HP 82162A thermal printer

[Richard B. Kaiser]

The printer Power & Battery lights both show when device is turned on. Bettery measures # 5.8 volts. and works in another similiar HP thermal printer (non-HPIL). Any knowledge for repair service is appreciated.

[TASP]

Crud on battery contacts?

Also, open circuit voltage reading isn't nearly as useful as a reading under load.

Does light status change when charger is plugged in/removed from 82162 ??

[Richard B. Kaiser]

The battery is rebuilt and terminals are without any tarnish or corrosion.

The same battery operates perfectly in my 82143A (non-HPIL) printer and/or 82161A mini-cassette tape drive.

The glow of both POWER & BATTERY remain unchanging whether on straight battery or powered via the AC/DC ADAPTER.

Problems are: No printer and NO Paper Advace operations.

[Dave Frederickson]

See this thread for a link to the 82143 Service Manual, which should be close enough, and the schematics.

Dave

[4ster]

Thats my thread linked above and I had similar problems as the OP.

I had an old pack rebuilt and it worked for a few weeks, then quit.

It turned out the battery store did not do a good job of spot welding the pack contacts and the pack had an intermittent open short. It was good enough to light the power and battery lights, but not to effectively drive the print head and the paper advance. Voltmeter probes on the battery contacts would show correct voltage, but a light touch (like the force exerted by the printer contacts) would not close the short.

The battery store inspected the pack and re-welded the jumpers between the cells, fixing the problem.

Something to rule out.

If the pressure of the printer contacts is less than in the other devices it could be your problem. The next thing to check might be the wiring path from the contacts to the board in the printer, maybe a sketchy solder connection finally failed.