13 Mar
2005
13 Mar
'05
10:08 a.m.
At 03:20 PM 3/13/05 +0100, you wrote:
Sure, like Tony said the drive is basicly the same as any of the HP DS
drives used in the HP 9122, 795x and many other HP-IB drives. I don't think
any PC drives are close enough to work but the HP-IB stuff is one E-bay
regularly if you can't find a local source. If you're lucky you can find a
hard drive/floppy drive combo that has a bad HD and buy it CHEAP and rob it
of the FD.
IIRC the floppy drives in the IPC are subject to the usual HP >>DS<<
floppy disk problem. The grease on the mechanism dries out and the
mechanism doesn't open all the way and when the user tries to insert or
remove a disk it tears the top head off of the drive. Examine it
closely to
be sure that the mechanism opens COMPLETELY before using it. Or better
yet,
go ahead and remove the drive then clean off the old grease and relube
it
with a GOOD quality grease that won't harden (I use gun grease).
Alarmed by this I went and had a closer look : yep, not only was the
head ripped off, it is even nowhere to be seen. I had not yet inserted
a disk myself, due to the problematic latch.
Since I dont have the head, repair is impossible. Would have been
problematic anyhow.
Any source for replacements ? Apart from the obvious mechanical issues, could a PC DD
drive be used
instead ?
Is there a builtin selftest for the printer ?
There's some but I don't think it checks much other than making sure the
head is at the home position. When you turn the IPC on it runs the head the
right and then homes it. I think it only checks to see that it's at the
home postion when it finishs. I don't think it even checks for a non-home
position when it moves to the right. As far as checking for print head
cable problems it does NOT check for anything. (Same for all the ThinkJets)
The obvious symptom is one or more missing rows of print but that can also
be due to a clogged print nozzle so you have to use a known good cartridge.
Yes it's a PITA when all you have is a pile of cartridges in unknown
condition and a pile of printers in unknown condition. A few years ago I
was in that position and I just had to gather up a big pile of stuff and
try various combinations till I found a working printer and a working
cartridge. IIRC it took a full day of cleaning leaked ink, swapping stuff
around, etc etc. Since then I DO NOT keep cartridges in the printers and I
mark every printer as to weather the print head is good or not after I test
it. You can check the cartridges some what by blowing into the hole on the
back end of the cartridge. You should see ink dribling out of all nine(?)
ports on the front of the cartridge. That's not an absolute check but it's
a start. IN fact, HP advises youto blow into the cartridge to "prime" it
before installing it in the printer. But wipe the excess ink off before
installing it. BTW If you find a cartridge that continues to dribble for no
reason, pitch it. You COULD use it for testing and immediately take it out
of the printer but it's not worth the trouble, just get rid of it. Oh, a
couple of pieces of good news. The cartridges come in sealed containers and
they seem to store for a LONG time unopened so if you find any new sealed
ones they're probably going to be good despite the age. I find that the
military and military contractors discard them after a certain time but
they're almost certainly still good. The other good news is the the
printer mechanism was designed by Canon (and perhaps built by them) and it
uses the same cartridges as the Canon Diconix printers so that gives you a
second source of cartridges.
So not ready yet ...and I knew I should have grabbed a HP9133 while I
had the chance, 2 years ago.
I'll give you a couple of tips about buying HP-IB drives. First before
you buy it plug it in with no controller connected if you can. Most of the
HP drives have a built-in microprocessor and they run a self test. Let it
run through the self test and make sure that it doesn't indicate a failure.
Some drives have a FAULT light on the front. Some have a two digit display
on the back that will show Px or Fx after it finishes. P means Pass and F
means Fail. x should indicate the HP-IB select code that the drive is set
for. If you're considering buying one off of E-bay have the seller try this
before you buy. You don't need anything other than the drive so they have
no excuse for not doing it. Also some (all?) HP-IB drives will park the
heads after the selftest if there's no controller connected. So that in
itself is a GOOD reason to do it. I found that in an obscure corner of one
of the HP drive manuals and I don't know if it applies to all the drives
but it's easy enough to do that I do it with all my drives before I buy or
move them and anytime that I take one off a system for any reason.
One more thing about floppy drives. HP made single sided, double sided
and quad density drives. The one in the IPC is DS. The one is the 9121 is
SS. I THINK the ones in the 913x and 915x are also SS so you can't use them
in the IPC. The ones in the HP 795xs and 9122S and D are DS so you can use
them for the IPC. The 9122C uses QD drives so you can't use those. I think
one of the HD/FD combos also uses QD drives but I don't remember which one
it was. However I have a book full of notes about the drives. If you find a
drive that you might want to use in the IPC sent me the model and I'll tell
you if it's SS, DS or QD.
BTW where are you located?
Joe
Jos