Talk:Diablo 630

message: The Printer Works published a catalog in the 1980's that covered the entire Diablo line with parts and services they had available.
Of special interest was the extensive history of the printers and interesting trivia about the various models and options. I recall that the catalog said the first Diablo HyType was developed by Singer (yes, the sewing machine company) and was originally going to be called Hyper Typer, which was quickly shortened to HyType. The HyType team all quit Singer to continue development on the new printer.
Most of the original HyType and many of the HyType II printers used an external power supply with a large transformer that resided in a wheeled, metal cabinet, with the printer mechanisim semi-recessed into the top. IIRC, all of the 630 series had an internal power supply.
Many different expansion boards were available for Diablo printers, especially the 630 line. Some models of the 630 had enough expansion slots and options that they could be as powerful as a small computer. One model incorporated a keyboard into an extended "nose" on its housing.
The largest 630 was a massive dual carriage model with two seperately driven platens and carriages.
Not all of the 630 series was capable of using metal print wheels. Since the metal wheels were heavier than the plastic ones, a "long block" motor with a longer armature had to be installed (available as an upgrade on some models). Some models with the smaller motor could be set to a slower print speed to use the metal wheels.
An innovation of the 630 was the notched hammer that "captured" a corresponding rib on the backs of the character petals. This helped to improve the print speed by reducing the amount of settling time needed after rotating the wheel into position.
The 630 even had a bit of "excitement" when a batch of control boards were produced using chips made in a factory with poor climate control. A little moisture was captured inside the chips' epoxy coating and at some later time they would short out, sending uncontrolled power to every motor and the print solenoid. The result was a spray of petals ripped from the spinning daisy wheel as the printer attempted to slam the carriage through the side of its housing.
It was either the final series of 630, or a short lived successor, that had a new system of automatically detecting which print wheel was installed. It wasn't compatable with HyType or 630 wheels and it didn't use the notched hammer system due to improvements in the wheel motor and other control systems that reduced vibrations.
That's just what I remember from that catalog, which I ordered when I was looking for replacement ribbons for the Xerox branded Diablo 630 I had with a Xerox 820-II CP/M computer back in the early 1990's.
Here's a link to an old review of the Diablo 630. http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n9/37_The_Diablo_630.php
There was also a 40 CPS version of this printer cleverly named the 640. I bought one bundled with a Xerox 820 II in the early 80's, and it was truly a beast. It had a diagnostic test that would start by printing a character in the center of the page, then print another at center +1, a third at -1, then +2 and -2 until it reached the extreme ends of the carriage. By that time, whatever table you had it sitting on was rocking back and forth as the carriage swung from side to side. It was the most entertaining printer I've ever owned. :)Yasgur 06:20, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Remembering the Diablo 630