The 1520 Plotter Survival Guide

[airship]

Just got my ALPS drive mechanisms tonight. No time to look them all over. I couldn't resist pulling one out of its bag - BOTH gears were split! Hopefully the rest will fare better.

One quick note: There are no connection pins on these. I'll have to unsolder the pins on my original and solder them into this one. Other than that, they're complete.

[airship]

Well, I finally had time to check out my drive mechanisms. Here are the results:



ALL EIGHT - yes, all 8 - of the small gears were split or broken. And one of the large spool gears is split in half. I think I can fix that one with some Superglue, and I'm going to try to get at least one working pair by Supergluing the cracks in the others. There have been reports online that some have been successful in doing so.

Three of the units appear to be perfectly fine, except for the split gears. Only one had an additional problem, and I don't think it's insurmountable. (However, do note the previously-mentioned lack of connector pins on the edge-card connectors on the fronts of the stacked units.)

In summary, though these little ALPS mechanisms are well worth it for the parts, you're probably not going to find one that works as a drop-in unit. I still would recommend buying a couple for repair parts, if nothing else. But don't expect even FOUR of them to get your 1520 up and running. :gråta:

[airship]

My latest thought is that a suitable gear might be found among the ultralight RC model crowd. Maybe something like this anodized one:



Or maybe a nylon gear something like one of these, perhaps by trimming one down that's similar to the one in the lower left?



HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL! DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP! :förbryllad:

[airship]

I have confirmed that there WAS a repair manual for the 1520 - one is listed in this collection on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Commodore-Factory-Service-and-Troubleshooting-Manuals_W0QQitemZ190181246996

[smf]

And, of course, everyone knows that the ALPS 1520 plotter mechanism is made of nothing BUT lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, and polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), all slathered with a thick coating of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.

It's almost as though the law was written to SPECIFICALLY prohibit the import of ALPS 1520 plotter mechanisms into the E.U. Makes you think, doesn't it? Can you say 'conspiracy'? :förvånad:

RoHS wasn't created because one part had a huge effect on the environment, it was created because making millions of them does.

There are approved methods and chemicals and non approved ones, the approved ones are supposedly better for the planet. As we have no where else to live then I can live with it. It is still possible to sell non RoHS things in the EU, there are some exemptions for old equipment.

The environmental impact on you throwing the plotter away because you can't repair it is greater than importing the non RoHS part so I believe ( I might be wrong ) that it's ok. I think they are being overly cautious.

I know a company ( whistles ) that reconditions old equipment using non RoHS parts and it's supposedly legal.

[Golan Klinger]

I don't know if anyone is still looking for a 1520 but I've noticed a few on eBay which you can find here and here (North America) and here and here (U.K.).

Any idea what the going price is?

[wte]

...
But Electronic Goldmine (http://www.goldmine-elec.com/) currently has the entire mechanism as a surplus part:

ALPS 4 Color Head Assembly - $1.49
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/p ... ber=G15824

4 Color Pen Printhead by ALPS - $3.95
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/p ... mber=G2092
...

Free market economy is working fine.

Airship ordered some ALPS printheads (thanks again for your sending) and the result is ...

New price: for the 4 Color Pen Printhead by ALPS Item Number : G2092 ==> Unit Price: $7.95 :förvånad:

WTE

[airship]

Do you really think the 8 units we bought drove the price up?

[Golan Klinger]

Do you really think the 8 units we bought drove the price up?

Could be. The few disk notchers that Andrew bought to flip on eBay appeared to have drive their price up by a couple of bucks. Some e-commerce sites are designed to manipulate prices based on demand. Sick, but true.

[Mark Smith]

I always wanted a plotter for my Commodore when I was kid ... don't suppose anyone has one for sale do they ? :-)

Mark

[airship]

Just watch eBay. There's usually one for sale. I don't know how long you'd have to wait for one to come up for sale in Oz, though.

And, of course, it will have broken gears. They ALL have broken gears.

[Golan Klinger]

Look at the post I made three days ago. There are three for sale on eBay right now.

[wte]

Do you really think the 8 units we bought drove the price up?

Yes, indeed, I do!
Don't forget that I also tried to buy 4 units. Maybe some other guys have read this thread and ordered one or two units. So the shop sold a lot of units (maybe after selling nothing for years). How big was/is the stockpile? If they have only 20 or 30 units left than they sold a fourth within a few days. That could really be a reason for a price rise.

WTE

[Golan Klinger]

Here's another:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260196036188

They're coming out of the woodwork now.

[Mark Smith]

Here's another:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260196036188

They're coming out of the woodwork now.

I asked about shipping costs for that .. and got quoted 497.00 .... hmmmmmmmmmmm

[Golan Klinger]

497 what? Weird. Anyway, there are a pile on eBay so I'm not going to post all the links. Just do a search and I'm sure you'll find one in your area eventually.

[Andrew Wiskow]

I asked about shipping costs for that .. and got quoted 497.00 .... hmmmmmmmmmmm

Strandedinnz, if you want that one, I'd be happy to bid on it on your behalf (shipping to my address is $21.71), and then send it on to you for ACTUAL cost of shipping.  $497.00 my a$$!  :/

-Andrew

[Mark Smith]

I asked about shipping costs for that .. and got quoted 497.00 .... hmmmmmmmmmmm

Strandedinnz, if you want that one, I'd be happy to bid on it on your behalf (shipping to my address is $21.71), and then send it on to you for ACTUAL cost of shipping.  $497.00 my a$$!  :/

-Andrew

Thanks for the offer I may very well take you up on it! ... I'll see if I get a sane reply to my query on the shipping costs :-)  

Wish I could find one local though!

Mark

[Andrew Wiskow]

Wish I could find one local though!

That would make things a bit easier for you...  Not to mention that you'd need a step-up transformer to use a North American model in Australia, but it'd decrease your shipping cost by quite a bit.  

-Andrew

[acadiel]

Wow - thanks for this thread!  I just happened upon a TI CC-40 HX-1000, which uses the same exact mechanism.

I've posted a few detailed pictures here:

http://www.guidry.org/ti994a/hexbus/hx1000/HX-1000_Printer_Plotter.html

My gear is going out on the right side (you can see the crack in the full size pic).  I ordered some from the site mentioned in this guide; hopefully I get a good one.

I'd be great if we could find some metal replacement gears.  They were hinted at in this post:

http://www.99er.net/cc40art.html

---Hexbus Printer Plotter.  This cute little printer uses adding
     machine paper to print on.  There are four little ball point pens,
     each of a different color.  Replacement pens can still be purchased at
     Radio Shack stores.  You can program the X-Y axis movement of each pen
     as you print multicolored graphs, and drawings.  Several different
     text sizes from teeny tiny to about 1 inch tall are available.  Text
     can be printed in any direction (vertically facing either left or
     right,  horizontally, and even upside down).  Although this printer
     does have some unique features, it is not really useful in printing
     documents.  Also, it has some reliability problems.  There is an
     internal plastic gear that has a history of breaking (Cecure has a
     metal replacement gear), and its alkaline battery is soldered in and
     cannot easily be replaced.  If the battery fails to hold a charge you
     are out of luck even if you use the optional AC adapter.

I found the mechanism (DPG1302) on a bunch of Chinese websites - from where I read, there's 800-1000 of these still over there in Asia.  Maybe we can do some of bulk buy.  The quotes I've gotten are around $1.6 USD apiece.

[airship]

I'd be great if we could find some metal replacement gears.  They were hinted at in this post:

Unfortunately that post was written in 1994! Note that it also says pens are still available at Radio Shack, which they were in 1994, but they are long gone from the Shack's shelves now.

I'm sure a long search among some gear manufacturers would turn up the proper gear. I haven't done the measurements to find the diameter, shaft hole size, and gear pitch. But if we had those numbers, we could probably batch order a few metal replacements for a decent cost.

[acadiel]

I'd be great if we could find some metal replacement gears.  They were hinted at in this post:

Unfortunately that post was written in 1994! Note that it also says pens are still available at Radio Shack, which they were in 1994, but they are long gone from the Shack's shelves now.

I'm sure a long search among some gear manufacturers would turn up the proper gear. I haven't done the measurements to find the diameter, shaft hole size, and gear pitch. But if we had those numbers, we could probably batch order a few metal replacements for a decent cost.

You never know who has Cecure's old stock... someone had to buy them out, and it was probably another vintage computer seller.  :-)  I have a small caliper - I'll try and take some rough measurements (and do I mean rough...)

[acadiel]

I sent in some sample gears (as well as a stepper motor) to a manufacturer to see if I can get some metal ones made.  Stay tuned.

[airship]

I sent in some sample gears (as well as a stepper motor) to a manufacturer to see if I can get some metal ones made.  Stay tuned.

Awesome! I hope the price isn't too horrible. If I could get a 1520 working for $20, I'd sure do it.

[acadiel]

OK, guys -

I have a quote for metal gears.  (Stainless steel)

I'm willing to coordinate a group buy, if we get enough interest.  You might also want to advertise to the other folks (the Atari folks and the TRS-80 folks) to drum up interest (I'm going to advertise to the TI-99/4A folks, because the HX1010 uses the same gear.)

Here's the cost for just the gears (not including shipping), rounded up to the nearest dollar, based upon quantities:

Qty  Cost
1     $335 (eek!)
5     $74   ($370 total for group buy)
25   $23   ($575 total for group buy)
50   $16   ($800 total for group buy)
100 $13   ($1300 total for group buy)

Now, I'm thinking that enough people probably read this board and the TI online user group to order 25 units ($23/ea).  However, I want to get preorders from everyone (no payments yet!) to see if we have enough interest.  Example: If we get people to order two (one for each side) and get 25 people, we can then get into the $16/ea bracket.

Once we have enough interest, I can initiate a group buy and get these gears and ship them out (probably small packages with delivery confirmation), so there will be a S/H cost (envelope, postage, and handling to make up for any Paypal fees).

If anyone needs confirmation that I'm a good guy, here's my e-bay feedback (the picture is probably 10 years old...):

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=jdguidry

So.....
If you want to express interest in pre-ordering gear(s), send an e-mail to acadiel/guidry/org with the Subject "Gears".  I'll collect these, and by October 15th I will see how many people want gears.

Thanks
Jon