WAS THE STAR NL-10 PRINTER REALLY IMAGEWRITER II COMPATIBLE?
My first experience with the word “compatible” came in the form of a Star NL-10 printer advertised as “ImageWriter II compatible”. It was a unique printer as it came with either a parallel or serial plugin module. The serial module had a mini-DIN 8 pin connector and claimed ImageWriter II compatibility. In actuality it was C.Itoh 8510 compatible and given that the control codes of the original ImageWriter were a super set of the 8510 it wasn’t unrealistic for Star to claim this “compatibility”.
My parents agreed to buy me a printer for my Apple IIc for my 18th birthday. Not having much money my parents bought me a Star NL10 which from the local Apple reseller was half the price of the ImageWriter II at the time. After doing my own technical due diligence I decided that it would be ok. Once I received the printer the trouble started. First I needed a IIc to ImageWriter II cable, something that wasn’t easy or cheap to come by in late-80’s Australia. I ended up making myself the cable after sourcing the appropriate connectors, the mini-DIN 8 connector salvaged from the dumpster of the same local Apple reseller I bought the printer from. Remember this was pre-internet so getting the pin-outs of the IIc serial port was a challenge. It meant a trip to the local monthly Apple Users Group meeting and hoping one of the local gurus knew the pin-outs. Luckily for me the sysop of the local users group had the serial port pin-outs as he had recently made a similar cable for another user’s modem.
Now I had the IIc, the NL-10 and the cable. As soon as I tried to print something things didn’t go so well. The printer would only print random garbage regardless of the program I used. Firstly I blamed the cable, I then checked and double checked the connections and finally called the sysop to double confirm the pin-outs. All was correct with the cable. Naturally I started to blame the “compatibility” of the NL-10. I returned the printer to my local dealer. After much persistence and an in-store “demonstration” of my issue at the local Apple reseller, the manager agreed to take back the NL-10 and sell me an ImageWriter II at a significant discount. She also included a “genuine” Apple IIc to ImageWriter II for free just in case. Upon returning home with my new “genuine” Apple printer and cable I was extremely disappointed to find the same garbage text being printed. Back to the local Apple reseller with the IIc, ImageWriter II and the cable. After a lot of head scratching at the reseller they finally called Apple reseller technical support. An Apple Australia technician finally diagnosed the problem, it was actually the IIc itself the whole time. My IIc was an original 255 ROM machine which had a faulty serial controller and was part of a replacement program. Apple to their credit replaced the logic board for free even thought the IIc in question was 4 years old.
The irony of this whole story is that the manager of that local Apple reseller would 8 years later hire me into Apple Australia which started my 25 years at Apple. Also, many of the staff from that Apple reseller technical support group would end up working for me, including the technician who diagnosed my faulty IIc all those years before.