[tlug] "Mechanics..."

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

Computers tend to be thought of as electronic devices, and that they 
are, but there is still a fair bit of mechanics to them.

Printer.  I'm on printer number three (not counting a fourth printer 
(color ink-jet) that is used once a year for New Year's cards) and this 
third printer is experiencing the same problem that took down printers 
one and two - namely nearly always grabbing a handful of paper instead 
of just one page and then jamming.  The first printer (an HP) was an 
ink-jet printer, so I was happy to upgrade to a B&W laser printer (also 
HP) - well... happy to upgrade, but not very happy about having to do so 
only one year after buying the first machine.  Anyway, the second 
machine had the paper feed arranged at an angle, with gravity helping to 
push the paper into the machine, so when it started grabbing bunches of 
paper, I figured it was at least partly due to the gravity aspect, but 
now that my latest B&W laser printer (an Epson this time) is doing the 
same thing with it's purely horizontal paper feed, I'm looking for some 
other cause.

One interesting side note about the HP laser printer is that the first 
toner cartridge I changed was interesting to break apart (shortly before 
the machine went bad) to see how it was put together and what parts were 
within the black plastic casing.  I wrote about that experience at the 
time - in 1999 - as follows:


99/08/17  Nishi-Shinjuku
"More Like a Printing Press!"

I changed the toner cartridge in my Hewlett Packard 6L LaserJet printer 
on Saturday, and yesterday I got to thinking about what was inside the 
"cartridge", so after removing the only two screws I could find on it, I 
half opened... and then fully broke it open and took it apart.  Inside, 
other than prodigious amounts of left-over toner power (don't try this 
inside!), there were three rollers, the largest being the lightest, 
about one inch in diameter and coated with... something that is a very 
nice greenish turquoise color.  Another (smaller diameter) roller is 
quite heavy, and is a magnet (it sticks to the refrigerator...).  I was 
contemplating how to get the third roller out, but as I turned the 
cartridge one way and the other, piles of toner began puffing out here 
and there, so I gave up on that and was about to put it in a plastic bag 
when a gust of wind blew toner all over me....  Fast loosing enthusiasm 
for further exploration, I hurriedly stuffed the main cartridge in the 
plastic bag I had, and began to clean up the toner that had spilled over 
the edges of the paper I had laid out (I was at least rudimentarily 
prepared for toner leaks).  Happily, the mess wasn't actually too 
difficult to clean up.  The toner brushed off of my clothes, and the 
toner on the concrete of the balcony cleaned up with wet paper towels 
fairly easily.

It was a mess, but I'm glad I went to the trouble.  The setup within the 
cartridge looks like that of an offset printing press; more complicated 
than I had imagined.  The general reliability of modern machinery 
requires little thinking about the inner workings of it, but when you 
can see the technology, the way you can with the mechanical gears and 
rollers in a printing press, you have more respect for the complexity of 
it.  The trouble with our very complex computers is that the complex 
circuitry of computer chips is virtually invisible, and thus less 
appreciated.  I suppose that instead of getting bent out of shape too 
much when our technology doesn't work, we should appreciate it when it 
does...


Back to the cause of the paper feed going bad... the only thing that 
comes to mind is the air... I once bought some old enlarging equipment 
from a guy who used to live in Los Angeles, California, and he claimed 
that the rubber parts were in bad condition due to the polluted air in 
LA (we were up in Northern California at the time of the conversation).  
Since the rubber feed rollers on the old machines that I've broken down 
have had a damaged surface (hard to explain exactly, the surface looks 
slightly different and isn't as smooth as it was when the machines were 
new), I have to wonder if that could be cause rubber degenerating faster 
than it should.

In any case, there is still a way to use my Epson LP-900 - I put in 
about ten sheets at a time, and then when I print something, I lightly 
rest a finger on the edge of the paper sitting in the feed tray, and 
just after the first page is pulled in (with several pages below it 
pulled in slightly (a half centimeter or so - further in than they 
should be), I forcibly pull the paper out and realign it before it gets 
sucked into the machine as one bunch.  With each sheet of paper printed, 
I repeat that.  It's not something I should have to do, and I never had 
to when the machine was new, but it beats (for now anyway) having to buy 
a new printer and for the time being - when operated that way - it 
almost never jams.


Even Plugs?!

I've added a couple of internal bits to one of my computers, requiring 
internal DC power connections, so I solved the lack of internal extra 
plugs by buying an adaptor that plugs in between the power supply and 
the hard drive.  It worked fine, with the caveat that the female side of 
the plugs are tighter and the male-side pins seem to be of a larger 
diameter than the originals.  Not a big deal, as it's still possible to 
plug them in and even (with more effort) to unplug them.  All fine and 
good, but today I tried to plug in an accessory adaptor cable for yet 
another device that needs internal DC power (a USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394 
board), but the new plug wouldn't go into the adaptor cable I put in 
previously, and it wouldn't connect!  I tried to force it, but it just 
wasn't going in, so I finally rearranged things so the two new cables 
didn't have to be connected with each other, but even then, the first 
attempt at connecting an old plug to one of the new female connections 
pushed the pins out of the plug case!  I was able to shove them back in 
and (supporting the wires in back this time) get all four of the pins 
plugged in that way... but I got into a slightly stormy frame of mind at 
one point.  Just plugging in a cable shouldn't require that much effort!

All of that said, I should add that getting into the old OptiPlex 
computer was a breeze, and getting the new board plugged in only 
required bending the metal end piece back slightly so the board would 
line up correctly with the slot it needed to plug into.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/