13 Feb
2007
13 Feb
'07
9:48 a.m.
On 2/13/07, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
As difficult as it is to find information on vintage
terminals, its
even harder to find information on vintage pen plotters. A pen
plotter was about the only form of graphical output you could expect
to see on a vintage graphics system as film recorders were very
expensive.
OK, what do you have in your collection(s)?
Commdore 1520 mini-plotter (Alps mechanism, broken drive gears)
Atari mini-plotter (same condition as 1520)
HP 7475 B-sized plotter
HP Draftmaster II E-sized plotter
The Draftmaster was a special buy - Uni surplus, marked $100, offered
to me for $50, but when I couldn't get a test plot, the price dropped
to $25. Turned out to be a mis-loaded pen jamming the carousel. The
hard part was getting it home and up the stairs.
If this thing had the optional take-up motor, it could do
arbitrary-length plots. With only the one paper-feed motor, it is
limited to a few feet of paper at a time.
-ethan