• Re: Commodore MPS printer

    From Dr. What@1:3634/27 to Mykrowyre on Sun Nov 12 08:39:00 2023
    Mykrowyre wrote to All <=-

    The MPS-802 is the same as the 1526. It's a business class printer
    with "push" tractor feed so that you don't waste a sheet of paper every time you load the printer or advance to the next page. It has tru decenders (j, y, g, etc) under the line. It also has a ton of text and formatting commands for printing forms and reports. In stock form it isn't supported by most graphics programs (other than GEOS), but you
    can download a graphics rom for free, burn it to a 2764 eprom, and
    replace the original rom. This retains all original features and adds 1525 compatibility so that programs like print shop, etc, all work correctly.

    By chance, do you know of anyone who is selling that eprom already burnt?


    ... Live long and prosper... But don't let the IRS know.
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  • From Jim Brain@3:770/3 to Dr. What on Mon Nov 13 10:33:22 2023
    On 11/11/2023 1:39 PM, Dr. What wrote:
    Mykrowyre wrote to All <=-

    My> The MPS-802 is the same as the 1526. It's a business class printer
    My> with "push" tractor feed so that you don't waste a sheet of paper every
    My> time you load the printer or advance to the next page. It has tru
    My> decenders (j, y, g, etc) under the line. It also has a ton of text and
    My> formatting commands for printing forms and reports. In stock form it
    My> isn't supported by most graphics programs (other than GEOS), but you
    My> can download a graphics rom for free, burn it to a 2764 eprom, and
    My> replace the original rom. This retains all original features and adds
    My> 1525 compatibility so that programs like print shop, etc, all work
    My> correctly.

    By chance, do you know of anyone who is selling that eprom already burnt?


    ... Live long and prosper... But don't let the IRS know.
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    Looks like someone else is looking for it as well:

    https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36718

    I don't see the file anywhere either. I was not aware, and it would be
    nice to have

    To clarify, while the MPS 802 and 1526 are the same printer (and they
    share the same mechanism and case as the CBM 4023 which is IEEE-488 and
    for the PET, I do know there are 2 variants. The difference is in the
    print head. I *think* the 1526 has round dots in the print head, while
    the other has square dots.

    Having implemented graphics using this printer, I can truly say the
    capability is beyond awful.

    The 1526/MPS 802 supported a single redefinable character in the stock firmware. That's not so bad, as one could define the char as 8 bytes of graphics, print, redefine it, print, lather, rinse, repeat.

    What made it bad was the fact that the character could only be defined
    once per print line. Yep, 80 columns of text and 1 slot could be a
    graphics char.

    That should have made graphics impossible, but the printer also had a
    "carriage return without line feed" control character.

    Folks can see where this is going, but to finish it out...

    The solution to implement graphics on this printer was to:
    set a tab variable to 0
    print (tab) spaces
    define your graphics for position (tab)
    print the graphics char
    issue a carriage return with no line feed.
    increment tab by 1
    if tab = 80, issue line feed and work on next 8 lines of graphics.
    else, go to beginning of loop

    As you can expect, the speed was horrific, and I can only imagine the
    wear on the printer, as it printed one char at a time on a line.
    Luckily the onboard firmware knew enough to not bring the head all the
    way to the left after each return. But, as I recall, it did have to back
    up a bit when printing. Maybe it was to ensure the printhead was
    already moving when printing, not sure. In any case, the printhead
    jerked back and forth across the page in little spurts.

    It was a shame, as the print quality was miles better than the 1525 and friends, and it offered 640 dots per line, as opposed to 480 of the
    1526. As the previous poster noted, it also had true descenders. Text
    printing was fast and crisp.

    Jim

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  • From Dr. What@1:3634/27 to Jim Brain on Tue Nov 14 07:15:00 2023
    Jim Brain wrote to Dr. What <=-

    Having implemented graphics using this printer, I can truly say the capability is beyond awful.

    Ahhh... So it's a "you can eat it, but it tastes like dung" type of fix.

    I had picked up the 1526 in an estate sale. I got a big lot of C64 stuff: CPUs, disk drives, printer, 1702 monitor, software. When I had posted a photo someone remarked that the person who owned it must have been using it to run his business. And now the choice of the 1526 printer makes sense.


    ... You have to be sharp to be on the cutting edge.
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