Micro-Dry Printers

[JoeD]

Howdy

Well as with all things, my ALPS is on it's last leg unless I can pull some sort of Engineering/electronic trick out my backside.  Wanting to upgrade anyway and was wondering if anyone is using other printers for decals etc.  Looking at some of the wax media printers but I don't see any that use white.  Ideas?  Would like to keep the cost under $1,000.00.

Thanks

Joe
 

[tom mann]

How about that one that you guys use?  Yeah, just get one like that!

[peteski]

Sorry Joe, Alps is still the only game in the world.  We Alpsians (I thing that I just coined a new word  ) have to hang onto our printers for as long as we can. I have been an active member on couple of Alps Yahoo groups for over 10 years now and we haven't found anything which comes even close to the capabilities or even price to the MicroDry printers.

But Tom is right - you have very nice printer at your disposal at work.  I know that you can't discuss it here and that it can't really print very small lettering clearly, but it it should work for most of anybody's custom decorating needs. Can't you sneak in after-hours and use it on some of your personal projects? 

What's wrong with your Alps?  Is the head still good (that is the most important thing). PM me to see if I can help out. Running the printer from a Win XP computer and parallel interface is the easiest and most trouble-free setup.  Many users get themselves an old and cheap PC and they dedicate it to the Alps printer. 

[JoeD]

I have the same set up...XP and a Parallel port.  It's not picking up any of the cartridges when I start the print.  The pick up moves over but then it just times out.  Scratching Head.

Yea, I have access to some very expensive equipment but I wanna keep my home work separate from work work

[John]

maybe a little contact cleaning?

[peteski]

I have the same set up...XP and a Parallel port.  It's not picking up any of the cartridges when I start the print.  The pick up moves over but then it just times out.  Scratching Head.

Which model do you have?  Are you a member of the Alps Yahoo group (we have lots of good info in the Files section of the group, a large message archive and over 4400 members with some helpful members with plenty of troubleshooting experience).

Have you tried the standalone selftest printout?  The procedure is documented on the Alps group but I can post it for you here is you want.  That along with some basic troubleshooting info.

Did the problem suddenly show up or it was intermittent at first and now is a solid failure?

[JoeD]

It worked fine the first couple of prints and then nothing...  I have the 1300.  I tried cleaning everything, but have not tried the self test...would love to find out how to use it.

Thanks again

Joe

[tom mann]

Another approach:

1.  Determine what you want to model with the Alps decals.
2.  As an MT guy, announce product that is determined in #1.
3.  Produce and buy one for yourself!

[peteski]

It worked fine the first couple of prints and then nothing...  I have the 1300.  I tried cleaning everything, but have not tried the self test...would love to find out how to use it.

Thanks again

Joe

Good!  I'm most familiar with 5000s and1300 is very similar. Other models (1000s and 2000 series) are a bit different.

Since this printer was working in the past and it uses a parallel connection then it most likely has bidirectional communication enabled.  If that is the case what is the specific error you see pop up from the printer driver once you send your job to the printer but the printer fails to print?  The error reported is an important clue.

The selftest procedure is attached to this post. For a 1300 you need a black cartridge installed in slot 1 (leftmost slot).

Since this is not really N or Z scale related, we might want to take this off-line.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[peteski]

Another approach:

1.  Determine what you want to model with the Alps decals.
2.  As an MT guy, announce product that is determined in #1.
3.  Produce and buy one for yourself!

IIRC, Joe dabbles in the Horribly Oversize scale.    But since Kadee is related to MT, maybe he could still follow your advice.

[sirenwerks]

Sorry Joe, Alps is still the only game in the world.

Not true.  If your talking standard color and white, not metallics, the Oki C711WT fits the bill, but with a $3.4k price tag. I have seen outputs and they're on par if not better than what I have seen from Alps.

[peteski]

Not true.  If your talking standard color and white, not metallics, the Oki C711WT fits the bill, but with a $3.4k price tag. I have seen outputs and they're on par if not better than what I have seen from Alps.

I should have qualified that statement by including "in consumer-printer world, under $1000"  Is that OKI printer designed to make t-shirt transfers?  If yes, it can only print white as the top of the image.  You cannot change the order of the color printing.  The white toner basically replaces black in a color laser printer. That is useless for decals (which need white to be under the printed colors).

What Alps is also unrivaled at is the ability to layer inks in any order and in many layers, while keeping the printout in register.  That comes in very handy for all sorts of custom colors and special effects. Plus as you mentioned, the metallic and foil color inks are also exclusive to Alps (again, in the above-mentioned price range).

[JoeD]

why didn't I think about that!    lol    when ever I do that it p.o.'s the New Haven crowd   

Another approach:

1.  Determine what you want to model with the Alps decals.
2.  As an MT guy, announce product that is determined in #1.
3.  Produce and buy one for yourself!

[bbussey]

why didn't I think about that!    lol    when ever I do that it p.o.'s the New Haven crowd   

I think you actually have to release New Haven product before determining whether the crowd is p.o'd or not. 

Fortunately, Rapido is picking up the slack!   

[johnb]

I think you actually have to release New Haven product before determining whether the crowd is p.o'd or not. 

Fortunately, Rapido is picking up the slack!   

If they don't release New Haven cars, then how do I have this?
http://micro-trainsline.com/2000029