I have two Diconix 150plus inkjet printers – this page is mostly intended as an “aide-memoire” for myself, but may be useful to other people too!
My first was purchased for £1 from a camera shop bargain bin. The second cost around £30 from an online auction and included a full set of manuals and a printer cable.
These printers can feed single sheets (manually), or fan-fold (aka continuous, tractor feed or listing) paper and forms. As this is an inkjet printer, multi-part carbon- or carbonless forms will not work!
The printer uses a HP Thinkjet engine. HP Thinkjet or Quietjet cartridges should work fine in the 150 and 150 Plus.
| HP code | Ink colour |
|---|---|
| 51604A | Black |
| 51605B | Blue (may be discontinued) |
| 51605R | Red |
A rectangular paper blotter is included with the cartridge: this needs to be installed in the three-pronged holder inside the printer on the left side.
The 150plus needs a 9V DC, 2 amp, centre-negative power supply. The plug is a 2.1mm coaxial DC barrel jack.
Five C-size rechargeable (NiCd or NiMh) batteries fit inside the platen.
The printer will not charge the batteries unless instructed to – the 'quick guide' sticker on the base of the printer explains how to do this. It's covered in more detail in the Fast Track Guide which comes with the printer.
The 150 Plus can emulate either the Epson FX-80 or the IBM ProPrinter, depending on the DIP switch settings.
| Switch | Function | On (up) | Off (down) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CR / CR+LF | CR plus LF | CR only |
| 2 | Page length | 12 inches (30.5cm) | 11 inches (28cm) |
| 3 | Compatibility mode | IBM ProPrinter | Epson FX |
| 4 | Perforation skip (Epson mode only) | 1-inch skip | No skip |
| IBM character set (IBM mode only) | Set 2 | Set 1 | |
| 5 | Character set | See below | |
| 6 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 8 | |||
| 9 | Characters per Inch / Graphics Mode | 10 cpi (expanded) | 12 cpi (normal) |
| 10 | Manufacturing use only – leave switched off | ||
Character sets:
| Country | SW5 | SW6 | SW7 | SW8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | off | off | off | off |
| France | ON | off | off | off |
| Germany | off | ON | off | off |
| England | ON | ON | off | off |
| Denmark 1 | off | off | ON | off |
| Sweden | ON | off | ON | off |
| Italy | off | ON | ON | off |
| Spain 1 | ON | ON | ON | off |
| Japan | off | off | off | ON |
| Norway | ON | off | off | ON |
| Denmark 2 | off | ON | off | ON |
| Spain 2 | ON | ON | off | ON |
| Latin America | off | off | ON | ON |
| Denmark/Norway | ON | off | ON | ON |
| reserved | off | ON | ON | ON |
| ON | ON | ON | ON |
From http://vintagecomputer.net/kodak/diconix-150/di150.pdf
| Switch | Function | On (up) | Off (down) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CR | CR only | CR + LF |
| 2 | LF | CR + LF | LF only |
| 3 | Perforation skip | No skip | 1-inch skip |
| 4 | Page length | 11 inch | 12 inch |
| 5 | Font | Draft | NLQ |
| 6 | Emulation mode | IBM ProPrinter | Epson FX |
| 7 | Character set – see below | ||
| 8 | Character set – see below | ||
| 9 | Character set – see below | ||
| 10 | Not used | ||
Character sets:
| Country | SW7 | SW8 | SW9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | off | off | off |
| France | ON | off | off |
| Germany | off | ON | off |
| England | ON | ON | off |
| Denmark | off | off | ON |
| Sweden | ON | off | ON |
| Italy | off | ON | ON |
| Spain | ON | ON | ON |