[rescue] Various machines for sale

[Ville Laustela]

The original thread has been completely turned into something else :)

I have an Asante SCSI-ethernet adapter for my Macs, when I first read of the concept I thought it was such a weird and neat idea :) The network card emulation is also coming up on some modern SCSI-emulators: https://bluescsi.com/docs/WiFi-DaynaPORT.

Never heard of a SPARCprinter and can’t find a single picture of one.

Regarding the NeXT laser printer, I’ve been working on one: https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=5676.0 Very little that has turned into goo, but so many kinds of other wear was encountered :) Most damage was cap-leak, especially on the PSU board. The main digital PCB caps were also leaking but the board sits upside down on the bottom of the printer so the juices couldn’t all leak down to the board so probably survived better.

I was lucky to start working on it just after a service VHS was put online (link in the thread) as that really makes it easy to take it apart. The HP Laserjet II parts were reasonably easy to source, but the cartridges seems to be the issue. And the mess those make when the ink seals and wipers start failing and there is dust everywhere. Mine is now mostly working, only a few mystery parts remain and the printouts are mostly clean (I believe it’s now down to the cartridge and I haven’t bothered buying a third one). There are videos on transfering the wiper blades from another cartridge (I was thinking that as it’s basically a rubber part, perhaps one day it could be replaced with a 3D-printable part, perhaps).

I found another document describing how it ”costs $1995 - very reasonable compared to other laser printers on the market that, which cost on average of $2500”.


>> Sigh.  PDFs just ain't the same as holding the pages in your hands, still warm out of the output tray!
> 
> Indeed! And don't forget about the unique smell!


It’s one of those warm feelings that easily turn into ”I wonder how hazardous this stuff might actually be” (especially when looking at an half-assembled printer revving up and you suspicously take a look at what comes out :)

—
Ville





> Skeezics Boondoggle via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org> kirjoitti 9.1.2025 kello 9.10:
> 
> 
> On Thu, 9 Jan 2025, Dave McGuire wrote:
>> 
>> On 1/9/25 00:22, Mike Spooner via rescue wrote:
>> > The SPARCprinter and NeWSprinters from Sun were not SCSI, they used a 
>> > hacked graphics/video interface and a wierd connector.
>> > 
>> > At least, according to the Sun documentation.
>> 
>>    That's correct, though I don't think it's fair to call it "hacked". 
>> Most of the laser printer engine manufacturers provided a direct video 
>> interface to their packaged printers.  This was used by 
>> manufacturers...NeXT, QMS, etc.
>> 
> 
> Hacked?  No.  A bit abstruse?  Oh yeah.  The Canon "video interface" originated, I believe, with the 240dpi LBP-10, a tabletop sized beast that "only" cost around $18K in 1981, when that was real money.  At least when you bought one from Three Rivers Computer rebadged as the "PLP-10" to hook up to your PERQ.  It was also available on the LBP-CX, the hugely popular 300dpi desktop model that was in practically everything in the mid-80s.  
> 
> Having reverse engineered the Canon interface for software emulation based on the two manual scans from Bitsavers, the PERQ schematics, microcode and PROM dumps, all I can say is "the printer knows where the end of the page is, because it knows where it isn't."
> 
> And it isn't telling _you_.
>  
>>    The NeXT laser printer is driven via that direct video interface, and 
>> QMS made an ISA board with a 68020 on it that executed PostScript and 
>> drove a Canon CX or SX laser printer engine via the direct video interface.
>> 
>>    It was an intended, documented use of these engines, no hacking about it.
>> 
> 
> In the NeXT case it obviously made sense to use the direct interface since the OS obviously has the Postscript interpreter built in.  And those early PS printers weren't cheap!  IIRC, the $3500  SX-based NeXTprinter (400dpi! woo!) was around $1500 cheaper than the CX-based Laser{Writer,Jet}s at the time.
> 
> Now the problem is that their innards have all turned to goo. :-(  Even if I ever could scrape the money to try to find an expert who could thoroughly disassemble, clean and revitalize my two old CX engines OR my old NeXTprinters, the people with that knowledge are all likely "aging out" by now too.  Way too many fiddly tiny parts, and my eyesight ain't what it used to be.  Sigh.  PDFs just ain't the same as holding the pages in your hands, still warm out of the output tray!
> 
> -- c
> 
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org

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