DECWriter II LA36 being given away - Update

Incidnetally, talking of LA36s, there is one bit of rather poor design in them IMHO. There is no switch/sensor to detelct the 'home' position of the carriage. Instead there is a physical stop that stops the carriage moving any further. When the carrage hits the stop, it salls the motor. The electroncs notices a lack of pulses from the otpical shaft encoder and knows it's got to the home ppsition. The problem is that the plastic key in the drive sprocket sheers off. Then the motor dosesn't stall, it rotrates slowly with the sprocket slipping on the shaft. So thge electronics doesn't think it's got to the home psotion, it keeps the motor turning. But having the sproket slipping in a much heavier load than jsut moving the cariage, so the motor overheats. The insulation burns off the wire, you get shorted turns, in the end the carriage motor fuse blows. Rewindign the motor is not that difficult, but it's still a pain to have to do it. -tony