Talk:Centronics

To Do
Does History matter? I worked for Centronics from 1980-83 and there is no mention of the 700 series or the 6000 series band printer or the 350 series dot matrix. My understanding of the history ( a bit colorful) was that the centronics name came from the fact they printed the number of cents put into slot machines in Las Vegas and that Max Hugel worked for the CIA as a 'plant' to ensure that Japanese corporations stayed away from armaments after WW2. I visited a computer show in 1980 and *ALL* the dot matrix printers, other than DEC, were Centronics.

Gadget850 20:41, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Add more cool info on the 101
 * Mannesmann dispute

SCSI, not Centronics connector
Don't look now, but that picture is a 50-pin SCSI connector and not a 36-pin Centronics connector. Close, but not quite. :-)

Atlant 23:55, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Correct. Technically, there is no CENTRONICS connector- the spec originally called for the Amphenol PA-36 connector. The PA-36 is used in other appliacations, such as telco blocks. The PA-50 is the connector used in the original SCSI specification, and is often (but incorrectly) referred to as a CENTRONICS 50 pin.

This subject really needs to be split- one for the company and one for the interface. Also need to add that they were bought out by GENICOM in 1986.

Gadget8500


 * (I've never seen a 36-pin MicroRibbon in Telco stuff, just the 50-pin in 1A2 work, but my experience is limited.)


 * With regard to splitting the article, adding Genicom, etc.: This is Wikipedia so you know what to do: be bold!


 * Atlant 16:05, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

I'm inclined to update the Centronics page strictly for the company history and move the interface information to parallel interface. That way information could be included on CENTRONICS, DataProducts and IEEE-1284 in a more logical format.

Gadget8500 19:07, 18 July 2005 (UTC)


 * Bundle all those into a (hypothetical) IEEE-1284 article and I'll agree with you. I wouldn't agree with moving all this to parallel interface as that's a much more-generic computer engineering concept (even if PC people use it to mean just the printer interface).


 * Atlant 21:05, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Done. Need to add the Canon relationship and flesh out the 80's a bit. Gadget850 19:56, 6 August 2005 (UTC) Finshed that. Need to have this reviewed by some old Centronics guys. Hmmmm IEEE-1284 circles back to Centronics, but IEEE 1284 goes to IEEE 1284. Gadget850 22:23, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

Connector drawing is now under micro ribbon Gadget850 21:14, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

mionor spelling mistake
I don't know if I've done this correctly or not. I saw the word CHARACTER misspelled in the Interface section. It was missing the second C.

I clicked the 'edit this page' tab and edited it. Then I saved it. I don't know if I should do anything else.

thanks, Jim Jelke james.jelke@abbott.com

You got it! I don't know how that survived several spell checks. If you create a profile, you can sign your entries and have discussions. --Gadget850 20:42, 2 December 2005 (UTC)