HP Deskjet 500C

[@davidfgeraghty]

Great technology - HP was in incredible innovator back in the day.

[@roasthunter]

I remember this printer well, my father bought one new probably about the time you mentioned. It was great for the time, remember the mixing of the inks to make black, not a great solution but passable.

[@douro20]

There is a lot of very clever engineering in these printers- like how the printer determines the type of cartridge loaded.

[@LadyMoonstar6601]

the motors on this machine sound so nice. love the awesome clunking sounds produced. printers today suck. they aren't built like they used to be.

[@Tbolt1000TForLife]

This brings back memories! I had one just like this when I was a kid it was my first printer. It died on me one day sadly. It was my dad's back in the day then he gave it to me.

[@arthurslate6635]

My first printer.

[@douro20]

The Deskjet 500C used a gearbox operated by the carriage to load and eject paper. A lever connected to the gearbox was shifted by the carriage, selecting the load or eject drive gears. The later Deskjet 520 greatly simplified this mechanism and made it much faster.

[@douro20]

I used to have one of those. It had a missing retainer on one side of the priming station, and I actually was able to fix it using a fencing staple.

[@stationplaza4631]

Mine-is-an-HP-520...Black-ink-only. It-was-my-first-ever-inkjet-printer....It-still-works-as-new-to-this-day.

[@SiliconClassics]

Wow, this was my first printer back in 1991! Much better build quality than the cheap garbage that HP churns out these days. I still use a 10+ year old DeskJet 870Cse, but it still isn't as well-made as the old 500-series printers. Get yourself an ink refill kit so you can make a video of it printing something!

[@OnlineWealthMaker]

I had one myself back in the day. It was bloody good printer basic but reliable and a massive difference from dot matrix I had before. Used to use it with AmiPro Word processor on 3.1.1 and it worked great!

[@cjhawk67]

I have a video of my 550c in fully functional full color print operation. You can still buy the ink carts and the heads are robust as long as you get a good cart thats not clogged up you can refill and print with them for a few thousand pages before heads start to fail on the carts and for the dried up carts there is a ink desolver solvent that some of the ink re filler companies sell that you can soak them in to free them up and use. My 550c is my most inexpensive means of printing next to my 842c.

[@SonicHacki]

My grandfather have this, unused since 2001.

[@dwsh1]

@i386dx That is exactly what I mean! I want to know because it was made so long ago; I was an adult then, too, and I want to be reminded of a time when we in the US still made stuff such as computers, printers, small appliances, etc. Above all, I just wanted to know, and be sure, that the US EVEN MADE inkjet printers, and those such as THE HP DESKJET 500C. Thanks for your concern....that was not expected.

[@i386dx]

@dwsh1 The label says 'Made in: Vancouver WA' If that is what you mean.... Can I ask why do you want to know?

[@dwsh1]

Nice video! Where was this printer made, if it's not impossible for you to find out? Thanks.

[@LewisPhot]

@i386dx :( stupid ink prices, when i whent to the tip there where 3 of thease and 1 550c all crunched up

[@douro20]

SiliconClassics HP still makes better printers than some of the other companies do.

[@ShortFoxyMan]

Hello.... Which are the numbers of the cartridges that takethis printer for the black or color?

[@i386dx]

Colour is 25, Black is 26.

[@themaritimegirl]

Nice printer! In response to your reply to an old comment saying it would be too expensive to buy an ink cartridge to demonstrate this with, you can buy a genuine HP 25 color cartridge for $5 on eBay.

[@ryangriggs5767]

I had one of these!

[@hippa2dahoppa2]

i have one of these im trying to get to work all the lights are blinking and i want to sell it but i wanna get it to work first. any idea what this thing is worth?

[@mariopappalardo3446]

I had that printer. Used with Commodore Amiga 1200... Sigh sigh... :(

[@i386dx]

@ictdude1 No, sorry I don't use this printer anymore (I just can't throw it away), so it would be a bit expensive to buy cartridges only for one video. However; maybe, someday..... you never know ;-)

[@tamosa1319]

Is it parallel or serial interface?

[@i386dx]

It has both

[@LewisPhot]

do you think you could make a vid with new ink tanks thanks

[@dwsh1]

@i386dx That is exactly what I mean! I want to know because it was made so long ago; I was an adult then, too, and I want to be reminded of a time when we in the US still made stuff such as computers, printers, small appliances, etc. Above all, I just wanted to know, and be sure, that the US EVEN MADE inkjet printers, and those such as THE HP DESKJET 500C. Thanks for your concern....that was not expected.