MPS 801
The MPS 801 is a 7 'pin' matrix printer from the Commodore company that was launched in 1984. The printer was operated with continuous paper and printed with a 7x6 matrix at 10 characters per inch and 50 characters per second. The MPS 801 could therefore not display any descenders . With additional software for the respective computer, however, this inadequacy could be remedied, which made the printed characters much larger. The printer only mastered unidirectional printing, in which the printing unit only prints when moving from left to right and only performs a carriage return on the way back. The noise development was immense, especially due to the return of the print head. Due to the very small print buffer of 86 bytes, a continuous graphic line of 480 bytes had to be printed in up to five 'attempts'. The device was not manufactured by Commodore itself, but by the Japanese company Seikosha (identical to the Seikosha GP 500 VC). Seikosha manufactured an identical device with an SIO interface for Atari under the name Atari 1029 . Seikosha's Unihammer process was used for printing . The interface to the computer was the CBM bus , a proprietary serial variant of IEEE-488 . The printer was capable of graphics, so it could print graphics as well as text. In addition to the complete ASCII character set, he was also able to print all Commodore graphic characters, barring and negative writing was also possible. There was a mechanical handwheel on the right side of the printer for manual paper transport and a membrane switch for step-by-step automatic feed for operation.
Technical specifications
- Printing method: Matrix printing (Unihammer process)
- Character matrix: 6 × 7 dot matrix
- Character size: Height: 2.82 mm
- Width: 6 × 7 dot matrix
- Line length: max. 80 columns
- Line spacing: 6 lines / inch in character mode, 9 lines / inch in graphics mode (1 inch = 2.54 cm)
- Print speed: 50 characters / sec.
- Printing method: unidirectional printing
- Paper transport: spiked roller drive
- Ribbon type: two-part cassette with replaceable inkwell
- Paper width: 4.5 to 10 inches
- Copies / carbon copies: original + 2 carbon copies
- Graphics: Point addressable, 7 vertical points / column, 480 points horizontal
- CPU: 8039 8-bit microcontroller , 128 bytes RAM, 10 MHz
- 4 KB ROM (2732 EPROM )
- Power consumption: 8 W idle, 25 W pressure
- Weight: approx. 4.8 kg
- Price: approx. 800 marks (year 1984)
Others
Some hobbyists have used a trick to optimize the unidirectional printing of the device by accelerating the return of the printer with a stretched rubber band between the housing wall and the printhead , or by simply tilting the printer.
Web links
- Advertisement for the MPS 801 - Advertisement for the MPS 801 found in 8-bit nirvana
- Article about the MPS 801 in the C64 Wiki
- MPS 801 - Commodore Computer Museum
- MPS-801 Printer Users Manual , zimmers.net
- MPS-801 Printer Manual ( ZIP ; 19 kB) Text file for project 64
- Magazine 64'er - Issue 04/84 - Commodore printer under 1000 Mark, pages 20-26
- Magazine 64'er - Edition 05/85 - Which printer is the right one ?, Page 15–17
- Magazine 64'er - Issue 05/85 - Comparison: Printer under 700 Mark, pages 18-21
- Magazine 64'er - Issue 05/85 - Market overview matrix printer, page 26-29
