Re: HP41cv expiriences of a new user [The Printer] Message #13 Posted by Wolfgang on 10 Feb 2013, 1:06 p.m., in response to message #1 by Wolfgang
Third part of my discovery report :-))
As said the setup had also the 82143A printer included.
Here my story and a lesson about how important it is to read the manual first.
As a true engineer I reject to read manuals, what can they tell me what I do not already know ?
So I powered the printer and plugged it into the HP41.
Result....nothing, no lamps on nothing happened.
Pressing the paper advance did do nothing at all.
So I looked closer at the printer, found the battery bay , opened it and the battery fell right in my hands.
The printer made suddenly some noise, the Power lamp went on.
So I plain clear to me that the battery was as dead as it can be.
Pressing the "Print Button" made the print head doing something but the paper did not advance.
What now follows is a long debugging story and I will not go into details.
I was opening the printer up examined almost all parts , just to find they work fine.
I went online to search for a solution .... and found it.
Here in the MoHPC forum someone described that the Printer must have a battery attached to work correctly and cited even the printer handbook that you can damage the printer if you have the battery not installed.
OMG !
Well I rigged up a battery pack with AA rechargeable batteries .
Guess what, the printer just works fine.
So I went yesterday night to the nearest Fry's and got my self 4 rechargeable baby cells.
I rebuild my TI59 battery pack a couple of times, so I was not afraid to crack open the battery pack and replace the old cells.
Worked easy and the printer is now fine.
I think I read a while back a report of a HP user comparing the 82143A Printer with the TI 100A printer cradle for the TI59.
He was saying that the TI printer is so much faster.
I can not see that , the program listing shoots out as fast as it does on my TI. Print quality is the same .
I have not tried the graphic mode but I expect it is the same as on the 100A .
I already warned that I would do some TI vs HP comparison, so here it comes.
1) The TI printer has a better build quality from the look and feel
I have opened both printer and I am amazed about how clean my particular HP printer looked from the inside. Really like new.
the TI printer is a Tank and is also a Battery charger for the battery pack. My PC-100A printer can support also a lot of different TI calculators. From the SR52 up to the TI58C. As far as I know the 82143A is usable just on the HP41-series.
2) It is hard to get the right paper width for the TI printer. For some reason TI's original paper is wider than the nowadays available thermos paper. Not too much of an annoyance as long as you do not need the whole width the printer is capable of.
the HP printer came with it's original blue printing paper. I throw it out immediately and replaced it with standard black paper which improved the print quality a lot.
3) both printer have graphic and alpha numeric capabilities. The HP has clearly the edge on the easiness of handling. With the TI printer getting alpha numeric on the printer is a Op-code orgy.
However with bearing in mind that the TI printer was released in 1976 and the HP in 1980 I think the point goes to the TI given his age.
4) A little nite picking now: My fat fingers have some trouble to fiddle the paper into the HP printer, works much better for me on the TI printer.
5) The battery power of the HP makes it nice and mobile. The TI printer does not have this option at all
6) I like the TI system of a printer cradle much more than the cable spaghetti of the HP. HP did a much nicer job with the IR printer for my HP48sx but still the cradle is in my view the best way to operate. Desktop to handheld on the fly, just perfect.
So my temporary verdict about the HP41 printer solution:
It is not as good as it was with my HP48sx and the much older PC100A from TI. However it is fast and easy to use.
And last but not least, I do use this just for a few hours, so I may have not discovered some of it's nicer features.
Remember I reject to read manuals from front to back :-))
So please advise me.
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