New subject: Sharp CE-515P plotter/printer - info?

21 May 2001

Hi,

...
  Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 22:40:50 +0100 (BST)
 From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
 Subject: Re: Sharp CE-515P plotter/printer - info?

 >
 > Hi,
 >     I've just acquired a nice little Sharp plotter/printer (model
CE-515P).
...

 I assume this is one of the little 4 colour units with the tiny ballpoint
 pens on the carriage and paper about 4" wide. Yup.

...
  The same mechanism was used by other companies (Oric
printer, Tandy
 CGP115, Commodore 1520, and so on). Many of them (but not the Commodore)
 used the same microcontroller chip to operate the mechanism, and they all
 respond to the same commands. Not my Sharp - it works with some of the graphics
commands (not AXIS or Text
Rotation, though), but not others, and it needs an ESC b to put it into
graphics mode.

...
  Somewhere I have the service manual for the mechanism
(how to take it
 apart and replace mechanical bits). No idea where you'd get spares from,
 though. Anyone got a metal milling machine?

...
  > It seems to be in reasonably good condition and
it works (to some extent).
...

 The most common problem with these units is that the little pinion gears
 on the stepper motor shafts break. They're force-fitted onto the shafts
 and the crack. This causes them (a) to slip and (b) not to mesh properly
 with the next gear in the train. Urk...

...
  At one time you could get spares from Tandy National
Parts (as a spare
 for the CGP115 plotter), but not any more (and not for many years,
 actually). I've heard various solutions involving binding them up with a
 twist of wire (wound round the part of the pinion that doesn't mesh with
 the next gear) so as to close the crack, but I am not sure how good these
 solutions are. How about putting a bit of copper wire over the crack, squeezing the
gear
together, heating the wire up with a soldering iron, pushing the wire into
the plastic and cutting off the excess? Or it might be possible to use a
metal staple or two. Should be quite strong.

...
  It might almost be worth trying to make some
replacements from scratch.
 You'd need a milling machine (or lathe with vertical slide) and a
 dividing head. And you'd need to make a special cutter (probably a fly
 cutter), since IIRC, these gears are a non-standard pitch. But it should
 be possible. Oh. I wouldn't mind a set of metal gears for it if they're all
plastic. Two
of each should be enough.
:-)

...
   Only problem
is, I don't have a manual. Does anyone here know what the
 control codes for this little thing are? I also need the pinouts for the
 RS232C port on the back. 
 How many pins on the RS232 port. And is it known to be RS232? Many of these
...
  plotters have a parallel interface on a strange
connector (such as a 0.1"
 header plug). The standard microcontroller implements a parallel
 interface and 3 wire RS232 (input data, ready, ground) at 600 baud. It's a four
pin DIN socket and it's labelled "RS-232C".

...
  Here are the standard commands for these printers
(assuming it does use
 the normal microcontroller).

 It starts off in text mode. In this mode, characters are printed in the
 way you'd expect, carriage return and/or line feed do what you'd expect
 (there's a dip switch to select whether it automatically does linefeed on
 carriage return). There are 2 other control codes to know about :

 18 (decimal) : go into graphics mode Doesn't work, see above.
...
  29 (decimal) : Select the next pen Doesn't
work - ESC 0 to ESC 3 work on mine.

...
  In graphics mode, you send it printable commands to
make it do things.
 The main ones are :

 A    go back to text mode Works,
...
  Cn   Select pen <n> (0-3) Doesn't work
- ESC 0-3 works, though.

...
  D x,y... Draw from current point to x,y (absolute).
You can specify
 several points as D x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3....
 I    Set origin to current pen position
 H    Move pen back to origin
 J x,y  Draw relative by x,y
 M x,y  Move pen (without drawing) to x,y (absolute) Work fine.

...
  Ln     Set line type to <n> (0-15). Different
forms of dashed line Haven't tried that yet.

...
  Pstring Print character string (until CR received
IIRC). Works.

...
  Qn     Set print direction to <n> (0-3 = normal,
down, reversed, up) Dowsn't work.

...
  R x,y   Move relative by x,y Works fine

...
  Sn     Set text size to n (0-63, larger numbers =
larger text. 0 = 80
 cpl, 1 = 40 cpl)
 Xa,n,d  Draw axis. a=0 for Y, 1 for X. n = number of divisions, d = size
 of division. None of those work.

...
  That should get you started, assuming it's the
standard controller chip.

      Also, does anyone know where to get pens and
plotter rolls for this
 thing? 
 No, but I wish I did. I have several of them, and even an electronic
 'typewriter' using a wider version of the same mechanism. I've just
found a source for paper and pens. In Germany...

And now onto the next mail...

...
  Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 18:26:27 -0400
 From: Christopher Caldwell &lt;hardwire(a)ptd.net&gt;
 Subject: Re: Sharp CE-515P plotter/printer - info?

 Philip Pemberton wrote:

  Also, does anyone know where to get pens and
plotter rolls for this
 thing? 
 If we're talking about a similar type of gizmo here, there is a US
 company called Alltronics (www.alltronics.com) that currently offers
 the following:

  ALPS PRINTER/PLOTTER PENS

 As used by Radio Shack, Atari, Commodore, Workslate and other printers
 and plotters. Set of four black pens.  92C084    One Set - $1.99 When I can get
them for about 1 UK? exc. P&P, why bother?

...
  ...and to make things even stranger, they also have an
Atari 8-bit
 plotter for sale too:

  ATARI 1020 COLOR PRINTER

 For all Atari 8-bit computers. Package includes: printer, power supply,
 software, pens, paper and interface cable. These are new units in
 factory sealed boxes.  94C037 $14.95 each Nice.

--
Phil.
http://www.philpem.f9.co.uk/
philpem(a)bigfoot.com

classiccmp-digest V1 #606