Difference between revisions of "Dart Scanner for DMP-Printers"

Revision as of 13:33, 28 March 2010

The DART scanner for DMP printers

A scanner for the Amstrad DMP 2000/3000 printers from Dart Electronics.

Reviews

The Dart Scanner was reviewed in Amstradbladet 1987, Issue 3, page 8 (Danish)

Technical

Uses port FBEFh, the port seems to be read-only.

 Bit2 Carriage Returned/Parked (0=Wait/Head Parked, 1=Scan/Head Moving)
 Bit? Scanned Pixel Color      (0=Black, 1=White)

Scanning is done in single scanlines (one pixels height). The scanning procedure waits while FBEFh.Bit2=0 (which probably indicates that the head is in the left-most position, or that it has just leaved it, or so). The horizontal "dot clock" is implemented as software delays. When scanning a black dot, one or more bits in Port FBEFh become non-zero (not sure which ones; the driver software simply checks "IF Port[FBEFh]<>FFh THEN PLOT pixel").

Observe that the manual includes some patches for usaging the scanning software with different printers.

Cover

• The Dart Scanner Cover
• 

  Back Cover

• 

  Front Cover

Tape

• The Dart Scanner Tape
• 

  The Dart Scanner Tape

Pictures

• The DART scanner
• 

  The scanner attached to a CPC6128 and a DMP2000

• 

  The interface box

• 

  The scanner head

• 

  Interface hand head (A new grey version?)

Manual

Dart Scanner Manual (pdf)

Download

• Dart Scanner Driver (cas)
• Dart Scanner Driver (disk)

Observe that the manual includes some patches for usaging the scanning software with different printers, ie. it may be required to do some small modifications before using the above drivers.

Links

http://cpcrulez.fr/hardware_scannerDART.htm ( You can download the software here )