Very good information to know about the printer, thanks. I am assuming that the new cartridges I get from staples should not have the toxic ink? Will it still be corrosive?
There was a second printer over there, missing the plastic cover and scratched up. I think i will pick it up too for parts. As far as the disk drive goes, if it is a proprietary hard drive in there, that is a bummer. it spins up but does not sound too good. The drive in the compuer itself does not sound too good either, but it is still working and is scsi, which i have a stockpile of over here, so that is not an issue. On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 10:03 AM, tony duell <a...@p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > Original "A" version with HP-IB interface, useless for regular > > PCs of course. Complete with the "SomethingJet" marketing > > It's mildly easier to use with a normal PC than the -B model (HPIL, > battery powered). Interestingly the -A version has an HPIB-HPIL > interface feeding HPIL to the main board (the interface is a > modified (different firmware) version of the HP82169 IIRC. > > Interesting #2, the custom HP controller chip in these printers > has a built-in ROM with the control firmware, but external > font ROM and RAM. These communicate over what is essentially > the Saturn bus, as found in the HP71, etc. > > > name that has been with us since then. The key innovation of > > I read somewhere that the official reason for 'THINKJET' was > 'THermal INKJET'. I suspect that is very much a backronym. It > is a thermal inkjet printer, the cartridge has little heating elements > that boil the ink and cause a drop to be squirted out. > > > that printer was the disposable cartridge with the micro- > > machined nozzles, which they had a horrendous time > > manufacturing at first. And for some incomprehensible reason, > > you can still order brand new cartridges from... Staples! Just put > > a new one in and you should be good to go. > > A couple of words of warning about those cartridges. Firstly > the ink, at least in older ones, is ethylene glycol based. It's toxic > and attractive in taste to some animals. Keep those catridges > away from cats, dogs, etc. > > The ink is also corrosive. It can corrode the metal faceplate > on the cartridge, then drip onto the flexible PCB that connects > the cartridge to the rest of the printer and corrode that too. > If you ever have a Thinkjet with missing dots, that's what has > happend (at least 99% of the time). The only source for > replacement PCBs now is other Thinkjets. So don't leave the > cartridge in the printer if you are not using it. > > Incidentally, if the 9153 is the drive unit I think it is, it has a > very odd HP-interface hard disk in it. There is one ribbon > cable (40 wires I think) carrying power, control signals and > raw data. I seem to remember the head positioner is a > stepper motor, but it does micro-stepping as part of the > design. > > -tony >