Printing From the Past - HP 2671G Thermal Printer
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- čas přidán 14. 07. 2023
- I am going all out on this HP 9836C and recently I got this 2671G printer for it that I really want to try out. It's going to need a bit of work first though to make it usable.
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"I can press one button to print this page" ... Immediately proceeds to press TWO buttons! ... You can't fool me!
People ask me how the hell I have so much knowledge on random things, I have to give credit to one Of the many of them. Thanks Tech tangents lol.
Same here
Same here. People say I'm very smart, but I'm just a dumb guy that repeats what I learn from smart people! 😅
Always be open to learning things regardless of any need or use. Just learn to learn. Then, when you do have a need or used for even the most basic level of niche knowledge to fix some problem that is a game ender for your circle, BAM 'just move this here, and plug that in there. Itll give it power and....' [wirrckheek....tiktik....beep] '....There we go! ......What? Why is everyone looking at me? Well, anyways lemmie see that pant leg, and Ill mend it with this piece of wire strand and this sting hanging off my shirt. .....WHAT?!?!?!'
It actually used to happen to me a lot. Id randomly watch a video or read a webpage about some process and within 2 months that exact scenario will happen and that exact issue was covered in the video, with a fix, and future mitigation. It was freaky sometimes......
@@jesuschristiscallingyou953 When people say Im smart after geeking out on some chemical process or physical phenomenon or coerced a mechanical whatsit into playing nice, I usually reply with "Im not that smart. I just know what the big words mean..." And they laugh.....like Im joking.....
Im a firm believer that the only stupid question is the one left unasked. If you're curious, ask. Anyone willing to rail against an honestly asked question isnt worth taking advice from in the first place. If someone expresses an honest interest in a thing youre knowledgeable about, it does more harm to humanity as a whole to not tell them, or worse tell them something incorrect (at least without prefacing with 'i believe' or 'as far as i know'). And if you honestly dont know a thing......we have access to the compendium of human experience in out pockets!!! We reached the age of star trek data pads a decade ago! Look it up! Learn together!
Fax paper is designed to be torn against a serrated metal blade, so that's why trying to tear it against a smooth piece of plastic isn't working so well. Maybe the original thermal paper HP sold for it had perforations after every page length, like dot matrix printer paper?
And your excitement about being able to do a screen print of the game reminded me of Ashens' video about the Megaduck Super Computer, which had the same feature.
Yes I have a bunch of the original thermal papers in original box. They are perforated and folded just like paper for dot matrix printers, but without the side holes. Each section is in A4 size. There's even a stainless steel paper holder that you can attach to the top of the printer, which was designed especially for the folded papers.
Faded thermal copies can be resurrected by holding the paper in an alcohol vapour ( methylated spirits Works well) the print becomes inverted
Can I spray rubbing alcohol
@@AgentOffice no, hold the paper above the bottle with the lid off
Thermal paper is cool but it's shortcoming of being perishable in heat made it useless for long term record keeping so it was used for short-term records like receipts and they're still around in cash register printers but they ultimately weren't practical for most of the PC market.
Yea, as a person who's been in retail those papers go black surprisingly fast if you stick it to wrapper of a hot pie or something that has heat in it.
@@Cyberdeamonmy favourite as a teen was to turn a train ticket (a very distinctive orange and pale green affair over here) all-black(ish) so you could see the British Rail watermark really easily. They were shiny while the rest was matte, or maybe the reverse. Doing it with receipts is fun too but I always used to hope I’d find a watermark anywhere else. I guess it was done purely due to counterfeit tickets or something.
It was always such a shame to do an expense report and ...accidentally... have a blacked out receipt. Definitely didn't have any beer with dinner. :D
I was about to say the same... they aren't remotely "obsolete" technology, as a great many receipt and label printers are thermal. (labels are thermal transfer.)
Thermal printers are about the only real retro printer you can get going as all others need consumables/supplies that are no longer made.
As mentioned already, the Bisphenol coating of the paper is of some health concern. No panic, I guess, but best treat it accordingly.
Prop 65 Compliance Warning: This property contains compounds known the the state of California to be potentially carcinogenic. This warning is to be posted in all publicly accessible areas, and remain easily visible at all times. Failure to do so will result in enraged Karens who will vocally inform you of their apparent lack of knowledge that bleach contains chlorine and she does not want that poison anywhere near her precious Conner, who will be peeing into the property's hottub.....from the pool deck. Informing Karen the human nervous system requires chlorine to function my result in death.
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message, however a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
@@user-jt5vm3mi1w grind it up and snort it like the finest china white.
Disclaimer: I am not a drug dealer. I am not your drug dealer. For illicit drug advice consult a knowledgeable drug dealer with adequate street rep. The only person responsible for your drugs is you.
Accordingly, or "in a way that is appropriate to the particular circumstances". So if it's a bit toxic, well, basically don't mess around with it as you might if it was not. 🙂
so, don't eat it or use it as cigarette paper
Yeah it is full of female hormones
I'm not sure why CZcams decided to show me your videos, but I am glad it did. I was a teenager in the 80s and had an Amiga as my first computer at home in about 1987. I love seeing these older machines and peripherals restored to working order. I also appreciate your unending enthusiasm and unabashed geekiness regarding this technology. You have a fan, sir.
For the paper cutting you minght want to take the cutting edge from a box of aluminium foil and attaach it to the printer in a way that allows you to tear the paper off. Double sided tape should allow for it to be non-destructively removed in the future.
Wow I’d never heard of reforming capacitors before! Guess I don’t often see ones anywhere near that big haha
Just a few years later it seems so much more likely that they’d leak instead of drift out of spec!
_scroll wheel_ omg omg omg so _coooool_
I ran across something rare and unusual recently that I think you would enjoy. It's a Casio Board Copy CP-1000. It is a combination black and white camera and thermal printer. So you point it at something, press a button, and it prints out the picture from a full sized 8.5 inch wide thermal paper spool. Also despite being a "large format" thermal printer it actually works totally differently than this one.
that sounds more like a Cathode Ray Dude kind of thing, he collects obscure early digital cameras. that Casio would be right up his street!
If that's one of those portable copiers, he already did a video about that.
"best" part with thermal prints is you cant store them. Excellent for information not worth keeping :P
What i really like about old stuff (computers, electronics etc) is they say "No serviceable parts inside", and are still dead easy to take apart and service :)
No USER serviceable parts inside. Because licensed technicians are apparently cloned and grown, then given special training to remove a panel, a screw, and unplug a cable. No human could ever learn that! Especially not one that didnt give us a few hundred dollars for a 4 hour long seminar at the Radisson next to the airport. No, not the nice one.
......dont get my started on the glass fuses that have through hole leads on them........ Why do we put up with companies treating literally everyone like they're braindead apes? I mean, its the maker generation.....Someone who could design a thing that provides the same functionality as just about anything, and run it off a raspberry pi. So, instead of trying to convince us there is magic under the casing that is somehow different from every other piece of electronics, hows about you TV manufacturers just spend the extra 2 cents per pallet and use properly sized capacitors so we dont have to buy another power board thats more than half the price of the TV?!??! Because apparently the imaging panel, video board, backlighting system, casing, and licenses all make up the other half.....HOW DOES A SWITCH MODE POWER SUPPLY THAT PUTS OUT 12V AND 5V AT 2 AMPS THAT EXPENSIVE?!?!! Thiefs, man....fucking thiefs...... And I asked you to not get me started!!!
Yes you can.
I love your passion for this system. Keep up the inspiring work!
I know we've had mouse wheels for over a decade, but I want that keyboard wheel!!! That looks amazing.
Man, this video reminded me of how much I miss dot matrix printers. The whole experience with them was satisfying to me.
EDIT: Nice video, TT. 😀👍
the huge giggle when you got the screenshot, so good. I will never own or use this computer and i watched this whole thing because i loved how excited it made you
ha ha!! I just bought 2 new thermal printers because of this video. 1 for me, and 1 for my mom!. Thanks Man. Awesome addictive content!!
I almost wonder if that old belt wasn't some kind of glass fiber reinforced, and the rubber HAD disintegrated, so you were left with mostly just the glass fiber strands? Hence, why it was solid and "stringy" as you took it out.
þe strings are peices of fabric, þe belt was made by putting þe fabric into a mold and fillling it wiþ rubber. þe fabric holds the strengþ and þe rubber interfaces wiþ þe cogs
@@CaptainAwsome Fascinating - I am puzzled how you got the Thorn character in place of the th. An Icelandic or Scandinavian localisation?
@@GodmanchesterGoblin on a windows device, hold alt þen press on your numpad 0254 for þ or 0222 for Þ þen release alt, on android you can use þe QWERTY keyboard and hold t for it to come up.
Thermal printers are still in use today, most commonly found on receipt printers on gas pumps.
That monitor is a beast.
I had a thermal transfer printer back in the 90's. (had a "ribbon" to print on normal paper) After a few million miles, the print head will be gone... it is effectively rubbing a very fine sandpaper in normal operation. (paper may feel smooth, but it isn't) I still have dot-matrix printers from the 80's that work perfectly.
This is my favorite video series of yours. Its just so Retro and cool at the same time. Its not just some boring 486.
I wish I had that wheel on everything back in the day it's awesome.
That dot matrix printer was made by Epson. It was a rebranded Epson MX-80 or RX-80. We had the RX-80 in my house as a kid, while my uncle had the similar MX-80.
Heavens above, I had flashbacks to this fax machine my dad had. It was a small, Brother fax machine. It used a thermal printer, and I could NEVER get it to tear cleanly. So when he'd send me to get the faxes, I'd have to hunt down scissors first. The paper was slick, I could never get it to tear right, and for some reason that aggravated him to no end.
That was so nice to see a printer which doesn’t require any ink, didn’t knew anything like that even existed. Thanks for the video.
The near-silent operation is GLORIOUS. Congrats on the awesome find.
I don't know how many viewers have experiences a dot-matrix printer but they were SO loud. And it was a terrible noise too. 24-pin were a bit better than 9-pin, but still.
I once saw a forms printer that had a 3-phase feed motor and printed an entire line-width at a time. It was almost mesmerizing to watch the paper just whipping through it.
We had a dot matrix at school, it was constantly running and the racket was immense.
You make me happy dude. Thanks for this video. Ill be paying alot more attention to your channel.
What an awesome printer.. Thank you so much for doing this HP stuff!
Love to watch your progress with this cool computer!
I have one of these and enjoy following your adventures. Thanks for all you're sharing, let's link up!!
I'm so happy to see the massive growth of your channel in the past couple of months.
Haven't clicked a video this fast in a while, dunno what it is but your enthusiasm is infectious and the devices fascinating. Thanks!
i have been a fan of yours for years i found you randomly via a recommend on the side of youtube you where struggling to keep a windows 98 computer alive i have watched you progress and i have to say kudos! you find some really odd and interesting tech from the 80's
What an absolutely delightful printer. 10/10.
printers are the essence of laptops mobiles desktops and ......adobe PDF files ....
all the resource files catches all thermal printing ......the inkless ........
That fully computer is gorgeous. It doesn't need real work, it can just sit there and be beautiful. :)
Printing out your current Breakout screen. EPIC!
this man does ntot fuck around when it comes to vintage printers.
Dunno what it is but I'm always happy to watch a video of buds doing even accessories for old and new systems.
I mean while they might not always get the spot light, sometimes these are the things that lets you make full use of a computer like being able to get data in and out, be it on floppy, optical, hard disks, or even paper.
That's awesome hardware and software. I didn''t expect printing to be so easy on that old specialized hardware 😳
These thermal printers were really *hot stuff* back in the day! Not that long ago, I came across a thermally printed receipt inside a paperback which I bought used. It had blackened, but most of the text was still readable. Thermally printed receipts were rather ubiquitous for a time. I love that you were able to restore your HP to working status again!
Great video as always. If you can't find paper that tears away easy I'd suggest maybe fashioning blades along the edge of that clear plastic piece
Thanks for reminding me about large paper thermal printers. Amazon has tiny 8.5" x roll printers for $130. I need a small backpack-friendly printer and I hadn't considered thermal printers.
Sweet that the printer worked and works so well. I've never seen a belt go that bad before. Looks like a lot of fun to use. I'm surprised by how fast it is.
Fax machines (most of them) had a jagged edge to allow the paper to be cut. The paper you're using right now is probably much better quality than the HP one.
was not expecting this weird computer to have a screenshot feature, i love screenshots, one of the first things in its category with screenshot support i know of is the N-gage. it actually let's you do full BMP format pics with no loss in quality whatsoever and even has multitasking, literally my fav feature of that weird device
I need to locate one of these for my Series 300! HPIB is such a convenient interface
I like how you used the spudger rightt at the edge of the roll, so as to not waste paper there.
You could try modeling a new paper guide part and having it resin printed with a toothed edge like a tape dispenser, make it much easier to tear the papers off
That Doug Dimmadome cap is nuts 🤣
Nice, someone finally did a video on these printers!
I have a 2673A in my collection, which was once used along with a HP-1000E minicomputer. I'm surprised that the mainboard of 2671G and 2673A are completely different. The board in 2673A extends all the way to the right, almost occupies the entire internal space. There're also 7 64Kbit ROMs in the 2673A instead of only one in the 2671G.
Unfortunately, one of the ROMs in my machine seems to be bad and the self-test gives a ROM error (yes the 2673A even has a 7-digit LED display on the motherboard that gives error codes). Using a thermal camera I can also see the broken ROM is slightly warmer than the others. So if someone has a dump of the 2673A ROM I'd be very grateful!
Also what's interesting about the 2673A is that it has a user interface using the printer itself. You can access the settings through the front panel and the menus will be printed directly on to the paper for you to see. I'm not sure if the 2671G has this system, but it would be cool if you can try it out.
Thermal paper is pretty cool, especially when companies use common sizes for their products, even if they manufacture it differently than other paper (GB Printer is an example, Nintendo made it a sticker)
I love the beige-brown colour palette that old computer technology used. Nice and easy on the eyes, i wish they would bring it back. Black boxes are boring.
That's really cool!
Tech Tangents: "It will never need ink"
Modern HP: "DESTROY THIS MAN"
Very cool. Thanks!
what a wonderful thing!👍
oh just a thought: if you're still having issues, another idea beyond replacing that o-ring wheel is to add a couple drops of oil on the rod that print head slides along. I would use a lightweight synthetic oil, maybe superlube? You want something with a little bit of heat resistance considering how close it is to the print head, just in case.
I had to oil up a similar rod in a much newer and much larger HP printer (a DesignJet) just a couple months ago haha. HP had their own formulation for that oil, but I'd be surprised if anything fancy is actually needed.
What a cool machine.
Haha, nice touch of showing your donor credits via that printer!
Your printer is ahem a lot better quality than my old Alphacom 32 for my Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K in the early 1980s. It was cool to be able to print my own stuff as a 12 year old though!
You can pick up o-rings from your local auto repair shops like Autozone and Oreillys. They usually have all sizes in stock. And they are really cheap.
super cool video !
There's something to be said for the durability of older tech. While not thermal simple, we have an impact printer we use to print shipping labels once a week. It's an Epson and the model we use has literally been in production with no changes for like 20 years now...AND I can tell you why because it works perfectly and reliably for the job of printing endless, simple, labels. Ink ribbon and the print head basically being the only thing that moves (and the ribbon gets replaced so only the simple impact print head really does any work, etc).
Dude it's so hot out, only a few more months lol, great vid!
Ok so I have no idea why but I absolutely love the way that printer looks
"Look at that giant capacitor!" *Touches the giant cap's leads*
That scroll shuttle is sick
Thanks to this being the computer used on Tim & Eric's Cinco Midi Organizer commercial, I can't help but only think of that scroll wheel as the "Tulley Toggle".
I love the scroll wheel on the keyboard
Fax that paper was designed for has a cutter bar in it, that has multiple sharp plastic teeth, so it will perforate the paper as you pull it forward, so making it easy to tear. Not many fax machines with thermal paper came with a cutter attached to directly cut without user intervention, most would just print a dotted cut line separating pages.
i bought a Sears 500 electronic typewriter because its thermal dot matrix and has a port to connect older computers of which i have a vic 20, c64 that are compatible and a zx81 clone that may be
also something i did for my typewriter, a tear strip off of plastic wrap box can be gently attached under the clear plastic edge to make it easier to tear the paper off lol
I knew about these printers.
In recent years i used Epson Ecotank printer. Doesn't cost much to print with and refill bottles is cheap.
The printer is also 100% honest because you refill tanks with bottles and you see with own eyes how much is left.
Thermal printers are nifty. I used to draw and print ASCII-art Ninja Turtles on my dad's TI portable terminal.
Great Video.
Now you can print your Unique Midi Routing Numbers!
In the 90s I remember being part of a UNIX group and I believe that the CAD apps for this were like 20K (1990s dollars) per seat/year and the HP computer was part of the seat price.
25:26 Yup, that's exactly how. ❤
Such a quick damn printer too!
Thanks!
I had a fax machine in the 90's, from Panasonic, and it had a knife that cuts the paper automatically when the fax ends
Some faxes have a serrated end where the paper came out so you could tear it off others cut it for you
HP made an earlier thermal printer with a stationary printhead that was the width of the paper. It would print a line at a time as the paper advanced. This was in the '70's before PC's. HP's customer was Bond Buyer and Bond Buyer's customers were banks and trading firms. The printer was attached to a Message Division Multiplexer (actually de-multiplexer). The printer would only print news relevant to the bond issue that the bank was flogging. When the entire issue was sold the syndicate would be dissolved. The de-multiplexer was also made by HP.
This HP 9836C got my attention from the first video. It seems as VERY capable machine for its time, and very expensive too :)
It seems the video has 2 layers and the kernel can dump the content to the printer (1 layer at a time) that is why some holes. Also since you have specialized keys for that, probably the 2 layers are fixed - one just for text and one just for graphics.
P.S. PLEASE make a follow up video on graphic capabilities of that machine! Watching it making me wants to write some code for it.
Thank you for the video. I think this would have had a great use to print text documents in the present. Because I hate ink jet printers.
There was an early analog printer that was connected by coax to CRT terminals. On the back of the CRT set the switch to unterminated (take the 75 ohm out of the circuit) and daisy chain the printer to the terminal. The printer would print whatever was on the screen. The printer was called The Perkin Elmer Pussycat.
*The Perkin Elmer Pussycat* -- best name ever! 🙂
this is the perfekt retro printer!
WOW! You can type really fast!!!
I'm still kicking myself for passing up all the hp goodies at thrift stores since i was looking for a main machine first. Anyway i love it. I also love the thinkjet too. Yes, they was $$$$ and you was locked into a eco system. But, most of it just worked. When you said thermail paper. I'm thinking should fire right up. So when you said repair. I'm thinking what repair? Then you said belt turned to goo. Oh, never mind. I have had a few other items like VCR's and tape decks with that issue. Bleah.
They also use thermal paper for self-adhesive postage labels so you can't take them off and transfer them onto another package with a heat gun.
I love how over saturated your hand is when passing over the screen, haha.
This and the OkiMate 10 with a C64. A lot of banners printed on that with fax paper. :)
You could add a serrated cutting strip from a kitchen roll box, saran or aluminium foil/baking paper cutter.
10/10 would print again
I like the no brainer modern computer/printer.
I want big beige computers to make a comeback that fit modern hardware.... Look at this HP, it's glorious!
It appears that he changed the exposure in the viewable area of the crt, because when he puts his hand in that area, that part of his hand goes really pale. but only in the viewable area, which makes sense, as in one of the previous videos on the computer, he mentioned that the crt was very dim.
Hello.
Thank You for your presentation of HP 9368C (HP 9000 series 200) workstation. I have never seen it in my life, but I had limited (5 days) experience with HP 9000/300 series workstation and a little bit longer with HP/Apollo 9000/400 series workstations (425t and 433s)...
You mentioned, that you are unable to find a CAD application for the HP 9368C. HP was very much involved into development of mechanical CAD software back then, the HP93XX family of workstations was instrumental for development of 2D CAD package called ME-10. It was first developed for HP93XX with Pascal operating system and was transferred to HP-UX after it’s appearance. This CAD package was practically unknown in USA, it seems that HP was only user of it. Europe was a different story. It was most numerous mechanical CAD application after Auto-CAD in German speaking environments (and not only there 🙂 ). HP even made separate division for mechanical CAD, called HP-MDD (Mechanical Design Division), with centre and main development company based in Böblingen in Germany. In 1996 it spun-off as HP subsidiary company under name CoCreate, which was purchased by PTC in 2007…
HP Computer Museum has two CD-s of ME10/ME30 (ME30 is 3D modeler) for HP 9000/300 and HP9000/700 under HP-UX 9.X operating system:
www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?sw=548
www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?sw=544
Thank You and best regards
Jože from Slovenija
You mentioned wanting CAD software. I should still have a copy of AutoCAD 1 that I got from one of my teachers back in tech school. It's on a single 5.25 floppy disk, but off the top of my head I don't recall what OS it's for or what revision it is.
Unfortunately, it should be in storage somewhere at my parents house, and I probably won't be visiting them again for a couple of months. I was just down there for the 4th of July, too.
I'll have to try and find it and let you know. I may find some other interesting old software or games stored there too. I probably still have the bootable copy of Scorched Earth I used to play on my dads 486 back in the day.
The kid in me would have loved printing screenshots from games, hehe. Nice printer.
British home computer users of the time would have been subjected to the charms of the Sinclair ZX printer. The HP's print quality is very good indeed, in comparison.