NLQ401

The NLQ401 is a Near Letter Quality printer from Schneider, for use with German Schneider CPC computers. The SFT401 tractor feed add-on was sold separately. Both NLQ401 and SFT401 were advertised as official Schneider expansions on the back of the german CPC6128 users manual.

Technical

The NLQ401 PCB can be optionally fitted with RS232 interface (25pin DSUB connector, and 75188/75189 voltage converters, this might also require a different firmware version).

Manuals

• User Manual...
• NLQ401 Service Manual (German)
• uPD7811G Datasheet (8bit CPU with 4096 byte ROM, 256 byte RAM, 44 I/O lines)

ROM Images

• NLQ401 ROM Image (this is only the 16K EPROM image, not including the additional 4K ROM which is located inside of the CPU)

Pictures

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  NLQ401 set

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  NLQ401 printer

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  NLQ401 printer

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  NLQ401 bottom

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  NLQ401 PCB Top

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  NLQ401 PCB Bottom

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  NLQ401 and SFT401

Related Printers

The plaque, saying Centronics Data Computer Corp., Model No. 3101, at the bottom of the NLQ401 printer reveals that the hardware wasn't produced by Schneider themselves. Nearly identical hardware was also distributed by other companies, like the Brother M1009.

Reportedly, the Schneider NLQ 401 is same as Centronics GLP 500 and Brother M1009 (but, see below for extra info concerning missing near-letter quality support on Brother M1009).

The NLQ 401 does also resemble the Commodore MPS-803 (at least externally).

Commodore MPS-803

Commodore printer, apparently from the same manufacturer, and probably containing more or less the same hardware. Known differences are: MPS-803 uses a CBM-style serial port (no centronics port). And control codes and character set in BIOS may differ from the Amstrad version, too. (other picture)

The MPS-803 uses the same 9-pin head as the NLQ401, but reportedly it has only 8-pins are installed, more confusingly, the MPS-803 uses only 7-pins for both Text and Graphics printing (producing a similar picture as the older MPS-801/DMP1).

• Commodore MPS-803 Printer Users Guide.pdf

Brother M1009

Info from Michael Wessel:

I was very happy when I could acquire a brand new, very inexpensive 9-pin dot matrix printer for only 200,- DM. The Brother M1009 was a discontinued model. The only difference to the official 'CPC printer' which was sold by Schneider, the NLQ401, was a different case color, different label, and a software Eprom which enabled the NLQ 401 to print in Near Letter Quality which was something the M1009 couldn't do.

Robotron 6313

The east-german Robotron 6313 consists of different hardware, but it supports a NLQ401 software compatible mode which can be activated via DIP switches.

Weblinks

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centronics - wikipedia on Centronics Data Computer Corporation (includes info about their GLP "Great Little Printer" series)