Retro-Printer Products
Future-Proof Products
With our history of continuing to support computers and equipment from the 1980s, we always look to ensure that our products are future-proof and extend the working life of existing equipment.
We use the same software across all of our Retro-Printer products, which makes it easier to maintain and to roll out new features to everyone. Where custom features are required by customers, we incorporate them into the software, and determine whether they should be available to all users, or just for specific customers, depending on their usefulness. An example of this is where we add new printer emulations, or increase the functionality of the switch on top of the Retro-Printer hardware.
Software updates to the latest version are free of charge, and can be implemented by existing users by downloading a fresh SD card image.
The v4 Retro-Printer Module
Intended Use: Professional Computer Users and Industry
Software Protection: Need the Retro-Printer Module hardware
Release Date: October 2021
The second commercial version of our Retro-Printer Module, this corrects the faults discovered with the earlier v3 Retro-Printer and adds the ability to enable / disable power on pins 13, 18 and 32 of the centronics adaptor in order to extend the range of equipment that this would work with.
The v4 Retro-Printer PCB was also amended to work with the Raspberry Pi Model 3B+ and Raspberry Pi 4 (although it continues to be compatible with earlier models).
The v3 Retro-Printer Module
Intended Use: Home Computer Enthusiasts
Software Protection: Need the Retro-Printer Module hardware
Release Date: January 2019
The first commercial version of our Retro-Printer Module whilst in use some users reported a fault with the wiring of the centronics connector, and so we have to supply this with a metal centronics adaptor which looks out of place in a commercial setting.
It also lacks the ability to enable power on certain pins, which was found to be necessary for a few bits of equipment.
Limited to the Raspberry Pi model 3B or earlier, we can offer this at a lower cost for home computer enthusiasts around the World.
The Serial Port Retro-Printer Module
Intended Use: All Computer Users and Industry
Software Protection: USB Dongle
Release Date: May 2024
Having released the Centronics version of the Retro-Printer, we were asked about creating a version which could capture data over an RS232-C port.
We determined that the simplest way of doing this, would be to use a serial to USB adaptor plugged into a Raspberry Pi and add an option to our exisitng Retro-Printer software to read the data over the serial port (rather than the centronics port). We then successfully trialled this with RS485 and RS422 to USB adaptors.
Making a version which could be used with an older PLC connected to an Epson LX-400 dot matrix printer proved somewhat more problematic as there were no details on the connection but we also managed to solve this (it was a type of current loop connection).
Whilst the Retro-Printer HAT can still be useful to indicate what is going on, or even switch between printer emulations, or serial port/centronics port capture, the HAT is not a requirement and therefore, we added a security dongle to the software to support the serial port mode.
The USB-RTC Module
Intended Use: All Computer Users and Industry
Software Protection: Need the USB Module
Release Date: March 2021
This was a joint effort: having identified the need for a real-time clock for the Raspberry Pi (and hence the Retro-Printer), we worked with a well-respected component designer, to produce this. Without a battery-backed real-time clock, the Raspberry Pi is dependent on an internet connection to read the correct date and time when it starts up. This was essential for users of the Retro-Printer who need to store the files electronically, as otherwise, the dates could be fairly random.
There were several RTC modules available already for the Raspberry Pi, but they all needed to be connected via the GPIO pins, and were unable to work with the Retro-Printer HAT.
We therefore got a simple board designed using the DS3231 chip, which could be simply plugged into the USB port on any computer. We then created a simple Windows routine to program the correct date and time on the USB-RTC module, and added some code to the initialisation routines for the Retro-Printer software to read the date and time from the module, assuming it is plugged in to a USB slot.
