Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!edmoy
From: edmoy@violet.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: ImageWriter LQ story
Message-ID: <12893@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 2 Aug 88 20:31:57 GMT
References: <4806@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 64

In article <4806@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> risto@cad.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Risto Mutikainen) writes:
>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.

The people at the outlet you refer to are not Apple people, but basically
just University sales staff.  Technical questions are handled by a different
group (my group as a matter of fact).

>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.

Apple has just announced new driver software for the LQ that should fix the
spacing problems.

>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.

I don't know about the internals, but the official word from Apple, from
an article on Apple's AppleLink bulletin board service entitled "Using Apple
Equipment Overseas" (dated 11 March 1988) states under the section named
"Frequency":

	If the country uses a line frequency other than 60 Hertz (cycles
	per second), then all devices attached to you Apple (monitors,
	printers, plotters, hard disks and so on) must be "frequency
	independent" -- that is, they must be able to operate on a line
	frequency of both 50 and 60 Hz.  All products made by Apple are
	frequency independent EXCEPT the Color Plotter, Scribe, the U.S.A.
	ImageWriter II, LaserWriter I, Australian/European LaserWriter II,
	and the ImageWriter LQ.

Also, in the warranty section:

	Apple dealers overseas are capable of servicing the equipment designed
	for their county only.

Finally, in the warranty section:

	The warranty is valid only in the country of purchase.  A defective
	unit must be returned to the country of purchase if service is desired
	under warranty.

Apple suggests that if plans are know ahead of time, that equipment be
purchased in the country of use.

Edward Moy				Principal Programmer - Macintosh & Unix
Workstation Support Services		Workstation Software Support Group
University of California
Berkeley, CA  94720

edmoy@violet.Berkeley.EDU
ucbvax!violet!edmoy