VOGONS

Can someone please help me identify this printer and find drivers for it?

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First post, by Wilius

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Hi everyone!

I just received this nifty little Dot matrix printer for free.
With the generic text-only drivers installed, the printer actually seems to be working.
However, I'd like to print beyond just text.
And for that, I obviously need drivers that are compatible with this printer and the OS I'm using.

And exactly here's the problem.
I can't find any drivers for this thing.
That's because this specific printer seems to be completely undocumented.
Despite my best efforts, I was unable to find anything about this printer.
When searching for the model number on the back (see pictures), all I could find were pictures of a German WWII bomber.
Even Google Lens resulted in nothing.
I'm fairly certain that this printer was likely manufactured by an ODM or an OEM (and obviously not by the Horten brothers).
I really hope one of you guys knows who made this printer and where I can find the drivers.
Ideally, I'm looking for drivers that are compatible with Windows 3.1, 95, or 98.

Attached below is a dump of its firmware as a binary file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bf3qyV4miTsd … ?usp=drive_link
Maybe this helps someone identify this mystery printer.

I'm looking very forward to hearing your thoughts about this printer.

Reply 1 of 7, by jakethompson1

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Many off brand dot matrix printers emulated a more common one such as Epson LQ, Epson FX, or IBM Proprinter, so you could try those.

Reply 2 of 7, by rmay635703

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Nearly all dot matrix printers supported Epson or IBM Proprinter/Graphics emulation.

Assuming this is 9 pin I would try those first.

I’ve only encountered one truly proprietary dot matrix and in that case I used the antique ASCII printer driver

Reply 3 of 7, by Wilius

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Thank you jakethompson1 and rmay635703 for the quick reply.
I will definitely try out the Epson or IBM Proprinter drivers and see if they get me anywhere.
Once I have results, I will get back to you.

Reply 4 of 7, by dionb

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That is one beautiful piece of design.

Second the Epson driver recommendation in particular. I had a Proprinter III and recall that driver support for it was significantly less common than for the Epson modes. I had an old Seikosha printer normally attached to my Sinclair Spectrum (using a MultiPrint interface) that I used in cases where Epson was the only option.

The Epson command set is called ESC/P and will almost certainly be supported by any generic (i.e. not Apple, HP or more specialized) printer from this era.

Reply 5 of 7, by chriz

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Not that this is particularly helpful, but Horten (Galeria) was a German department store chain that was later acquired by Kaufhof. The printer is also known as the Uher AQ-300. That's all the information I could find.

Reply 6 of 7, by BitWrangler

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Looks like an actual clone of an Epson LX-80 or Homewriter 10... Epson made rebadged versions for Commodore and IBM so might have made this one for Horten. Some pictures of those will look different due to having a tractor feeder rather than sheet feeder on.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 7 of 7, by Wilius

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Hi everyone!

Sorry that it took me so long.
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their replies.

I have fantastic news!
Yesterday I took the time to try out different drivers and ended up installing the driver for the Epson FX-85.
And lo and behold, this driver actually seems to be working!
That's really neat.

Unsurprisingly, the picture quality is far from being the best, but I guess this is what has to be expected from a 9-pin printer of that time period.
Not that I'm complaining though.
With that being said, all of my questions have been answered.
Not only do I now know that it's a Uher AQ-300 printer, but also that it works with (probably most) Epson drivers.
I'm super happy with the outcome!

Once again, I'd like to thank anyone for taking the time to answer all of my questions.
I really appreciate that.

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