From: drg@biomath.mda.uth.tmc.edu (David Gutierrez)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: TI microLaser printer
Date: 14 Oct 1992 17:25:37 GMT
Organization: Univ. Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

In article <1992Oct13.211429.24430@tc.cornell.edu> eacj@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU
(Julian Vrieslander) writes:
>If any of you microLaser owners have any other advice or comments to share
>about these machines, I would appreciate such info.  Right now, I am trying
>to decide between the Apple PLW NTR and the microLaser Turbo.  The magazine
>tests all report that the TI printer is about twice as fast, but some folks
>have advised me that Apple's machine is built better, is a lot quieter, and
>produces slightly cleaner images.  My best prices for the two printers are
>just about the same. 

I have a PLW NTR at home. I also have a microLaser Turbo on the floor next to
me - I've just spent a couple of weeks trying to get it to work. (The delays
were mostly caused by telephone tag, though, and blame for them goes to the
vendor, MacCenter.)

The microLaser did not work when it came out of the box - it couldn't pass its
self-test. The problem with the TI was that the thing is a print engine with a
retarded motherboard that includes connectors for various options. The options
I bought were AppleTalk and the Turbo upgrade board, which gives you
PostScript. In the end, it turned out that the Turbo daughterboard was not
properly seated in the socket by the techs at MacCenter.

Once the printer would pass its startup self-test, I had to make it think it
was a Mac printer. It wanted to be a parallel HPGL printer. There are some
buttons on the front which you must use to navigate through a bunch of setup
menus to find the options you want to change. The documentation is not of much
help, since it's for some other microLaser models with different menu
structures.

The first pages printed were incredibly smudged and streaky. Perusal of the
manual led me to try cleaning the corona wires, although I was sure (from the
extreme nature of the print quality defects) that the drum was bad and that
some parts of the paper path were grinding toner into the paper. TI provides a
cleaning tool for the wires, as well as some ambiguous pictures showing you how
to use it. Amazingly, cleaning the wires removed most of the print defects
except for the streaks. Inspection showed that the cleaning pad was hopelessly
soiled from the few copies that had already been printed. I replaced it with
one from the spare toner cartridge I ordered and it cleaned up the streaks, but
now I'm short one cleaning pad.

Now that I have it configured and cleaned, it works OK. I haven't tried
printing anything complex on it, so I can't say anything about speed.

The drum and comsumables are three seperate items that are all inserted next to
each other. First you insert the drum, then the developer cartridge, then the
toner box. The toner box is hinged onto the developer cartridge and then swung
up. The entire top of the box is open - I see great potential for toner spills.
A substantial portion of the photoconductor in the drum assembly is exposed -
when I was cleaning the corona wires, I could only use one hand. The toner,
developer and drum must be removed to clean one of the corona wires. The manual
warned me to be careful how I put down the toner/developer assembly so that the
toner would not spill. It also advised me to keep the drum in one hand while I
cleaned the wire, so that the photoconducting surface of the drum would not
touch anything else.

Now let me tell you about my PLW NTR. I installed the toner cartridge, which
includes the drum and all consumables, then I turned the printer on. It worked.

Buy the PLW NTR. (But if you do buy the TI, here's some advice for when you're
filling out the registration card - the serial number is *inside* the printer.)

David Gutierrez
drg@biomath.mda.uth.tmc.edu

"Only fools are positive." - Moe Howard