Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!peregrine!elroy!ames!pasteur!cad.Berkeley.EDU!risto
From: risto@cad.Berkeley.EDU (Risto Mutikainen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: ImageWriter LQ story
Summary: Don't trust blindly Apple tech support
Message-ID: <4806@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 1 Aug 88 22:53:03 GMT
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: risto@cad.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Risto Mutikainen)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 32

I finally bought an ImageWriter LQ - without knowing what I bought.
The question was how to convert it afterwards to European electricity,
in this case 220V/50Hz. There were no one in Apple to answer whether
LQ uses line frequency for timing etc., either the technical support
for University Mac outlet (by Apple, in Berkeley) did not 'understand'
the question. Only thing they said was that different frequency 'may
noticeable affect character spacing' (correspondence available upon
request). Funnily, current Mac software can't handle the character
spacing correctly anyhow, there are warnings in the manual to add more
spaces on critical spots where LQ gets screwed up. And it gets.

The only informative answer I got to solve the puzzle was an answer
for my previous posting about existence of LQ with an international
power unit. Apple knew to confirm this when I knew to ask about it. It
can be imported here from any foreign Apple dealer, at a prize of more
than double what LQ costs here. And LQ is not cheap even here.

Well, anyhow, I bought it (IM LQ, USA model, for 120V/60Hz) and
checked it up. ImageWriter LQ does *not* use frequency anywhere for
timing, as I expected. There is a transformed to feed the board by
29Vac (no load, specs. probably 28V/6A), which is immediately
rectified for voltage source (probably switching one). So, there are
no problems changing LQ for different line voltages or frequencies
either by external or internal transformer. Just need to check that
the voltage for the board remains the same.

Needless to say, I am not very satisfied with the Apple tech support.

In Apple, IT MUST TAKE A LOT OF TIME TO TEACH ALL THE PERSONNEL THE
OFFICIAL ANSWERS IN ADDITION TO THE RIGHT ONES!

Risto                                       risto@cad.Berkeley.EDU