ImageWriter II lives again

[jmacz]

I finally procured a printer cable and new black ribbon, and tried out my $8 badly yellowed ImageWriter II. Didn’t work. Couldn’t communicate with it. Looked at the manual and saw there are some dip switches so took a look and found one was different from the default on SW2. Flipped it and tried again, it worked! Although the very first line of text on the very first page gets scrunched vertically a bit, probably mechanical so need to take a look at that but the rest of the page is great.

Then went to see what that particular dip switch setting was for and it’s the localtalk option card. Forgot about that. So took a look inside and the printer has that card. Cool.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

That's a double nice score. Congrats!

 

[bigmessowires]

Hooray, congratulations on the working ImageWriter II! I've read that it may help to lubricate the rail that the print head slides on, but that would be a left/right problem wouldn't cause vertical scrunching.

I'm jealous of your LocalTalk card discovery! I can't remember if I ever looked inside mine for a hidden LocalTalk card. Combine that with @cheesestraws' AirTalk and you'll have AirPrint for ImageWriter.

 

[Phipli]

I'm jealous of your LocalTalk card discovery! I can't remember if I ever looked inside mine for a hidden LocalTalk card.

They can be found, if you post a wanted here someone might have one.

Combine that with @cheesestraws' AirTalk and you'll have AirPrint for ImageWriter.

Just to warn you, for reasons I don't understand, this works extremely slowly. Not sure if it has improved since the AirTalk was first released, but I believe ImageWriters don't work very well with airtalks.

@cheesestraws - is this still the case, or did you find a workaround? Ditto the 6100s?

 

[LaPorta]

How do you prevent the paper that was just printed from getting sucked back into the printer?

Tractor feed paper FTW on this one. There was a single-sheet adapter, but I’ve never seen it.

As for the AirTalk, I did just that setup and found that there were a lot of error lights from the AirTalk. I’m sure the original discussion is buried in @cheesestraws original AirTalk thread. It does work, just not as well as wired.

 

[bigmessowires]

I'm also using tractor feed paper. The outgoing paper slides directly on top of the incoming paper, and sometimes the leading edge catches on a fold and gets pulled back inside the printer. I've added a sheet of cardboard between them and it seems to have solved the problem.

 

[LaPorta]

Does the paper not slightly stick up when it comes off the drum?



Then, proceed over the plastic cover?

 

[bigmessowires]

Yes it does. Then it continues over the plastic cover and behind the printer, where it lays down on top of the incoming paper. So there are two continuous paper sheets moving in opposite directions, with one sliding directly on top of the other behind the printer.

 

[LaPorta]

Yes it does. Then it continues over the plastic cover and behind the printer, where it lays down on top of the incoming paper. So there are two continuous paper sheets moving in opposite directions, with one sliding directly on top of the other behind the printer.

Maybe I just have different paper but I can’t duplicate it on mine. This is the closest mine comes to overlapping, and then it just heads right over. Perhaps it’s the paper you have?

 

[bigmessowires]

Hmm, where is your paper supply? It looks like it's under the printer? Mine is in a stack sitting behind the printer, so paper enters the printer mostly horizontally rather than mostly vertically like your photo. It's packed up at the moment so I can help with photos.

 

[Phipli]

Hmm, where is your paper supply? It looks like it's under the printer? Mine is in a stack sitting behind the printer, so paper enters the printer mostly horizontally rather than mostly vertically like your photo. It's packed up at the moment so I can help with photos.

Yeah, you normally put the paper under the table the printer is on, or like this with a stand. That's probably your issue.

 

[LaPorta]

That’s exactly correct, it is under the printer. I think generally people used to have it feed from either under the printer, or under the table up from the floor and behind the desk.

 

[bigmessowires]

Ah yeah. I had everything sitting directly on the floor. It's funny... while setting up the printer, I did have vague memories of "printer stands" having been a thing back in the day. But I couldn't remember what they were for or why they were needed.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

You didn't expect me to miss an opportunity to show off mine too did ya? Yes under. The stand is actually for an Apple II's monitor.

 

[jmacz]

Hooray, congratulations on the working ImageWriter II! I've read that it may help to lubricate the rail that the print head slides on, but that would be a left/right problem wouldn't cause vertical scrunching.

I'm jealous of your LocalTalk card discovery! I can't remember if I ever looked inside mine for a hidden LocalTalk card. Combine that with @cheesestraws' AirTalk and you'll have AirPrint for ImageWriter.

Yeah, I took @thellmer's advice and cleaned and lubed the rail before even attempting to use it. It was relatively clean already but nonetheless, took the precaution.

I'm using tractor feed paper but the vertical scrunching seems to happen on the first line only. And only if it's the first sheet (ie. nothing above it). If it's the first line on second or subsequent attached sheets, it's fine. Which makes me believe there's not enough grip or something on that first sheet causing some sliding? I think everything's set up right in terms of the feed and how it grips the paper, but dunno. Requires further investigation.

 

[LaPorta]

You didn't expect me to miss an opportunity to show off mine too did ya? Yes under. The stand is actually for an Apple II's monitor.

Nicely done!

 

[NJRoadfan]

FWIW, if someone wants to "AirPrint" an ImageWriter, you can do it with CUPS on Linux and the built-in Ghostscript drivers. Also someone is updating the Ghostscript ImageWriter drivers to print in color. They haven't been checked into the GhostPDL tree yet though See: https://github.com/JoshWM1977/ghostpdl-current/commits/gdevadmp-2.0/contrib/gdevadmp.c

Also, regarding the ImageWriter LocalTalk card. Apparently most ROM revisions have an error in their DDP checksum calculation logic. It would certainly explain why the AirTalk throws big red error lights and is somewhat slow..... particularly if these packets are being discarded.

 

[Phipli]

Also, regarding the ImageWriter LocalTalk card. Apparently most ROM revisions have an error in their DDP checksum calculation logic. It would certainly explain why the AirTalk throws big red error lights and is somewhat slow..... particularly if these packets are being discarded.

Is there information available on what ROM versions and a copy of a good ROM anywhere?