23 Aug
2012
23 Aug
'12
2:25 p.m.
[Amstrad PCW interface]
The non-standard connectors are a bit of a problem,
however, the
expansion interfaces do appear to have been available (at least for
those willing to import from the UK and Europe)
It certianly existed, I have one soemwhere... I thought that the RS232
conenctor was a standard DB25. I think socket, and it mayw well be
mis-wired as a DTE. But Amstrad were by no means the only company to get
that wrong...
The Centroics port is, IIRC, a 34 pin card edge. It's the came as the
cnnector on the CPC machines, so the came cable works. So does a TRS-80
M1/3/4 peinter cable. So does crimping the connecotrs to a bit of ribbon
cable.
Of coruse I am not talking about the printer conenctor on the main PCW
here. That is a set of signals to operate the motor and head drivers fo
of the totally dumb printer that cmae with it.
In general, I'm a big fan of Amstrad hardware. The
CPC home computer
I hated the quality of constrcution, but loved the easy availabiliy of
real service manuals (schematics) and spare parts.
-tony