Thread by @RetroTechChris

I picked up this Parallel to USB adapter on eBay for $1 plus shipping. Let's check it out with my Panasonic KX-P2123 24-pin dot matrix printer! Time for a 🧵

So, the first thing I did was "unbox" it and throw that grody packing material away. Inside we have a cable, a floppy disk with drivers, and a manual. Nice!

I went into the "Add Printer" section on Windows 11 and chose Windows Update to populate the list of printers. And... look!! There's a driver for it. Perfect!

For lack of anything better to print, I decided to print out the first page of my webpage. Let's see how this goes.

I started to print and quickly realized I needed a new ribbon. So I put in this genuine Panasonic ribbon.. and... wow! It is printing GREAT!!

Here's a comparison between the ribbon types. The ribbon type on the top is what was in there. I have a box of these "premium" ribbons, they are all dry. And the "good" ribbon was from the box on the bottom.

Here we go, the end result. Honestly, the quality is not that terrible!

I thought I would print out the first page of my retrocomputing tracker spreadsheet too. Let' see how that goes...

This is making a very unique printing sound 😂

The end result? Definitely a little hard to read, but it is legible.

Anyway, that was fun. I hope you enjoyed following along. See you soon!

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