I was recently donated a printer, this is a Commodore MPS 803 printer and was the official printer for the Vic 20 and 64, the user manual shows a line drawing of a Vic 20 in the connection diagram, but it works with all the 8 bit Commodore home computers. Later there was a charcoal black version to match the C16 and Plus 4 computers, but it was the same printer with the same model number. In it's day it was regarded as a slow printer and it did not come with the tractor feed assembly which was an optional extra
At the moment I have no cable to connect to a computer, so I am unable to test it, it does however power on and move the print head
Looking at the printer from the top, there is the paper feed wheel, a lever to release the paper for positioning, a paper advance button (also used for self diagnostic testing) and a red LED. Through the window you can see the dot matrix print head
Not much on the front
The rear of the unit has the fixed power lead, the model label with serial number, two option switches and two serial ports
The left switch selects which device number the printer appears as to the host computer, either 4 or 5, and the right switch selects the line feed amount, either 1/6 or 1/8 of an inch.
The two serial ports can be used for daisy-chaining to another printer or disk drive
On the right hand side is the power switch, notice how there is a sticker and embossing to indicate on or off
With the top cover removed, you have access to the ribbon and print head, the ribbon case is quite small and you have to feed the ribbon around the removable blue guide on the right of the machine
A close up of the paper advance button and LED with and without the cover fitted
A close up of the ink ribbon case and print head
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