Hi, Could someone help me identify this part from a printer I salvaged. Is there any possibility to hack and use it with an arduino perhaps.

 

Hello,

That looks like the printhead of a dot-matrix printer.
It contains a couple of needles to make the characters to be printed.
The needles are activated with coils at high speed.
Thats why the remark HOT is stated on the printhead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_matrix_printer

Bertus

 

Thanks Bertus, do you think that its possible to hack the printer, there aren't many post out there talking about this. This part is from one of those time stamp machines.

Hello,

That looks like the printhead of a dot-matrix printer.
It contains a couple of needles to make the characters to be printed.
The needles are activated with coils at high speed.
Thats why the remark HOT is stated on the printhead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_matrix_printer

Bertus

 

Can you still get the ribbons for those (D.M.)?
Max.

 

Can you still get the ribbons for those (D.M.)?
Max.

Sorry Max, What do you mean by the ribbons? The ribbon soaked in ink or the ribbon cable connected to the head?

 

What if you provide the brand and model?

Otherwise this risks to become a never ending series of questions.

Have you ever tried to read a schematic? If not, it is going to take a lot of guessing and more errors than trials.

 

The dot matrix print head has enough needles to print a line of type, sometimes about 7 needles which is readable but not nice looking. Some have more needles so that the printing looks nicer. I have seen multiple print heads on a timing belt that can print nice looking characters at unbelievable speed.

The manufacturer of the printer that you are working on possibly can give you a lead as to where you can get a ribbon. Yes, these are cloth strips soaked in ink that the needles hit and put dots of ink on the page. In a pinch you can use typewriter ribbons that you can get at an office supply place. There are still people who use those magical things called typewriters and you can find ribbons for them. If the spools do not fit your machine, you can remove the old ribbon from your machine's spools and wind the ribbon that you purchased onto the original spools. Some supermarkets still use ribbon type printers to print receipts. Suppliers of these products may have a tip or two as to where you can get ribbons.

We used to buy lots of printers from C. Itoh but they have changed their name to Itochu Corp. They still make dot matrix printers and you can probably find something from them via their distributors or reps.

Another dot matrix printer manufacturer is NEC. You can check with them, too.