[plug] GDI printers

[Leon Brooks]

alan howard wrote:
> On Thu, 07 Sep 2000, Leon Brooks wrote:
>> Bret Busby wrote:
>>> Leon Brooks wrote:
>>>> this
>>>> or another GDI driver may work for your printer. Weeeek! Weeeek! Weeeeek! Go on,
>>>> be a guinea pig!

>>> I hope it does not
>>> destroy the printer (it is not mine - I just look after it, and, use
>>> it).

>> That would be quite an achievement, given that things like motors and power
>> supplies are not under program control.

> doesn't it? .  I thought the program and the internal software on the printers
> microcontroller determined the action of various motors etc. The power supply
> should be fairly safe except if a motor is driven to one of the limmits in the
> mechanism and draws excess current.

This is usually prohibited by hardware (i.e. a switch). Older printers (e.g.
Epson EX-1000) drove the stepper motors by wiggling bits on a port since at the
time this was cheaper than a stepper-controller chip. These could be programmed
to blow up a stepper motor. You could also switch on a pin solenoid in the head
(or all pins) and leave it on, melting down the head. The GDI lasers have no
pins, no "manual" control over steppers.

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