On Wed, Apr 8, 2026 at 6:05 PM Bill Degnan via cctalk <[email protected]> wrote: > > you need a parallel to USB adapter from Amazon. Otherwise, use the default > printer driver. You'll probably need a new ribbon. I used to use these > back in the early 90s. Worked well then.
Ribbon? The Diconix 150+ uses the same inkjet cartridge as the original HP Thinkjet, but is otherwise a very different printer. If the old cartridge has been left in the machine it will probably have leaked. The ink is somewhat corrosive (in my case it ruined the torsion springs for the paper bail) but unlike HP Thinkjets, the flexiprint to the carriage tends to survive I rebuilt one some years ago. Totally stripped the mechanism, cleaned it up, etc. I don't recomend doing it if you don't have to, re-threading the carriage drive cable is 'fun'. The electronics is essentially a 78C10 microcontroller, ROM. RAM, a custom gate array and motor drives. Note that many of the Centronics lines go to the gate array pins, something I totally dislike. I have one of my hand-drawn reverse-engineered schematics for the thing and lots of photos of bits of the mechanism which I can send out if anyone needs them. -tony
