The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi forum ,


i got a second ql printer , but ......................

this one has an issue , the printhead is only partly working .

previous owners used wd40 to revive the cartridge and the black smudge is everywere.

does anyone have a printhead or insights in the repair of those ??

When you say that the printhead is only partly working. I am going to assume that you mean that some of the needles are not firing, due to them being gummed up.

Try immersing just the end of the the printhead in isopropanol alcohol (not the whole printhead) and let it soak. If you can get at the ends of the needles where they go into the tip of the printhead with something small like a watchmakers screwdriver, try to carefully pick out as much of the gunk as you can.

the print head has been disassembled by one of the previous owners , and soaked in wd40 ( as is the ribbon ) .

there is a distinct smell of wd40 and loads of black muck , which i cleaned out , but still the top pins are missing .


so i need a real good picture of the rear of the head to get an insight in where the little fingers should go ( and hope they are not bend ) .

If the printhead has been disassembled, then you are probably in big trouble. It's libel to be very difficult to get all the needles back into the right holes.

When the printhead was made, it's likely that the needles were much longer, making assembly easier. Then the needles were cut off to length afterwards.

Is this

the printer you have?

It's probably someone else's printer re badged. If you can find out who's, You might be able to get a printhead for it.

I have had identical problems with my Epson 1050 24pin printer. So I have bought a spray to clean the needles. That worked for a while. Then, a few needles won't work. At least, I had to buy a new printer head, about 60 GBP.

The QL-Printer is at least a Seikosha SP-1000 (which was my first printer). So, to buy such an old printer can perhaps solve the problems.

Good look!

Hi,

There is a Technical Manual for the Epson FX850-FX1050 on Archive.org

https://archive.org/details/printermanu ... 1/mode/2up

I have not found anything for the Seikosha SP-1000, which seems to be the model the QL Printer is badged as.

There's a chance that the Seikosha SP-1000 was also re-badged by other printer manufactures, Like Star, or Oki, or Citizen. That might increase the chances of picking one up from the likes of Ebay.

It also a question, if the printhead is used in several models from Seikosha. I knew, that the printhead from my Epson 1050 is identical to the one of the Epson 2050 and Epson 2550.

I have a similar problem with a QL printer. I only bought it because it had the box with it, but was obviously hoping it would work. It's nearly there, just missing one or 2 (or more) dots. Like this: I've read above that the pins could just be blocked with gunk. But how do you remove the head of a Sinclair QL/Seikosha SP1000 printer? There are no obvious screws on the top. It looks like this: And did anyone ever find compatible replacements? Any tips greatly appreciated. If I can get it to work it will be for sale.

Edit: I actually believe the Sinclair QL printer to be a Seikosha SP800 and not an SP1000. The SP1000 looks quite different, with it's switches on the front, whereas the SP800 has the switches on the top left, just like the QL printer. Also, the PCB in my QL printer states 'Seikosha SP-800QL'.

Aha, I did it! As usual, I should have played around longer before bothering you all!

You pop off the metal clip on top of the copper-stripy ribbon cable, then simply pull the head back. It does look really gunky around those pins, but they all look ok.