VT52s, VT61s lots of DEC and DG keyboards- return trip through Maine, MA, NY, PA, OH, IN to IL

[tony duell]

[Aluminium coated paper printers]

> Even Radio Shack had one of those!  But not for long.  Crumpling the paper

How did the original TRS-80 screen printer work -- the one that plugged into the 
expanison bus and read out video RAM?

The 'Quick Print II' (or some very similar name) was a Radio Shack aluminium-paper
printer certainly. IIRC it could be linked to an RS232 interface, Centronics interface or
the M1 expanson bus where it responded to the same addresses as the normal
Centronics port in the Expansion Interface.


> > could lose the image.  ANd THERMAL printers couldn't handle leaving a
> > printout in the sun.

The thermal printers, like the ones in HP calculators from the HP9810 onwards 
become unreadable from age (fades out), heat (obviously darkens the paper, 
and it doesn't take much to do it, a soldering iron an inch or so away has
a noticeable effect), propan-2-ol (causes a chemical reaction that darkens the paper,
don't ask how I found that out), etc. If you want to preserve the output, scan or 
photocopy it -- any other process has a longer life!. Worryingly I had to
tell this to a member of staff at the British Library who was archiving HP 
calculator printouts...


> > The VT52 printer is not like that. The raw paper looks like paper
> > (slightly yellow, but that might just be age), it is not metal-coated.
> 
> So, NOT the same.

Certainly not an aluminium-coated paper.

-tony