I can bring my EPROM programmer to ABUG North - if IanS is happy for the ROMs to be dumped, we may as well do both of them at the same time in case the LBP4 is a different version.I'm interested in ROM dumps from the interface cards if possible? We already have a LBP-4 dump but suspect other versions exist, and the LBP-8 is currently undumped.I have an LBP-4 and an LBP-8 (one came from DaveH and the other from Paul Beverley at ArchiveMag). I have some software, interface cards, some manuals.
Also for anyone buying one of these with the intent of getting them working:
The LBP4 is based on the Canon LX engine, same as the HP Laserjet IIP and IIIP and the Apple Personal LaserWriter NTR.
The LBP8 is based on the Canon CX engine, same as the original HP Laserjet.
Usually they die with a "Service 50" error which means the fuser has gone open-circuit. It's a very easy repair - usually it's just that the thermal fuse has fatigued and failed.
They're interesting in the sense that they were a great way to reduce the cost of entry for laser printers (most of the cost was the CPU and RAM on the PCL/PostScript processor board), but also annoying because you need the LaserDirect version of the printer to make the whole thing work.
Printer cartridges are (shockingly) still available.
And if you're incredibly curious, the spec for the "video" interface port which LaserDirect uses is at http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/canon/prin ... Manual.pdf
Statistics: Posted by philpem — Fri Jan 03, 2025 5:28 pm