Gorilla Banana
“If I told you that it was possible to get 100 ribbons for your printer for the price of one, would you be interested?
As most of you, I have been frustrated with the cost and availability of ribbons. The way my printer runs, I have been known to use up more than a ribbon a week. Sometimes I run them until the print is barely legible.
I began to think that spending $7.95 on a ribbon that is only about 24″ long, was a real waste of money. Consequently, I began to experiment with alternative possibilities.
The outcome of my experimentation, is a simple, fast way to re-ink the fabric. And, since each re-inking takes only about four drops of ink, one bottle of ink can certainly re-ink more than 100 ribbons. However, the ink I used is not a standard office supply item that one can find at the corner store, but a special ink designed only for inking ribbons.
In order to buy the ink at a reasonable price, one was required to buy gallon lots…hardly the thing most of us want to do.
After discussing my idea with Rod Gowen of RMG Enterprises (1419 1/2 7th St., Oregon City, OR 97045), Rod agreed to package a kit containing enough ink to do at least 100 ribbons, applicator swabs, plastic “ageing bags”, and instructions for $7.95 plus $2.00 shipping (the price of one store-bought ribbon).
If you decide to try one of these kits, remeber that there are some tricks to getting the re-inking to work properly and evenly. So follow the instructions to the letter.
I’m sure that if you own a Gorilla Banana or clone, you will find this kit to be the bargain of the year.”
Vincent Lyon
GE TXP-1000
“I recently solved the code for using the GE 3-8100A (TXP1000) Letter Quality Printer with the AERCO printer interface. You use the pr-3 codes as described in the instructions, then do the POKES required to use RAND USER 64844 to COPY as the instructions suggest, then use the following POKE’s, and it will work great:
POKE 64785,22 (Copy function Variable Line Spacing) POKE 64836,24 (Printer Reset)
I have also modified ZPRINT (printer utility software from Zebra Systems, Inc.) for this printer. the changes are as follows:
use Epson Rx/Fx code (#5) POKE 64601,24 (Printer Reset) POKE 64617,51 (Variable Line Spacing for wide screen POKE 64618,16 copy) POKE 64625,51 (Variable Line Spacing for regular copy) POKE 64626,22 POKE 64633,68 (Horizontal Tab for regular copy 17 is the POKE 64634,17 left margin so change as you desire) POKE 64636,9
Also of interest, you can POKE 64801,76 and get a half-width regular screen copy. This is normally 75–75=480 bit graphics mode and 76=960 bit graphics mode.”
Lloyd C. Bowen Jr