Re: Wanted: Silentype printer card for IIe.

[SynABit@kc.invalid (Dennis Doms)]

A Silentype was my first Apple II printer, and I remember it having a
significant caveat: the card/printer draws a lot of power during
operation and puts quite a load on the Apple II internal power supply.
If you do much printing, you can just about cook on top of the Apple
II. (And this is back in the earliest days before we loaded up all the
slots!)

It also requires thermal paper, which used to cost quite a bit.

I missed the original message. It the interest in getting the printer
working is "historical", then good luck. But if the user is expecting
a cheap reliable printer, this probably isn't it. For one thing, it
might be good to compare the cost of the printer and expected supplies
versus an appropriate inkjet (e.g., one that emulates an
Apple-compatible "classic" printer model) over a similar extended
period.

The text print quality was also very rough (5x7 character matrix?)
with no descenders. There was a utility program that would "shift" the
printhead down a pixel to drop lower-case descenders (at the risk of
colliding with the top of a tall character on the next line). Still no
printhead noise, but it made for a lot of vibration. :)

In article <20010609190747.13782.00006599@ng-ch1.aol.com>,
mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon) wrote:

>Stephen Shaw wrote:
>
>>NO definitely serial (of a sort)
>>
>>On Fri, 01 Jun 2001 03:07:58 GMT, william strutts wrote:
>>
>>> There is a place called Discount Computers in Flint Michigan
>>> that has Parallel adapters for sale.  I don't know the phone
>>> number.  Is it a parallel printer?
>
>The Silentype printer is neither serial nor parallel.  It has a
>proprietary connection to its dedicated interface card.
>
>It is analogous to the Disk II--standard mechanism, proprietary
>analog card, proprietary link, proprietary interface card.  All
>quite beautiful (if you like that sort of thing) but _absolutely_
>non-standard.
>
>Just as Woz was disposed to control as much of the hardware
>as possible by software running on the Apple processor, so too
>was the designer of the Silentype (who was it?).  The Apple
>slot firmware controls the stepper motors to advance the paper
>and move the print head, and it turns the head's "heaters" on
>and off to make dots on thermosensitive paper.  A real hacker's
>delight!
>
>-michael
>
> Email:  mjmahon@aol.com
> Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

 --
Dennis Doms  SynABit@kc.invalid
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"In the end, only kindness matters." - "Hands", Jewel Kilcher