The BT-100 from the Communist-era Czech Republic. I'd not heard of this before. Nicknamed the "runaway nail", it's a dot printer. Not a dot-matrix: it only has one pin. :?) Google translation (if the link works): https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=cs&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t… Source page: http://falconsoft.czechian.net/bt100/ Plain text follows below the .sig for the WWW-impaired... -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell: +44 7939-087884 ________________________________ ________________________________ Do you remember an old printer jednojehli?kovou BT-100, some know it under the name "runaway nail". The manufacturer of this printer was easy to Tesla. On his plastic box boasted logo Matrix Printer. The printer can print on paper size A4, printing principle is the simplest you can be, despite the carbon. Control and monitoring of moving needles and paper is very slow, everything is controlled by computer. The quality of the printing also has its problems, but prints. We realize that nowadays the printer is BT-100 for its long time to print virtually unusable, even though we have it decided to join the C64 and develop programs for printing. This project is BT-100 is opened, and this site will publish various information programs for printing, and everything what this veteran piece of hardware is concerned. ________________________________ Update: 13 June 2008 Hardcopy BT-100 v2.1 New, but still binary version of the BT-100 Hardcopy for printing bitmaps to the printer jednojehli?kov? BT-100 contains two new features. Needle printers neproklepne hard paper in order to print it is necessary to swap the carbon paper with paper that is loaded in the printer. It is still necessary to horizontally flip the bitmap, otherwise the resulting print was mirrored. Function for flipping bitmaps Y-axis is implemented in this version. Another very practical novelty is the analysis of the bitmap. This is performed on the principle of virtual printing. First, list information about the structure of the bitmap. It is the number of printed pixels, the area percentage and the number of blank lines. It is also listed how many apartments will be sent to the printer and how many will be synchronized truck. Finally, the analysis is the calculation and listing the estimated time of printing. This is dependent on the structure of the bitmap, and of course on the selected print quality. Complete instructions are included in the zip package or here . Selected print quality concept Estimated time of printing is 5 minutes 29 seconds Actual print time is 5 minutes 35 secondsSelected print quality concept Estimated time of printing is 11 minutes 29 seconds Actual print time is 11 minutes 39 seconds Between estimated and actual time to see a slight difference. Practice has shown that, even in the repeated printing of the same bitmap is some time difference. This implies that the estimated time to print accurate to the second, of course, impossible. In practical tests, it was confirmed that our estimated printing time is given with an accuracy somewhere around 2%. Release Date: June 12, 2008 The program is stored on the disk image for D64 emulator Commodore 64 Download (49kB) ________________________________ Update: October 29, 2006 Electronic scheme printers BT-100 Printer BT-100 is already old-fashioned machine that easily succumb to a disease that, and especially in this autumn :-) Do Within "runaway nails" can look after od?rouben? plastic cover which is convoluted world of electronic components. For better orientation in the repair will certainly come in handy chart that today we publish. For the provision of this scheme are grateful Schotkovi, be sure to visit his website www.schotek.cz To enlarge, click on the thumbnail. scanned image size is 1644x2201 pixels (286kB) ________________________________ Update: April 30, 2005 Diagnosis BT-100 v1.0 The tool is designed to verify basic state function printers BT-100. Self-diagnosis is mainly focused on the test of optical sensors and servos. This way you can test the functionality of the basic elements of the printer. Termination whole diagnosis consists in printing a test page. You can then check the resulting print quality and especially the synchronization accuracy. Instructions for use of the program is here . Release Date: 28 April 2005 The program is stored on the disk image for D64 emulator Commodore 64 Download (24kB) ________________________________ Update: 28 July 2004 Hardcopy BT-100 v2.0 The new version of BT-100 Hardcopy looks at first glance like the previous one, but something is different. The adjustment was made in the main core of the program, the handler routine for printing. The front features of this new driver is speeding up printing. Speeding is that the truck cutting head goes only to the last point, which is printed on the current line. Taking in the old version carriage drove up to the end of each line. For comparison, the new version over the previous two demonstrations, we use the new driver properties in practice. Selected print quality normal time of printing in v1.0 is 17 minutes 24 seconds time press in v2.0 is 14 minutes 49 secondsSelected print quality concept in v1.0 Print time is 13 minutes 56 seconds time press in v2.0 is 4 minutes 4 seconds The sample text is seeing rapid shortening of the time of printing in the new version of the driver program Hardcopy BT-100. Complete instructions are included in the zip package or here . Release Date: 28 July 2004 The program is stored on the disk image for D64 emulator Commodore 64 Download (42kB) ________________________________ Update: April 23, 2004 Printer Connection BT-100 C64 Printer BT-100 to C64 cable connects via User Port. The BT-100 are two connectors marked DIN7 IN (input signal to the BT-100) and OUT (output signal to C64). The printer is powered by an external source of DC voltage 22V. INOUT 1 Motor Vehicle right PB0 1 Sensor trolley stop PB4 4 Motor Vehicle on the left PB1 6 The sensor synchronization print PB5 5 Up write head PB2 7 The sensor coordinates of points PB6 6 Engine displacement paper PB3 3 The sensor offset paper PB7 2 Ground GND 2 Ground GND ________________________________ Update: 23 April 2004 Hardcopy BT-100 v1.0 As the name suggests, this is a program that copies the video screen directly to the printer. Strictly speaking, the HIRES graphic prints, graphic screen where data is stored at $ 2000 - $ 3F3F (decimal 8192-16191). This portion of graphics memory is used as a graphic editor Art Studio. The program is implemented and functions such as preparation of the printer (ie, offset paper), the possibility of inversion graphics, a choice between quality printing concept or normal. Indeed even the BT-100 can print different quality. Instructions for use of the program is here . As stated before printing can be done with different quality printing, concept or normal. The quality concept is best used for printing text (in this choice does not affect the quality of the final print), or simple images (printing is performed quickly at the expense of quality). To achieve better print quality images with a high density of points you need to select the print quality is normal. It takes a little more than a concept, but the print result is even better. The following example can be compared. DraftNormal Printing takes a very long time, and listen to the antics of one needle is cruel repair. Resolution HIRES graphics is 320x200 pixels, it means that one has to cope with needle to 64000 points. The maximum printing time (if in each line of at least 1 point) is indicated in the table. Concept: 16 minutes 47 seconds Normal: 20 minutes 56 seconds Another front driver properties for printing the truck unnecessarily nep?ej??d? blank lines automatically leads to a shift of paper processing the next line. This implies that the printing time is proportionally reduces the number of blank lines. For demonstration we present two examples of printed quality concept. Number of blank lines is 40 out time is 12 minutes 22 secondsNumber of blank lines is 186 out time is 1 minute 18 seconds After getting familiar with the characteristics of the program get to the download section and subsequent practical use. The D64 disk image is stored outside the Hardcopy and diagrams and descriptions printer connection, Noter with instructions for use, and several bitmap for test printing. Release Date: 18 April 2004 The program is stored on the disk image for D64 emulator Commodore 64 Download (42kB) Copyright ? 2003-2010 Falcon soft