1st June 1999First I must apologise for the confusion that has been caused with my submissions. I have unfortunately had some trouble with my printer and, if I had a lot to say to the editor, I had been putting the letter on the disk as a file labelled '+readme'; it was being filed wrongly! A friend has now got the printer working correctly again though and I hope the confusion will clear up.
I had also sent two submission disks. The first was sent in January but the files were not published on EUG #42. I send the second in April and told the editor he had not published the previous ones. Also my letters were not published as I intended. I have therefore put the points I made in the two letters into this one:
Regarding the problems Alan Richardson was having with the perforation skip, I wrote some time ago that this depends on the two variables in line 30 of the "PRINT" program (lns and skplns), which are set at 60 lines to print and 12 lines to skip. If these do not suit your printer and its paper, they can be easily changed and the program then re-SAVEd on your EUG disk. I have added a paragraph that explains all this at the end of the information section repeated on all disks.
I was very interested in Dominic Ford's ADVANCED CAD+ in the last EUG and have briefly tried it out. However, I found that I could not load his two files, as each time I selected OPEN, I got the report "Fatal error" and the program would not run until I initialised it again. One comment I might make is that the capacitor is shown horizontally and there is no means of rotating it as in my CAD+. Presumably, you would need to add another one to the menu in a vertical position. An electrolytic capacitor could need four positions as it polarised. This may take up too much memory and as yet we have no instructions on how this could be done.
Regarding Mick Comley's mention that I could get parts from Maplin to make up a ribbon cable, I obtained their latest catalogue and found a ready-made ribbon cable that, although rather short, would suit. However the one I received didn't seem to work and my heavy-handed approach eventually resulted in it being pulled apart! I tried to repair my spare ribbon but was unsuccessful. However, Robert Sprowson has come to my aid and repaired the ribbon cable for me. Now I can use my dual drives fully again.
Incidentally, members often misspell my name. There is no 'a' in the surname. I often jokingly tell people that I'm not the valuable sort! No offence is taken though as I'm used to having it misspelled!
Ron Goad suggested in issues of EUG #5 and #6 that printer ribbons could be re-inked. One of his articles mentioned the use of a spray which was available and the other the use of stamp pad ink. Both methods required the top of the cartridge to be taken off carefully so the ribbon was not disturbed. Then it seems the ribbon can be re-charged either by spraying it or dropping the ink drop-by-drop in different places so as to get it in as evenly as possible. The ribbon should then be left to dry out for at least 24 hours before use.
I have not tried the spray but I think it could be rather messy and I am not sure if it is still available. I have tried the second method but it is very difficult to get the ink spread evenly enough for a satisfactory result (though it did work to some extent)! I eventually got three ribbon cartridges for my printer, a Seikosha SP1900+, from a shop called "Ribbons & Things" for about £8. They advertise in MicroMart and their address is First Floor, 19 Market Hill, Buckingham MK18 1JX.
I have been thinking it is high time I upgraded to a PC so I can be on line. In the meantime, I have purchased some helpful books and they really make me want to get going! I have written some reviews of them as I think they may be beneficial to members.
Richard Dimond
Richard's book reviews appear on the "Reviews Menu" on this disk.
Gus Donnachaidh, EUG #43
