Old Epson printers

[Tony Duell]

Talk of the MX-80 has reminded me of a couple of more obscure models...

The first is the TX80. This, I think is a little older. The mechanism
is strange,
it has one DC motor (and no steppers). The motor drives a dual-pitch scroll
thing (sort of a coarse leadscrew) that as it turns in one direction moves the
printhead left to right and then returns it more rapidly. On the return journey
it (mechanically) causes a linefeed. I have never seen a complete TX80, but
the mechanism turned up in an early Commodore printer (2023 or some such)
and I think I have a logic board from the Epson one somewhere.

The other is a bit later. The HI-80. This is a 4 (ballpoint) pen
plotter. No, not
the well-known Alps mechanism. This has the 4 pens on a sliding mechanism
on the carriage. It is moved by running the carriage into the end stops (!).
There are the obvious 2 stepper motors (one for carriage movement, one
to move the paper) and a solenoid to lower the pen.

The HI-80 certainly has the connector for optional interface boards. I think
the TX80 does as well.

Incidentally I am looking for any manuals for the HI-80. Documentation on the
TX80 would be interesting too.

-tony