Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:
On 2014-01-15 13:13, Cory Smelosky wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Johnny Billquist wrote:
On 2014-01-15 10:20, Cory Smelosky wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 01/15/2014 09:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to
pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
I'm not sure it'd be fair to designate one printer out of so many
different models, with such different capabilities.
My opinion, though...If you're talking about an output-only device,
assuming for the minicomputer family, my personal favorite is the
LA180.
It has its faults (unidirectional printing comes to mind) but overall
it's a great printer. My opinion of it is not objective because I had
one for years on my first PDP-11.
No receive-only LA120?! ;)
(Is that was the LA180 is? I can't remember what the models number for
the receive-only LA120 was.) I like my printers big. ;)
So you should really aim for the LP26 or LP27 then... You need to be
at least two people to even lift it off the ground.
Perfect! ;)
They are line printers. Which means they are large, heavy, fast, and
very noisy. I have not seen any in the last 20 years now. I remember
when we dragged an LP14 out of the computer room. Two people with
shoulder straps, and we barely managed to lift it an inch off the floor
while dragging it out.
The LP27 was quiet compared to the desktop dot matrix printers of the same
vintage connected to desktop systems.
--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG
Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.
On 2014-01-15 13:13, Cory Smelosky wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Johnny Billquist wrote:
On 2014-01-15 10:20, Cory Smelosky wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 01/15/2014 09:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to
pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
I'm not sure it'd be fair to designate one printer out of so many
different models, with such different capabilities.
My opinion, though...If you're talking about an output-only device,
assuming for the minicomputer family, my personal favorite is the
LA180.
It has its faults (unidirectional printing comes to mind) but overall
it's a great printer. My opinion of it is not objective because I had
one for years on my first PDP-11.
No receive-only LA120?! ;)
(Is that was the LA180 is? I can't remember what the models number for
the receive-only LA120 was.) I like my printers big. ;)
So you should really aim for the LP26 or LP27 then... You need to be
at least two people to even lift it off the ground.
Perfect! ;)
They are line printers. Which means they are large, heavy, fast, and very noisy. I have not seen any in the last 20 years now. I remember when we dragged an LP14 out of the computer room. Two people with shoulder straps, and we barely managed to lift it an inch off the floor while dragging it out.
I really like the line printers, but they are not for home use... But they work fine on a PDP-11 as well. You just need an LP11 card in the machine. (Or LPV11 if you're a Qbus person.)
Johnny
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Johnny Billquist wrote:
On 2014-01-15 10:20, Cory Smelosky wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 01/15/2014 09:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to
pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
I'm not sure it'd be fair to designate one printer out of so many
different models, with such different capabilities.
My opinion, though...If you're talking about an output-only device,
assuming for the minicomputer family, my personal favorite is the LA180.
It has its faults (unidirectional printing comes to mind) but overall
it's a great printer. My opinion of it is not objective because I had
one for years on my first PDP-11.
No receive-only LA120?! ;)
(Is that was the LA180 is? I can't remember what the models number for
the receive-only LA120 was.) I like my printers big. ;)
So you should really aim for the LP26 or LP27 then... You need to be at least two people to even lift it off the ground.
Perfect! ;)
Johnny
--
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects
On 2014-01-15 10:20, Cory Smelosky wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 01/15/2014 09:58 AM, Daniel Soderstrom wrote:
The chances of a printer turning up in Perth, WA are zip. If I had to
pay money for one "desert island" DEC printer. What would it be?
I'm not sure it'd be fair to designate one printer out of so many
different models, with such different capabilities.
My opinion, though...If you're talking about an output-only device,
assuming for the minicomputer family, my personal favorite is the LA180.
It has its faults (unidirectional printing comes to mind) but overall
it's a great printer. My opinion of it is not objective because I had
one for years on my first PDP-11.
No receive-only LA120?! ;)
(Is that was the LA180 is? I can't remember what the models number for
the receive-only LA120 was.) I like my printers big. ;)
So you should really aim for the LP26 or LP27 then... You need to be at least two people to even lift it off the ground.
Johnny
LOL! What a mental picture! I love it!
--Mike
On Jan 15, 2014, at 3:10 PM, Sampsa Laine <sampsa at mac.com> wrote:
I think any of these would look hilarious hooked up to a Raspberry Pi running SIMH.
sampsa <sampsa at mac.com>
mobile +44 7961 149465
On 15 Jan 2014, at 21:16, Hans Vlems <hvlems at zonnet.nl> wrote:
ISTR an LA34, as the console for a PDP-11/40.
Bidirectional.
Van: Paul_Koning at Dell.com
Verzonden: woensdag 15 januari 2014 19:37
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Beantwoorden: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Onderwerp: Re: [HECnet] Which is THE dec printer?
On Jan 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello!
Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
certain novel........ (Or other book)
The first device called DECwriter was the LA30, an amazing piece of junk known to jam every few pages. It also came with a really bad keyboard. Was it uppercase only? I don t remember anymore. It needed fill after the carriage return or it would lose characters (and jam even more often, too). We had one in college for a short while.
Next came the LA36, which was something entirely different. Rock solid, and it didn t need fill after carriage return. Upper and lower case, of course.
The LA120, if I remember right, was the first DEC printing terminal to do bidirectional printing. It used the T-11 as its microcontroller to make that level of sophistication possible.
The LA180 receive-only printer was, I think, a derivative of the LA36, not the LA120. The 1976 Peripheral handbook seems to support that. Note that there also was an LA35, a receive-only variant of the LA36. The difference is that the LA35 had a serial interface while the LA180 had a parallel (line printer style) interface.
paul
Michael Young
young at ecn.purdue.edu
I think any of these would look hilarious hooked up to a Raspberry Pi running SIMH.
sampsa <sampsa at mac.com>
mobile +44 7961 149465
On 15 Jan 2014, at 21:16, Hans Vlems <hvlems at zonnet.nl> wrote:
ISTR an LA34, as the console for a PDP-11/40.
Bidirectional.
Van: Paul_Koning at Dell.com
Verzonden: woensdag 15 januari 2014 19:37
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Beantwoorden: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Onderwerp: Re: [HECnet] Which is THE dec printer?
On Jan 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello!
Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
certain novel........ (Or other book)
The first device called DECwriter was the LA30, an amazing piece of junk known to jam every few pages. It also came with a really bad keyboard. Was it uppercase only? I don t remember anymore. It needed fill after the carriage return or it would lose characters (and jam even more often, too). We had one in college for a short while.
Next came the LA36, which was something entirely different. Rock solid, and it didn t need fill after carriage return. Upper and lower case, of course.
The LA120, if I remember right, was the first DEC printing terminal to do bidirectional printing. It used the T-11 as its microcontroller to make that level of sophistication possible.
The LA180 receive-only printer was, I think, a derivative of the LA36, not the LA120. The 1976 Peripheral handbook seems to support that. Note that there also was an LA35, a receive-only variant of the LA36. The difference is that the LA35 had a serial interface while the LA180 had a parallel (line printer style) interface.
paul
ISTR an LA34, as the console for a PDP-11/40.
Bidirectional.
Van: Paul_Koning at Dell.com
Verzonden: woensdag 15 januari 2014 19:37
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Beantwoorden: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Onderwerp: Re: [HECnet] Which is THE dec printer?
On Jan 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello!
> Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
> things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
>
> Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
> one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
> certain novel........ (Or other book)
The first device called DECwriter was the LA30, an amazing piece of junk known to jam every few pages. It also came with a really bad keyboard. Was it uppercase only? I don t remember anymore. It needed fill after the carriage return or it would lose characters (and jam even more often, too). We had one in college for a short while.
Next came the LA36, which was something entirely different. Rock solid, and it didn t need fill after carriage return. Upper and lower case, of course.
The LA120, if I remember right, was the first DEC printing terminal to do bidirectional printing. It used the T-11 as its microcontroller to make that level of sophistication possible.
The LA180 receive-only printer was, I think, a derivative of the LA36, not the LA120. The 1976 Peripheral handbook seems to support that. Note that there also was an LA35, a receive-only variant of the LA36. The difference is that the LA35 had a serial interface while the LA180 had a parallel (line printer style) interface.
paul
On Wed, 15 Jan 2014, Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman- wrote:
<Paul_Koning at Dell.com> writes:
On Jan 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello!
Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
=20
Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
certain novel........ (Or other book)
The first device called DECwriter was the LA30, an amazing piece of junk kn=
own to jam every few pages. It also came with a really bad keyboard. Was =
it uppercase only? I don=92t remember anymore. It needed fill after the c=
arriage return or it would lose characters (and jam even more often, too). =
We had one in college for a short while.
Next came the LA36, which was something entirely different. Rock solid, an=
d it didn=92t need fill after carriage return. Upper and lower case, of co=
urse.
The LA120, if I remember right, was the first DEC printing terminal to do b=
idirectional printing. It used the T-11 as its microcontroller to make tha=
t level of sophistication possible.
NOT! It's an 8080!
Its PSU also hates me.
--
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects
<Paul_Koning at Dell.com> writes:
On Jan 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello!
Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
=20
Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
certain novel........ (Or other book)
The first device called DECwriter was the LA30, an amazing piece of junk kn=
own to jam every few pages. It also came with a really bad keyboard. Was =
it uppercase only? I don=92t remember anymore. It needed fill after the c=
arriage return or it would lose characters (and jam even more often, too). =
We had one in college for a short while.
Next came the LA36, which was something entirely different. Rock solid, an=
d it didn=92t need fill after carriage return. Upper and lower case, of co=
urse.
The LA120, if I remember right, was the first DEC printing terminal to do b=
idirectional printing. It used the T-11 as its microcontroller to make tha=
t level of sophistication possible.
NOT! It's an 8080!
--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG
Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.
On Jan 15, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Gregg Levine <gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello!
Oddly enough the phone company besides having a good interest in
things DEC related, also made stuff in Dayton.......
Which model was considered to be a DECwriter? I seem to recall seeing
one once, and also recall the discussions concerning the thing in a
certain novel........ (Or other book)
The first device called DECwriter was the LA30, an amazing piece of junk known to jam every few pages. It also came with a really bad keyboard. Was it uppercase only? I don t remember anymore. It needed fill after the carriage return or it would lose characters (and jam even more often, too). We had one in college for a short while.
Next came the LA36, which was something entirely different. Rock solid, and it didn t need fill after carriage return. Upper and lower case, of course.
The LA120, if I remember right, was the first DEC printing terminal to do bidirectional printing. It used the T-11 as its microcontroller to make that level of sophistication possible.
The LA180 receive-only printer was, I think, a derivative of the LA36, not the LA120. The 1976 Peripheral handbook seems to support that. Note that there also was an LA35, a receive-only variant of the LA36. The difference is that the LA35 had a serial interface while the LA180 had a parallel (line printer style) interface.
paul
