Sharp CE-150 printer/cassette interface questions

[polbit]

(01-28-2023 03:15 AM)robve Wrote:  

(01-28-2023 01:51 AM)polbit Wrote:  Thanks Jeff, great information. I already have your awesome Backpack for Tandy 100, and just placed the order for the brass gears! Wish I had your DIY skills, but let's see what I can do

I replaced the pinion gears on my CE-150 not so long ago. It is not difficult to do. I didn't know for sure what C clamp Jeff used in his video, but it turned out to be a 2 inch (or 2 1/2 inch) C clamp with the clamp head sawed off that works best. With a bit of patience, the brass pinion gears slide on the axis snuggly by turning the C clamp slowly. I just cut the old gears off with a sharp utility cutter (actually a model kit "nipper"), instead of removing the larger gears to get the pinion gears off. Very satisfied with the result and the brass pinion gears work great. I used a tiny bit of gear lubricant from a slot car set. This specially-formulated lithium grease lubricant protects metal-on-vinyl gears, so I thought I can't hurt to use a tiny bit.

Next I have to open up my PC-2500, which has a larger Alps printer to do the same. The roller doesn't move as it should be, so I assume the pinion gears are cracked too and are slipping or blocking.

- Rob

Looking forward to finally see a working Sharp plotter!

The more I dig into the 1500, the more intriguing it is becoming. Quite a cool little machine, and with some real development behind it. Not quite HP 71b level, but still fun. Getting CE-150 fully operational is just icing on the cake, I have a bunch of NOS pens from Best Electronics from an Atari 1027 plotter...

Speaking of interesting, 1500 and 1500A returning two different results (was writing a little screen erase routine...):

1500A - new ROM version:
71 AND (NOT 8) returns 71 correctly

1500 - old ROM version:
71 AND (NOT 8) returns 0(??)
but
NOT 8 returns -9 correctly
71 AND -9 returns 71 correctly