April 1984 Brother EP-44 with built-in RS-232 serial port
For your edification (and because electronic baby wedges *need* user manuals, unlike most typewriters) I present to you my PDF scan of the Brother EP-44 User Manual. Enjoy!
Cute machine! 1985 seems to have been a significant year for wedges big and small.
yes, it seems like 1982-1986 were a time of rapid technological change in the typewriter industry – the whole concept of adding I/O ports to typewriters to allow them to act as printers seems to have only lasted 3 or 4 years, with 1983 and 84 being the years they slapped an I/O port on anything that typed, then by 85 they’d figured out that the added expense wasn’t getting back any market share from computers, and the practice basically was over by 1987, with I/O ports only added as an extra on the most professional wedges. Print head technology seems to have advanced like lightning in that same period as well.
Wow, nice machine. Perhaps I’m giving away my age, but I kinda like this one’s style. Well done!
EP-44 as a serial terminal for DOS.
https://darrengoossens.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/the-brother-ep44-as-a-serial-terminal-for-dos/
Cheers!
I would love to see a post featuring portables with usable serial interfaces! If you’d be into that sorta thing. Seems like it may just be the ep-22 and ep-44? Did any other companies put ports on their thermal typewriters?
Lots of manufacturers got on the computer interface bandwagon in the mid-80’s. I have a couple Nakajima daisywheel typewriters with Centronics ports, which is a nice interface for old computin’ iron.
https://typecast.munk.org/2019/06/14/friends-from-new-mexico-a-surprise-solution-to-8-bit-printing/
However, many manufacturers went the dongle route – with proprietary interface boxes required to hook up to RS-232 and/or Centronics. These, as you can imagine, were not always purchased with the typewriter, and the ones that were often have gotten separated over the years and pitched in the trash.
Hi
Is the pin on the power plug + or – ? I’ve seen a couple of pictures of the PS but I just can’t see! I’ve got a 6V supply with a plug that fits physically, but I cannot see any info on the polarity!
Thanks
Darren
center negative, DC 6v 1A on the EP-44 supply. same except 9v on the BP-30 one in case you find one of the pen-plotter ones.