30 Dec
2009
30 Dec
'09
2:46 a.m.
That's a fair point. It is a linear power supply so there may have been a
size/weight/packaging issue as well. The PSU is actually fairly large in the printer...
case and all measures about 5x7x2".
I'm admittedly a bit of an ADAM apologist... it's my favorite computer from the
early 80's. That said, I think that their power supply designs (not just in the
printer) were cheap and not very robust.
On Dec 29, 2009, at 8:29 PM, Adam Sampson wrote:
Geoff Oltmans <oltmansg at bellsouth.net>
writes:
It only required one AC connection for the whole
thing, one wire going
from the printer to the computer, and one wire to the keyboard.
Which is perfectly reasonable -- but you can get the same effect by
putting the shared PSU in the computer. The Amstrad PCW 8256/8512 used
that approach: monitor with integrated CP/M machine, simple dot matrix
printer powered from it, and a separate keyboard. This meant that you
didn't need to connect the printer if you weren't going to use it, and
third-party printer upgrades were fairly common.
(To be fair, the PCW's printer was connected to the PCW with *two*
cables -- data and power -- but I suspect that was just Amstrad's
designers being their usual penny-pinching selves...)
--
Adam Sampson <ats at offog.org> <http://offog.org/>