[Coladam] Issues with Printer

[Ronald Mitchell]

Hi Craig. Good to hear from you again.

I'm still around the Adam community, but not nearly as active as I  
once was. My ADAM also lives in a box. Last time I set it up, it blew  
the house breakers, and my new wife  (got re-married a year ago last  
November) responded in pretty much the same way yours did to you. And  
it's her house, so ADAM went back in the box.

Anyway, I still do ADAM stuff, but I use an emulator to do it. If you  
go to

http://www.komkon.org/~dekogel/

and follow the links to  Marcel deKogel's ADAMEM, you can read all  
about it.  ADAMEM is really a neat piece of work, but some of us would  
say it's not the same as using the real thing.

Re your printer, there is one possibility.

On the left side of the printer, hidden underneath the cover, there is  
a relay. Sometimes that relay needs cleaning. Yours appears to be  
working partially, but you might want to try a cleaning of the  
contacts on that relay. You can use a burnishing tool, or perhaps even  
some isopropyl alcohol in a Q-tip. The purpose of that relay is to  
tell the printhead (that's what the ribbon rides on) where to stop  
moving left. Sometimes, if the relay contacts are dirty, they don't  
make proper contact, and the print head will actually try to keep  
moving left, repeatedly hitting the left side of the printer case. In  
your case, the print head does stop and return partially to the right,  
but perhaps the contacts are not completely made, so the ADAM does not  
get a "ready" indication from the printer.

That's just a wild guess, but I know that relay has failed for  
others.  Worth a try anyway.

Good to hear from you again.  I'm now in Qualicum Beach.

Ron Mitchell






On 5-Jan-10, at 7:07 PM, Craig Lindholm wrote:

> Hi Geoff
>
> Even in Typewriter mode, nothing prints or carriage return. I am going
> to take it apart and check contacts.
>
> Craig
>
> On 01/05/2010 07:19 AM, geoff+oltmansfamily.org wrote:
>> If you're in Electric Typewriter mode, then whatever you type  
>> should print
>> immediately. However, if you enter Word Processor mode by hitting  
>> Escape,
>> then you'll see your typing on the screen but not on the printer  
>> until you
>> tell it to print.
>>
>> Are you leaving it in Electric Typewriter mode? If so, try hitting  
>> Return a
>> few times and see if it will advance the paper.
>>
>> On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:42:25 -0800, Craig Lindholm <eclindholm at gmail.com 
>> >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello again.
>>>
>>> Now that I have unpacked my ADAM, it is time to get it working  
>>> again :'(
>>> As I mentioned in my previous email, I have and issue with my ADAM.
>>>
>>> When I power the unit up, the thing that holds the ribbon moves  
>>> all the
>>> way to the left.
>>> The daisy wheel then spins for a bit
>>> The thing that holds the ribbon moves to the right by about an  
>>> inch or
>>>
>> so.
>>
>>> I remember that there should be a carriage return and a big click  
>>> sound
>>> in this sequence, but I am not getting one. The ADAM seems to work  
>>> fine.
>>> I can type on the screen but nothing prints.
>>> Does anyone have any ideas on where to start looking?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Craig
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Coladam mailing list
>>> Coladam at adamcon.org
>>> http://adamcon.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coladam
>>>
> _______________________________________________
> Coladam mailing list
> Coladam at adamcon.org
> http://adamcon.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coladam
>