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Tally DASCOM MIP480

The DASCOM MIP480 is a rugged dot-matrix printer particularly suited to mobile use (MIP is "Mobile Impact Printer"). It is ideal for printing tickets, delivery notes and receipts in a vehicle such as a van, truck or even forklift (it can have wirless Ethernet) . Unlike thermal and inkjet machines it can cope with multipart paper giving a simple signable forensically verifiable form.

It's a well established product - the user guide and brochures date from 2009 - that is no surprise in dot matrix where the technology has been in use for years. The printer is quite up to date though - recent versions have Bluetooth built in giving it short range communication with smartphones.

It allows a nominal 12 volt or 24 volt vehicle supply and has both USB and RS232 interfaces. There is an option for an IEEE 802.11B wireless interface/ Emulations include Epson and IBM Proprinter.

The ribbons are not big (small printers do need small ribbons) but easy to handle and the rated life is about 6 months of typical use.

The DASCOM name is subject to a bit of brand confusion. The DASCOM group is a privately held company based in Hong Kong and that the factories had been making many of the Mannesman Tally and then Tally range of printers. When Tally broke up in 2008-9 DASCOM got the European arm whilst Printronix got the US operation - and now call it TallyGenicom.   The same printer appears under slightly different names in the US and Europe with differing support backgrounds.

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What Tally-Dascom Say

The MIP480 is an impact printer, designed primarily for delivery note printing in commercial vans and trucks. Connection is via computerized Fleet Management systems or Truck/In-vehicle computing solutions. With nominal 12-24 volt power source, it is ideally suited for truck operation where it can be powered from the vehicle’s battery. It combines speed, operational flexibility and rugged reliability to offer an exceptional printer that is ideally suited for route delivery and other mobile applications. A 100/240V power adapter is available for use in general power supply applications.

With a 15,000 hour MTBF, 250 million character print head life and printer ribbons that can last up to six months in typical route delivery printing applications, the MIP480 vehicle printer is well suited for invoice printing in industries such as food and beverage, wholesale auto parts, emergency services, waste and hazardous materials. The MIP480 is an attractive printer for use in the warehouse and public safety sectors.

The MIP480 can print up to 480 characters per second (400 cps at 10 characters per inch) and its 24-wire print head produces exceedingly clear text and graphic output on up to 4-part continuous and single sheet forms. The printer supports a variety of emulations including IBM® Proprinter® X24e, Epson® ESC/P2 emulations and Intermec 6920. The standard configuration supports a generous range of interfaces; RS-232 Serial, USB-2 with optional 802.11 Wifi and Bluetooth models also available.

Cartridges:

  • Standard Ribbon Cartridge MIP480-KA.

Specification

This is a 24 pin mono dot matrix printer. Unusual features are its rugged nature and battery-voltage power supply.

Dot Matrix

Dot matrix is an "impact" print technology: the print mechanism thumps a pin (aka needle or wire) into an inked fabric ribbon. Ink transfers to the top copy of the paper. If the paper is "multipart" with carbon paper or carbonless copy then the same impact makes almost identical copies. The technology originated in the 1960s and became the Centronics, DEC, Epson and OKI printer series. In the 1980s dot matrix became the big technology - but then high resolution laser and inkjet printers took market share away.   Dot matrix is poor at photographs.

Dot matrix works well with text so it still has a role:

  • Vibration has to be very extreme to disturb the mechanism and printers will work in a moving vehicle
  • Dust and dirt are a nuisance to dot matrix but just increase printhead use; the mechanism still works
  • In principle running costs can be quite low although easy to use cartridges and the specialist position of dot matrix makes that difficult at the moment.
  • Dot matrix can't do graphics very well and isn't very fast - but that isn't what it is used for.

Control:

DASCOM MP480 Control Panel

As usual with a dot-matrix printer most of the controls are electronic but the paper path relies on a platen-gap setting, a paper path select lever and correct positioning of paper in the feed path.

  • Although the printer can take a wirless interface we don't currently have any information about an embedded web server.

Security Features:

No specific measures mentioned. For ordinary RS232/USB communication there are no security concerns.

These printers can take Wireless interfaces and in that case security would need research.

Duty Cycle:

The MIP480 is deliberately constructed to be rugged.

  • Printhead Life: 250 million characters
  • Reliability MTBF:15000 Hours

The user guide gives a bit more detail and says MTBF 15,000 hours (50 hr/week power-on, 5% power on print duty cycle) and rates the printer for 5 million lines or five years.   Buyers of this kind of printer will probably hope to get more than 5 years out of them - that will depend on parts supply. DASCOM seem quite good on this.

As usual with dot-matrix and inkjet printers there is a tradeoff between speed and resolution because the printhead can only fire at a certain rate. The User guide gives sharacter densities as follows:

  • Letter (10 cpi): 36 X 24 dots
  • Letter (12 cpi): 30 X 24 dots
  • Draftmode : 12 X 24 dots

Draft mode works more quickly but puts less ink to the character

In terms of Pages Per Hour using the ECMA 132 Letter Test Pattern

  • Draft Quality 321 pph
  • Letter Quality 172 pph

Characters per second at 10 characters per inch:

  • 400cps (High Speed Draft Quality);
  • 133cps (High Speed LetterQuality);
  • Line feed speed: 6 inches per second. (The user guide says 7 - quite quick anyway. )

As usual with dot-matrix print resolution may seem crude by comparison with inkjets. Dot matrix gives highly readable text, credible forms and barcodes (and rubbish photos).

  • 24 pin printhead with a 0.23mm (0.009 inch) head.
  • 180 x 120 dpi Draft,
  • 180 x 360 dpi Letter Quality,
  • 1/360” All-point-addressable

Who Uses Them …

Emergency services to transfer site details and even maps - Police, Fire-brigade and Ambulance.

Weighbridges to print tickets for drivers.

Bakers delivery vans to print delivery notes for shops.

Market traders to print out instant delivery notes for their customers.

Basically … anyone who wants a thug of printer.

Dascom also produce the DP580 which is a roll-fed model.

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Paper Handling:

Printers like this are mainly used for tractor-fed fanfold "listing" paper because it can be automatically fed.

The printer will take cut sheet paper driven through by platen pressure but since dot-matrix is mainly wanted for multi-part sationary that won't be as convenient as tractor feed.

Standard Paper Handling Paper parking, auto fanfold positioning for zero tear off. Push tractor with special tractor platforms for quick paperloading; friction feed platen for cut sheet.

Paper Type continuous forms and/or cut sheets

Single Form Handling can be done with the Paper Path lever in the single sheet position. The printer senses paper being manually inserted and will advance the form to the first line. Continuous forms are parked when single forms are used. Page top-glued multipart forms are best.

Continuous Form Handling with the Paper Path lever in the continuous form position paper is loaded and adjusted via the keys. Form feed can be initiated maually or by the computer. 1 to 4 part side-glued or paper-stapled continuous fors are best.

Paper Thickness The User manual says "Up to 0.35 mm (0.014 inch)" (One spec sheet say Approx. 14 lbs but that is the weight of the printer and not a possible paper weight.)

Number of Copies original + 3

Paper Size

Continuous forms width – 102-216mm (4.01-10.51) inches, Lenght 102mm (4 inches) or greater.

Cut sheet width – 102-267mm (4.01-10.51 inches), Length –(102mm (4 inches) (possibly 2.99-14.33 inches).

Paper length control by software - programmable in one line or one inch increments. From 1 to 126 lines

Paper length set from the control panel: 3, 3.5, 4, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 11 (Letter), 11 2/3 (A4), 12, 14, or 15 inches (Default is 11 inches.)

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Processor:

Not mentioned

Memory:

  • 64 kilobytes

64 kilobytes was once considered a lot for a dot matrix printer not just for workspace and fonts but also as a buffer to store data not yet printed.   These days there's a bit of a question how you find an embedded precessor with a RAM so small?

Interface:

As standard these printers come with USB and RS232 (25 pin) interfaces.

USB2.0 full speed

RS232 via a standard 25 pin connector (can connect to a modem as a dataset).

Blue Tooth Class 2 ver1.2 (Standard)

Bluetooth was originally an optional extra but is now built in as standard so that smartphones can connect directly.

Network:

IEEE 802.11b (Option)

The Wireless Ethernet option exists but hasn't seen frequent use as yet.   It definitely has potential for things like printing picking lists on forklifts and yard cranes.

A potential issue is that the printer ideally needs a way to signal back to the host that the driver needs the next print.

Print Language is key to what a printer in this sort of role can do - possibly more imprtant than a "driver" because the computer may only run one task.

  • Epson-EP2 - a old favourite in the PC industry/
  • IBM Proprinter XL24E (2390+) - standard with IBM oriented houses
  • Intermec 6820 - used with Honeywell-ACS / Intermec Auto-ID equipment.

There are also barcodes:

  • IBM: 9 Barcodes available: UPC/A, UPC/E, EAN8, EAN13, CODE39, CODE128, CODABAR (NW7), INTERLEAVED 2 of 5, INDUSTRIAL 2 of 5
  • Epson: 7 Barcodes available: UPC/A, UPC/E, EAN8, EAN13, CODE39, CODE128, INDUSTRIAL 2 of 5

System-Compatibility:

Brochures say the drivers are for Windows XP and 2000.

We checked Dascom's site which has a Windows 32bit & 64bit Printer Driver for Tally MIP480 (multilingual) Certified by Microsoft for use with Windows XP/Vista/7/8.1 and 2003/2008/2012 Server.

Linux distributions don't have any specific drivers. Most people will simply use something like the Epson LQ-590 driver.

Environment:

Operating Environment-4°F; +140°F; (-20 °C; to + 60 °C;) 30% – 80% Relative Humidity, no condensation

Storage Environment -22°F; to +149°F; (-30 °C; to + 65 °C; ) 10% – 90% Relative Humidity, no condensation

Dust Proof, Corrosion Resistance: Ingress Protection (IP) rating IP22. No special protection against fluids or immersion.

Units may be vertically mounted using shock mounts to a bracket installed in a vehicle; operated horizontally while located on a passenger seat in a vehicle, or operated in office environments.

Operating Impact Resistance 3G (print quality not guaranteed)

Non operating Impact Resistance 10G

Operating Vibrtaion Resistance Acceleration 0.5G Frequency 5 to 60Hz, Sweep time 2 minutes per cycle

Non Operating Vibrtaion Resistance Acceleration 1.5G Frequency 5 to 60Hz, Sweep time 20 minutes per cycle

Compliance CA C22.2 No. 950; EN60950; GS Mark; UL 746C; CE-Mark; E-Mark; EU Directives

Power:

What is highly unusual about this printer is that it is designed specifically for battery operation. It has nominal 12V / 24V capability and an actual supply range of 10.5 to 28 VDC.

Power Consumption:

Power consumption does not exceed 150 watts.

An optional 110/220V AC power unit is available as an option for office and factory use.

Dimensions:

The printer enclosure is injection molded plastic with hinged cover for access to paper loading, print head and ribbon replacement. Colour is "Night Sky Grey" only.

  • Height: 320 mm
  • Width: 360 mm
  • Depth: 130 mm

Weight:

Not to exceed 5.0 kg (elsewhere it says 14 lbs)

Viewing the Ink Levels

Dot matrix ribbons don't usually have a stopping point, you replace them when the print fades.

The ribbon is a convenient clip-on cartridge. Life is 4 million characters

A piece of A4 has about 4000 character spaces (50 lines of 80) but of course in normal use only a few percent are printed.

Consumables:

The single consumable is the MIP480-KA ribbon

MIP480-KA Tally MIP480 ribbon cartridge, life 4 million characters.

Warranty:

One Year return to depot

offsite

Spares:

There are at least two sources of spares supply in the UK and DASCOM have historically proved good at supply.   Do be a bit cautious though. these printers are a bit unusual and there are not shelves heaving with parts - sometimes they have to come from China. If you are relying on machines like this a spare printhead (or even a spare machine) is a good investment.

Options and Accessories:

Bluetooth Adapter 44A515431-001

Power converter MPCONV02

24 Volt DC Cable MPFB07

Cable has an element of power regulation

Safety:

No known issues.