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ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:47 pm
by stefano
A vanilla ZX80 couldn't print a thing on the ZX PRINTER, the NEWROM (which was the ZX81 ROM retrofitted on it) was the only way to fill the gap.. until now
I think I mastered the ROM portion of the ZX PRINTER enough to be able to provide valid custom drivers, so here's an example for the ZX80, il will take a bit of time while designing the picture, then it will wait for a keypress.. avoid pressing NEWLINE or SPACE, turn on the printer (if needed), and press, say, 'G'.
I'm not attaching a screenshot to raise a little bit the curiosity
- a.O
- ZX Printer test for the ZX80
- (3.06 KiB) Downloaded 205 times
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 8:58 pm
by Moggy
stefano wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:47 pm
A vanilla ZX80 couldn't print a thing on the ZX PRINTER, the NEWROM (which was the ZX81 ROM retrofitted on it) was the only way to fill the gap.. until now
I think I mastered the ROM portion of the ZX PRINTER enough to be able to provide valid custom drivers, so here's an example for the ZX80, il will take a bit of time while designing the picture, then it will wait for a keypress.. avoid pressing NEWLINE or SPACE, turn on the printer (if needed), and press, say, 'G'.
I'm not attaching a screenshot to raise a little bit the curiosity
a.O
A "vanilla" ZX80 could print with with the ZX80 printer albeit with an equivilent of the COPY command, thanks to an article in Sync(
My mistake ZXcomputing not Sync) magazine which I will dig out should there be any interest (doubtful)
I tried it and it worked well with a print quality better than provided by the 81.
That was before all 7 of my Sinclair printers went tits up and I converted to Alphacom.
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:50 pm
by Paul
I'm definitely interested Moggy!
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:12 pm
by Moggy
I thought you might be Paul as God knows I have thrown enough printer paper your way.
I mentioned it some time ago on this thread but for some reason the links no longer work for me!
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=314&p=2350&hilit=printer+zx80#p2350
EDIT
I may have got my magazines wrong as the article seems to stem from ZX computing judging by the link so will seek it elsewhere.
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:24 pm
by Moggy
Found it!
The code is on the second page of the article.
https://archive.org/stream/ZX-computing ... #page/n119
Happy printing.
I now recall the reason for the better print quality was due to using an under powered power pack which ran the motor and the printer styli somewhat slower and allowed the styli to dwell on the paper surface longer, when I switched to the correct power pack the contraption ran at normal speed and as a result the print quality was the usual Sinclair crap.
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 7:29 am
by Paul
Thanks a lot Moggy. That's an interesting read.
I hope I find time to add this into the ROM some time so COPY and LPRINT will be available together with the ZXPand commands....
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 12:00 pm
by Moggy
Excellent news Paul
, It would be nice to see my Alphacoms would working on the 80.
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:33 pm
by siggi
stefano wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:47 pm
I'm not attaching a screenshot to raise a little bit the curiosity
Very nice
Did you use lowres PLOT and then hardcopy()?
Siggi
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:31 pm
by stefano
Very interesting, indeed !
I'm strongly tempted to revert that HEX set to the equivalent mnemonics and compare it to my work..
The whole article is very clean, by the way
Re: ZX PRINTER on the ZX80
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 1:35 pm
by stefano
>Very nice
>Did you use lowres PLOT and then hardcopy()?
>
>Siggi
Yes. I think it is of some interest that the graphics symbols codes change between zx80 and zx81 but the program can be compiled for both without having to adapt it.