4 Mar
2005
4 Mar
'05
7:25 a.m.
I thik one of the old HP plotters would
"sing" a song using the motors,
given the proper power up sequence.
An a.f.c story from the 90's that I remember is a printer company
putting diagnostics in a dot matrix printer's firmware, so that on
checksum/other internal failures a song was played out through the
stepper motors. These diagnostics were intended largely for development/
factory use. One day the support group got a call from a user who
was having a problem with a printer, but seemed strangely reluctant
to actually describe the symptoms. After much cajoling, they finally
got the customer to admit that indeed, every time the printer was
turned on all it did was play "Camptown ladies" over and over again...
this immediately told the engineers which ROM had failed!
Tim.