ZX Printer
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The ZX Printer prints on a roll of special metallised paper; it has a stylus which passes an electric current through the paper and blackens the surface.
It responds on any port with A2 set low.
| Bit | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Read | Paper start latch | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Next pixel latch |
| Write | Stylus power | Motor Power | Motor speed | |||||
- Paper start latch: raised when the stylus reaches the start of the paper, or when stylus power is turned on.
- Next pixel latch: raised when the stylus reaches the next pixel (approximately every 250 T-states when motor fast)
- Stylus power: 0=off, 1=on
- Motor power: 0=run, 1=stop
- Motor speed: 0=fast, 1=slow (no effect if motor stopped)
Any I/O write to the printer also resets the latched signals.
BASIC commands
- COPY (Z) will print the current screen (pixel data only; the state of attributes is ignored, so you might get some bits of your picture inverted).
- LPRINT (Extend-C) acts like PRINT but sends output to the printer.
- LLIST (Extend-V) acts like LIST.