BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Barbara Vaughan) (03/31/89)
I was recently at a workshop in China, where one of the other participants had brought along her HP Thinkjet printer. I was impressed with its small size and quiet operation, which are two things I require in a home printer. (cramped quarters, thin walls, late nights) The print quality was much better than what I've seen in similar printers (Diaconix Ink Jet, for instance.) The owner hadn't had it for long, so couldn't help me regarding reliability, etc. She said that some of the cartridges seemed to have lost their vacuum seal on the plane ride and had to be discarded. Also there seemed to be some problem with the cable as sometimes it would appear to be on-line but nothing happened. Can anyone give me more information about about the reliability of this printer? I probably would not be travelling much with it, and do most of my printing at the office.
ns@maccs.McMaster.CA (Nicholas Solntseff) (04/05/89)
In article <7713@pucc.Princeton.EDU> BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes: >I was recently at a workshop in China, where one of the other participants >had brought along her HP Thinkjet printer. I was impressed ..... > ...... Can anyone give me more information about >about the reliability of this printer? I probably would not be travelling >much with it, and do most of my printing at the office. Computer Science at McMaster bought four the year the Thinkjets appeared. One was returned a couple of weeks after arrival because it would not work, one failed after two years and was retired because repairs were quoted to be almost 75% of purchase price! The remaining two are still working -- one in the departmental office as a draft printer (a 24-pin Fulitsu is the primary printer), and the other I have at home for occasional near letter quality printing. My main criticisms are: the ink carttridge only lasts for less than 500 sheets; I am not satified with the print quality unless I use the HP ink-jet printer paper. The cost per 2,500 sheets is thus CAN$60 for paper plus CAN$60 for ink cartridge -- a bit too much for widespread use! Nick Solntseff (416) 525-9140 xtn 3443
carlson@gateway.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson) (04/08/89)
In article <7713@pucc.Princeton.EDU> BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes: >I was recently at a workshop in China, where one of the other participants >had brought along her HP Thinkjet printer. I was impressed with its small >size and quiet operation, which are two things I require in a home printer. >(cramped quarters, thin walls, late nights) The print quality was much >better than what I've seen in similar printers (Diaconix Ink Jet, for >instance.) The owner hadn't had it for long, so couldn't help me regarding >reliability, etc. She said that some of the cartridges seemed to have lost >their vacuum seal on the plane ride and had to be discarded. Also there >seemed to be some problem with the cable as sometimes it would appear to >be on-line but nothing happened. Can anyone give me more information about >about the reliability of this printer? I probably would not be travelling >much with it, and do most of my printing at the office. An organization I worked for during 85-88 bought about 60 of these printers and they were the 'standard issue' to use with each person's PC. I vaguely remember one breaking, but I don't remember what was wrong with it. As far as I can tell they were very reliable. There are limitations: requires special ink-jet paper - more expensive ink cartridges dry out sometimes and must be reprimed (easy to do) some ink cartridges seem to be short-lived, some are okay the printer cannot print to the edges of the paper (only prints 8 inch width) the epson emulation mode is not perfect, it misses a few features Good points: extremely quiet very reliable (as far as I can tell) very small available in serial or parallel versions Just my opinions Bruce Carlson
mcwill@inmos.co.uk (Iain McWilliams) (04/17/89)
We have a few Thinkjets, mostly GPIB but one is a serial printer. I was trying to use the serial example recently but could not get it to send XON / XOFF characters. Naturally the only manuals I could find refered to the GPIB models. So could some kind soul send me an explanation of the DIP settings. Thanks in advance, Iain. -- Iain McWilliams Inmos Ltd, 1000 Aztec West, Almondsbury, Bristol, BS12 4SQ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The opinions above are my personal views and do | not refelect Inmos policy. | mcwill@inmos.co.uk