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Kodak/Diconix portable inkjet printers

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!

Ink cartridges

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.

Power supply

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.

Command compatibility

The 150 Plus can emulate either the Epson FX-80 or the IBM ProPrinter, depending on the DIP switch settings.

DIP switches

Diconix 150 Plus

Source: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/diconix$20150$2B$20dip$20switch/comp.sys.laptops/5o5yNBJzlDU/hynUFXHRvkIJ

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

Diconix 150

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