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Portable Dot Matrix Printers?

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arfink

Experienced Member
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Sep 14, 2009
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I'm currently trying to round up a selection of portable dot matrix printers. I have a few old laptops that I'd like to have one or two good portable DMPs for, and haven't been having much luck. I have the one offering Tandy made for use with the Tandy 100 series laptops, but it's a thermal printer and there is no chance of getting more ribbons or 8.5x11 thermal paper anymore these days, and it's not really possible to "re-ink" thermal transfer ribbons.

Anyone else have suggestions?
 
The ribbons for the TRP100 are indeed pretty scarce, but you can use 8 1/2" thermal FAX paper rolls; they're a little too thick to fit on the standard supports so you'll have to unroll some of it on to another core (or make custom supports, especially if yours are missing or broken as many are).

I'm not aware of any portable ribbon dot matrix printers, but there are thermal and ink jet printers out there; for example, HP's Deskjet 320 and Canon's BJ-10e are both (optionally) battery-powered ink jets with optional sheet feeders, while Seiko made several versions of a 40-column thermal printer.
 
Fax paper rolls? Sounds doable. I'll need to make some supports for sure, mine are long gone. Thanks for the tip!
 
TI Made a portable thermal dot matrix that also had a ribbon option. Unfortunately, I think mine only has a Hex-Bus input. I'll have to look and see if it also has a Centronics or RS-232 connector. One other possibility for portables would be some of the Okidata printers (OK-10 or OK-30, I think). One was B/W and the other color--though ribbons for them might be on the difficult side now. . .
 
I have a Citizen PN60 that I still use once in a while. That and the PN48 are thermal print models that will handle either single sheet or fan-fold paper and the print cartridges (about the size of a micro-cassette tape) can still be found. Make sure if you get one of these that it included the original parallel cable because the printer has a proprietary connector. These printers can run off a battery pack or external power adapter.

I seem to remember the Air Force using Seikosha portable printers in the late 90's. You can still find Intermec and O'Neil microflash printers on the auction sites but they are still pricey.
 
BuggZ said:
I have a Citizen PN60 that I still use once in a while. That and the PN48 are thermal print models that will handle either single sheet or fan-fold paper and the print cartridges (about the size of a micro-cassette tape) can still be found.
Click to expand...
Hmm... I wonder if by any chance the ribbon cartridges are the same as the R-S TRP100, or if at least the ribbon itself could be transferred to a TRP100 shell...

Here's the Radio Shack ribbon (26-1297); the ribbon is 1/4" wide:

Bottom.JPGTop.JPG
 
The Citizen cartridge looks to be very close. I might have to grab one and see.

portable-ribbons.jpg
 
arfink said:
The Citizen cartridge looks to be very close. I might have to grab one and see.
Click to expand...
Except for the cutaway corner which shouldn't matter, those two on the bottom sure look similar; in any case you could probably put the actual ribbon spools into the TRP100 shell. Let us know how it goes if you do get one; the folks on the Club100 mail list would probably be interested as well.
 
I have one of those Citizen PN50's that I still use while traveling, believe it or not it works like a charm even on Windows 7. I even recently bought a new battery for it for more portability.

I have found though that the ribbons are WAY too pricey (considering they only are good for about 20 pages), I opt to use mine with thermal paper sheets (and have also used a thermal fax roll, just personally prefer sheets), since I never need to print anything archive quality while I am on the go (I am usually printing directions, or quick work-order prints for jobs, nothing that needs to last).
 
I have some Epson dmp's that work nicely, but sadly are not portable. Unless you have a fairly wide view of portable.
 
MikeS said:
Except for the cutaway corner which shouldn't matter, those two on the bottom sure look similar; in any case you could probably put the actual ribbon spools into the TRP100 shell. Let us know how it goes if you do get one; the folks on the Club100 mail list would probably be interested as well.
Click to expand...

I'll maybe give that a try in January as part of my participation in the RetroChallenge. If I do I'll spread the word.
 
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