[rescue] Entertaining printers

[Mr Ian Primus]

> I used a Prime 9955 in college, for C, ADA, Pascal,
> and a few other languages. 
> We had a large line pinter of some kind, can't
> remember what now.

Probably a DataProducts - Prime sold rebadged
DataProducts band printers on the older machines, also
Printronix matrix line printers (P300, P600, etc) and
later Fujitsu band printers.

The DataProducts 600LPM band printer has this paper
puller motor that runs at all times, even when the
printer isn't printing (or on-line), and will
eventually melt away the puller rollers or burn up the
motor. Ribbon drive pulleys also like to melt. Weird
ribbon cartridge design.

The Printronix P600's are great printers too and are
matrix line printers (not band) they have a little
hammer/pin for every other print position. Commonly
used print positions will wear down and get lighter as
the hammers wear. The hammers are individually
replaceable, as are their driver coils. If one hammer
has to be replaced or aligned, it's a fun experience
with over a dozen hex screws - and no cheating
partially putting it back together to test alignment,
it's either all or nothing on the hammer bank. Take it
all apart, adjust the hammer, put it back together,
test, take it all apart...

The Fujitsu band printers were newer and easier to
service. The print hammers for the band were
individually adjustable while printing, and overall
they're pretty easy to work on. Phillips head screws
even. The faster ones even came with their own
motorized paper stacker.

Note that these are all still in use at various
customer sites, and I still service them occasionally.
That says something about the build quality of these
things.

-Ian