Apple Dot Matrix Printer Documentation

Apple's documentation for the Apple Dot Matrix Printer: the service Technical Procedures, the 1982 operator's guide and a 1983 brochure. The ImageWriter documentation also applies in part, since Apple describes the ImageWriter as a serial version of the same mechanism.

Technical Procedures

Apple's service manual for the printer, taken from Apple Service Technical Procedures, Apple II/Apple III Archived Products, Volume Two (PN 072-0231, the volume dated January 1989 with a May 1991 contents page). The hosted file is a 68-page extract: the volume's title and contents pages followed by the whole Dot Matrix Printer section. Its own pages carry revision dates from January 1982 to April 1987. It is a scan with a text layer.

Contents

Page numbers are Apple's section page numbers.

• Section 1, Introduction: power on and off, loading and removing paper and the ribbon cartridge (pp. 1.2-1.6), self-test (p. 1.7), configuration switches SW1 and SW2 (pp. 1.8-1.13), periodic maintenance (p. 1.14).
• Section 2, Take-Apart: switch panel (p. 2.3), ribbon wire (p. 2.6), CPU PC board (p. 2.10), dot head and its gap adjustment (pp. 2.14-2.15), carrier wire and its tension (p. 2.16), mechanical assembly (p. 2.26), carrier motor (p. 2.30), transformer (p. 2.32), 5 V transistor assembly (p. 2.34).
• Section 3, Troubleshooting: symptom table (p. 3.2).
• Section 4, Appendix: configuration of the printer with the Apple II, II Plus, IIe and Apple III parallel interface cards (p. 4.3).
• Section 5, Illustrated Parts List: mechanical assemblies, transformer and power switch, CPU card (p. 5.3), transistor assemblies, cable and noise filter (p. 5.5), and a cross-reference of parts shared with the ImageWriter (p. 5.6).

An earlier, shorter Dot Matrix Printer parts list (rev. July and August 1985) is in the Apple binder at Service Support Training Programs LaserWriter Technical Procedures Jan 1985.

Operator's guide (1982)

The Apple Computer Dot Matrix Printer Operator's Guide, © 1982, reorder number A2L0067, is the owner's manual; the scan has 39 PDF pages. It sets out to get the printer running "in about thirty minutes".

• Part 1, The First Step (p. 1); Part 2, What's in a Name? (p. 2), the controls.
• Parts 3 to 6, Ready, Set, Go and The Final Test (pp. 3-17): unpacking, paper, ribbon and the self-test.
• Part 7, The Grand Connection (p. 18): connecting the printer with the DMP Connecting Cable Kit to an Apple II series computer through the Apple II Parallel Interface Card in slot 1, or to an Apple III (p. 23), with BASIC test programs.
• Part 8, Clean-up and Maintenance (p. 30).
• The Apple Dot Matrix Printer Command Set reference card (030-0494-B), with the page formatting, spacing, configuration, character, print head positioning, text and graphics commands.

Brochure (1983)

A four-page Apple sales brochure that presents the printer as the printer for Lisa: bidirectional printing at up to 120 characters per second, high resolution of 160 × 144 dots per inch and normal resolution of 96 × 72, eleven typestyles, single-sheet and fan-fold paper, a drop-in ribbon cartridge and front-panel SEL, LF and T.O.F. controls.

What these documents do not contain

None of them has a schematic or a component-level parts list for the CPU PC board; the Technical Procedures work at module level. Apple's schematic for the ImageWriter main logic board, which is a different board, is on Apple ImageWriter Documentation.

Pages that cite these documents

• Apple Dot Matrix Printer
• Apple ImageWriter General Maintenance
• Apple ImageWriter Troubleshooting Guide

Download: Apple Dot Matrix Printer Technical Procedures.pdf; Apple Dot Matrix Printer Operators Guide 1982.pdf; Apple Dot Matrix Printer Brochure 1983.pdf