with cable still work ( only tested on the bench as standalone ) .

as there is an ungoing discussion about the amount of ql's produced i hoped they came across this printer as well .

even looking at the net only reveals some pictures , which makes me wonder about production figures of the ql printer .

some pictures , even the keys are still matt , i wonder how much is printed with it .

[Chr$]

I think I remember reading on here somewhere that Urs - major respected QL expert/collector - said they are ultra rare (or super rare, something like that). I reckon on a scale of 1 to 10 for scarcity that the printer has to be a 7 or 8 but I would be interested to hear what others say. I got mine in a job lot and it's in comparably good condition too. I just needed to clean it externally, fit a new ink cartridge and that was that. It even came with the correct lead to attach it to SER1 on a German QL and a boxed sealed contemporary ink cartridge that I have kept as new ones are easy to find.

[techy]

and the ribbon has arrived

now we have a nice black print.
tested connected to a ql , and working too ( after some cleaning of the contacts ).
- first test only printer garbage characters , so i feared for the serial interface -

[stephen_usher]

Interesting that the date printed s in US format.

[tofro]

Interesting that the date printed s in US format.

I would rather think it is in Japanese format - Which happens to be the same.

[NormanDunbar]

I would rather think it is in Japanese format - Which happens to be the same.

Are you sure Tofro? I've dealt with the Japanese in the dim and distant past, and they used yyyy/mm/dd as far as I remember. I checked Wikipedia (for what it's worth) and found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_ ... %202008%22.

I was of the impression that only America write the date in a half arsed frack to bont manner! (Ducks and runs!)


Cheers,
Norm.

[tofro]

I would rather think it is in Japanese format - Which happens to be the same.

Are you sure Tofro? I've dealt with the Japanese in the dim and distant past, and they used yyyy/mm/dd as far as I remember. I checked Wikipedia

Not at all and happy to be corrected, Norm.

What I am pretty sure of is that Sinclair didn't have their hands deeper in this printer than telling Seikosha "make it black, adapt the character set, brand it as Sinclair and we'll sell it". So, it's unlikely they changed the date format.

What II could also imagine is that Seikosha weren't particularly happy with the numbers...