leg@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Ski) (03/29/89)
I have a friend who will be moving to Germany and plans to take his Mac. He has bought a 220v to 110v transformer but is not sure if the Imagewriter will work on 50 Hz. Apple dealers have not been able to help. Has anyone done this? Will he have to buy a new Imagerwriter in Germany? Or can his be modified. L.E. Grumboski (Ski) AT&T Bell Labs ihlpl!leg 1-312-979-4793
bwolf@hpbbm.HP.COM (Bryan Wolf) (03/30/89)
Hello there. I was in the same situation as your friend in Oct. 86 as I was preparing for my move over here for grad school. The official word that I got from Apple at the time was that an Imagewriter I would work fine on a 2:1 step-down transformer (that is, at 110 v 50 hz). I have since heard that the Imagewriter II works off of the 50 Hz as well. Apparently the only printer that really won't work here is the Laserwriter for some strange reason. He/she might want to check with a dealer to see if the I/W can be subjected to internal mods so that it can deal with 220 v/50 hz right out of the wall. Otherwise, it is wise to purchase a heavy-duty step-down transformer and mount it on some sort of sturdy surface or case with *lots* of US 120 v outlets on it (in this sort of situation, you can never have enough outlets!). I have been using a Mac Plus, IW I, 65 Mb hard drive and two synthesizers heavy duty since Oct 86 on a step-down transformer with no problem. Good luck, Bryan
borton@uva.UUCP (Chris Borton) (04/01/89)
In article <9864@ihlpl.ATT.COM> leg@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Ski) writes: >I have a friend who will be moving to Germany and plans to take his Mac. He >has bought a 220v to 110v transformer but is not sure if the Imagewriter will >work on 50 Hz. Apple dealers have not been able to help. Has anyone done >this? Will he have to buy a new Imagerwriter in Germany? Or can his be >modified. It will work. A U.S. ImageWriter I is rated to work on both 50 and 60 Hz; I used mine in Germany for a year with no problems. The interesting one was the U.S. ImageWriter II, which, unlike the international version, is rated to only work on 60 Hz. So, according to Apple specs, no go. But, I asked the net and got a reply from someone who had. Result: I brought my U.S. ImageWriter II to the Netherlands and have been using it with no problems via a simple adaptor. Note: the ImageWriter takes 20 watts idling, up to 120 watts printing. -cbb -- Chris Borton borton%uva@mcvax.{nl,bitnet,uucp} Rotary Scholar & Network Administrator, University of Amsterdam CS