Weapon of Choice: 1983 Brother EP-22.
Until I actually picked one up, I thought that the Brother EP-20 and EP-22 were the same size. Turns out, while the top shell for both was clearly pressed from the same mold, the bottom shell on the EP-22 is almost a quarter inch deeper than the EP-20. It was a subtle difference, but I felt it the instant I picked the EP-22 off of the Goodwill shelf. Yes, I broke quarantine to hit a thrift – I needed the release, and I had a feeling that the Thrift Gods would be smiling…
I tried a lot of different settings on my period-correct 1984 TRS-80 Model 200 trying to hit on the right one, including 8-bit and 7-bit word length, Even and No Parity, 1 stop bit, flow control enabled and disabled – no combination I’ve tried results in a handshake..
Speaking of the EP-44, I found out that there was also an EP-41, which was the non-data-connecting variation of the EP-44, and sporting a black shell instead of the EP-44’s white shell. This appears to be the only variation that was given a name other than its “EP” designation: “Travel-Riter”. I wonder if they immediately got sued by Remington, and if that’s why you *never* see this variation in the wild.
I found a pic of the EP-22’s user manual, and more importantly, the “How to connect to computer” manual. I really want a scan of that one. Have you got it? (:
Congratulations on the find! It’s a nice looking thermal typer. Our thrift stores aren’t open yet. Maybe in 2 weeks. I need to get a monitor for my scope (left all the spares in FL) and an old parallel printer for my scopes and spectrum analyzer. Oh, and old W95 or W98 PC, too. I found some neat old software.
The thrifts ain’t opened yet down under, probably soon. I’ll look out for those user manuals …;)
Love the Polynesian mugs!
I’m the proud owner of an EP-22 that arrived from eBay just this morning. I’ve successfully used it both as a typewriter and as a printer with my Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer. Unlike yours, mine has black keys. I have the manual – the RS232 format is eight data bits, no parity.
So the EP44 CAN work as a two-way terminal? Cool!
Yes It can, you can actually find few videos on YouTube. It’s pretty straight forward. EP-22 only works in “passive” receiver mode as a printer.
FYI I found a scan of the manual for this over here: https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/BrotherEP-22.pdf, and recently got one that’s working fine over RS-232 from a trash 80. Seems to work best at 75 baud unless you wanna write some logic to pause etc. I was *really* hoping there might be some commands for graphics/custom characters but no such luck.
Nice one, I managed to connect this little gem to Windows 10 computer via USB to RS232 adaptor, however modification to serial cable were made. It connects instantly now. Pinout is explained on page 44 in user manual.
I also have an EP-41 “Travel-Riter”. I even have the original box it came in. I think you’re right about them being rare – I’ve never seen another in the wild.