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Brother HL-1260 and HL-1660

The Brother HL-1260, 1260e and HL-1660 and 1660e are A4 printers with speeds of 12 and 16 pages per minute respectively. They are old now, dating back to 1997 and whilst printers can last over 10 years these are quite big so they aren't particularly likely to be adopted by small offices and home users.

The HL-1260 is too slow for a printer this size. The HL-1660 with a 500 sheet tray built in and the option for another was roughly competition for the HP 4 and the HP 4000.

The print TN-9000 cartridge is a single piece and this gives the game away; the printer is actually an unusual presentation of the Canon EX engine so in some ways it is very strongly related to the Canon LBP-8 IV, HP laserjet 4 and Apple Laserwriter Pro.

The engine reappeared as the Brother 2060

Curiously the Brother printer was not found particularly robust in practice. PC Pro ran a "Two million Page Printer Endurance Test" in 1998 and found this machine least reliable of the four tested. However UK distributors had quite a range of parts listed in March 2010, so the Brother machine is still around. HP are killing the HP 4 by no longer supplying original parts although there are other sources.

The user manual is unusual in having an appendix with quite a lot of information on the emulations supported by the printer.

Control:

16 character LCD alphanumeric display with a set of buttons.

SEL, MODE, FONT, FORMFEED, SET, CONTINUE, UP and DOWN. These buttons can also be used as EMULATION, ECONOMY, FEEDER, COPY, RESET and TEST on use of a SHIFT button.

LEDs for Ready, Data, Alarm and Online.

If you thought the HP4SI wasn't intuitive try this!

The control Panel can be locked to prevent missuse. Two sets of user settings can be stored. The control Panel angle can be adjusted

Duty Cycle:

Either 12 pages per minute - HL-1260 16 pages per minute - HL-1660 Warm up time maximum one minute.

Scanner Abilities:

Unusually the printer supports the CCITT G3/G4 format and can receive faxes by connecting it to a fax modem on the RS232 port. Multiple computers can send faxes via the Ethernet port and a fax modem using Brother FAX share.

True 600 x 600 dpi resolution. 300x 300 dpi mode available. In HP emulation a 1200 dpi horizontal mode is selectable.

HRC: The high resolution control (HRC) technology provides clear and crisp
printouts and improves even the 600-dpi resolution

APT: This printer can print graphics in 256 shades of gray in HP LaserJet 5TM (HL-1660e only) / LaseJet 4+TM emulation and BR-Script level 2, producing nearly photographic quality.

Paper Handling:

A4 / US letter sized path. Paper loads into a cassette under the machine. Envelopes and letterhead can be handled by the multi-purpose tray.

Tray 1:

Multipurpose tray with a capacity up to 150 sheets

Tray 2:

500 sheet cassette sliding into the printer base.

Tray 3:

An optional extra 500 sheet paper tray can be installed under the printer.

Duplex:

Optional Duplex unit

Processor:

MB86832 100 MHz (SPARC architecture)

Memory:

HL-1260e - 2MB base, 66MB Max

HL-1660 - 4MB base, 66MB Max

HL-1660e -8MB base, 72MB Max

To print at 600dpi or use APT in BR-Script 2 mode at least 6MB will be needed

With the optional duplex unit 10MB will be needed. There are two SIMM slots.

The User's Guide says:

In general, the SIMM must have the following specifications:

Type: 72 pin and 32 bit or 36 bit output

Access Time: 80 nsec. or less

Capacity: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 Mbyte

Height: 46mm (1.8 inches) or less Fonts, macros, logos, and other print data can be stored in a commercial PCMCIA-compatible flash memory card or HDD card installed in the upper card slot.

Interface:

The printers have a high speed bi-directional parallel interface and an RS-232C serial interface as standard. The HL-1660e has Universal Serial Bus (USB) and comes with a modular input/output (MIO) compatible interface.

Automatic interface selection depending on which port is receiving data. More than one computer can be connected using this feature.

Network:

MIO card installed on the HL-11660e

This printer offers emulations of Hewlett-Packard laser printer-LaserJet 5 (PCL 6) (HL-1660e only) LaserJet 4+ (PCL 5e), PostScript Level 2language emulation (Brother BR-Script Level 2) HP-GL plotter, emulates model HP-7475A EPSON FX-850, IBM Proprinter XL printers. The printer switches emulation depending on the print commands it receives. An application programs that supports one of these printers will be able to print.The printer supports the CCITT G3/G4 format in addition to HP- compatible formats, it can quickly receive and print data compressed in this format. The manufacturer and product names mentioned above are registered trademarks (Americans seem to care terrifically and sprinkle these little signs liberally around)

Power Consumption:

The printer has a hot-roller type fuser. Default is to have power Save mode on complying with the Energy Star specifications.

There is also a toner save mode.

Dimensions:

Dimensions (W x H x D) 371.6 x 326.5 x 393 mm (14.8 x 12.9 x 15.5 inches) 371.6 x 446.5 x 393 mm (14.8 x 17.6 x 15.5 inches) with an optional lower tray unit fitted

Weight:

Weight Approximately 15 kg (33 lbs.) Approximately 21.0 kg (46.3 lbs.) with optional lower tray unit and toner cartridge fitted .

Acoustic Noise:

HL-1260e max.printing 49 dB A stand-by 40 dB A

HL-1660/1660e printing 52 dB A standby 45 dB A

Consumables:

Unusually for Brother this printer uses a single-piece print cartridge

Fuser:

The fuser in a laser printer fixes toner powder to the page using a combination of pressure and heat (Brother often call it a fixing unit). The surface of the hot roller has to be non-stick so that the toner does not smudge or the paper adhere to it. Over time the non-stick surface degrades and either the entire fuser or the roller has to be replaced. Brother suggest

  • LJ0008001, Fixing Unit / Fuser 120 Volt
  • LJ0009001, Fixing Unit / Fuser230 Volt

In March 2010 the 230 Volt fusers were stocked in the UK and so was the hot roller and the support springs. Most people prefer to replace fuser's complete but if you have technical experience there is a diagram of the assembly in the service manual (but not the instructions that Brother provides for some other printers).

UH2793001, Heated Roller

UH2608001, Retaining Ring (2 Used)

UH2794001, Halogen Heater, 120V

UH2795001, Halogen Heater, 230V

UH2645001, Heater Support Spring (Fuser Lamp Holder) (2 Used)

UH2646001, Heater Press Spring (2 Used)

UH2628001, Thermistor Assembly PT7

Spares:

Spares for this printer are still available in March 2010 although whether this represents Brother policy or surplus stock in the distribution channel is unknown.


The Service Manual recommends this parts set, which seem the sort of things that might be in a maintenance kit.

UH2499001 ROLLER HOLDER SO ASSY (SP)

UH2498001 TRAY PUSH SPRING ELT (SP)

UH2477000 TRAY PUSH SPRING FILM ELT (SP)

UH2820001 PAPER PICK-UP ROLLER UNIT 2 (SP)

UH1778000 SEPARATION PAD SPRING DX (SP)

UH1772001 SEPARATION PAD DX ASSY (SP)

UH2823001 SPACE

Which would be great, except that only one piece is recognized by UK distributors. the following were available in March 2010.

UH2821001, Brother Pick Up Roller

UH1772001, Separation Pad, Tray (DX assy)

UH2362001, Brother 1260 Pick Up Roller

UH2393001, Separation Pad

UH2487001, Separation Pad Assembly

UH2799001, Paper Tray

UH2410000,Paper Size Switch Spring

UH2407000, Extension Tray

UH2469000, Paper Front Guide

UH2359000, Paper Out Flag

UH2369001, Paper Pickup Solenoid

UH2380000, Pe Sensor Flag

UH2382000, Du Detection Lever

UH2071001, Toner Cartridge Lid

UH2072001, Font Cover Assembly

UH2077001, Cover Left

UH2104001, Rear Cover Assy

UH2229001, Cartridge Support (Cartridge Stopper Assembly)

UH2238000, Gear 39

UH2239000, Gear 20/50

UH2240000, Gear 24/72

UH2241000, Gear 22/55

UH2242000, Gear 48

UH2243000, Gear 21

UH2244000, Gear 28

UH2245001, Gear 48 Spring

UH2255001, Paper Delivery Gear Assembly

UH2787001, Transfer Base Assembly

UH2263001, Scanner Fan Motor

UH2357001, Paper Feed Motor

UH2124001, Upper Fan (DC Fan Motor)

UH2814001, Main Motor

UK2754001, AC PSU Low Volt Power Supply PCB Assembly, 230VM

UH2815001, Scanner unit Assembly

UK2503000, Scanner Flat Cable

UK3254001, Polygon Harness

UK3024001, Control Panel

UK2500000, Control Panel Cable

Whats-In-The-Box:

The printer originally came with a floppy disk containing the drivers.

Warranty:

Very old printer so it won't be covered by warranty. Brokers and refurbishers typically offer 90 day warranty not including consumables or the fuser.

Service:

We offer repair in North East England (Newcastle area)

Options and Accessories:

Lower Tray Unit - A lower tray unit expands the paper source capacity. The printer can switch between the upper and lower paper sources automatically.

Duplex Unit - A duplex unit enables printing on both sides of the paper.

MIO Card - A commercial modular input/output (MIO) compatible sharing/network card gives you an additional interface port for attaching the printer to a network or sharing your printer with multiple computers.

Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015. Some pictures derived from Brother User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalog. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site usage patterns.