Selenar Graphics II (Was: DECWriter II LA36 being given away)

Yes I totally agree with your comments Sadly although I sold thousands of LA36's in the UK I don?t have one. I do have an LA75 and an LA50. Obviously LA36's, LA120's and LA180's are much larger animals and tend to be scrapped do to the storage space they need. That reminds me of a story. When I joined DEC I got the inevitable list of cars to choose from. In those days they were mostly Ford Cortinas. I duly chose one and added 'Estate' to the description. About a week later my new car arrived but not an estate version. So I asked the fleet manager what was the problem. She said an estate was not on the list. OK say's I, bring the car over to Ealing. She pulls up into the car park to see another Sales person and I carrying an LA36 in to the car park. We invited her to load the LA36 into the vehicle provided. She went a very bright pink, got into the car and drove off. When I arrived next day the keys for the top Ford estate model were waiting in reception. Regards ? Rod Smallwood ? ? -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 14 September 2012 20:17 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Selenar Graphics II (Was: DECWriter II LA36 being given away) designed You will find you need quite a low voltaeg to get the pins to extend. Typoca;;y these ehads are runm from 24V or 36V supply rails i nthe printer, but a 5V bench supply will normally operate them,. The actch is, of course, the operate a lot more slowly (due to the inductace of the coils) on the lower votlage. That's why the higher voltage is sued in operation. YEs, they will over heat if left on too long. But you can certainly test a head in this way, and clean the exposed part of the pin without damaging it., Of coruse you are not going to leave the head unattended when doign this. You are likely to be hand-holding the head. You will notice if it's getting hot. Incidentally, if you ever have to reasseble the X-axis drive suystme of the HP7245 printer/plotter, it helps to be able to lock the drive pulley whenyou are widning the drive cabel round it. I have found that energising one winding of the drive stepper motor (again, only 5 or 6 volts) will do this, and the motor doesn't get hot in the time it takes ot put the thing together. -tony