Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer

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Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer #121836 01/04/23 06:32 PM
Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72 G Golden Child OP Senior Member
OP Golden Child Senior Member G Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72	I was looking at some web pages for the Coleco Adam and saw the schematics for the daisywheel printer which piqued my curiosity. Looking around, there was also complete source code for the 6801 program for the printer, so why not see if it could do something. There was a nice picture of the daisywheel and I rotated the picture and got the sequence of the characters. One character quite eluded me, it was a strange L laying on its side. Finding a manual for the Diablo 630 Diablo_630_Printer-Terminal_Manual.PDF there is a lot of datasheet information about the different Diablo daisywheels and the plastic 96 character is a perfect match. The funky L character on its side is a "not" symbol. note that the electrical spoke position + spoke position = 96. In the rom for the printer, there's a complete table of ascii character to printwheel position Code ADAM DAISYWHEEL cent ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / FD17 02 44 46 2E 2C 2F 45 36 3C 3A 3D 2D 03 2B 05 42 .DF.,/E6<:=-.+.B 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? FD27 25 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 2A 0C 1F 39 30 32 41 %!"#$&'()..902A @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O FD37 3E 0B 08 0A 16 0F 09 18 11 14 1D 1C 15 06 13 12 >..... ......... P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ FD47 1A 1B 0D 0E 10 17 1E 04 20 19 07 35 3F 33 40 37 ........ ..5?3@7 ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o FD57 38 54 4E 4F 4C 53 59 4A 57 55 48 5D 4D 47 52 50 8TNOLSYJWUH]MGRP p q r s t u v w x y z { \| } ~ not (unicode FFE2) FD67 5A 5C 51 58 56 5B 49 00 4B 5E 5F 31 3B 43 34 01 Z\QXV[I.K^_1;C4. FD77 07 06 06 07 07 07 07 05 06 06 07 06 05 05 05 06 ................ and if I extract that table to a hexdump: Code 02 44 46 2E 2C 2F 45 36 3C 3A 3D 2D 03 2B 05 42 25 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 2A 0C 1F 39 30 32 41 3E 0B 08 0A 16 0F 09 18 11 14 1D 1C 15 06 13 12 1A 1B 0D 0E 10 17 1E 04 20 19 07 35 3F 33 40 37 38 54 4E 4F 4C 53 59 4A 57 55 48 5D 4D 47 52 50 5A 5C 51 58 56 5B 49 00 4B 5E 5F 31 3B 43 34 01 and then pipe it to xxd: Code cat adamdaisywheel_for_xxd.txt \| xxd -r -p > adamdaisy.bin then start up lua Code f = io.open("adamdaisy.bin") a = f:read("a") f:close() print(#a) chartab={} for i = 1,#a do chartab[a:byte(i)]=string.char(i+32-1) end chartab[1]="not" chartab[2]="cent" for i,j in pairs(chartab) do print(i,j) end io.write('{"') for i=0,#chartab,1 do io.write(chartab[i]) end io.write('"}') print() which gives you the daisywheel table Code lua > f = io.open("adamdaisy.bin") a = f:read("a") f:close() print(#a) 96 > chartab={} for i = 1,#a do chartab[a:byte(i)]=string.char(i+32-1) end > chartab[1]="not" chartab[2]="cent" > for i,j in pairs(chartab) do print(i,j) end 1 not 2 cent 3 , 4 W 5 . 6 M 7 Z 8 B 9 F 10 C 11 A 12 : 13 R 14 S 15 E 16 T 17 H 18 O 19 N 20 I 21 L 22 D 23 U 24 G 25 Y 26 P 27 Q 28 K 29 J 30 V 31 ; 32 X 33 1 34 2 35 3 36 4 37 0 38 5 39 6 40 7 41 8 42 9 43 - 44 $ 45 + 46 # 47 % 48 = 49 { 50 > 51 ] 52 ~ 53 [ 54 ' 55 _ 56 ` 57 < 58 ) 59 \| 60 ( 61 62 @ 63 \ 64 ^ 65 ? 66 / 67 } 68 ! 69 & 70 " 71 m 72 j 73 v 74 g 75 x 76 d 77 l 78 b 79 c 80 o 81 r 82 n 83 e 84 a 85 i 86 t 87 h 88 s 89 f 90 p 91 u 92 q 93 k 94 y 95 z 0 w {"wnotcent,W.MZBFCA:RSETHONILDUGYPQKJV;X1234056789-$+#%={>]~['_`<)\|(@\^?/}!&"mjvgxdlbcorneaithsfpuqkyz"} and cleaning up the cent, not, \\ and \" then you have a string for the daisywheel: Code const std::string m_daisywheel = "w~c,W.MZBFCA:RSETHONILDUGYPQKJV;X1234056789-$+#%={>]~['_`<)\|(@\\^?/}!&\"mjvgxdlbcorneaithsfpuqkyz"; So far, I've got the daisywheel to ascii working, the paper feed stepper (it doesn't actually use a stepper but a motor that turns with a detent sensor to track distance) and the cr stepper.
	2 members like this: exidyboy, robcfg

Re: Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer Golden Child #121841 01/06/23 12:36 AM
Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72 G Golden Child OP Senior Member
OP Golden Child Senior Member G Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72	So if I use a web browser canvas to make a png bitmap sheet of the printwheel characters, I can paste characters into the bitmap from the sheet. Code <canvas id="canvas" width="1920" height="1080"></canvas> <script> const canvas = document.getElementById('canvas'); const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'); size = 50 ctx.font = ' '+size+'px Courier New'; ctx.strokeStyle = 'red'; ctx.fillStyle = "white"; ctx.fillRect(0,0,1920,1080); ctx.fillStyle="black"; // cent = 00a2 // not = 00ac for (i=32;i<128;i++){ str = String.fromCharCode(i) if (i==32) str = "¢" if (i==127) str = "¬" textMetrics = ctx.measureText(str); width = textMetrics['actualBoundingBoxRight'] - textMetrics['actualBoundingBoxLeft'] CanvasRenderingContext2D.textAlign = "center"; ctx.fillText(str, (Math.floor((i-32) % 16) ) * 32 - width / 2 + 50, (size) * Math.floor((i-32)/16)+50); boxx1 = (Math.floor((i-32) % 16) ) * 32 + 50 - 15 boxx2 = boxx1 + 32 boxy1 = (size) * Math.floor((i-32)/16) + 15 - 3 boxy2 = boxy1 + size ctx.beginPath(); ctx.moveTo ( boxx1, boxy1 ); ctx.lineTo ( boxx1, boxy2 ); ctx.lineTo ( boxx2, boxy2 ); ctx.stroke(); } </script>
	1 member likes this: robcfg

Re: Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer Golden Child #121842 01/06/23 01:12 AM
Joined: May 2009 Posts: 2,092 Likes: 126 J Just Desserts Very Senior Member
Just Desserts Very Senior Member J Joined: May 2009 Posts: 2,092 Likes: 126	The screenshot says "This is pica type", but your render says "Thisiis pica type".

Re: Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer Just Desserts #121843 01/06/23 01:30 AM
Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72 G Golden Child OP Senior Member
OP Golden Child Senior Member G Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72	Yes, good eyes JD. I mistyped and the Adam's built-in electronic typewriter will let you backspace and "correct" your errors but it's already typed it on the page. Now I'm actually copying the whole rectangle and it would be cleared up but it doesn't actually fire the hammer on a space.

Re: Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer Golden Child #121846 01/06/23 02:18 PM
Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72 G Golden Child OP Senior Member
OP Golden Child Senior Member G Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72	Seems to work ok Seems to work well with smartlogo: testing with smartbasic:
	4 members like this: Waremonger, Duke, Pernod, robcfg

Re: Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer

Golden Child #121862 01/08/23 02:41 PM

Joined: Feb 2014

Posts: 914

Likes: 72

Golden Child Online Content

Senior Member

Golden Child

Senior Member

Joined: Feb 2014

Posts: 914

Likes: 72

If you'd like to take a look:

https://github.com/goldnchild/mame/tree/adam_printer_daisywheel

I made the javascript pass the size and origin of the characters in pixels 0,1,2,3.

If you change the width and height from 1920x1080 to 600x350 the png file is 55kb instead of 100kb.

Code

// Run the following code in a web browser to build the typesheet and right click on it and save the file as artwork/adam_printer.png

<canvas id="canvas" width="600" height="350"></canvas>

<script>
const canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

size = 50
ctx.font = ' '+size+'px Courier New';

ctx.fillStyle = "white";
ctx.fillStyle = "#FFFFFE";  // #FFFFFF does not work for transpen
ctx.fillRect(0,0,1920,1080);  // need to make background white

ctx.fillStyle="black";

// cent = 00a2
// not = 00ac
for (i=32;i<128;i++)
{

    str = String.fromCharCode(i)

    if (i==32) str = "¢"
    if (i==127) str = "¬"

    textMetrics = ctx.measureText(str);
    width = textMetrics['actualBoundingBoxRight'] - textMetrics['actualBoundingBoxLeft']

    hsize = 34
    vsize = size

    x0 = 35
    y0 = 14

    x1 = (Math.floor((i-32) % 16) ) * hsize + x0
    x2 = x1 + hsize
    y1 = (Math.floor((i-32) / 16) ) * vsize + y0
    y2 = y1 + vsize

    ctx.fillText(
        str,
        x1 - width / 2 + hsize / 2,
        y1 + vsize - 15);

    drawredlines = false
    if (drawredlines)
    {
        ctx.strokeStyle = 'red';
        ctx.beginPath();
        ctx.moveTo( x1, y1 ); ctx.lineTo( x1, y2 ); ctx.lineTo( x2, y2 ); ctx.lineTo( x2, y1 ); ctx.lineTo( x1, y1 );
        ctx.stroke();
}
}

function fillstylepad(x)
{
    num = "000000" + x.toString(16); num = num.slice(num.length-6, num.length);
    ctx.fillStyle="#"+num;
}

// pass the origin in pixels 0 and 1
ctx.fillStyle = fillstylepad(x0)
ctx.fillRect(0,0,1,1)
ctx.fillStyle = fillstylepad(y0)
ctx.fillRect(1,0,1,1)
// pass the size in pixels 2 and 3
ctx.fillStyle = fillstylepad(hsize)
ctx.fillRect(2,0,1,1)
ctx.fillStyle = fillstylepad(vsize)
ctx.fillRect(3,0,1,1)

</script>

Re: Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer Golden Child #121876 01/18/23 12:47 AM
Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72 G Golden Child OP Senior Member
OP Golden Child Senior Member G Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72	I wanted to see if I could make a typewriter driver do something with a daisywheel, and managed to find a driver on github for a brother word processor: It needed converting to more recent mame, and I was able to get it to do something: The daisywheel for brother printers is different from the Diablo wheel. I was having some trouble with unicode characters in the string, I ended up just replacing them with blanks for now. That makes any unicode symbol come up as a cent symbol. Code const std::string wheelstr("M:W;NIU(H)K+XZPSLTAY&VB=EF-C\"D?GJO_Q'R²[°]!@³§¥<±>#¼¶½$9087654231%/wjxqzydvkugfbnphlmtcoiasre.,"); const char wheelchars2 = "M:W;NIU(H)K+X*ZPSLTAY&VB=EF-C\"D?GJO_Q'R [ ]!@ < ># $9087654231%/wjxqzydvkugfbnphlmtcoiasre.,"; It's not perfect, and it runs strangely slow for some reason. I still see the Check printer message upon trying to enter the Word Processor. But it's cool to see it work a little.
	2 members like this: robcfg, Duke

Re: Coleco Adam Daisywheel Printer Golden Child #121878 01/21/23 05:52 PM
Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72 G Golden Child OP Senior Member
OP Golden Child Senior Member G Joined: Feb 2014 Posts: 914 Likes: 72	Not really related to daisywheel printing, but I thought I'd take a look at the spectrum zx printer and managed to get it to do something:
	2 members like this: ICEknight, robcfg

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