(Topic ID: 110572)
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3 months later
I know. I had *several* chances to buy them back in the '90s for $158 each.. that's what they were going for back then. Never thought I'd be interested in one, of course. D'oh. 
Quoted from johnwartjr:I bought 3 of them at the IPB sale at 175 each. I got the left over 'parts' after the 3 kits, and was able to put together a 4th.
I sent the schematics to someone who thought they might be able to reproduce them.. but nothing ever came to fruition.
Seriously? I missed this? Crap..!
Quoted from underlord:I'm assuming you guys are sticklers for B/W options/toys as this is a piece of history?
Not understanding what else it's good for? Very cool to have though.
In this case, yes. My TZ (sample) was shipped with one from the factory for some reason - when it arrived at our location, my district manager removed it. Now I'd like to put one back just for completeness, and to toy with. Was thinking of getting a DigiPort and connecting it up to my home network, and creating a small service on my server to try and poll the game regularly and record results, etc.
On later games (WPC-95) installing it was really simple - populate a couple missing parts on the A\V board and the CDI board, and you're set! I did this to one of the CVs that I owned, so somewhere in GA or CO there is a CV with a printer DB9 in it. Probably hasn't been used since I sold the game. 
(And yes, because I like the "toys", I'm currently decoding how the Ticket Expansion board works..)
Quoted from johnwartjr:I specifically asked James if he had any printer kits, and he didn't think so.. then he found them a couple days later and dropped me a line.
Many prototype games used them, and used them to dump audits to printers or laptops using terminal emulation software. Yet they always seem to be gone by the time the protos get in my hands.. so I like to add them back.
I'm getting ready to route a Flintstones and was kinda thinking it would be neat to dump the audits on it when I get to the 'location', but that's purely for novelty purposes.
I didn't realize ALL protos came with them, as our WCS early sample we got for testing did NOT. (Only the TZ, which is now in my hands.)
The board dosen't look that difficult to reproduce, and I've been tempted, but haven't had the time to sit down and go over it completely.
5 years later
Maybe write to an SD card?
Either way, I'd be in. Especially if it's extensible. (i.e. ZigBee, even. 
)
Quoted from Zitt:So the high scores are not printed? or am I just not seeing them?
Your board has everything needed to "print"? no extra boards or hardware needed (other than serial terminal)?
You can Initiate one of two ways:
1. With the game in Attract Mode, send a Carriage Return.
2. In the Test Menu, select a report to print.
Quoted from Pbpins:So either with your new board or the orginal, his do you actually initiate the print from the service menu to be dumped to the printer?
No - the printer feature was for operators, and only printed out Bookeeping information.
Quoted from scott451:Hmm. How do you initiate a printout in attract mode when using a parallel printer?
It's been a while since I messed with this and a parallell printer. If it works at all, you assert the SELECT line. (Pin 13.) However, I do not remember if the code was in there to properly handle that.
Edit to add: This is with the ORIGINAL board - I can not speak for @scott451's board handles that.
Quoted from Markharris2000:SOunds like your new board is made to attach to a PC/MAC. Initiating a printout is just a matter of sending a CR, easy to do in TERMINAL, correct? In response to CR, it dumps the screens you show, correct?
And yes - as far as the WPC side is concerned, it accepts a CR, and outputs the report. No menu, no interactive anything. Be sure to start your terminal's logging before sending the carriage retrun.
Quoted from scott451:OK I've switched to the serial interface of my board. I can successfully print from the printer menu. But I can't seem to initiate a print during attract mode by pressing <CR> in the terminal. Can someone run a couple of tests for me?
printer settings:
serial, 9600, pause every page=no, dtr=ignore, auto-print=all data,
When you press enter on the terminal during attract, when does the data start printing?
Thanks,
-Scott
I'll plug the OEM board up sometime this weekend (have to pull my game out to access backbox, which mean smoving other games around), and I'll connect it up.
Quoted from wiredoug:heres a real one i saw? think its the same? https://www.pinballspareparts.com.au/5768-12704-06.html
That a real one. It's missing the plug-in board and the wiring, but that has the main guts, yes.
Quoted from scott451:I'm testing in a TZ running 9.4H. I assume you have the same?
It's all I run, yeah.
2 months later
Quoted from scott451:You get one for free because you loaned me your original WPC printer board!
Eh, I'll still buy one from you. Did great work!
4 months later
1 month later
Got my board while I was out of town. Plugged it in, set it up last night. Ran into three issues, one being mine -
First, because the ribbon cable socket is offset, my WPC ribbon cable (which I made myself) was a LOT tighter between sound baord and display board. It fit, but needed coazing.
Second, had to reference the schematics for a good +5v tie-in point. I picked one side of the +5v inductor.
Finally, had to install the FTDI drivers. (This is a new laptop for me, and I had not previously installed them.)
For the drivers, unless you know what you're doing, I recommend downloading the installer (https://www.ftdichip.com/old2020/Drivers/CDM/CDM21228_Setup.zip), installing them, and THEN plugging the board into your laptop.
This is the printout, caught by TeraTerm. Note that my stats are a little messed up, due to having done some work in a previously released 9.4H beta code.
https://pastebin.com/raw/CVedGu5t
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