HP97 Printer Print Size

[jftman]

I received a 97 and rebuilt the battery pac with subC rechargeables from Amazon.
I can certainly verify that dead batteries and using the power supply gives nothing.

When pac was done the calc turned on and I found that the printer works!
The print is very small, goes up a little of the paper, can the fonts be adjusted?

[teenix]

The printer font is fixed and is set by the size of the print head, motor speed and PIK chip character ROM.

cheers

Tony

[John Garza (3665)]

Could be that the paper advance wheels have deteriorated. They can be replaced with some silicone tubing. A tedious operation, so you may as well replace the idler gear and clean/lube all the gears and shafts while you're in there.

When the paper does not advance properly, the output print looks compressed.

-J

[jftman]

I think it needs smoothing out.

[teenix]

Most likely what John was saying.

If the carriage cannot move freely across while printing, it prints unevenly. This might be because the carriage binds a bit on the dirty guide shafts. Some very light lubricant on the bearing surfaces will also help after cleaning. The lubrication points are marked in the 97 service manual. I use a tiny amount of hair clipper oil.

cheers

Tony

[John Garza (3665)]

Based on the pic, it looks like a little of what I'm saying plus what Tony is saying for the compressed horizontal look. It needs disassembly to replace the paper advance rollers, but much of the cleaning and lube of the shafts/worm gear can be done while assembled. However, for a 'professional job' it's best to do all this servicing at the same time while it is disassembled.