On Wednesday, December 6th, 1995 - Gil Parrish wrote:
 
 RR>  I don't recall having ever seen any DIP switches in my Atari 825.
 
GP> It is possible, of course, that early versions of the 825 did not 
GP> have the switches, and only the later ones did; that would even help 
GP> explain why they are not covered in the manual (perhaps they were 
 
What color is the plastic case on your Atari 825?
 
 RR> was almost glad when my 825 finally stopped working.  I had to repair 
 RR> it once a month (replacing the pico fuse array on the print-head 
 RR> driver buffer board).
 
GP> OK, you're saying your printer finally died of something OTHER than 
 
Yes.  It died and totally froze up the way you describe yours.
 
GP> the pico fuse array blowing?  (Er, just what IS a "pico fuse array"??)
 
It is a row of pico fuses.  Pico fuses are very small fuses shaped like
little diodes.  They look like green zener diodes, but they're not,
they're fuses.  They are soldered in, and are not readily identifiable
as fuses unless you remove one and take it to a guy at an electronics
store who knows his stuff.
 
In my 825, there is a pico fuse corresponding to each pin.  When a pico
fuse blows, one pin on the print head stops firing.  I think at most 3
would blow out at the same time.  Finally, my 825 died and the paper
advance would not respond and the print head would not move.
 
GP> Did you try anything in particular to bring it back to life, or 
GP> simply start the celebration?
 
I took it apart and looked around at it, couldn't see anything in
particular.  I mourned it for a few minutes then ordered a Panasonic
KXP-1080i for around $180, which came down to about $119 shortly after I 
bought mine.  Yes, I'd say that was a good celebration.  :-)  Good
riddance to than damn cross-dressing Centronics 737!   :-)
 
--- RiBBS v2.10        

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