Amstrad User Group

Nederlandstalig

Amstrad Printers

Printers made by Amstrad are less common in The Netherlands. You will be able to find the Schneider labeled ones, though. The one in the photograph here is an Amstrad-one - I also have a DMP-3000 bearing the Schneider label but I will not present it here.

This printer is a 9-pin dot matrix printer with a design that Amstrad maintained for quite a while. The printer performs 105 cps (normal print) and although the resolution has not been specified in the manual, I guess this is 270 dpi. The printer has a parallel port of the Centronics standard type.

The printer can handle carbon copies and is excellent for printing with continuous stationery (fanfold). The bottom features foldable legs allowing the DMP to be set up as a kind of table with plenty of space below for the continuous stationery. The photograph to the left displays the printer with the legs folded, the right picture shows the printer on it's legs.

I did not fit the ink ribbon in either of the two photographs and displayed it way below. Normally you would fit the ribbon on the bridge, right behind the slope of the front.

The control panel has been put on the right side and contains controls for on/off-line, paper feed and line feed.

The back of the printer. On the right side the Centronics parallel port, next to it is a series of dip switches. The functions of these dip switches are:

• USA DS1-1 ON, DS1-2 ON, DS1-3 ON
• France DS1-1 OFF, DS1-2 ON, DS1-3 ON
• Germany DS1-1 ON, DS1-2 OFF, DS1-3 ON
• UK DS1-1 OFF, DS1-2 OFF, DS1-3 ON
• Danmark DS1-1 ON, DS1-2 ON, DS1-3 OFF
• Sweden DS1-1 OFF, DS1-2 ON, DS1-3 OFF
• Italy DS1-1 ON, DS1-2 OFF, DS1-3 OFF
• Spain DS1-1 OFF, DS1-2 OFF, DS1-3 OFF

• Epson FX DS1-7 OFF, DS1-8 OFF
• Epson FX-NLQ DS1-7 ON, DS1-8 OFF
• IBM set 1 DS1-7 OFF, DS1-8 ON
• IBM set 2 DS1-7 ON, DS1-8 ON

• DS1-4 Carriage return CR (OFF) CR+LineFeed (ON)
• DS1-5 Paper out detect OFF / ON
• DS1-6 Page length 11" (OFF) 12" (ON)
• DS2-1 Zero without dash (OFF), zero with dash (ON)
• DS2-2 Feed perforation off (OFF) or on (ON)
• DS2-3 Buffer mode character (OFF) graphics (ON)
• DS2-4 Buffer mode character/graphics (OFF), user-defined (ON)
• DS2-5 Send SLCT-IN signal (OFF) or do not send (ON)
• DS2-6 Beep OFF, ON
• DS2-7 Bold OFF, ON
• DS2-8 Small print OFF, ON
• DS2-9 Not in use
• DS2-10 Not in use

The ribbon of the DMP-series is of a very peculiar design. It is very narrow (in terms of re-inking machines: barely one gate high) and is clearly a derivative from the ink ribbon of a type writer. There are two reels indeed but the ribbon does not unreel: a so-called endless ribbon that, contrary to a type writer does not require to be turned around. The latter would be awkward with a high-speed printer. Because of the fragile construction and the narrow width of the ribbon, this particular type of ribbon is not easy to re-ink.