My future setup

[orion70]

Thanks. I'll be paying it for some 20 years but yes, it's worth it

[ral-clan]

I'm surprised you say that the screw heads are worn. This is not something a user would open and close many times (if ever) so that they would get to a worn state.

Can you send a picture of the carriage showing the screws you are talking about (perhaps circling them in the picture)? I looked at the first picture you posted above of the printer carriage, and none of the bolts look worn, so I'm not completely sure what you are talking about. If you are talking about those bolts on either side of the print head, going through the silver metal part (see first picture on previous page), then they don't look worn to me - are you sure you're using a screwdriver head of the right size, and not a slightly undersized screwdriver? I've seen these types of bolts before and you need a cross-head tip (we call them "Phillips head" here) that is slightly larger than the one provided in basic household screwdriver sets, and has a more blunt point. If you use a normal Philips tip (sharp tip) it will slip.

The one you need for these bolts is like the right-most one in this picture:


(click to enlarge)

You can buy this type of Phillips tip for the equivalent of 1 Euro or less at any hardware store. I believe it is called a "PH3" type.

Once I am sure which screws you are talking about, I'll have a look at my MPS801 to compare.

Looking at the first photo (I haven't had a chance to look at my own yet), I have a suspicion you might even be able to take the top black, plastic cover off the spur gear without removing that silver metal part. It might just be a snap-off procedure (looks like there are four clips there). I'll have to look at mine.

[orion70]

I'm afraid there was a misunderstanding.. I was talking about the four screws of the plastic case, the ones hidden deep inside the plastic (not shown in the pictures). But the problem to open the thing up is solved now . I have access here at work to a xylene solution that softens and eventually melts plastic. I managed to unscrew two of them simply exerting more strength, then put some drops of xylene in the other two holes, and one more screw was gone. The last one was particularly strong, so I lost my residual patience and broke the plastic, finally opening the printer case.

This allowed me to access the solenoid on the right, and pressing it to move the carriage at will without turning the printer on. Moreover, I could fix the problem with the left lever, pressing it against the metal sheet with the holes until its foot was able to fit each hole and stay in place. I could also confirm that pressing a finger against the drive spur stops is, while the underlying gear keeps revolving.

Problem is, I stil can't access the bottom of the carriage where there's a screw (red arrow) I probably have to see and/or fix. The carriage itself is firmly tied to two guide pillars, as shown below:



I managed to disassemble pillar 1, but the 2nd is secured to a complex series of gears, so I really don't know how to take it apart.

I think I'm giving up on this.

[ral-clan]

Okay, well there's probably a snap-washer holding the pillar on the gears, which you would have to remove (not hard).

But you have taken a good shot at it. If you are going to buy another, like I said, I would keep the old one for parts (circuit board, ROM, etc. all looked good, and certainly the print head is valuable in case your replacement ever breaks a pin.

[orion70]

Quick update: basing on the knowledge acquired during long sessions with the damaged printer, I bought a defective one (broken printer head) for a small price, and finally put together a working MPS-801 from the two. Auto-test: NEAR PERFECT

Now I'm studying the printer manual and some other sources. Can't wait to set everything up in the new house, which is currently mine, but empty. Estimated time to relocation: three weeks.

[highinfidelity]

Cool. It's always great to save some hardware from the dump by making a working unit from two broken ones that were to be trashed for sure.

Not even to mention how one's EGO inflates by completing such tricky repairs...

Was your wife also impressed by your skills?

[orion70]

Was your wife also impressed by your skills?

Yep, but not at making printers

[highinfidelity]

Well, that's even better!!!

[joshuadenmark]

Was your wife also impressed by your skills?

Yep, but not at making printers

Hard to impress this species what so ever...

[orion70]

Well, my wife is still not impressed, but I have an update here: the whole system was finally set up on a clean, white office desk, and I'm very satisfied with it. I do games, charts, graphics, and even word processing (incredible how far technology got recently heh? ), whenever I have some spare time. Note: the modern TV set will be replaced with a 14" CRT soon.

Anyway, here's my disciple learning the most recent digital magic on a Commodore calculator:


Problem is, neither Emma nor me can solve a little problem we have with the printer. If we print even long texts written with Speedscript, Write Now, Quick Brown Fox or whatsoever, no problem; same if we type in a program, OPEN e.g. 3,4, then CMD3 and LIST on the printer, as the MPS801 manual says.
Problem is, if we LOAD a BASIC program from tape or disk, and launch the LIST to the printer with the same CMD method. In this case, but only in this case, the printer will do only a couple of lines, then it will stop and the blinking cursor will appear on the screen (without the READY. prompt though).
The printer for desk cluttering reasons is chained to the disk drive (and not vice-versa), i.e. SERIAL PORT->PRINTER(4)->DRIVE(8).

Thanks if anyone has hints to solve this puzzle . TIA also from the baby!

[Mike]

Problem is, if we LOAD a BASIC program from tape or disk, and launch the LIST to the printer with the same CMD method. In this case, but only in this case, the printer will do only a couple of lines, then it will stop and the blinking cursor will appear on the screen (without the READY. prompt though). [...] Thanks if anyone has hints to solve this puzzle . TIA also from the baby!

Normally this should make no difference, but have you tried STOP/RESTORE between loading the program from disk and the issuing the OPEN/CMD/LIST combo to print?

I also tend to write the commands in one line, i.e. OPEN3,4:CMD3:LIST and close the channel to the printer with PRINT#3:CLOSE3. The PRINT# commands cleanly restores output to screen and flushes the character buffer inside the printer, before the channel is closed.

If that doesn't help, try exchanging the two cables between computer and drive, and drive and printer. Otherwise we'll have the opportunity to take a look into this in September.

[Jeff-20]

Adorable! You have to start them young on a proper Commodore training.

[English Invader]

The 1311 joystick is a nice touch; not everyone goes for the totally authentic approach.

[srowe]

They're not easy to come by these days are they? They weren't very robust, I know I broke at least two in the old days...

[English Invader]

They're not easy to come by these days are they? They weren't very robust, I know I broke at least two in the old days...

I must say that it wasn't until last year that I finally got one, but then I wasn't really looking. In terms of functionality, there are far better (and more available) alternatives out there.

If you take your time, you can get one at auction quite cheaply because it's more or less common knowledge that they weren't very good.