HP 2631G Dot Matrix Printer Restoration (vintage 1978)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- I found a HP 2631G printer at a local recycler, under a dusty pile of other unremarkable worthless parallel port printers. This is no ordinary vintage printer though. A heavy dot matrix beast from 1978, 15" paper, 180 characters per second, HP-IB interface. I had great hopes and procured a new ribbon (you can still find them!). Sadly when I turned it on it was motionless. I set to work to return it back to its former glory.
See the full demo after the repair:
• ASCII art demo with vi... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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Indestructible, table-shaking 70's stuff!
I love the caps in this.... both those shiny shiny ceramics AND the enormous electrolytics.
Wow!!! Look at the size of those caps!!!
That's what SHE said! 😆
That sound is music to my ears. It brought back loads of fun memories programming hp computers in the 80’s including the 1000 and the 85. Thanks for the awesome video! Now I want to see your hp1000 boot RTE1000 off that 7906 “disc” drive and compile a Fortran or pascal program and print something to the 2631g. I bet I still remember the boot sequence on the 1000....if I close my eyes. Fun times those were for a rookie programmer.
Funny I just got an HP 1000 and booted it to RTE and compiled fortran. Good fun
My grandmother was a teacher, and as a small child hearing the sound of a dot matrix printer for hours on end, still haunts me as an adult to this day.
I do quite enjoy repairing DIP switches, panel-mount switches, D-connectors, and similar little annoyances. There's a sort of "I'll do as I damn well please" pleasure in servicing a non-serviceable assembly.
Those caps are gigantic!
That's way faster than the ones at my work place (it's a warehouse, and yes, it still uses these in the year 2022)
Hello Marc. Thanks for the video! I enjoy watching your video on HP85 and other HP equipment of that era. Thanks to your videos I started messing with HP85. I now have two HP85B one with the PRM85 the other with the printer/plotter ROM. After I saw this particular video I stared looking for a HP Matrix printer. The only one i found was not to far away in Germany and it had the HP-IB :-).
So after I got it home it had kind of the same problems - I reinserted the print cards - that helped. But I could not print from the HP85, even after setting up the DIP switches - then I remembered your video - and guess what: "PRINTER IS 700,80" worked!! Guess I have to clean/change the HP-IB address DIP switch..
Thanks again!
Cheers from Denmark,
I was thinking something like "Please put the cover back on, you will be wounded if those huge caps explode".
Great video, a pleasure, as always, to see such old pieces of hardware
I laughed out loud when you successfully repaired the DIP switch. Amazing
Your videos are truly superb! I found you via arstechnica. Thank you for taking the time to document what you are doing. It's fascinating to see the insides of the machines you work on.
This may be the only video I can truly relate to - I once repaired a vintage printer. Unbranded SR1000 parallel port printer - the heads were jammed. Ended up disassembling it to clean the stepper motors which drove it.
I had the honor and good fortune of working on the 2631/2635 printer assembly line at HP in Boise when those came out. I remember hearing all the noise from the printers being tested. They were practically bullet proof! My first computer was a Commodore PET with an IEEE488 port which was actually the same I/O as HPIB so I built a 2631A from scrapped parts at my shop and had my own HP printer which would have cost 4 times as much as the PET. I saw many new computers and printers which were used in house. I was a repair technician and got to unbox setup and test all new equipment that came in to be used on site. We had the 7920 and 7925 disk drive production line also. Those drives were as big as a dishwasher and only stored 400 MB and cost over $17,000! Check out The HP computer museum online.
I actually do have an HP 7925. What a monster! It’s on the (long) restoration queue.
I am Very Happy to see this video with this reoair work.
My girlfrend Ester was born in 1978, and she is also happy to see so old machine to work! :-)
I thank you for your all work, to save old machines!
This video is a good inspiration for new generation...
You are a good technician and a wizard :-)
I wish for you all good, From Europe, Hungary, Budapest.
(Excuse me, for my poor English)
Csepi Arpi
What strange failures. I always love your restoration/repair videos!
In many ways you are living my dream life!
A happy ending! You certainly breathed life back into that beast :D
just listening to that set of solenoids scream its way through each line, man
Ribbon cable to head still good. Not broken
very awesome printer..and excellent video
Damn, those caps are big! 🤣👌
Job well done!
Need a sturdier table for that, damn lol
The transformer in the power supply looks like it could power a small city
Very good old printer and very good video!
Nice printer, nice repair!
That's one damn fast printer!
It sometimes jumps the alignment from a paper jam. Then you have to check the travel path.
This printer was born the same year I was. Disco was still a thing.
Even ten years after this one, the consumer printers haven´t reached that quality and robustness. In 1988 I would have killed for a printer like that. Remembering taking apart and reassembling a 9pin head :-D
Oh man, this buzzing sound takes me on a trip down the memory lane.
10:37 knowledge is power
A millionaire saving 50c
Looks like 9-pin with full descenders.
Interesting video. Me, my only experience with dot matrix was a Panasonic KX-P1124 and then Okidata 182 and then finally a Genicom printer. And lights are on but no action - check power supply. Bet there's a bulging cap in there.
Looking at the size of those capacitors, could you kill and elephant with them?
Quite faster than my ImageWriter that came out almost 4 years after this. Though the tractor position is weird, wasting a good 3" to reach the print head..
Damn that are some big ass capacitors, or what are those massive pots on it?
Be healthy! Please tell me what is the maximum line length for this printer? 136 columns at 10 cpi? Does this printer understand Epson ESC commands? Or does he have his own commands? Thank you in advance for your response!
Print head sometimes have bent pins....
i wish i had a printer like that i cand find one low price or in working order. i wish i had one cus its been years since i used a fine comtraption like that dot matrix printer
Just think how big a collection would be of failed less than vintage parts.
02:34 Thats no capacitor...its a space station
bzzzt bzzzzt bzzzzt
Why are the capacitors so large?!
Are ribbons still made for this printer to print? The printer quality is beautiful at 12:15
Yes I did find some online!
You really had to abuse those printers to make them stop working!!!!!!
with todays printers you just look at em wrong and they quit
Qu'est-ce que le bruit des dot maitrix me ramène dans le passé!
tendría que entrar a montar videos de mis impresoras viejas , tengo un taller de reparación, muy buen trabajo saludos desde Argentina
Is anyone interested in a 1988 vintage Epson Dot matrix printer?
Still way faster than printing wireless-ly through iPhone