the olden days

[elmaligno]

who still has the little orange screwdriver to adjust the atdc pots on the old dinosaurs?
or my favorite from the olden days, the ants marching to the picnic on the warm up screen.
then with a FW update it was gone only later a rocket ship take off was supposed to keep us amused as it warmed up.
bring back the ants! there was another one from long ago and seems those brain cells are gone and i cant5 remember.
maybe other animals a circus?
im sure someone here will either confirm my insanity or remember as well and i wont have to wear the self hugging canvas jacket.

I remember all that perfectly, even some customers were angry when I changed the eeproms that suppressed the ants....

[copyman]

Anyone remember the Sharp that talked (maybe the SF781?). Had like 7 weird robotic voice prompts (remove original, paper empty, etc). Every office that had that model turned off the voice. It would scare the hell out of a secretary if in the office alone.

[kingarthur]

September 78 i started, in fact the 18th....it's my one and only job, it was mechanical NCR and Gold cash tills, and Olivetti & Olympia adding machines, they were great fun, if they played up, quite often it was just a case of bending something, I didn't start copiers properly until about 1981, then it was Sharp, though I did work on a few 3m Scotch copiers, with the pink sheets, it took a couple of minutes to do one copy

[blackcat4866]

Anyone remember the Sharp that talked (maybe the SF781?). Had like 7 weird robotic voice prompts (remove original, paper empty, etc). Every office that had that model turned off the voice. It would scare the hell out of a secretary if in the office alone.

Mita did that in the 1980's. I think it was the Mita 133vox that would voice prompt you to remove jams, add toner, etc. You're right though. It was a creepy robotic voice, and almost every customer that had one, had me snip the speaker wire. If you weren't expecting it, it was jarring. =^..^=

[Albonline]

the mcbc on them old relics was terrible. 5-6k on the fastest ones 45ppm. 2-3 on the office models 15-25ppm. not to mention dumping collector boxes full of carbon black laced toner.

[Albonline]

its surprising that there are any old copier techs left at all really.

[copyman]

September 78 i started, in fact the 18th....it's my one and only job, it was mechanical NCR and Gold cash tills, and Olivetti & Olympia adding machines, they were great fun, if they played up, quite often it was just a case of bending something, I didn't start copiers properly until about 1981, then it was Sharp, though I did work on a few 3m Scotch copiers, with the pink sheets, it took a couple of minutes to do one copy

I remember those 3M "Dual Spectrum Process" with the pink sheets. Had to expose the pink sheet with what was a regular light bulb then feed it through machine with a special coated paper.

[wjurls]

its surprising that there are any old copier techs left at all really.

I started circa 92'. Worked on specially modified Mita DC1824 and Selex A2Z machines for a company called Graphic Enterprises of Ohio.

[wjurls]

Found some old relics today. 20240907_100310.jpg

the stapler jig was the best tool ever. i stole it from konica (or should i say minolta) school before it was able to be ordered.

I still have 2 of those stapler jigs. One still in my truck. Just in case!! They were far superior to the first version that consisted of a plastic lever and the little metal tab you had to put in the staple cartridge. Horrible design!

[copyman]

My first copier school. Savin 1982. School was in Boston, MA

[elmaligno]

I still have 2 of those stapler jigs. One still in my truck. Just in case!! They were far superior to the first version that consisted of a plastic lever and the little metal tab you had to put in the staple cartridge. Horrible design!

This unit, perhaps. I still have it!!

[wjurls]

This unit, perhaps. I still have it!!

That's the one!! I had many a raw fingers trying to align with that POS.

[Synthohol]

This unit, perhaps. I still have it!!

i HATED that thing with a passion.

[Edgar Uk]

who still has the little orange screwdriver to adjust the atdc pots on the old dinosaurs?
or my favorite from the olden days, the ants marching to the picnic on the warm up screen.
then with a FW update it was gone only later a rocket ship take off was supposed to keep us amused as it warmed up.
bring back the ants! there was another one from long ago and seems those brain cells are gone and i cant5 remember.
maybe other animals a circus?
im sure someone here will either confirm my insanity or remember as well and i wont have to wear the self hugging canvas jacket.

I think the ants were on early EP3050/EP4050 machines and they had Frogs on Di30’s, the machine that had the yellow adf belt?
If you changed the language on the EP3050/EP4050 to Dutch the Home Screen displayed ‘U Kunt Kopieren’ which as young lads thought was highly amusing.

[Edgar Uk]

I still have 2 x sealed Orange Minolta dust cloths, an EP350z dev bottle that’s now filled with screws and the white collar that came on the drum shaft of the EP450/Z when they were unboxed. The blue user choice card that went on the EP2050 control panel when they flipped over a panel, An EP3170/EP4210 interlock jig on an old set of keys somewhere plus a Minolta keyring that was given out at the end of a training course. I remember on one course they gave us a belt, a mug & some coloured pens.
I’ve worked on Minolta/Konica Minolta since the 310, 300/300RE, EP520/530/530R days with silicone oil & customers pouring toner into toner hoppers. It’s fair to say they’ve made some terrible machines & my memory’s of the 80’s especially are changing interlock switches & soldering dry joints. More mods than you can shake a stick at & visiting some machines on a weekly basis to clean the optics. It’s fair to say reliability has gone through the roof. I’ve been to some machines that haven’t had a call in over 2 years. The worse machines for me were the 350Z, 570Z, 4230, 5400, Di250/350, C352 with finisher
Best machine Di620 & C284 series.. I’ve only seen 2 BW Konicas in the last 20 years & they were the crap Bizhub 215s