Pocket Computer 2 printers

So when I got my lot from the Tandy Corporate Auction a while back, in it was a Pocket Computer 2.

When I "examined" the lot (from the pictures on the web site), it had a bunch of stuff.  Including some Model 100/102 stuff and Pocket Computer 4 stuff.  I had a PC-4 through college (I purchased it with my high school graduation money) and I wanted to get the stuff that I couldn't afford back then.  And then there's my Model 100/102 addiction that I seem to have gotten.  8)

So the working PC-2 was an unexpected bonus.  And I've fallen in love with the device.  So I purchased some cassette/printer interfaces from eBay.  I did get some cassette interfaces in the Tandy Lot, but they were for the PC-1.

The two PC-2 cassette/printer interfaces that I got were not complete functional.  The cassette part worked just fine (did you know that you can load/save programs via the sound board in your PC?) but the printer part didn't.

So I decided to see if I could get the printers working.  But no luck.  I did find a problem with one of the printers.  The guide rail for the print head was loose.  I fixed that.  But they still give me an "Error 6" when first powered up.

Now, I did have to do a battery-ectomy on both.  The NiCd batteries were 30 years old and starting to leak.  According to the information on line, the batteries were only there to give the printer a boost since the solenoids for the print head needed > 1A of power when firing and the AC Adaptor only produced 500mA.  So I made sure that I had a big enough power supply (2A in this case).

The printer seemed to come alive with the print head moving a bit, but still no go.  Ah, well.  30 years is a long time.  I'm surprised that these lasted as long as they did.

But I also took apart one of my PC-4 printers.  And I'm reasonably sure that I can get that working.  Another project!