Supported Industry Types

Here we explore just a few of the industries which we have helped with the Retro-Printer.  Although we are only a small business based in the UK, we have been able to utilise our expertise with controls software, and C programming to reach into homes and businesses around the World, from the casual home computer user to some of the largest public companies and government departments. We will happily modify our existing software to suit the needs of industry – for example, by creating CSV files of the incoming data, or sending it over HTTPS to a SCADA system, or even fixing Y2K bugs in the printouts.

Home Computer Users

Thanks to our large existing retro-computer user base (over 10,000 customers, plus links into active communities of over 40,000 vintage computer enthusiasts), we continue to run our core RWAP Software business to serve the home computer users, and extend the working life of computers and equipment from the 1980s.  With evocative brands, such as Sinclair, Amstrad, Acorn, Apple, Commoodore, Atari, Oric and Tandy, these computers deserve to be preserved for the future generations to learn about how computers have developed over the years. Whilst not too many computer users have a need to print from their old computers, the Retro-Printer Module provides the ability to extract data and programs from those systems electronically, by simply printing to the parallel port.  This can be extremely useful where the file system on the computer cannot be read from an emulator running on a modern PC, or just to preserve some of the myriads of programs which were written in the early days of computing.

Opthalmology

One of the more niche applications for the Retro-Printer Module has been to enable opticians to capture the data from Automated Peripheral Visual Field Analyzers in order to enable the electronic capture of data from these machines, saving the cost of replacing the Field Analyzer with a modern version which has built in USB printer ports in order to meet NHS requirements. The Retro-Printer enables a modern HP printer to be connected to the older equipment in place of an old dot-matrix printer, and even converts the data to PDF files for storage and transmission.

Flight Simulators

We have now been able to assist several of the world’s leading operators of commercial flight simulators – designed for training and testing commerical aeroplane pilots.  With the need to provide accurate printouts of each flight session data and store them in electronic format, these multi-million dollar machines were close to being replaced for the lack of a reliable dot-matrix printer. This required changes to our software to emulate Printronix printers (of different types) and also to allow a script running on a Sun SPARCstation based flight simulator to copy the printer spool across to the Retro-Printer, so that we can process it directly.

Government Agencies

We are often approached by sectors such as healthcare, and government departments, who have a wide range of monitoring equipment, such as radiation monitors, electronic scales, EMC measuring devices, blood analyzers, liquid scintillation counters and environmental factors monitors; who need to be able to capture and process the information electronically. This has resulted in the creation of CSV files and push notifications for each status and error reported by the monitoring equipment, so that they can be collated centrally for processing and display on overview systems. We were also pleased to help one of the US County 911 control centers who send call data to remote locations as the jobs come in.  These use UDS/Motorola modems connected directly to old OKI dot matrix serial dot matrix printers.  The Retro-Printer has enabled the replacement of those printers with modern USB printers, and even the option of sending an email with the job data on receipt (as Motorola did not have any means of doing that built into the Airbus phone system).

Security and Fire Safety

In order to enhance the existing logging systems for security and fire safety, we have helped companies to install Retro-Printer modules to log the output from door entry systems and fire alarm systems.  Often, these systems have an underused serial or parallel port (as they are often not mounted somewhere that a printer could easily be sited), and so the ability of the Retro-Printer to capture the logs as they are generated and store them electronically, so that they can be accessed remotely over a network was an ideal solution. This has also branched out into radio call systems for nursing staff which reflect how important it is to continue supporting this older technology.

Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare

Large processing plants where reports are generated by the PLCs on the production line to prove various processes have been completed successfully.  Here the companies were concerned that the original printers were becoming unreliable and hard to get replacement print ribbons, and they may need to replace very expensive proessing plants for the sake of a reliable printer.  The company who installed the original plants were unable to help, and even the PLC manufacturer no longer had details about the printers which were in use. We have also helped to support the hospitals across war torn Syria, through the supply of Retro-Printers for use with vital hospital equipment such as autoclaves and weighing machines. Our ability to reverse engineer printer protocols and understanding of PLC programming proved key to ensuring that these projects could continue working without having any unscheduled shut-downs.

Automotive

Although we have yet to work with any of the big names in the automotive industry, we have been worked with some of the suppliers, to add the ability to capture production data from a range of machinery, such as injection moulding machines and colour blenders.  We have even worked with small garages around the globe who need to replace a printer connected to rolling road machines.  This can save time and issues such as paper jams, when running reports off multiple machines at the end of each day (one customer had to wheel around a dot-matrix printer to over 30 machines at the end of each day).

Automation

We have successfully modified the Retro-Printer software to work with vartious PLCs, including ones by Rockwell Automation (Allen-Bradley), Siemens, Deltronic and General Electric.  Some of these PLCs are reliant on printers which were once made by the PLC manufacturer, and without a replacement printer being available, this can lead to expensive, complex automation systems having to be replaced because of the lack of hard printout confirmation of the processes and alarms.

Leisure

We have been working with a couple of companies who support the scoring machins in ten-pin bowling alleys across Canada.  Here, the issue was the need to be able to print out score-cards when older dot-matrix printers are harder to find and maintain.  By adding a Retro-Printer to the bowling centre computers, the data could be captured without having to replace every machine, and it also reduces the carbon impact of having to send a technician miles across country to repair or replace a dot-matrix printer.  By standardising on a new HP USB printer, the bowling centre staff can easily just replace the printer when it wears out. This has also now been rolled out to a bowling alley in the USA and a Bingo Hall in the UK both using proprietary legacy equipment which previously printed to centronics capable printers – extending the useful life of the equipment, without incurring vast expense.

Audio Visual Media Preservation

Preserving old audio and visual tapes is not easy.  In many cases, this has to be undertaken in conjunction with a levels monitoring device so that you can leave the machine converting the original tape to digital format, and then look at the logs from the levels monitoring device to see where they might be drop-outs or odd spikes in noise levels, and then concentrate your efforts on preserving that section of tape. As you can imagine, printing off spools of paper with all of that data is both wasteful and time consuming (having to read back through it all) as well as the chance that the printer ribbon will run dry, or the paper become jammed in the middle of a 180 minute session. Recording the levels electronically also seemed the best way forward, and we are pleased to have worked with a couple of universities to provide them with real-time monitoring over the network, as they strive to preserve massive back-catalogues of both music and film.

Other Industries

If you think that our approach and Retro-Printer module may be of assistance to your own little piece of industry, then please do contact us with more details of your project. Continue reading – Supported Applications