Hjalfi opens a Canon TypeStar 4 thermal typewriter
Channel: Poking Technology
Date: 2019-05-05

In which yr hmbl svt examines a very nice keyboard with a typewriter wrapped around it which he picked up at the local junk shop, and in the process learns that he should really check more often to make sure the hardware is actually centred under the camera. Sorry about that.

(See also the sequel video! http://youtube.com/watch?v=hfHxNpqXLvg)

This is a Canon TypeStar 4 portable typewriter, which a dot-matrix thermal print head. It'll print onto thermal paper or ordinary paper, with a special ribbon. It's got two fonts, several different print styles, 2kB of RAM and a really nice keyboard.

The keyboard teardown I mention in the video can be found on Deskthority here: https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=19859&start= It's got some excellent pictures.

I reckon this would not be a difficult conversion job as a PC keyboard. The trickiest bit would be finding a way to connect the microcontroller which didn't involve 30 discrete wires...